UNPLUGGED
A Wreck-it Ralph Fan Fiction
It was just like any other Saturday at Litwak's. Kids and adults alike were laughing, screaming and yelling during or between games. It was a great joy that many people these days miss out on since not as many people visit arcades on a regular basis as they used to, with things like Xbox Live and the Playstation Network allowing others to see one's high scores and awesome (or not so awesome) skills just as an arcade game would with it's high score list. But for those who don't want to hear screaming children, a weekday afternoon or evening would probably be better.
Fix it Felix was being played, and there was a child waiting for his friend to finish his turn in their multiplayer session. He had gotten to level 10, no small feat for someone who had only just discovered the game today and was on his third game. Things were getting harder as Ralph flung down bricks faster and more windows and walls had to be fixed, not to mention that some of the window shutters in the later levels are positioned to block some of Felix's paths to add more challenge to the game.
Felix, after the whole runaway incident and later talking to Ralph about why he ran away, now knew that Ralph wasn't really angry at Felix when he was throwing bricks-it was all in the act! And, since Felix was inside his own game, he couldn't be truly hurt or killed. He was happily following the joystick when a brick hit him, causing him to fall off the building and "die" within the game, but not permanently.
Ralph continued throwing bricks, since Felix was momentarily invincible when he first respawned, allowing the player time to get out of the way of bricks. This was a common trait of many platformer games before the days of checkpoints that were out of the way of enemies-you either started the level over again, or respawned right where you died.
Ralph, while still throwing bricks, began to get worried. Was the game over? Felix didn't seem to be coming back. He looked down at the life counter and saw that the player still had one life left, not counting the one he had lost. So why wasn't Felix respawning? Despite his worry, he continued to throw bricks, trying to keep within the act, hoping that it was just a minor delay. Surely it was just taking Felix longer than normal to respawn, and he would soon return and the player would forget all about it.
Some of the Nicelanders began opening the windows and looking out. This was hardly out of the ordinary for them, since they do this often at certain points in the game. Then, they all saw what every game character dreaded; the player's face turning upset, randomly slapping the buttons to try and "get it's attention" and then finally, storming off to another game. Ralph and the Nicelanders were somewhat worried about this, but their game had escaped certain death before, like the time Ralph ran away and almost got the game thrown away or it's motherboard replaced, either of which would leave all the characters homeless (or dead if they remained with the game).
They didn't try and make the game appear to be waiting to start because they didn't want more players to lose money, and they were hoping that an employee would notice the game was "frozen" and reset it. Though they would get sucked into a black hole and go to "game heaven" they would return as if nothing had happened when it was plugged back in. This had happened before when the game's joystick had to be replaced, which required unplugging the game for the safety of both the game and the person working on it. Game characters would come back with all their memories when the game was plugged back in, but if the game, or it's motherboard, gets recycled, obviously the characters don't come back.
After a while, Ralph got tired so he stopped throwing bricks, but he stood at the top of the screen whenever people were looking. He then remembered something about the train platform-the game had it's own surge protector built in! If something hit the bumper at the end of the track with enough force to dislodge it, the game would power down and then reboot. He figured that all the game needed was a quick reboot to bring Felix back. So, Ralph wrecked the bumper to reset the game.
They all saw the little black hole, which was now too small to suck anything up, but it would soon become large enough to do so. Then, Ralph thought of something; if Felix didn't come back when he died, would everyone else come back when the game restarted? So, he yelled for everyone to leave! They all had plenty of time to get out of the game, and then they watched their game disintegrate before their eyes through the portal! They knew that it would likely come back, so they weren't worried, but still, seeing the building you live in fall apart is hardly a laughing matter. The game rebooted, and little green numbers arranged themselves into the shapes of the game's buildings and scenery, and then a blue wave came from the sky and made all the colors and lines appear.
The game was fine. They all cheered and ran back inside. They searched for Felix high and low, but they didn't find him. How could this be? They just rebooted the game! He died within his own game, so how could he have not returned? Did he run out through the power cord when he fell off? Why would Felix abandon a running game when he knew about Turbo, and what almost happened to his game when Ralph "Went Turbo"?
In Fix It Felix Jr., they patiently waited for someone to drop a quarter. They were hoping that when someone started the game, Felix would come back. After what seemed like an eternity, someone dropped a coin. It was the moment of truth. As the camera panned over to where the stump was, Ralph went down into the stump and the bulldozer moved it. He said his iconic line "Hey you moved my stump!" and then ran over to the apartment and said "I'm gonna wreck it!" He wrecked the building as usual, and the Nicelanders yelled out "Fix it Felix!" No sign of Felix, though. They yelled, "Fix it Felix" again, but he still didn't show up. They yelled "Fix it Felix" a little louder, hoping that he had come back and just didn't hear them. But what if Felix wasn't….?
Some of the Nicelanders inside the building began to cry. Even Ralph was hard pressed not to break out in tears at the thought of Felix being gone, possibly forever, without even being able to say goodbye, and the thought of himself and all the Nicelanders being homeless, not to mention Qbert and his friends going through their game being unplugged yet again. How was he going to break the news to Sgt. Calhoun? What if she were so depressed at the loss of Felix that she couldn't play her role in Hero's Duty anymore? Ralph wondered if the game would still work, if it would be too hard with a "helper character" all depressed and upset, or just plain sitting out the game because she couldn't play at all. Would she still have the sense of humor to make the wise cracks that make the game mildly funny? The last thing Ralph wanted to see was Sgt. Calhoun getting upset, although she probably wouldn't cry, being a soldier who is tough as nails. Then again, she knew it was only a game so she couldn't truly die, nor could any of her other soldiers. But Felix may never be coming back. He never wanted to break another person's heart ever again, after experiencing Vanellope's reaction to him wrecking the kart when he thought he was saving her life.
What about Vanellope? Though Ralph was the one who ultimately saved her from a lifetime of being an outcast, she knew Felix as well. Felix and Vanellope weren't that close though, so Ralph hoped she'd never ask about him. Besides, when was the last time they'd actually arranged to meet? The only time they talked was when they happened to bump into each other. Ralph hoped that Vanellope would never ask about Felix, or that he could just make up something less jarring than the truth. But Ralph knew Vanellope could bounce back, because she still was happy with being in the very same game where she was once treated as an outcast. Since she could now leave the game thanks to Ralph and Felix fixing the code, she could have easily abandoned the game that had so many bad memories associated with it, giving the title of Queen (or King) to someone else in the game.
After the Nicelanders yelled "Fix it Felix" a few times, the player just turned around. The Nicelanders noticed his nice leather shoes. The man was rich! He probably didn't care about a measly quarter, but sooner or later, someone would report the game broken, either out of anger over losing his or her money, or out of courtesy to make sure no one else did. Ralph thought that maybe the surge protector trick wasn't enough to bring back a character-what if the game plug was pulled out and put back in? They had to get people's attention for that to happen, though. So, the Nicelanders watched to make sure no one was looking, and Ralph began throwing apples at the screen until all the players could see was a dull yellow screen. Surely an employee would see that and unplug the game to reboot it.
Within minutes, the plug was pulled, and then after a few seconds, everyone reappeared. Then, Litwak opened the coin box and put a quarter back into the game, pressed start and everyone took their places, Ralph wrecked the building, and the Nicelanders said, "Fix it Felix!" Felix still was nowhere to be found. Was he kidnapped? No one could think of any other reason that he wouldn't come back when the plug had been reinserted! Litwak put an "Out of Order" sign on the game and said "I'll fix this later." The Nicelanders, along with Ralph, Qbert and his friends left the game. It was already out of order, so no one would lose their money if they were missing. They figured Felix must have been kidnapped, perhaps by someone who had "Gone Turbo" because their game's thunder was stolen by another one.
They all rode the train down the power cord to Game Central Station, and Surge Protector told them that they shouldn't leave their games when the arcade is open because they could be put out of order. They told him their game was already out of order because Felix had gone missing. Ralph said "Felix has been kidnapped. Did you see him being carried out by anyone? He might have looked injured because he was supposed to have died but he never came back even though he had lives left. Litwak pulled our plug to reset us and he still didn't come back!" Surge Protector replied "This station has been quieter than a crypt full of mimes all day long. Heck, hardly anyone even left their games last night when the arcade was closed! This place has been like a ghost town!" And then Ralph thought, ghost town? That's it! A ghost kidnapped Felix! He asked "Are there any games with ghosts around here?" and Surge Protector replied "Well, there's Pac Man, but it's been out of order for a few days. Litwak is calling in an expert tomorrow since the arcade is closed on Sundays. It needs a new joystick. There's also a few games with zombies, but Pac Man's the only thing we have with ghosts."
Ralph went to Pac Man to find Felix. All the other Nicelanders stayed behind because Ralph was a big strong guy, and he told them it might be dangerous in Pac Man if the ghosts had kidnapped Felix. Ralph found the Ghost House, which is where the ghosts retreat to when powered-up Pac Man eats them. Ralph went around throwing punches through the air to find the ghosts. He knew that the ghosts would become visible if something hit them. But, he didn't find any. They must be on the demo screen. Since the game had an out of order sign over the screen, no one would see Felix if he was on the screen, and even if they did, they would think it was a glitch and that was why the sign was up. Maybe the ghosts went Turbo, but for a different reason-their game wasn't unpopular, it was broken. Ralph saw all the ghosts, since they had not turned invisible, and yelled "Tell me where Felix is, or I'll wreck your code and put you out of order for good!" and Pac Man said "But what about me? I didn't do anything!" Ralph realized the error of his ways, and picked up Pac Man and whispered that he wouldn't wreck their code, but didn't tell the ghosts that so that they'd still be threatened. He took Pac Man out of the demo screen and talked to him.
"Felix, from Fix-it Felix Jr., was kidnapped by one of this game's ghosts. They must have turned invisible and hidden Felix underneath themselves while they pulled him out." Pac Man said "My ghosts cannot turn invisible at all! One time, many years ago, they started turning invisible! Our game was broken and we were put out of order! We almost got thrown away! I ate through the floor of the game, and rewrote their code so they couldn't turn invisible, and then when the custodian turned us back on the next morning, they were visible again, and the game had fixed itself! Litwak thought that it had just been a glitch that was fixed when he turned the game off for the night when the arcade closed. You see, there's a power button that turns off the game, but as long as the game is plugged in, there's still some power left. That's why we don't go to Game Heaven every night."
"But you're the only game in the arcade with ghosts! Felix disappeared in the middle of the game and now our game is broken. If we don't bring him back we'll be unplugged forever!" Pac Man said, "You've just gotta wait until we get shut down for the night, then the next morning, the game will be reset and everything will be A-Okay!" Ralph replied "We smashed the train platform to activate the surge protector inside the game to try and reboot it. Then someone tried playing our game but Felix still didn't come back. So, we threw apples at the screen to make it look like we were glitching so that someone would reset us. Litwak himself unplugged us and plugged us back in. Still no sign of Felix! What else could it mean? We were playing just like normal and then he got killed, but he still had lives left! He just never came back and the kid thought our game was broken! But how could he be gone? He died inside his own game!"
Pac Man told Ralph something he never wanted to hear, something that came to mind but he pushed it aside many times because he didn't want to give up hope, "I'm afraid your game can't be saved. On games like yours, everyone's code is on one chip, which is attached to the motherboard. Usually when that chip fails, the whole board either gets replaced, or the game gets thrown out, or recycled." Ralph asked "Recycled? I thought that once that happened, it wasn't possible to bring the game back!" Pac Man replied, barely wanting to talk about it anymore, "Recycled means that the game gets… completely destroyed beyond recognition. All the plastic parts get cut off, and then each different material gets melted into a pot. As for the chassis, it gets cut up and painted, or it's just left to rot. The game is destroyed." Ralph said "My god, what a terrible fate!" Pac Man hesitated, and then said, "It's sad, but since the board has no power, you're all in Game Heaven, blissfully unaware of the terrible fate of your old arcade console"
Ralph, having lost yet another chance to save Felix, left Pac Man. How was he going to tell the Nicelanders that their game was broken for good? Was there any hope left? Was it possible that there was some kind of machine that could fix the ROM? Ralph didn't know. He didn't want to give up hope until the very moment his game was rolled out the door of Litwak's for good. He came back to Fix it Felix Jr., but he didn't tell them what Pac Man said. He simply said he couldn't find Felix. Still, everyone panicked. Gene yelled, "We're doomed! Our game is ruined!" They all ran for the train, taking their most precious belongings with them.
The next day, Mr. Litwak handed his game keys over to the technician, Mr. Zappos. He was the best computer tech in town, but he wasn't fond of children, which is why he comes in on Sundays or after the place closes. This is also part of why Litwak closed the arcade on Sundays, not only to allow himself and the employees to go to church, but also to give Mr. Zappos free reign of an empty arcade when a game needs extra help.
The Nicelanders heard the sickening sound of their plug being pulled rumble through the walls of Game Central Station. For about an hour, the Nicelanders contemplated their future fate, some of them talking about becoming audience members in a racing game, like Sugar Rush, or a music game like Guitar Hero, others considering quietly ending it all by sneaking into Hero's Duty or a zombie shooter and allowing themselves to be shot or eaten, dying forever since they wouldn't be in their own game.
Ralph went to Sugar Rush to talk to Vanellope about what happened. He had a small glimmer of hope that Felix would be inside Sugar Rush. Vanellope was a little upset about the news of Felix being missing, but Ralph didn't mention that he probably wasn't coming back. Vanellope said her game wasn't working because someone spilled soda on it. Ralph made a joke "I guess you could say you had a sugar crash?" and even Vanellope thought this was funny. Unlike Ralph, she wasn't worried that her game would be unplugged. Most of the time, all that's needed is for the controls to be taken apart and cleaned, or possibly replaced if they've totally shorted out, but no one in Litwak's had ever seen a game get dumped due to a soda spill.
Ralph asked if the Nicelanders could be in the audience of Sugar Rush. She said that would be fine, and that she could make them little candy costumes to wear so that they could fit in better. That was great news, but what about Qbert? Ralph then realized that he and his friends sort of looked like jelly beans or taffy so they wouldn't be totally out of place. And, if the "unplugged" characters could be made to look enough like the real ones from Sugar Rush, and enough karts could be made, they could even race! They'd have to take turns with the real residents of Sugar Rush, but being the princess, Vanellope figured that this could be arranged.
A Nicelander ran into Sugar Rush, and told Ralph "Our game's been plugged back in and it's rebooting! Hurry up!" Ralph thought this was impossible, but nonetheless, he waved goodbye to Vanellope and then ran for the exit. He saw that, sure enough, the Fix It Felix Jr. plug was back in place, with the departure board showing which plug was which. They ran back in, and saw an odd sight. Instead of the building, they saw all their names with space in between, and a sign had appeared out of screen, saying "THIS IS A TEST. PLEASE STAND UNDER YOUR NAME" so they did. As they took their places, they saw a sight that brought them all relief.
Felix was holding his hammer in his signature pose, with a speech bubble flashing over his head saying "I can fix it!" At the end of the test, everyone cheered, and asked Felix where he'd been. Felix said "Huh? I just died in the game and now all of the sudden we're in a self-test? Did we crash?" To which Ralph said "Uh, yeah. We crashed big time. They had to pull our plug and plug us back in!" He didn't want to tell Felix that he'd been missing for a day, since Felix obviously wasn't aware of this, and if the game was fixed, there was no need for him to worry about disappearing again. Then, the game's environment re-rendered itself, and Mr. Zappos started the game. Everyone took their places, and Mr. Zappos started playing the game. But then, all at once, Felix saw something strange. He had moved, but he saw a ghost of himself where he had just been standing. He was moving in response to the joystick, but Mr. Zappos looked confused and began jerking the joystick back and forth as if the game had frozen. That's when Felix realized that the game was frozen! Where everyone inside the game saw ghosts of themselves standing frozen, the player saw the characters, frozen in place!
Mr. Zappos said, "I reseated the ROM but the game froze!" and Litwak responded "Try doing it a few more times. That's how I fixed our pinball machine, just had to remove and reinsert the connectors a few times." And just like that, Fix it Felix was unplugged, yet again. This time, it was only a few minutes until it was plugged back in again. Everyone went back inside. Mr. Zappos started the game again, and everyone played their roles normally. Nothing went wrong this time. The next day, it seemed that everything was back to normal and that Fix it Felix would continue to bring joy to people for years to come. But then came the day after…
Fix it Felix was being played so much Tuesday evening that Felix's and Ralph's arms were getting sore from swinging the magic hammer, and wrecking the building time and time again. Between games, they joked about playing frozen so that they could take a break until someone reset them, but those jokes were silenced when a video game tragedy befell them.
During Level 10, Felix was fixing a window as usual when the hammer suddenly felt heavy in his hand. He looked at it. It was no longer golden! He ignored it, figuring the paint had just faded. But the next window he tried to fix didn't magically reappear like broken items normally do when hit with Felix's magic hammer. The player kept hitting the "Fix" button. Felix kept swinging the hammer but nothing was getting fixed. Without the hammer, no one could play the game. "What happened? Did the programmers pass out or something?" said the teenage boy who had been playing the game.
Ralph smashed the end of the train platform again to reset the game. The hammer still hadn't turned golden again, but they still played the demo sequence just to see if it was "fixed" but it wasn't. Felix still couldn't fix anything with his hammer.
Before they could fake a glitch to get reset, someone dropped a quarter in the game. Trying to keep in character, Ralph yelled "I'm gonna wreck it!" and wrecked several windows that weren't already broken from the demo sequence. The Nicelanders, once again, hoped that someone starting the game would fix everything, even though that didn't fix it last time. Felix said "I can fix it!" and then the player moved him to the first window. He swung his hammer. The window wasn't fixed. Felix kept swinging his hammer in desperation, forgetting that the player was seeing what he was doing. Then the game froze. Though Ralph wasn't saying anything, everyone kept hearing his voice echoing, "I'm going to wreck it!" repeatedly. Everyone inside was still able to move, but they saw ghosts of themselves frozen in place, which was the only thing the player saw. The building and all the characters turned green. Then, the player called for help.
An employee said "What's going on now?" and the player said "I don't know, Felix wouldn't fix anything, and now it's frozen. It keeps saying "I'm gonna wreck it"! It's like the game forgot it's own programming or something" and then the employee replied, "Felix has been acting up a lot, and I think it might be time to put this old bird to rest. Anyway, here's your quarter back"
Mr. Litwak put an out of order sign on the machine. An hour later, he was talking to someone on the phone, but the Nicelanders couldn't understand what he was saying. He then wrote something on the out of order sign with a marker, "Scheduled for removal". The Nicelanders were at a loss for words. Felix panicked and yelled "That's it man, we're getting unplugged forever! Game over man, game over!"
When the arcade closed for the night, Felix went to Hero's Duty to see his wife, Sgt. Calhoun, while Ralph went to see Vanellope.
Felix said to Sgt. Calhoun, "Our game's been put out of order for good! What am I going to do? My hammer doesn't even fix things anymore!" to which Calhoun replied, "Oh, it's okay. Every game character goes through this. Some of them dread the thought of being homeless and just choose to go down with the game when it's unplugged. Kind of like a captain going down with the ship." Felix asked "But who wants to die when they can easily leave the game?" so Calhoun answered "They've probably all seen Q-bert and his friends sitting in Game Central Station on their own. They didn't want to die, but they didn't want to be homeless and in constant fear of death, since they'd be gone for real if they died outside their own game." Felix frowned, and then said, "That's sad. But don't worry, I'll stay so that we can be together" Sgt. Calhoun smiled, picked up Felix, and said, "I knew you would" and then she kissed him on the cheek.
When Ralph went to Game Central Station, he saw the entrance to Sugar Rush blocked by a barrier and caution tape. The sign above the entrance was flashing "do not enter" and as Ralph got close to it, Surge Protector yelled "Don't go in there! You'll get scrambled!" and Ralph said "What? I was just going to go see my friend!" "She's gone, Ralph. There's nothing left of the game. If you go in there, you'll die too." Ralph ignored Surge Protector, and took the train down to Sugar Rush. What he saw made him gasp and nearly fall over. The entire game had melted into chocolate lava! He smashed the train platform and ran out into the tunnel, and watched the chocolate lava disappear into blackness. The floor came back, but it was plain and not colorful like Sugar Rush's grounds were supposed to be. There was no floating camera, no Vanellope, and no racetrack. Confused, he left Sugar Rush and went into Fix it Felix Jr. to get a closer look at Sugar Rush from the outside. Ralph got out his binoculars and looked at the screen. In big, red letters on a black background, it read "CRITICAL ERROR PROG 0X77" and he knew that this, along with the fact that resetting the game didn't fix it, could only mean one thing. Sugar Rush's hard drive had failed.
He told the Nicelanders what had happened to Sugar Rush and that the idea that he had of them becoming audience members wasn't going to work. The Nicelanders looked at the old, ragged sign that Q-bert used to hold before Ralph and Felix gave them a home in their game "Game Unplugged, Please Help!"
Back in Hero's Duty, Felix and Sgt. Calhoun discussed their future plans, "I can't live in Hero's Duty, it's not my game! If I die here, I'm dead forever!" and Sgt. Calhoun told Felix that she could modify the code to include him as a character who can respawn just as he and Ralph had done to include Q-Bert in the game. If they hadn't done that, not only could they die, but also a collision with a foreign character while the game is actually being played could irreversibly wreck the game's code. That's how Turbo destroyed RoadBlasters many years ago. When the game is not being played, however, characters can hug, kiss, poke or punch one another and not cause any harm. Once the code has been rewritten, from inside or outside, the foreign character was then a part of the game and could respawn if he or she died within it.
Ralph talked to Felix and he said "I'm moving into Hero's Duty!" and Ralph said with fear in his voice "But if you die in here, you'll never come back!" Felix reassured Ralph, "It's okay. Sgt. Calhoun is going to modify the code for me just like we did for the bonus round for Q-Bert."
Ralph and the Nicelanders went to a wall in Game Central Station and wrote "This is Ralph and all the Nicelanders from the game Fix it Felix Jr. wishing you all many long, happy lives. Our game has lost it's last life" and were about to go back to Fix it Felix Jr. Not wanting to become homeless, they were prepared to instead go down with one of the longest-lived games at Litwak's arcade. Not many characters could say that their game stayed in the same arcade and remained popular for 30 years! As someone came out of Tapper's, they mentioned that he could get Mr. Tapper to set up a going away party for all the characters of Fix it Felix Jr. The Nicelanders said "Why not" and Ralph went to get Felix.
An hour later, Mr. Tapper came out and told everyone to come on in. Mr. Tapper had made a big chocolate statue in the shape of the Fix it Felix Jr. arcade machine, with a cake that had a little "30" candle on it, for 30 years in Litwak's arcade.
The chances of a game remaining popular enough to stay in the same building for that long are pretty slim, especially when the machine requires an expensive repair. If the game loses popularity, it gets tossed the next time it breaks down.
All the older characters talked about games in the past that almost lasted that long, as well as Pac Man, which was still around. It was out of order but it was going to be fixed. All it needed was a new joystick and people still liked it enough for Mr. Litwak to want to fix it. They also discussed their own games. Some characters were worried about their own games getting removed, but they were at a party with friends and good food and drinks so they pushed those thoughts aside, being happy with where they were at the moment.
Felix was about to leave when he took his hammer and handed it to Ralph. "Here you go, Ralph. I figured you'd want to keep something of mine with you." Ralph was surprised; "Your magic hammer?" and Felix reassured Ralph "I won't be needing it. It's not magic anymore, remember?" Ralph was embarrassed. How could he have forgotten the whole reason their game was out of order in the first place? Ralph accepted the gift, and Felix went back to Hero's Duty. Ralph took a pen and wrote on the chocolate statue, which they didn't want to eat and hoped that no one else would, "Goodbye Litwak's arcade. Thanks for all the happy memories. Ralph." Then, all the Nicelanders signed their names below where Ralph had. They all went back to Fix it Felix, prepared to face their fate.
The next day, a man came into Litwak's and pointed to Fix it Felix Jr. and said "Is this game for sale" to which Litwak replied "I wasn't planning on selling it because I didn't think anyone would buy it. The paint's all scratched and the motherboard is bad, but if you want it, just go ahead and haul it on out. Use it for a prop or something"
The man said "I can probably fix it" and Litwak replied, "Like I said, just take it. You have until next week to get it, and then it's getting thrown out."
The Nicelanders watched a man come up to Fix it Felix with a dolly. They knew what was coming. They all held hands and waited. They felt the ground shake as the game was pulled out from where it stood, and then this strange clear plastic with circular domes covered the screen, and then again and again until no one could make out the arcade anymore. Trying to be funny, Ralph grabbed the "Game Over" sign and tossed it up on the screen and hit the switch to make it visible. The Nicelanders all surrounded Ralph and they did a giant group hug, and as they heard a metal dragging sound, they all closed their eyes until the black hole opened up and they were all sucked in, never to be seen again.
Ralph found himself in a pile of bricks, but how could that be? He looked around. The building stood tall. He looked at the screen. Where was he? All he could see were clouds, no ceiling, no floor and no walls. Had the game fallen from a plane? Ralph pushed that thought aside. Ralph was still holding the hammer that Felix gave him. The Nicelanders were all in their apartments, asleep. Was this all just a bad dream, or was he in a dream right now? Where was Felix? Ralph went to the plug because there wasn't a single person beyond the screen, so the arcade must be closed. Maybe Felix was in Tappers or something.
Ralph went out into what he thought would be Game Central Station. However, there were many more games than Ralph remembered ever being in Litwak's arcade. The outlets to the games didn't look like normal outlets, and there was no ceiling, only blue sky above and clouds below. As he looked closer at the entrances to the games, he noticed that the three prongs of the plug were sort of lopsided, as if the plug had been carelessly thrown on the floor after being pulled from it's socket. He then saw Vanellope! Ralph realized that this wasn't an arcade-it was Game Heaven!
Vanellope said "Ralph! What are you doing here! Did people stop playing your game or something?" and then Ralph replied, sadly, "No, it's not that at all. Felix's hammer stopped being magical and fixing stuff and no one could play anymore. That was after the game…. crashed several times." As Ralph said this, he nearly cried. Vanellope said "It's okay stink brain, my game broke too." Even Ralph thought the nickname was funny. "Everyone goes through this sooner or later. How about we race?" and Ralph said "But I'm not a racer" Vanellope reassured Ralph, "You'll be fine. What could possibly happen to you anyway? You're already dead!" "Oh, right," said Ralph, with a smile on his face.
They both went into Sugar rush and raced against each other. Vanellope let Ralph get ahead of her, but Ralph didn't win against the other racers. "It's okay Ralph. You can keep racing here as much as you like, or you can be part of another game. For the first time, you can change who you are and no one will suffer for it."
Ralph wanted to go back to Fix it Felix Jr. but then he realized that Felix hadn't died so he was missing from the game in heaven. Then, Ralph saw another Fix it Felix. He entered and saw another Felix in that one. Felix knew the Ralph from his game, but not the Ralph from the other game in Litwak's. However, the Ralph from this game agreed to let the Ralph from Litwak's game take turns playing as each other. The other Ralph was a good guy when Ralph from Litwak's played as himself. Ralph remained a part of the same game, and eventually became friends with Felix from the other game. As for Felix in Litwak's arcade, he was living with his wife, Sgt. Calhoun, and they all lived happily ever after.