I don't know if I'll go on with this story, but it's been stuck in my head and I will let this plot bunny be born, but I don't expect immediate updates or deadlines. School and life get to me, as well as three other stories I'm trying to write. But enjoy this! I will not ever forget this story though, so don't expect me to be absent. I also check my pms even if I can't write. I will be absent for a long time, so give it a week or two. Think of this chapter as a pilot, like a test run to see if people like this idea before I continue. Enjoy this story!
PS: most of these chapters will focus on fluffy love and adventure. I don't know if I'll have to switch the rating from T to M... I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Something Like a Glitch
Felix fiddled with his golden hammer, rotating it in the low light of his room in the penthouse.
Ever since the 'Sugar Rush Turbo' incident, Felix continuously wondered what his data codes his game looked like. Ralph, Felix, and Vanellope, with the help of Sour Bill, made their way into the Sugar Rush code room and helped repair some of the hidden damage to the game. In return Ralph and Felix earned a sneak peak inside the mysterious and forbidden wiring, wondering what it would be like to mess with something as powerful as one's own code. After they returned to their own game, the Nicelanders greeted them with smiles.
For some strange reason, Felix couldn't bring himself to smile when he was alone.
XXX
"Golly Pacman… I don't know what to think. How do you know that you and Pacgirl are supposed to be together? Calhoun, the most dynamite girl I know, said that it wasn't in our code to love each other. I don't understand, and I've been around longer than her!"
Pacman made a few of his noises, letting the multilingual handyman listen to his words of wisdom.
"Wait a second… It's actually in the code? When some base numbers in a code match up your supposed to be together? Gosh… how does that make any sense?"
More words from Pacman followed by a shake of his head, told Felix all he needed to know.
"It's all in the program? But once in a while by chance two separately made programs for different games share codes and they're meant for each other? Are you telling me that it's all in the program?"
A nod from the yellow sphere confirmed it.
Felix shrugged and sighed. "I guess that makes sense. Mario has to love Peach for the game to progress. But that means we are forced to fall in love just because of our code?"
Pacman didn't answer this time, but Felix understood that he got all his answers.
XXX
It was late at night when Felix snuck out of his own room.
Ralph was out at Tappers, and the Nicelanders were dead asleep, so Felix could hop around without being noticed.
When they had searched their game, one of the Nicelanders had found a pothole that was underneath Ralph's trash rubble. Once the new mini town was built, the pothole became part of the scenery, untouched because of fear.
With shaky hands, the brunette pulled open the cap and started to slowly climb down.
"Hello?" Felix quietly called down, with only his echo in reply.
Tying a piece of rope to his middle, Felix let go and dropped down into the abyss. He closed his eyes as he fell, then opened when he had stopped. There weren't as many code boxes or wires as the more advanced racing game, but the young program's eyes widened as he took in all the colored lights of his world.
In a swimming motion, Felix browsed through all the boxes with their labels. Each of the Nicelanders had their own box, with one wire connected to the top and bottom, fading out into the darkness. With an experimental tap, Felix opened one of his friend's codes and watched the single strand of numbers flow in a slow circle. Closing the box, Felix hovered deeper to the center until he made it to the middle of the code pile.
Two boxes hovered side by side. Both were slightly bigger than the Nicelanders' code boxes, and they had multiple wires connected to the top and bottom. Once was red with Ralph's name, and the other was bright blue for Felix. Said blue fixer tapped both boxes and watched the codes spin inside with interest. There were five strands of codes instead of one, each number individual. "Wow…" he marveled. Felix reached out to close the boxes, when a sudden noise from outside jolted him.
"Whoa! Easy there…" he muttered to himself as he steadied and closed the boxes.
As he left, he had a nagging feeling that he had hit something with his hand. As he hastily makes his way out of the dark room, the blue and red boxes started flashing.
XXX
"Okay guys! Quarter time," Ralph announced in glee as he took his place at the stump.
Felix couldn't help but grin as all the Nicelanders patted him on the back and gave him warm hugs of encouragement.
'It's strange to see Gene hugging Ralph…' Felix thought as the small pixeled man hesitantly hugged Ralph's arm.
XXX
The game started off as normal, with the building being smashed and Felix saving the day. It was only after level two that the kids and the Fix-It-Felix crew noticed something was off about the game. No matter how high the level went, the difficulty never increased.
"Ralph! You're supposed to be throwing more bricks at Felix!" Someone in the windows whispered harshly.
Sweat started forming on the wrecker's brow as he physically fought to throw the bricks he could manage.
"I can't! I don't know what's going on!"
"Is the game broken again?" The girl who was controlling Felix called out to the manager.
"I don't think so. Everything is playing out fine. How about we give the game a little break?"
"So it won't be out of order?"
"No little girl, this game is just too popular to give up now."
XXX
"What is wrong with you Ralph?" Felix asked, grabbing his own head in despair.
Only the popular reputation of the game kept them from immediately going out of order, but it was only a temporary relief. The big man shrugged his shoulders and gave a deep sigh. For some strange reason, Felix felt himself shudder as he imagined the tension leaving Ralph's body.
'Well that's odd…' the young program mused.
Gene ran up to the duo, red and full of fury. "Ralph! What is going on here? It's like you're afraid to hurt Felix!"
"I can't help it!" Ralph screamed back. "It's like I can't physically injure him!"
"Try and throw something at me," Felix piped up.
Everyone turned towards him and screamed "no" with wide eyes.
"Are you sure about this Felix?" Gene asked warily. A tentative nod was his reply.
"Okay Ralph, throw a piece of the building at Felix. Don't worry about the damage."
"Because I can fix it," the handyman stated with a grin as he pulled out his hammer.
Ralph picked up the brick and tried to aim at the smaller boy, but he ended up throwing it over Felix's head, landing in the virtual grass behind them. No one moved or breathed in shock and horror as their bad guy failed to be… bad.
"Oh no…" Ralph uttered, eyes wide in disbelief.
Felix started running around in circles. "This is bad... this is really really bad!"
"Calm down Felix." Gene tried to stop the young program from jumping around in panic.
With a sudden burst of power, Felix jumped to the wall intending to wake himself up from this horrible nightmare he had unintentionally created. When he hit the wall at full forcewith his gloved hand out of frustration, cracks started forming until the tall building crumbled around them.
"Run for your lives!" Gene screamed to everyone. Like being taken out of pause, everyone suddenly sprang to life and tried to get away from the structure.
Ralph grabbed Felix and dove to the side just as the virtual structure fell to the ground, dust clouding everyone's vision.
XXX
"Bring this game back into working condition good as new okay?" The arcade manager Litwick asked the man as he carted the game into the tall truck. "You have the whole week because I'm going on vacation".
"Sure thing boss! This game is not going to stay out of order. I'm sure the coders can fix the level up system easily."
With a final farewell, the owner left the arcade, hoping his antique machine was in good hands for the week.
XXX
"Jeff, turn on the game and see if it's running right."
"On it," the worker stated as he plugged in the game to the outlet.
The start screen opened up as usual, but when the preview came up, every single character in the game was running around in some sort of panic and the building was rubble.
"Oh my goodness! Jeff, the game is going crazy. That guy is paying us good money to fix the game."
"Well, according to the computer," the guy informed as he pulled up the files for the manufacturer of the game. "This thing hasn't been mass produced in the last 50 years. Only a few were released then they stopped selling them all in one month. This thing is practically a collectors item. I'm surprised this game is running on its golden thirty years."
Jeff face palmed and combed a finger through his moderately short auburn hair as he realized what those facts meant. "That means we can't get the base codes through normal means. Okay Rick, start up the game so we can see the original problem."
When he didn't have a response, he turned around to yell at his employee, but stayed quiet and pulled out his phone. It was an odd txt from Rick.
Dude… the game characters stopped and r watching us lke they r listning. Turn round and face mirror.
The head manager did as his bald friend said, and when he looked into the reflective surface of his picture of his family, he gapped like a fish. The characters from the game had stopped and were staring at them, like they were listening to their fate.
'This is ridiculous…' Jeff grumbled in his mind as he turned around to face the game.
It was like a switch was flipped. The characters all started running around again like nothing had happened. With a sigh, he pushed a quarter from his pocket into the machine and grabbed the controls. Everything played out like it was supposed to, except for the fact that every level never got any harder.
"Dude, it's almost like Wreck-It-Ralph is trying to avoid hitting Fix-It-Felix."
At the same time, almost every character in the arcade game seemed to virtually sweat drop.
'That's it… no more caffeinated coffee,' Jeff thought with conviction as he tried to purposely die by getting hit with a block, but Felix destroyed the block with his hammer instead.
"What? Man that shouldn't of happened!"
"We'll try again this weekend. I have a friend thank can get deeper into the program than us. If not, then we might have to pull the plug!" Rick grumbled as he opened the code box.
"What do these wires do?" Jeff asked as reached out a hand to fiddle with a wire.
"Stop!" his friend yelled as he grabbed the hairy man's arm. "If you mess with any code boxes or wires the game will never be repaired!"
As the workmen left for the night, everyone turned to Felix and Ralph, who were staring at the ground in deep thought.
"Calhoun?"
"Yep."
XXX
"Son of a Psybug! What did you do your game Fix-It?" Calhoun yelled with her hands in the air as she floated next to the troubled duo.
All three of them faced the main boxes in the code room, the taller masculine woman giving death glares at the old time duo.
"They used to be red and blue… why are they purple?" Felix muttered in shame.
Ralph put a hand on his back and patted it gently in assurance. The woman eyed the gesture but made no move to point it out.
"Well, Fix-It here jostled some codes that weren't meant to be jostled. You both have strings of codes that aren't your own in the program. You can't injure yourself in the game, so that's why Wreck-It can't hurt you. I don't know how to fix codes, so you guys are on your own."
"Oh please Tamora! We need to do something! Those workers don't know what they're doing!"
The soldier put a hand to her chin in deep thought before replying. "There is one thing… if you're willing to take the risk."
"Show us!" Ralph demanded, pulling Felix closer to him. Calhoun rolled her eyes and made her way out of the code room.
"Good thing I didn't tell them it would change their relationship status by default… Fix-It would faint like a soldier on his first day surrounded by his worst nightmare."
XXX
The three of them plus Vanelloppe stood in the Hero's Duty Code room, but they weren't focused on the wires and boxes. The video game characters faced a giant green antenna that blasted visible neon waves out of the room. "This thing gentlemen, is the answer to your travel problems."
"What is it?" Felix asked in awe as he moved towards the antenna.
Ralph gently held on to the handyman's arm to keep him away from the alien device. Another smirk from the warrior and a quizzical look from the kid made Felix blush.
'Golly…. What's going on with me?' He thought with a slight tremble. Ralph noticed and held him closer, thinking he was cold.
"Hero's Duty was designed to gain some updates from the internet. This thing can beam any information humans want to the game and make code changes. I figured out how to send information back at them. Just touch the pole and the signal will take your code and turn it into an internet file. Then you can move around the internet and find something to help you."
Vanelloppe started jumping around in excitement. "Can I go? Can I go? Ralph pleeeaaassse let me go with you!"
"I'm afraid you can't go. It's too dangerous." Calhoun rebuffed.
The young sugar star visibly wilted in disappointment. Ralph broke off from Felix regretfully to kneel down and give his friend a giant bear hug.
"Don't worry fart face. I'll be back and then we can go racing again."
"Come back safe… it's going to be sooooo boring without you here stink brain."
"Do I want to know?" Calhoun asked the shorter man as she leaned over on her side.
"Not really," he mumbled into his hat as he tried to hide the blush from earlier.
As they walked to the device, they looked back and saw the two girls waving goodbye. Vanelloppe was waving the hardest. "Bring me a gift if you can!"
"I will!" Ralph yelled back as he gave a final wave.
"Just remember the I.P number to get back soldier! And don't die out there!"
"Will to Calhoun," Felix saluted.
Ralph held on to the smaller man as he touched the metal with his large hand. They both flickered in a glitch-like manner before disappearing in a burst of blue and red light.
XXX
For a while, Ralph and Felix floated in place, the world different colors and pixels hovering around them from every angle. Both arcade characters held each other's gaze as they were whisked into the unknown.
'He's holding onto me so tightly… What is this warmth in my chest that keeps growing? Jimeny Jameny… is this what Pac-Man was talking about? Are my codes making me… fall in love with him? That's wrong! But… if it's the code glitch is making me feel this way, I guess I can't help it. I'll try to ignore it until my code is fixed, then I can go find my special gal.'
Ralph could almost feel the intensity of those sky blue eyes reflecting the digital glow of colors.
'He's so warm… I don't want to fix this. This is my chance to… no I shouldn't think like this. It's only a glitch… only a glitch… and yet I can't help but wish these feelings are real. I'll try to get rid of them, for Felix's sake.'
They both blinked in unison. When they both opened their eyes, they were on solid ground, surrounded by moving windows and a sea of files with a light green sky.
Okay! Hopa people are ready for this to take off into the sky. This was a big chapter to begin with. I hope to continue. I planned Firewalls, Anti-Virus systems, the FBI computer network, an OC in the human world, and Nyan Cat! That's all for nowI review if you can! I would love to hear some feedback when I come back! I'll even take Internet icon suggestions. Until next time...
Chow! : )