Vanellope von Shweetz, Lady President of Sugar Rush, was having a rather normal day. She hadn't been voted in to the Roster today, so she had nothing better to do than wander around Kandy Kein forest and stare at the programming glitches as they flickered across the screen. Sure, every game was as safe as they could be, but almost every one had glitches. The ones in Sugar Rush were small, birds of bright colours that shot flames and rainbows made of Skittles that sparkled as they flew across the sky. Blue glitches, good glitches.
Then a shock of red "1"s and "0"s shot across, catching her attention. "Red?" She wondered aloud, "What do red glitches mean?"
Curious, she jumped from branch-to-branch with a practiced swing and a hop, avoiding double-stripes and snagging a lower branch to land on the milk-chocolate ground with a dull thump. The red glitches were more frequent now, skittering across the stripes of the trees and running up the spun-sugar grass. There were none of the blue glitches here, the sky devoid of their bright presence. Vanellope shimmered, pixilating and reforming in an instant. The hairs on her nape stood up; she hadn't done that, not on purpose. Why did she glitch?
The closer she got to the source of the red glitches, the less control she had. Her form flickered spastically, jumping around with neither reason nor rhyme. Why? What was happening? Suddenly she heard an incoherent shriek coming from in front of her and she froze, fight-or-flight instinct kicking in. Overcoming her fear, she walked forward and stared at a flickering figure beneath a tree.
Alternating between red and colour, the figure was small but mature, the size of Vanellope but much older. Its—his?—skin was a blue-grey colour, sickly and pale, pocked with patches of red and Void.
Vanellope gasped, she knew who that was. He couldn't,SHOULDN'T be alive! He was flickering at an abnormal rate, more often red than his signature pallet, and the red glitches flew away from wherever he touched, tainting the trees and the ground.
Vanellope backed away, accidentally stepping on a strand of Laffy Taffy, causing it to shriek in pain. Suddenly, he turned to face her, eyes pleading. Red binary flickered across his face as gibberish flew from his lips. She backed against a candy-cane tree behind her, leaping away as blue-red glitches ran across her arm where she touched the candy. No, this was not happening. There was no way this was happening...She had to find Ralph. NOW.
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Ralph heaved himself from the mud puddle and scraped some of the offending liquid from the front of his overalls. "Damn it...looks like another bath night for me, huh?" Leaning back, he ran an oversized hand through his messy russet hair, "Hey Gene! Did it rain last night or is this puddle just bigger and sloppier for no apparent reason?"
Nicelander Gene poked his head over the rooftop of Niceland Apartment Complex and shrugged, "Search me! Maybe it's just your imagination!"
Ralph shook his head wearily, no. It wasn't just him. Whatever suited Gene's twisted perception of reality, he supposed.
They went through the promotional motions while they waited for another quarter, Ralph gleefully tossing Gene across the screen and then wrecking the Nicelander's apartments. Felix dutifully fixed them and then they reset, waiting for someone else to play Fix-It Felix Jr.. Finally, the last player came and went, passing up their machine for the currently favoured Sugar Rush. Ralph silently thanked Litwak when the arcade finally closed, the all-clear coming from DDR S+.
He popped his back as he stood up, groaning when the pain cycled through his back. Looking around, Ralph spotted a cart coming in. Who would be coming in so early? He wondered, and why would they be in such a hurry?.
"Help! Ralph! Felix!" The normally droll voice of Sour Bill echoed from the cart, tinged with panic and need, "Help!"
Felix hopped down the building, leaping off of window ledges and landing on the ground in front of the Sugar Rush inhabitant. "What's th' matter," Felix asked, "Is there somethin' wrong?"
"He – Vanellope, she – and then—" the small sucker was incoherent, babbling as if his life depended on it.
"Woah, slow down Bill, or I'm gonna' lick you again!" Ralph picked the piece of candy up and stared at him intently, "What's the matter?"
Sour Bill took a deep breath and started over, "Vanellope called for you. There's a Virus in Sugar Rush and she need you two. She also needs, in her words, 'that lady with the huge gun'."
An 8-bit exclamation point shot up over Felix's head, calling to life a loud three-tone notice of worry. "Ya mean that Vanellope is in danger?! I'll go get Tammy!" With that, he raced to the cart and rode to Game Central Station to find his—for lack of a better word—girlfriend.
"Tammy?" Ralph shook his head in amusement and then dropped Bill to the ground.
The diminutive announcer dusted his outer layer off and harrumphed, "No time to bother with that, the President needs you!"
The urgency in his voice spurred Ralph to action, grabbing the little man and leaping into a cart. Promise me, Edison, promise me that she'll be okay. Promise me that...
\/\/|?3(|{ |7 |?4|_|*|-|
Sgt. Calhoun shot Cy-Bug-shaped targets with a fierce determination as her men cheered her from behind. It had been a rather stressful day, they had had one kid who played all the way through the building and then seven other Players before Litwak's closed. Way too much work for even the tough-as-nails Tamora Jean Calhoun, Sergeant Third-Class. That's why she was having target practice. Mindless violence worked wonders on her blood-pressure.
"Go Sergeant! Kill the fucking bug!"
"Cal-houn, Cal-houn, Cal-houn!"
"Way to go, ma'am, that last shot was right in between their optic-orbs; a direct hit to the central processor!"
"Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven...you do realise you're gonna' owe me a hundred dollars pretty soon."
Their mindless chatter helped her focus; for her, it was a lot easier to fire a plasma-gun under duress, so when it was quiet it was nigh-on-impossible for her to hit the barn side of a broad. One voice, however, stood out from all the others.
"Sergeant, ma'am! Ma'am! This is a'mergency!"
Felix.
She turned around, beating Corporal Markowski upside the head with the barrel of her gun—purely by accident—because he was standing too close to her. Ignoring his shrieks of pain (the pansy) she cocked her hips, hands akimbo, and cleared her throat. Dead silence ensued and she spoke up, "Alright ladies, get your asses out of here! Pronto!" Within a minute, the shooting range was empty. She knelt down to be eye-level with her boyfriend, "What is it Felix?"
"Well, um...," the "honey glow", as he called it, spread quickly across his face. Almost as if he realised how important his job was, he straightened up and cleared his throat, "Vanellope need us."
"Us?" One perfectly shaped eyebrow arched in question.
"There's a Virus in Sugar Rush an' she needs you, me, an' Ralph t'help, I surmise." Felix's voice was full of authority, his back straight and his figure—all four feet and two inches of him—rather imposing. It made Calhoun rather hot, though she would never admit it.
"A Virus? Is there another Cy-Bug?" The shock was only partially faked; she was surprised and concerned that there was a virus in Sugar Rush, but there was no way there was a Cy-Bug outside Hero's Duty because she made damn well sure that not one wriggling Cy-Bug antenna touchedGame Central Station, let alone any other game.
Felix shook his head, "Not sure. Could be jus'bout anything.. A Trojan, a Worm, who knows?"
Calhoun nodded solemnly then grabbed her gun and hover-board, "Let's go hon." The sudden use of an affectionate nickname startled Felix and he turned magenta, stammering like and idiot. Eventually the shock wore off and he hopped after her, thanking Edison that his girlfriend was a hot momma.
74/\/\0|?4 _|34|\| (4|_|-|0|_||\|
Vanellope paced nervously, sneakered feet slapping the fondant tiles. She was sweating bullets, freaking the frosting out, nervous as a Dum-Dum in the rain. Please, she prayed, Sweet Edison, creator of the lightbulb, let it be okay. Let this not be a huge problem. Let this not be an issue. I don't think I can handle another big issue like King Candy...like Turbo.
With every third step, her form glitched and she re-formed a foot away from where she started. It was unstable and irregular; normally she had better control over herself and her emotions. Now, at that exact moment, she had no control. No control over her emotions and even less control over her code, her "pixlexia". She was all over the place and it could be felt in all of the presidential castle.
A knock sounded at the large front door, interrupting her terrified rounds, and she went to answer it immediately. On the other side of the milk-chocolate moat was Sour Bill and Ralph, both looking extremely nervous. Vanellope lowered the graham-cracker drawbridge and let them in, flickering blue.
"What took ya' so long?!" Her voice was filled to the brim with false bravado and Ralph knew it. "And where's Whatshisname and his lady? They're late!"
Ralph placed an oversized hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner, "Felix went to get Calhoun. They should be here soon. Sour Bill did his duty."
She was so stressed out that she couldn't even make a "doodie" joke. "Good. Le'mme 'splain what's going on. I was hanging in Kandy Kein forest when I saw some red glitches and went to investigate. I found someone there, in the centre of the glitching. I...I had him brought here and...I can't handle this on my own...I...," she broke down, shoulders slumping and nose running as small blue glitches broke up her graphics like tears.
Ralph picked her up and wrapped his arms around her in a protective bear-hug. Nuzzling her head, he murmured, "Shh. Presidential Doodies shouldn't cry like diaper-babies. That's my job." Looking her in the eyes, Ralph smiled, "Take us to the Virus."
At that exact moment, Felix and Calhoun burst in, looking sufficiently winded. "What'd we miss...?" Felix gasped, out of breath.
"President Vanellope explained that she found the Virus and is going to take you all to see it," Sour Bill drawled, panicking state over and done with.
"Let's get on it, Lickety-Split!" Felix smiled in what he hoped to be a positive way. Vanellope snickered at the mention of her old kart, accidental or not, and skillfully glitched out of Ralph's ham-hands.
"Th-this way!" Vanellope wiped her hand across her nose and started walking towards the back of the castle. "He's being held in the Dungeon."
"Don't ya' mean the 'Fungeon'?" Ralph asked, a mischievous grin playing across his lips.
"No," Vanellope deadpanned, "It's a dungeon, not a fungeon."
"Fungeon?" Calhoun looked confused.
"Fun-Dungeon," Felix explained, "A misnomer; the place is kinda' awful."
"Hm...," Calhoun nodded as she, Ralph, and Felix followed the clearly distressed democratic leader as she hurried down hallways and staircases. "So, the 'Fungeon' was something made up by Turbo?"
"Yeah...," Felix muttered. The atmosphere given off by Ralph and Vanellope was really jamming the sweet euphoria he got from being around his Tammy. They were so somber, quiet, and intense, it was unnerving. Normally Vanellope was spastic and annoying and Ralph was sarcastic and a tad optimistic but neither of them said a single thing.
The mood was because of something Ralph was noticing as they got closer to the dungeon: the red flickers crossing the graphics of the castle walls and floors. In some sections, entire parts of the walls were nothing but red binary and Void black.
Edison, what's going on? Is this what the little grease monkey was talking about?! If so...this may be worse than we thought...
They reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the dungeon, Vanellope pausing hesitantly. "He-it's in there. I...Wynchell and Duncan got it here. I...they were sworn to silence 'cause if anyone found out it was here...well, they'd freak out."
Calhoun nodded, she was the closest her game had to a ruler so she understood the sacrifices one has to make when one thinks of their people. It was a hard part of life, but necessary to survive if there were any sort of brouhaha cropping up. To allow your NPCs to lose their heads is to kill them yourselves.
Also, she had heard a weird little rumour that the candy residents of Sugar Rush exploded if they got too frightened. While watching that would be hilarious, she'd rather not risk Vanellope's subjects' lives for a simple confirmation of an arcade myth.
Vanellope stood at the door for quite some time, immobile like a statue, until Ralph stepped forward and reached for the old-fashioned butterscotch door-latch. "Are you coming in, squirt?" She shook her head vigorously, like Void she was going in there with it. "Okaaaaay let's go guys."
Felix and Calhoun quietly followed the Bad Guy into the dungeon, their breathing echoing way too loud for their tastes. Ralph pulled the door shut—as gently as the giant could—and then turned to stare at the Virus. A small gasp escaped from Felix.
The Virus...was Turbo.
Beaten-looking, Turbo was flickering red and black, his skin and eyes the Turbo Time grey and yellow with black irises. He was wearing a facsimile of his King Candy outfit: a dark red jacket and bow-tie with a white vest and his traditional racing pants and boots. Atop his head sat King Candy's crown, jutting from a matted mop of black hair at a crooked slant. His face held the markings Turbug had, purple lines slashing above his eyebrows and dripping underneath his lower lip, but none of the malice.
If anything, Turbo looked scared more than he looked wrathful. He was muttering to himself, "And then the Void said-the Void said-theVoidsaidtheVoidsaidtheVoi d—he will be m–y–p–r–o–p–hetandhewillcarrymyre-ve-ve-venge—the Void said-revenge-he will carry my-said-the prophet is tobesomeonewith-with-with—revenge on Edison-Light Bringer-Ed-d-d-disontheLightBringerdestroye rofVoid—KILL YOU!" The last line was shrieked as he glitched rapidly in front of them. His visage flickered between red binary-filled-Void, Turbo from Turbo Time, King Candy, and how he looked now.
Calhoun backed against a maple-fudge wall and drew her gun, "Edison-fucking-damnit! The bug's back and he's got murder on his mind! Let metake care of this." Barrel placed dead-centre on his forehead, Calhoun disengaged the safety and cocked her plasma gun. "Last words, Turbo?"
The Virus-riddled Program stared blankly at Calhoun's gun and the blazing charge of blue plasma in its barrel. "KILL YOU—YOURUINED-RUINED-RUINED-RUINEDRUINEDRUINEDME—I WAS KING-CANDY-CANDYKINGCANDYKINGCANDY-WINNING—YOU—K–I–L–L–Y–O–U—VOID WILL-K-K-KILL YOU-ALL!"
Mouth set in a grim line, Calhoun squeezed the trigger with practiced ease; even in quiet, she couldn't possibly miss at point-blank, could she? The Zzt of the plasma gun was heard by all: the angry Ralph, the horrified Felix, and the stoic-appearing Calhoun. The plasma bolt missed its target because its target was now halfway across the room, on the ceiling, and hissing like a wild animal.
"Cannot die-willnotcannotdiecannot-PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE—die-die-die-d–e–a–d—cannot-willnot-cannot ever again—and the Void will come-KILL YOU!" Turbo shrieked, hissing still. His graphics defied Sugar Rush's physics, hair staying the same as it was when he was upright and crown not budging an inch. It was then that Ralph noticed Turbo's hands.
They greatly resembled Turbug's claws, carapace-covered fingers ending in huge black talons that shined like a beetle's shell. They didn't fit in with the rest of him, seeming patched together instead of a seamless idea; perhaps they were a fluke? Perhaps all of Turbo was a fluke?
This is not his game—was not his game, Ralph thought as he watched the Program that was once his friend act like a wild Virus, so why did he regenerate?
"Um...Tammy?" Felix tugged on Calhoun's leg-armour to get her attention, "I don't think shootin' at'im's gonna' do you too much good."
Calhoun growled and ran her recessive hand through her hair, "I think I figured that one out at least." Slapping the safety back on, she slung the weapon over her shoulder and growled in frustration. "Why do you think he survived?"
Felix shrugged, watching the Virus warily, "Could be anythin'...maybe this was his game."
"What?" "How so?" Ralph and Calhoun shouted at the same time, both confused and looking for an answer. Felix shook his head and frowned.
"He wrote himself into the code of Sugar Rush, right? That made him 'ficially a part of the game because Turbo Time had been unplugged. He was homeless an' he made himself a home. When you or I or Ralph enter here, we aren't in the code but King Can-er...Turbo was. So he regenerated 'cause this's now his game." Felix stared at his feet as he talked, the theory he was proposing somewhat ridiculous.
Calhoun laughed, a short bark of amusement, "Well shoot me full of holes and call me Swiss Cheese, that makes a whole shit-ton of sense."
"So...," Felix hesistated, "What d'we do with him?"
"I say we drag the fucker to Game Central Station and shoot him. He can't regenerate then, can he?" Calhoun's scowl was firmly set, her mouth a grim line of determination. There was no way in Hero's Duty she was going to let Turbo live, even if he wasn't a Virus.
Ralph, on the other hand, was having none of that. "No! We can't just take him to Game Central Station and execute him!" His worry seemed misplaced to Calhoun, and to Felix he seemed more concerned than worried. "First off, if we execute him publicly, we run the risk of ruining our images and concreting the idea that the death penalty is okay. 'Cause it's not by any stretch of the imagination. Second, he's part of Sugar Rushand, although you're a good leader, he's out of your jurisdiction. Third, Sugar Rush is a democratic-republic game. Executing as a form of capital punishment isn't really allowed in most democratic-republic nations and games."
"So...what do you propose we do then, Wreck-It?" She only used given names when pissed off and boy was she steamed right now. The idea of letting Turbo, of all people, off scott-free made her livid at best.
"Well, Mario's got a Doctorate in Virus Removal, right?" Ralph's question was directed at Felix, who started and nodded furiously.
"He doesn't use it too often, but I think he still can do that, why?" It took a moment for the idea to sink into Felix's thick skull, but when it did he gasped in awe, "Oh! Yeah, that might work."
"What might work?" Calhoun had the faintest of glimmers as to what Felix and Ralph's plan was, but she needed the rest.
"We bring Dr. Mario here to fix Turbo and then we allow Sugar Rush's justice system sort'im out," Felix explained giddily. "Vanellope gets to exercise her presidential control, Turbo gets his what-for, an' no one gets hurt! A perfect solution!"
Solutions are rarely perfect, there is always a flaw. Calhoun thought darkly, but there's no reason we can't do this. And if Vanellope says so I can shoot the asshole full of plasma. She nodded, "Sounds good to me." She almost added 'hon' at the end, but was very conscious of Ralph and the insane Turbo in the room.
"Good. To Super Mario World!" Felix exited the room giddily, jumping as he went. Calhoun followed and Ralph lingered behind, shooting Turbo a rather sad look.
Turbo simply fizzled back to the floor and continued to mutter, "Felix I'm sorry-sorry-sorrysorrysorrysorr–r–r–y–I–a–m–s–o–s–o–r–r–y–F–e–l–i–x—I'm so sorry Felix-sosorry-sosorryFelix—I'm so-so-so-so-sorry Felix—sosorryforallthethingsIvedon e—"
7|_||?80 - 74571(
Felix watched worriedly as Ralph trudged on to Game Central Station. Something was up with his Bad Guy friend and it made him antsy, "Ralph?"
"Hm?" The giant turned to face his diminutive friend, eyebrows disappearing into his mop of hair, "what'dya want?"
"What's botherin ya, brother?" Felix smiled as brightly as he could fake it, "You know y'can tell me."
Ralph sighed deeply, looking forward at the pissed-off Calhoun and shook his head, "You know I can't talk about Turbo around her. She'd flip out!"
Felix shot a look at his girlfriend—ooh, he was still giddy about that!—and sighed in defeat, "True. She would have a fit. I s'pose we could be more...uh...discreet?"
Ralph rolled his eyes and nodded softly, "You know how you were around him just then, right? All nervous and unsure of yourself?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Do you even remember Turbo from before this?" Ralph kneaded his temples wearily, "He was like our big brother and you loved him. Not liked, not even admired, loved. And you still do, somewhat."
"What?!" Felix's face was flushed crimson, "I did not like-like Turbo! I liked'im but not like-like." Arms folded across his torso, he huffed, "You're nuts, I remember him."
"Well you did like-like him; so how do you think he's gonna' react when he finds out you got over him? What if Calhoun finds out?" Ralph had a point, if Calhoun found out, she might dump him.
"Well...well I'll just tell her m'self!" Felix was bluffing, badly, "If I tell'er, she'll be more kind?" What should have been a statement was a question.
"Tell me what?" Calhoun towered over the short handyman, a look that was a cross between a scowl and quizzical adorning her face.
Felix literally 'Eep'ed, turning a pale white this time, an 8-bit exclamation point screaming its tone above his head. "That...uh...well, I...that is..."
"He had a crush on Turbo before he, y'know, went Turbo," Ralph supplemented, waiting for the storm to start.
Calhoun blinked in surprise and then snorted, "Hm...never thought his 'Southern Sensibility' would allow him to catch in the left field..."
Felix was in shock, "Wait, what 'Southern Sensibilities'?!"
Calhoun smiled and placed a hand on Felix's shoulder, bending to be eye-level with him. "Hon," she laughed gently, using her pet-name for him for the first time in public, "You sound like Jimminy Cricket."
"I-I do not sound like that oversized bug! There's no way ya'll should ever think that!" Felix pouted as Calhoun and Ralph laughed.
However, all levity disappeared as they entered Peach's castle, the mission at hand more important than a game of 'no homo'. Calhoun and Felix were greeted politely by a Toad while Ralph was given a wide berth, typical of the treatment of Bad Guys Ralph's size. Stereotyping was that Ralph and other large Bad Guys would, without provocation, attack and kill Good Guys and NPCs because they could.
"Ma'am, we're lookin' for Mario. S'e here?" Felix was addressing a small, yellow Toad who smiled sweetly.
"'Course! He's in the dining room. Third on the left down that hall right there." The Toad pointed down the hallway to their right and then backed out of their way.
"Mario!" Felix shouted when they got close enough, "You in today?!"
"Of-a course! I'm in-a the kitchen!" Mario's stereotypical Italian voice flew out of the door just to their right and they entered to see the plumber making pizza. He waved cordially at everyone—Ralph included—and gestured to the chairs sitting in front of the counter, "So, what can I-a do for you-a today?"
"Do you still have your Doctorate?" Ralph leaned forward as his weight caused the chair to creak horribly.
"Of-a course! What kind-a Doctor would I-a be if I-a didn't still have-a my Doctorate?!" He pulled out a piece of paper and waved it, "Here."
This Certificate is in honour of Mario receiving a Doctorate in Virus Removal and Prevention. At the bottom was the official seal of the UAGC, in all of its tin-foil glory.
The University of Arcade Game Characters were not too good at their long-winded documents but their speeches were atrociously huge. Pity they didn't give scholarships to Bad Guys because Ralph would've really loved to get his Masters in Architecture and helped Felix fix things.
Calhoun nodded, slightly perturbed at the complete lack of complex wording and fancy names on Mario's diploma. "We have a Virus we need you to remove," she said, "In Sugar Rush, but keep all this on the down-low because if any of the NPCs find out, there will be mass chaos."
Mario blanched, "Sugar Rush?! Is it-a Turbo again?"
"Easy guess," Ralph grunted, "but yeah."
Mario shook his head and growled, "That bitch's bambino, what a spagetti-a slurping bastard!"
Felix coloured, a little surprised by Mario's foul mouth, "Y'see, that's why we need ya', to cure'im before it gets too bad."
Regaining composure, the beloved video-game icon cleared his throat, "Take me-a to him."
|=1}{-17 |=3|_1}{
Sour Bill was apathetic, most of the time, but now was no time for apathy, his Game was in danger. When the President informed him of their plight and told him to run and get her hero and his friends, he jumped on it faster than you could say "King Candy could care less". He felt a need rise within him that had never surfaced when King Candy was in charge, a need to protect what was his. That's why he was in hysterics—or as close as he could get to hysterics—when he arrived in Fix-It Felix Jr.. His Game and his President were in danger, they were in danger because of the jerk that took over the Game once before.
Like Void that was going down like it had before. Like Void his President would be in danger like she was before. And programming be damnedif that two-bit code-muncher was getting in the Code room again. Over his disassembled graphics.
That was why the diminutive hard-candy was patrolling—not pacing—the hallway that lead to the former-Fungeon with a determined look in his eyes. That was why, when Vanellope called him to the Throne Room, he almost refused to leave. Then he remembered her 'execution' joke and how high-strung she was at the moment and went anyways, reluctantly leaving Turbo unguarded.
Vanellope was nervously chewing on her hoodie-strings when Sour Bill arrived, snapping back to focus once her name was called, "You called me?" Sour Bill looked up at his leader, confused.
"Yeah. You 'member the room Turbo used to change the Code?"
"Yeah," he was confused, why did she want to know?
"I need you to take Doctor Mario there so he can work on an anti-Virus." Suddenly Sour Bill noticed the people behind her. Felix looked like he was going to vomit while Calhoun looked angry. Also, while Ralph looked worried more than anything, Mario was calm and collected.
A motley assortment of characters, to be sure.
Sour Bill beckoned Mario, "This way please." The two of them left the Throne Room behind them, traversing the maze of hallways that lead to the Code Room.
"So...this-a 'King Candy'," Mario broke the silence, "He was-a aware of this-a room?"
"Of course," Sour Bill droned, "He used it to change his graphics and everyone's memories as well as trying to delete Vanellope." He glared at the floor, "Why else would he have been able to stay unnoticed for so long?"
"It's just a question," Mario rebuffed, "No need-a to get so irritated."
"I just really don't like stupid questions," Sour Bill countered sullenly.
"Fair enough..." The hallway fell to silence once again as the Good Guy and the NPC shut up to indulge their contemplative thoughts. Then Mario spoke up again, "Do you not-a like him?"
"Who would? He tried to kill our President and plunge our Game into the Void."
Mario shrugged, "Good point. However I'd-a like to point out that the girl called-a Taffyta Muttonfudge liked him when-a he was King Candy. She seemed almost-a enamoured with him."
"That was before we knew he was a conniving, backstabbing son-of-a-black-liquorice. She hates him just like everyone else does. Like sheshould."
The Italian laughed and shook his head, "How do you know-a that?"
"How do I –" Sour Bill gasped at the audacity of his suggestion, "how do you know she does?!"
"I don't," Mario stated plainly, "but neither-a do you."
Infuriated, Sour Bill slammed the door to the Code Room hallway open, "We're here." As the plumber walked up to the SNES-controller vault door, Sour Bill spoke up again, "It's the Konami Code."
↑↑↓↓←→←→B A START. Once the code was entered, the door opened and revealed the Code of Sugar Rush in all its flowing-blue glory. Mario was in awe, sure he had beaten Viruses before but never before had he seen the actual Code of a game. In Dr. Mario, the viruses were just there. He didn't have to go searching for them nor did he ever see a Game's Code. It was unnerving and yet...he could do it, couldn't he?
Just-a calm down, Mario. Think of this-a just like your Game, Dr. Mario only...without-a the falling pills and cutesy little-a viruses with squiggly faces. Steeling himself, he wrapped a rope around his waist and handed the other end to Sour Bill, Now, diagnosis time. Make Mamá proud, do this-a as well as you can and-a save Sugar Rush from a horrible descent into-a the Void. No pressure! Even his inner-voice was freaking out, showing how unstable he really was feeling right now.
Regardless of his fears, the Nintendo Good Guy stepped into the Code Room and floated in, praying to Edison that Sour Bill wouldn't let go of his tether.
