Mako's Message: And here I throw my hat into yet another fandom. Why? Because it's a silly little one-shot of an idea that I can post and not worry about again, and getting another idea out of my head and out in the world will make me feel better. I have no idea how well I've done with characterization as this is my first attempt with these guys, but hopefully it'll amuse you and if you. So, lemme know what you think.

"Hey," he called down to the ground, "You okay?"

Felix brushed the brick dust and other debris that still clung to him even after he had regenerated back at his start point after losing his final life of the game, "Oh I'm fine brother. It'll take more than a brick to the head to stop me."

"Well," Ralph said, "I'm sure you'll still be happy to hear that kid finally ran out of quarters-"

"Oh thank goodness."

"-and it looks like that'll be the last game of the day. Litwak is starting to send the kids who aren't still playing home."

"Whew. Good. I could use a break. I can't remember the last time we had a player that was so bad at this."

"I know," Ralph said, starting to climb back down the building as the other Nicelanders started exiting the building to help clean and to sweep up any debris the bulldozer and regeneration codes missed, "I couldn't believe it when you got hit on the first level. It's practically a freebie."

"It was a shock to me too. I'm not used to getting a game over before level three." He looked over at Ralph who picked up a brick that had gotten stuck in one of the front bushes and threw it all the way to dump as the nicelanders wrapped up their daily cleaning, "You heading off to Bad-Anon tonight?"

Ralph suddenly perked up, "Oh! Wow. I totally forgot about that," he said, looking both sheepish and excited. "Bad-Anon was canceled this week. Last week Zangief and Bison were telling us about this big inter-fightering-game-tournament that was happening tonight, and that they wouldn't be attending this week because of it. Everyone seemed interested so we decided to skip this week and check it out. I was going to ask if you and Calhoun wanted to come, but Vanellope caught up with me as I was leaving Pac-Man and dragged me off to see a hidden course a player had unlocked. After that, I'd completely forgotten about it until now."

"A fighting tournament?" Felix asked, taking his hat off, turning and twisting it in his hands, "I dunno Ralph. That doesn't really seem like my kind of thing." He looked up at his friend apologetically, "Tammy might like it though," he added after a moment of thought. "She should be on her way over right now. I'll ask her when she gets here," he said with a smile.

"Great!" Ralph beamed. "I'll go see if Vanellope wants to come too. We'll meet you in Game Central Station after the roster race!"

"Ralph! I didn't say-" Felix sighed, Ralph was already on the train and into the tunnel. Ralph was a good guy as long as he kept his temper in check, but he could be so enthusiastic and impulsive at times. He sighed again as he realized he probably would be going to to the tournament. He couldn't imagine his wife passing this up.

Calhoun arrived not much later, dressed in khaki cargo pants and a tank top, with calf-high combat boots laced up tight and her dogs tags glinting and clinking about her neck, which was a sure sign that she was in a good mood. Usually she wouldn't bother taking her armor off and she'd be short and tense until he was able to get her to relax. He couldn't have kept the honeyglows from his face even if he'd wanted to as she came over.

"Hey swee-" he started but was cut off when she pulled his hat down roughly then spun him around and kissed him before he could even uncover his eyes. He nearly swooned at the rough and enthusiastic affection, "Well, what has you in such good spirits my lady?"

"We got to the top of the tower today. Twice! And it was each player's first time!"

Felix immediately knew what she was talking about. He'd had players conquer the final level of his game numerous times, but most of the time it was the same players, old hats at the game who could beat it without any effort and mostly played just to get a high-score or see how fast they could beat it. It was an entirely different experience when a new player beat the game for the first time. The sheer joy and excitement on the player's face was something that made him feel like he was beating the game for the first time himself and would never got old. "Well that's incredible!" And it was. Hero's Duty was the most expensive game in the arcade so player's rarely went for more than two rounds, maybe three if they really liked it. For someone to beat it they had to be really good, or really love the game.

"Dang right it is!" Calhoun said, "The men went to Tapper's to celebrate, but, I thought we could have our own celebration," she added, walking her fingers from his belt up to his chin. "You didn't have any plans for tonight, did you?" she asked leaning in slowly to kiss him.

Felix, honest to a fault managed to stammer, "R-Ralph invited us to..to a fi-fighting game tournament."

Calhoun stopped and blinked, "What?"

"The fighting games, they're having an inter-game tournament."

A grin spread across Calhoun's face, "Well now. That sounds like it could be fun."

Felix wanted to hit himself in the face with his hammer for fudging up what had been promising to be an amazing night, "Ralph said he'd meet us in the station after Sugar Rush's roster race."

"Oh. Good." Calhoun said, "That leaves us time for a couple rounds," and with that she threw her husband over her shoulder and carried him off to their home.

Later, they headed towards the train while Felix tried to straighten his hair out. His envying of how his wife's design made noticing bed hair almost impossible when the train rolled into the station. His hair was driven from his mind when he saw Ralph get out and start walking roboticly towards his home.

Felix and Calhoun exchanged a confused and worried glance before hurrying over to him, "Ralph? You okay there brother?"

Ralph didn't respond, and just stared straight ahead, his eyes wide and unseeing, and now that they were closer they could see that he was quite pale.

"Hey Wreck-It! Calhoun said stepping in front of him, "What's got your gun jamm-" Ralph brushed right by her like she wasn't even there, "-ed?" She glowered and then marched up, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around before slapping him in the face, "Report soldier!"

"Ah! Wha- I- What?"

"What happened Ralph?" Felix asked, concerned for his friend.

And then Ralph's eyes went distant again as he started to speak, "I went...an...I..I...found...Vanell...a...Taffy..." and them he shoved passed them and went into his house not even bothering to close the door which allowed them to see him sit down in the corner then wrap his arms around his legs and start rocking back and forth.

"'Vanilla taffy'?" Felix asked, confused, "What's so bad about that?"

Calhoun shrugged and said, "Guess we're gonna have go ask the little sugar queen herself."

They didn't have long to wait to get their answers. Just as they were about to leave, Vanellope came speeding into Fix-It Felix Jr. so fast she nearly crashed into them.

"Vanellope! How many times have I told you to be careful with that thing or leave it in your game!" Calhoun yelled.

"Yeah yeah, where's Ralph, I need to talk to him, like, ten minutes ago."

Even if he'd missed Ralph coming back to their game, Felix would've been able to tell that whatever it was that Vanellope needed to talk to Ralph about really was that urgent. The girl was in a right state, half of her bangs were pushed back and sticking up, her licorice hair tie was barely holding together, he face was flushed and her hoodie wasn't zipped properly. "We saw him come in just a minute ago. He seemed badly shaken."

"You know anything about that bite-size? He came in here looking like he'd seen Turbo's ghost and all we could get out of him was something about 'vannila taffy'."

Vanellope's eye's widened and she turned almost completely red.

"Well?" Calhoun pressed as the girl pulled at her hair and refused to look at them.

"Vanellope, what happened to Ralph?" Felix pleaded.

"Well, uh, nothing...happened to him, he just...uh...saw something..." Vanellope asked, looking like she was seriously considering starting her cart back up and making a break for it.

"What could he have seen in Sugar Rush that'd make him react like that?" Felix asked.

Vanellope scrunched up her face like she was in pain before finally saying, "Okay, you know Taffyta, right?"

"Lolipop girl? Yeah. What about her?"

"Well, Ralph kind of...caught...us." and then she cringed as if expecting a blow.

Calhoun's eyebrows shot up, while Felix just looked more confused. "Caught you?" he asked, "Caught you how?"

Calhoun slapped her husband in the back of his head, "C'mon Blue Eyes, the girl's embarrassed enough as it is, don't maker her say it."

"I don't understand," he said, rubbing the back of his head, "Don't make her say what?"

"What would it mean if we said we'd gotten caught? She's got a girlfriend and Ralph walked in on the two of them getting' frisky"

"Wha-oh. OH! My land..."

Vanellope, who had been staring at her shoes and trying to pretend none of this was happening added, "It was actually a little more than just 'frisky'"

Calhoun laughed, "Oh, your game just gets more and more interesting."