Once again, I'm sorry that this isn't another chapter of "This Shouldn't Be Happening." But this was inspired by something that gothicorca1895 said in the review of "Sweet and Sometimes Sour." This one-shot takes place before "Sweet and Sometimes Sour," except for the last little bit, which involves the first chapter. PLEASE read and review, I'd like to see what you guys think!
I do not own Wreck It Ralph and the characters, just my OC Lemona Lime. Now, without further adieu, I present to you "First Sight." Please enjoy and read and review!
He was alive. It was a miracle.
Trickles of light became visible in his vision as his eyes fluttered open and greeted him by making the pounding in his head worse. An animal-like moan escaped his lips as he stood and tried to find his footing. He swayed, but luckily did not tumble back onto the ground again. Soon the light he saw formed into shapes, but his surroundings were foreign and unfamiliar. Black trees that looked to be made of liquorice grew tall and close together, so not much else could grow in what he determined was a forest.
How had he managed to survive the broiling hot liquid that he had hypnotically wandered into? How had his body been able to shed the horrific Cybug features? How long had he been unconscious for? All of these were questions for which the man had no answer. As he tried to draw up some sort of explanation from his blurry mind, he found that thinking only made the pain of his headache increase.
It was clear he was going to have to start small. First things first: what was his name?
King Candy. No, wait…That had been a fraud, a fake identity. His real name was something else, and it began with a 'T.' "Tootsie…Thomas…Turner…Turban…Turbo."
Yes. That was it; he could tell the instant it had rolled off of his tongue. His name was Turbo. But he didn't look like Turbo. Looking down at his apparel he was shocked to discover that he was dressed in what his slowly returning memory told him was his King Candy disguise. A plum coloured jacket, a bright red candy wrapper bow tie, poofy pants, and to top it all off, a stunning gold crown that had once proven his authority. Now it was just a joke, something to drag up memories of his past to taunt him and remind him of what he'd lost. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that those memories were meant to encourage him.
He had to get back what had been stolen from him.
A picture suddenly flashed in his mind of a raven-haired girl with wide hazel eyes and sprinkles littering every inch of her ponytail. Clad in a hoodie the color of peppermints, a brown skirt made of chocolate wrappers, and striped leggings, she was the picture of innocence. Yet there was a mischievous twist to the smirk on her face, and a determination in her eyes that could not be denied. She was a fighter and the very person who had taken Turbo's kingdom right out from underneath him. It took mere seconds for Turbo to remember her name. It was a name that for years he hadn't bothered to try to remember, but for some reason had stuck with him.
Vanellope von Schweetz. The glitch.
The instant her name appeared in his mind Turbo unleashed a hiss of pure hatred and kicked the trunk of the nearest tree, the motion causing a murder of black liquorice eating ravens to fly away squawking. There were no words to describe how much Turbo wished the Cybugs had eaten that little cavity. She was a worthless glitch, yet she somehow thought that she had the right to take away everything that Turbo rightfully deserved? He had worked hard to ensure that she couldn't ruin his happy life in Sugar Rush, and yet all of his efforts had been in vain. She had somehow managed to befriend a bad guy of all people and convince him to help her learn how to do the one thing Turbo had forbidden her to do, all because she believed that she was just like everybody else in the game.
It would be hard to get into the castle again so he could get back all he had lost; the rotten little glitch had most certainly tightened security measures in the game. Along with stealing all Turbo had worked to have, she had managed to turn all of his faithful subjects against him. He was used to having people despise him; after the great game-jumping incident of 1988 his name had become well known for all the wrong reasons, much like King John and Marie Antoinette. But as King Candy, he had been loved and adored by all, except for the glitch. Now the name was just as hated as the name Turbo, maybe even thought to be worse.
Turbo had just begun trying to come up with some ideas of how to travel to the castle without being seen when he heard a branch crack from a distance away from him. Even though he no longer had his Cybug body, he found that his senses were still incredibly heightened, as shortly afterward, he heard a faint cry of, "Shoo! Go away!" Given how it wasn't a good idea to allow himself to be seen, Turbo turned and prepared to dash deeper into the woods. But something pulled his body around again, and he found himself slinking through the trees towards the source of the sound. It wasn't because he was a lover of thrills or danger, it was merely because he had never heard the voice before in his life, and after living in the arcade for more than thirty years, he had assumed that he knew everybody that lived there. If there was somebody new in Sugar Rush, he wanted to know who it was.
As he crept through the forest, his newfound sense of hearing guiding his steps, the shape of a figure began to appear in front of him. The instant he noticed it he slowed his steps, taking extra care to ensure that whoever was in front of him didn't notice him. It took an excruciatingly long time for him to get as close as he wanted, though by the time he was crouching behind a fallen tree trunk he decided that it had all been worth it.
The child was feminine, and definitely a new character, most likely appearing as part of a recent game upgrade. She had the longest hair that Turbo had ever seen on a child, golden locks that looked like they would shine like sunlight if it weren't for the dirt and grease that covered them. In fact, the entire child was coated in filth, allowing Turbo to assume that she had been living in the forest for quite some time. She was facing in Turbo's direction, but she was swinging a liquorice tree branch back and forth in a desperate attempt to scare off a couple of ravens that were flying around her, so her gaze did not land on him. Even though she was moving around quite a bit, Turbo was still able to catch a glimpse of her face. Her mouth was set in a firm straight line, and the way her eyes were narrowed only made it clearer that she was determined to be left alone. The green shade of the pigment in her irises was so dark that they seemed to burn into Turbo's soul, and staring into them made Turbo feel as though he was staring into the eyes of a soldier like the hundreds that lived in Hero's Duty. But this child was not fighting to get rid of Cybugs; she was fighting to stay alive all by herself. It was clear to Turbo that there were no other soldiers to help out this child. Nobody else knew she existed.
Watching intently, Turbo almost fell over when he saw the child's body suddenly disappear in a flash of blue binary. The child was a glitch just like Vanellope! And from the way the girl dropped her tree branch and crumbled to her knees after her body had returned to normal, it was a very painful experience. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, the girl now seemed too agonized to fend off the pesky birds. One of them got close enough to peck at the girl's arm, and she let out a cry of pain, but not before her body suddenly stiffened and began to glitch again. This time the glitching was much stronger, so bad that Turbo could actually see sparks of electricity flying off of her. Not wanting to get hit by one, Turbo ducked down even lower until he was practically lying on his stomach. He waited until he could no longer hear the crackling and snapping before risking a look at the girl again.
She was now lying on the ground, eyes closed and perfectly still. Turbo would have assumed she was dead if it weren't for the way her chest slowly rose and fell with her faint breaths. He was almost tempted to get up and see if she was awake or not, but before he stood up, the child's eyes suddenly flew open and she jumped to her feet as though experiencing none of her pain from before. Then, to make the entire thing even weirder, she started waving her arms up and down and running around. Turbo watched the entire escapade in confusion. What kind of a glitch did this peculiar child have? By the look in her eyes, her actions were things the child was used to, but not what she wanted to be doing, as though she was powerless to stop herself. As Turbo tried to piece together everything he was taking in, he happened to notice the raven that had pecked the girl's arm. It was now flying up to a branch on one of the trees, and the girl was following it. Soon both the girl and the bird were sitting on top of the same branch, and it was then that Turbo noticed that their actions were exactly the same, as though they were playing a game of Simon Says. An idea began to form in Turbo's mind, and it was proven accurate when the raven and the girl both peeled some of the black liquorice bark off of the tree with their feet and then jumped off of the branch before eating it, the crow flying off until it could no longer be seen and the girl plummeting to the ground, waving her arms up and down like a mad-woman.
The girl's glitch gave others the ability to take over her when they touched her. Turbo had never heard of that happening before, and the very idea seemed crazy even though he'd just seen it with his own eyes. Wide-eyed, he continued to stare as the girl slowly got up. The branch hadn't been too far off of the ground, so luckily she hadn't broken anything, only scraped her face and arms in a couple of places. Her feet released their grip on the black liquorice bark, and Turbo watched as the girl brought her mouth to the food and began to eat it. He could imagine the bird, wherever it had disappeared to, doing the same thing, but when he noticed a couple of tears of humiliation trickle down the girl's cheeks and onto the edible dirt and mud on the ground, he knew that they belonged only to the glitch.
When the girl managed to finish swallowing her body jerked violently, and electricity once again flew from her, though her body didn't glitch in the fashion Turbo was used to seeing. It lasted just as long as it had when she'd first been pecked, and when it was finally over, Turbo knew from the way she cautiously flexed her fingers and toes that the girl had somehow gotten back into control of herself. He then gaped as the girl wiped the tears away with her arm fiercely, as if trying to deny that she felt any sorrow. It was clear that she wanted to pull herself together, and Turbo would have marvelled at how strong and brave she was trying to be if it hadn't been for the three whispered words that made their way out of her mouth.
"Oh sour lemonade."
She had cursed. Granted, it wasn't as bad as some of the foul language Turbo had heard from the gamers that came to the arcade, but it was still a curse. Nobody, not even he had DARED to speak foully in the racing game. It went against the sugar sweet theme and the personalities of the avatars. But this child, this glitch, had uttered the words as simply as though they were something she said every day! Turbo remembered that it was possible for the avatars to act badly, but he had assumed that to be due to his influence in the game, not free will. Surely none of the racers would willingly act like this little one was, and that made him even more interested in watching her.
Making sure to keep his distance, Turbo made it a daily act to watch the glitch as she struggled bravely to live in the forest. His assumption that she had been there for a while only got stronger as he watched her use what little resources she had to support herself expertly. It soon became clear that she had a brain and determination, especially when Turbo watched her spend an entire week putting together a cloak made of liquorice and sour candy that she gathered. When finally complete, it covered her entire body except for her face, allowing her to stay camouflaged so the ravens would leave her alone.
But though she seemed to be doing quite well for herself, Turbo soon discovered that the girl was not quite content living by herself. Many days he would watch her make her way to the edge of the forest so she could listen to the sound of the race carts and laughter in the distance. She would linger there for hours, almost as though debating whether she should leave and see who and what was making all that wonderful noise. She never did, and for that Turbo was grateful. He knew that if she were to meet the other racers, they would try to convince her to be sweet just like them. Though the child did have some sweetness programmed into her just like all the other Sugar Rush characters, the sourness was what Turbo saw the most. There were days where the child would lose her temper and forget to hold back from crying, and those were the days were Turbo saw the potential in her. There was a very good chance that if the two of them worked together, he could take over Sugar Rush again, but though Turbo was interested in the child he didn't think it wise to make her aware that he knew she existed just yet. He had to know as much as he could about her before making his move so that he could convince her to trust him. Though the girl was a fighter, strong enough to live with her glitches and lonely, her glitches also seemed to make her insecure and unwilling to meet others, hence the reason she never left the forest. There were a couple of times where foolish racers would wander into the Black Liquorice Forest and spy her clad in her black cloak. Instead of approaching them, the girl would always run away deeper into the forest, looking like a shadow. Nobody ever followed her, instead choosing to run away in fear, and so Turbo was free to continue watching her and learning as much as he could.
One day, when Turbo was watching Lemona uncover a bunch of truffles from under the ground, they both heard a sound that was unfamiliar. It sounded like a click, and the sound caused both to turn their heads instinctively, like wild animals.
The sight in front of them was of a group of people who Turbo recognized immediately. The fixer, the soldier, and the two people who Turbo hated the most: Wreck-It-Ralph and the glitch. All had looks of nervousness directed at the child in front of them except for the soldier lady who was aiming a machine gun, and Turbo ensured that his hiding spot would allow him to watch them, but prevent them from seeing him. The soldier hollered the words, "FREEZE SCUM!" and her actions earned her a high-pitched scream from the blonde girl dressed in black. Soon she found herself surrounded by the four characters, and Turbo had to resist the urge to jump out and attack as the wrecker grabbed her by her hood. The look on the girl's face was of pure terror; all thoughts of staying strong had been quickly forgotten.
Turbo was glad when Vanellope ordered the others to back off, but not glad enough to think about liking her. He had a feeling that he knew what would happen now. They would take the child away, she would develop a friendship with Vanellope and the others, and Turbo would lose his chance at getting her to trust and help him.
But what was this? Apparantly some of the child's sourness was deciding to make a surprise visit, and Turbo found himself smirking with glee as the child began to yell, her lime green eyes slitted with rage. "Relax,' you say. 'Take it easy,' you say. Well that's easy for YOU to say! You weren't just held at gunpoint for no good reason, now were you? So now I say that no, no, it is definitely NOT going to be okay! It is not going to be okay at ALL!"
Unfortunately, the girl's sweet programming then took over, and Turbo watched as she apologized for her actions. The others then began talking to her, and for the first time ever, Turbo heard the child give her name. "My name is Lemona Lime and I…I…I…" Suddenly she glitched, but Turbo blocked out everything else that was being said and done.
Lemona Lime. She was a character designed around sour fruits; that was why she had the sour side to her personality! It made sense now! Turbo's mind then began working in over-drive. Perhaps there was some way he could get her to use it to his advantage…If only he could figure out a way to harness all of that sour energy inside of her…
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Lemona begging, the fear evident again in her tone. "Don't touch me. Please don't touch me."
Looking up, Turbo saw Vanellope walking towards Lemona with an extended arm. She had never been a good listener, even when he was king, so he wasn't surprised that she was ignoring Lemona's pleas. He winced when he saw Vanellope's hand rest on Lemona's shoulder. He knew what was coming.
Sure enough, soon Vanellope was controlling Lemona, causing her to humiliate herself. It didn't last long, as Lemona managed to tell them that in order to stop the glitch, both girls had to eat black liquorice. But no sooner had Lemona gained control of herself, she lost it again because Calhoun picked her up by her hoodie and began to carry her out of the woods. Turbo knew exactly where they were headed: towards the white chocolate castle.
A growl found its way out of Turbo's throat, and he was glad that everybody was too far away and focussed on Lemona to hear it. How dare they take her away like that? The sad part was that as soon as they arrived in the castle, he knew that Vanellope and the others would pour on the charm and soon his one ticket to getting back the kingdom would be gone, believing that she had found herself some friends.
Unless…
His wicked smirk returning, Turbo adjusted his bowtie once and ran his fingers through what little hair he had on top of his head before standing up and walking in the same direction as his enemies. His mind continued to race as fast as his old racing carts as he began to plot the beginnings of his plan.
He was going to find a way to convince that glitch that being sweet was the wrong way to go. No matter what it took, he would find a way to get her to trust him and help him.
Yes sir, it sure was good to be back in the game.
PLEASE let me know what you think, and if you've taken the time to read this but not Sweet and Sometimes Sour, I strongly recommend reading it aferwards! Have a good day guys! Stay sweet!