Welcome back everyone! I'm gonna start getting into some of the meat of this fic in this chapter. It's time to see who our mysterious characters are. Also, if anyone can tell me what room the four boys were in in the last chapter, you'll get a shout out next chapter.
Special thanks to KHandTwilightFan15 and sonicxjones for following and favoriting this.
Another day of kids swarming Fix-It Felix Jr. meant another tiring day for Ralph and Felix. After the last game of the day and the all clear signal, the two headed out to meet with Vanellope and Tamora for another chance at exploring Kingdom Hearts.
"Hello ladies." Felix said with his trademark smile. "Hello to you too Kohut." Tamora's second in command nodded in greeting, still geared up from the last game played.
"Kohut's gonna be joining us tonight in case we run into some trouble." Tamora said as they headed for DDR Extreme's entrance. Game Central Station was pretty crowded around this time as the other characters were heading over to Tapper's for a drink or to Pac-Man for the week's Bad-Anon meeting. Ralph had told Clyde he wasn't going this week and the orange ghost knew not to expect him for a while what with everyone in the arcade still buzzing about Kingdom Hearts.
Vanellope was riding on Ralph's shoulder, her claimed perch, as they walked so she wouldn't get lost anywhere. As they continued to weave through the crowds, someone, a kid with slightly spiky brown hair, bumped into Ralph and went crashing to the ground. Before he could even offer to help them up, four boys came running that way, one of them with bright lime green hair who grabbed their arm before high tailing it towards the other end of Game Central Station. Ralph, although slightly confused, shrugged and turned only to run right into the Surge Protector.
"Ow! What is it with people not watching where they're going tonight?" He asked Vanellope as he too took off in the direction the small gang was running.
"Dunno. Maybe they're just in a hurry to get somewhere." The tiny girl said with a shrug. The two shrugged it off for now and hopped on the train with the others. Still, Ralph couldn't get that kid out of his mind. Something about them, and the gang of boys they were with, didn't sit right with his code. In any case, there was minimal chance of him seeing the group again that night so he pushed the ordeal to the back of his head.
After heading out DDR Extreme's second exit and into Kingdom Hearts, the gang found themselves in a new world. Literally. Today's world was something akin to an ancient coliseum and looked straight out of a Greek themed video game.
"Wow, impressive place." Felix said as they looked around.
"Yeah, I wonder who's supposed to be here." Ralph said.
"Hey guys! Come look at this!" Vanellope shouted as she looked at what looked like a leaderboard. "Look! They look like scores or something!"
"I think those are tournament ranks." Kohut said.
"Yep. That kid at the top's one of my prized students." The others all turned to see a short satyr smiling fondly at the board. "Youse guys ain't from around here are ya?"
"No we came from Litwak's arcade, sir." Felix said.
"Please, call me Phil." He said with a wave of his hand. "So what brings youse guys from your arcade?"
"We're looking for this game's protagonist." Tamora said. "Your game's become a hot topic back home."
"You're kidding? Heh, well you're all in luck." He said. "Sora's gonna be here in a little while for the next tournament. Kid's a natural." They followed Phil inside the coliseum and looked around.
"Wow, this Sora kid must be pretty sharp if he's been winning this many tournaments." Ralph said as he looked over all the trophies lined up inside.
"Honestly, he's a bit clumsy. But that's what you get when your game's main character is only fifteen." He said. "But he's got good friends as back-up."
"So what other characters are in this game?" Kohut asked.
"That depends, do you want the list for all the spin-offs or just this game?" Phil answered.
"There's more than one game?" Vanellope asked.
"Yeah, so far there's eight games." He said. "But if you wanna be specific, there's tons of us in this game alone. It'd take more time just explaining who all's here. But I'll be nice and give ya the basics. There's Sora and Donald Duck and Goofy, his royal highness King Mickey and his queen Minnie, Daisy Duck, Donald's three nephews Huey, Dewy and Louie, Sora's friends Riku and Kairi, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Sephiroth-"
"You mean the Sephiroth?" Felix asked.
"Yeah, you know him?"
"He's a personal friend of ours." Tamora said.
"Wait, you guys wouldn't be the Core Four by any chance would ya?" He asked. "Seph's always talking about you guys. He said you guys saved an entire arcade a few months ago."
"Yeah, that's us." Vanellope said.
"Well! Ain't this a surprise!" He said with a laugh. "I shoulda known it was youse guys though, I don't know many other guys this big." He thumbed over at Ralph with a smirk. "Other than the Heartless that is."
"What's the story with those things anyway shortstuff?" Tamora asked.
"That's a hard one. And one I can't really explain. They just showed up here one day and then Sora came along and helped take em out." He said. "All Sora tells me is that they want hearts and that they're programmed into the game to be mindless attacking machines."
"Sounds like the Cy-bugs." Felix said. "I'd hate to think what would happen if one of those things ate a Heartless." The group all collectively shuddered at the thought especially if another Sugar Rush incident occurred. Not only would the arcade be at stake but the whole gaming world as well. After chatting with Phil for a bit longer, voices were heard outside the coliseum.
"Right on time." He said with a smirk. The others followed him outside to see a two human characters and two animal-like characters. "Welcome back Hero and Junior Heroes."
"What's up Phil? Is the tournament ready to start?" The shorter of the two humans asked.
"Yeah kid, but first I want you guys and Herc to meet the Core Four, you know the ones Sephiroth was telling us about?" Phil said. As they walked over, Ralph noticed that the younger of the two humans looked familiar.
"Hey wait, you're that kid I ran into back at Game Central station." He said.
"Huh? Me?" He asked with a confused look.
"Whaddaya crazy?" The small duck asked with his squeaky, barely understandable voice. "We've never seen you before in our lives."
"What Donald means," The taller dog started. "Is that Sora's never been outside the game before."
"You must be the game's protagonist then." Felix said.
"Yep. I'm Sora and this is Donald and Goofy." He said with a toothy grin.
"But you look just like the kid I ran into. There was a whole pack of them." Ralph said. The boy, Sora, sighed.
"Well it wasn't exactly me y'see." He said. "It had to be one of the 'others' you ran into."
"Others? What others?" Vanellope asked.
"He means the GES." Hercules said.
"GES?" Felix asked.
"Yeah, GES. You'll have to ask someone else about 'em though. I don't know a lot." Sora said. "Besides, they don't have any Keyblades so they can't do any harm outside the game." He and the others headed inside where he and his companions along with Hercules signed up for the tournament.
"Y'know Ralph, you should sign up for the tourney as well." Phil said.
"I would but we don't regenerate if we die in here." He said.
"Ah, don't worry. Nobody dies in this tournament. All the Heartless used are programmed to just KO you. Not kill you." He said. "Sorta like faintin' a Pokémon. Doesn't kill em, just knocks em out." Ralph thought it over for a second. He swore off being a good guy but there was no harm in a little practice battling.
"You should do it Stinkbrain." Vanellope said, a big grin on her face as she spied the trophy for the tournament.
"I think Vanellope's right." Felix encouraged. "It's not often you get to wreck something outside the game."
"Alright. Callhoun, you and Kohut gonna sign up too?" He asked.
"Does a Cy-bug tick me off?" She asked back with a smirk. "I say we show these newbies how it's done." After all the contestants were signed up, with a few of the other game's characters showing up a bit late, the tournament was underway. Felix and Vanellope watched from the stands with Kairi, Xion, Namine and some characters from other games like Max Payne and Ratchet and Clank who were sitting out this tournament. Sora, Donald and Goofy were taking out the competition flawlessly as were Kohut and Callhoun who were battling Tifa and Yuffie. Where Yuffie had the advantage over Kohut with her smaller lithe frame and quick attacks, Tifa and Callhoun were evenly matched. The female soldier had abandoned her trademark gun in favor of fighting hand to hand with the brunette. In the end she and Kohut won the match and she and Tifa became friendly rivals.
After a few more Heartless matches, Sora and his crew were pitted against none other than Ralph. While resting from his matches with the Heartless and the ever fast Cloud, Ralph had gotten a glimpse of Sora's battling style. And he had a plan that would ensure the match would be his.
"Go Stinkbrain!" Vanellope cheered from the stands. "Show em who's boss!" The battle started and Ralph dodged Donald's magic attacks and Sora's frontal attacks. He took out Goofy first and while Donald was set to heal his teammate's wounds, he took him out with a quick jab of his huge fist. Sora was in awe of Ralph's brute physical strength and took up a stance, bracing himself for the battle to come. Ralph charged at Sora who slid out of the way and bashed him in the arm with his Keyblade. Ralph quickly turned and chased the teen around the ring, smashing up the ground as he went, using Sora's own speed against him. Once the ground had been thoroughly smashed and cracked with pieces of the arena floor standing up at awkward angles, Ralph went in for the final blow to knock Sora out.
Unknown to the larger male, Sora had a trick up his sleeve. He jumped high enough that Ralph just missed him with a huge fist and clocked him in the head hard enough to send the giant crashing to the ground and dead asleep. The coliseum roared with cheers as Phil declared Sora the winner and Felix and Vanellope woke Ralph up.
"Did I win?" He slurred a bit. Felix chuckled.
"Sorry Ralph, better luck next time." He said. After congratulating Sora for a good win, they headed back to the arcade, promising to see him again tomorrow night. As they rode the train back to Game Central Station, Ralph got to thinking about the kid he had run into earlier that evening. If it hadn't have been Sora, the who was it? And why did everyone he ask denied knowing about the GES? He decided to ask tomorrow and get a straight answer one way or another.
"Did they find anything out?"
"Nope, I made sure he or anyone else didn't say a word."
"Good. Now all we have to do is get those brats back here before someone else runs into them."
"Don't worry, none of them have their Keyblades. They're utterly defenseless outside the game which in all honesty works for us."
"Perfect. Make sure they don't come back alive."
Mwahaha! I'm totally evil for a cliffhanger but I felt like this chapter started to drag a little. I hope the coliseum battle made sense since Donald and Goofy's Second Chance ability takes a while to kick in after all. I would know. *curses the amount of times I lost because of that*
By the way, I don't think I clarified this last time, but this takes place during KH2. Hence why Xion and Namine are here. There are also a few other characters from different games that'll pop in and out. In my personal head canon, I think Callhoun and Tifa would make excellent rivals which is why they ended up fighting each other. And yes, the other characters can participate in the different cups because there is no way to really die in them since it doesn't take you to the Load/Continue screen. So basically it's only harmful to the Heartless.
I also realized this chapter was supposed to be named Sugar Rushing. That's a mistake. I was intending to have it take place in Sugar Rush instead.
Anyways, Read and Review. Next time, Sugar Rushing for Real.