It was the home stretch of the Random Roster Race. Vanellope von Schweetz was in the lead.
Taffyta Muttonfudge was several lengths behind her, leaning forward intently as she tried to catch up. Later, she would blame her second-place position on Vanellope's glitching, but only in jest and only to avoid admitting that the President had gotten the better of her. They all knew Vanellope rarely glitched in their after-hours races andnever in the RRR; after all, she knew all too well what it felt like to be shut out, and would never risk bumping a racer who might have otherwise made the top nine out through her ability.
She was such a good girl.
Vanellope's win was all but assured, but the watcher half-hidden behind the stands bearing her name fidgeted with tension until the wildly glittery Candy Kart flashed across the finish line, Pink Lightning seconds behind. The stands erupted with cheers as each racer came in and he smiled, still fidgeting slightly as he watched the kids leap from their karts, greeting each other and mugging for fans and cameras as they trotted toward the grandstand.
With all that was going on, he didn't notice the shadow that had fallen over him until he heard the distinct crack of knuckles.
He leaped straight up, spinning in midair to face the giant behind him, giggling nervously as he half-cowered.
"Oh! Haha! Oh dear me. Ah. Ralph, isn't it? Wreck-it Ralph?"
"You know who I am, Turbo."
Ralph took a step forward; his target scrambled in panic, image glitching before he managed to dash past the wrecker. But he didn't flee once past - instead, he turned to peek over his shoulder at his would-be assailant.
"Dear dear. Oh my goodness I knew coming was a mistake but-"
"You're telling me." Ralph started forward again, voice rumbling ominously. "I don't know how you survived that beacon, Twerp-tastic, but-"
"I didn't." He glitched again as he turned to face Ralph, who stopped in his tracks.
"What? But... outside your game... that's..."
"This is my game." He folded his hands, shrugging slightly. "And it's King Candy. Now hear me out-"
"Last time I 'heard you out' you got me to break the kid's kart to save your skin. You have any idea what-"
"No no. Turbo's skin. And while I know breaking the kart was very hard and not actually the solution to start with, I admire you for making that decision, for loving her enough to not risk her life to keep her friendship." King Candy had drawn himself up a bit, voice growing a bit more formal. Then Ralph scowled and he glitched wildly, stuttering as he tried to speak again. "B-b-b-but that's not th-th-the poithep-p-point here. Ahem. The point here." He fidgeted again, capturing an index finger between the thumb and index finger of his other hand and tugging it lightly. "Mister Wreck-it. Did you ever wonder how Turbo got such a complete change? Got this game to accept him? Got Bill to follow him?"
"Simple, he locked the memories and took the kid's code."
"After embedding himself in an official character's code. Say, an NPC. Then the code would c-kssghrr!-excuse me, connect to the shell of the NPC to let him take karts and stats and so on for himself. He couldn't create a codebox anymore than he could destroy Vanellope's, but..."
"Bill says the kid's the rightful ruler."
"That's because in the backstory I abd-d-d-abdicated to run the racrun the races. Pardon me, it's worse when I'm nervous, ah-heh." He shrugged, switching to fiddling with his thumb. "It's a stupback stupid backstory I know but-"
"I've heard worse." Ralph leaned back slightly, hands on hips as he stared sketically down at the little man. "And the hiding is because...?"
"That TurbocreatTurbo creature took over my programming and locked up memories... so now... well I heard the kids talking, you know, and they think thethink that any good memories are his backup plan. Bes-s-s-sides this glitching is da-krgdd!-dang-qwekgrrsh-" He glitched more rapidly than ever, flashing across the small area in a zigzagging pattern and staggering as it came to a stop; Ralph reflexively reached to steady him and King Candy moved back, hands up. "No tounonotouching! It's not like my granddaughter's it's bad, verb-b-very bad!"
"Granddaughter?!"
"Well yes, you've met the othraceother racer's parents." He took a deep breath, willing the glitches to slow, and managed to speak again with only the odd flicker. "It's dangerous. And none of them have reason to trust me. And it IS my fault; to make him let her go I let-" He shuddered, glitching again.
Then they both looked up at a small voice.
"Ralph! Hey Ralphie, where are ya?"
King Candy took half a step back, staring up at Ralph.
"Don't kekeep me here, it's a danger to her."
"Darn right you're a danger to her." Ralph stared stonily at the king for a long moment; King Candy flinched a bit as Vanellope called again.
"Hey! Stinkbrain!"
"Mister Wreck-it I'm t-t-trying to f-f-find out how to fix my source b-b-but..."
"Ralphiiiie!"
Another moment, and he relented, still glaring.
"I have to tell Felix and Calhoun about this."
"Of course."
"And Bill."
"Yes. It wasn't his fault. He was trywastr-tr-trying to break out, I think, and that's how he knew how-"
"Yeah, yeah. If I catch you near her-"
"Understood."
He fled, diving behind a jawbreaker as Vanellope scrambled into view, glitching up onto Ralph's shoulder.
"Geez, what are you doing back here? Did you see me beat the pants off Taffyta or not?"
"I saw, Fartfeathers. New best time, huh?" Ralph reached up, resettling Vanellope to keep her from peeking behind them; the question tore her attention from what Ralph had been doing as she bounced excitedly.
"Yeah! Best ever and I'm ready to beat it! SO! You ready to play Double Dipped? Sarge gave Felix a pie bazooka, he's gonna be their gunner for our doubles race!"
"Hoo boy. Yanno, Felix can aim..."
"Yeah, not like you. So you better at least not let him hit me!"
King Candy watched them go from his place, glitching fitfully a moment before turning to leave himself.
There was work to do.