"Ooh, 16-bit!" Lionel remarked. "We're all pixelated!"
"Yep," Cherry replied. "Now the kids gotta pick an adventure for us."
"It's like those old school Living Books from the Arthur series on PBS Kids." Atticus added.
"I found a few of those at a yard sale last month, so I understand what you mean," Lionel replied before turning to the screen. "Well? Go ahead and pick one! We're waaaaaiting~!" he remarked to the player, imitating Jaleel White as Sonic.
The kids who came to the game soon came to play.
"Look, they added some new characters." One kid told his friends.
The kids soon began to play the adventure game to have some real fun. However, as everyone began to have their own fun, something had changed in Sugar Rush Speedway which would be surprising to everyone, and not just Vanellope.
"Alright! Nice choice, kid," Lionel remarked. "Now fasten your seat-belt. It's gonna get hectic!"
"What's going on with Sugar Rush?" Cherry muttered to herself, looking over to the next screen.
It appeared that a girl had accidentally ripped out the steering wheel for Sugar Rush Speedway and went to see Mr. Litwak. Cherry looked around and began to sneak off to Sugar Rush Speedway to see what was going on as it looked like Vanellope was in trouble. Lionel and Atticus followed while the kids enjoyed playing, using Mo as their character. Mo laughed as she had a lot of fun.
"Vanny?" Cherry called.
Vanellope soon went to stand with Taffyta, Rancis, and Candle Head for the intro screen.
"What did you guys do?" Taffyta glared, crossing her arms at them.
"Whoa, hey, I thought you were a nice girl now." Atticus said to her based on her tone of voice.
"Yeah!" Lionel replied. "We haven't done a thing! Yet."
"Leave Ralph alone," Vanellope glared to her rival. "He's just trying to make the game more exciting."
"Yeah, why don't you relax, Taffyta?" Ralph added. "Litwak will fix it!"
Mr. Litwak soon tried to put the wheel back on, only to break it in half by accident.
"Okay. It's still not a problem," Ralph then said. "He'll just order a new part."
"Maybe I could make one myself!" Lionel suggested. "Soon as I install those new racetracks I planned..."
"You can't just make a new game piece in the real world, dummy." Taffyta rolled her eyes.
"Well, I ordered the new part but the company that made Sugar Rush went out of business years ago-" Mr. Litwak told the kids.
"I could try to find them on the internet." A boy offered, showing his phone.
"Oh, good idea!" A girl added.
"Yeah, me too!" Another girl added.
The kids soon went right to their phones to look up a solution.
"Good luck," Mr. Litwak smiled to them. "You're only gonna be finding a needle in a-"
"I got one! On eBay!" One of the girls beamed.
"I meant, I could use my powers to materialize the piece in the real world," Lionel explained, before creating a small machine he clutched in his hands. "Like so!"
Tafftya gave him a look.
"You're welcome... Taffy Cakes." Cherry smirked, using the nickname she, Atticus, and Mo learned when they visited Candy Land.
Lionel snickered at that. "Now to put in some brand-spankin'-new tracks!" he remarked.
"I helped with that." Ralph said sheepishly.
"You did a great job, Ralph," Vanellope told him. "I loved Rocky Road."
"Sure, that was good..." Lionel replied, before snapping his fingers, making the game glow briefly. "But there's always room for improvement!"
"See? That kid's got it." Ralph said.
"Well, that adventure was short," Cherry smirked. "Looks like we're good to go, Taffy Cakes."
"Stop calling me that!" Taffyta complained.
"Now I just gotta make a replacement wheel!" Lionel replied.
"Are you kidding me? How much?" Mr. Litwak frowned as he checked the price for a replacement wheel for Sugar Rush Speedway. "That's more than this game makes in a year! I hate to say it but my salvage guys are coming on Friday. It might be time to sell Sugar Rush for parts."
Taffyta looked horrified and soon shook Lionel. "DO SOMETHING!"
"First...enough with the shaking!" Lionel replied. "I just gotta make a new wheel. Too bad if I do, Litwak might have a heart attack if he found out about my abilities."
"So... You're not gonna help us now?!" Taffyta glared.
"Taffyta... Calm down..." Rancis said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Get off of me, you Reese's brat!" Taffyta glared at him.
"Hey, leave him alone!" Vanellope glared from that.
"Look, guys," Lionel replied. "I never said I wasn't gonna help. We just need to find some other way to help."
"Yeah, chill out," Atticus told the Sugar Rush Racers. "We'll find a way out of this."
Mr. Litwak was soon shown walking away.
"Where's he going? He's-" Ralph asked before panicking. "Litwak's gonna unplug the game!"
"Okay... We'll start to find a way out BY LEAVING THE GAME!" Atticus then said out of panic.
"Everybody out-out-OUT!" Lionel boomed, turning into a helicopter with blaring sirens. "This is NOT a drill! Let's go-Go-GO!"
Everyone soon went to run out of Sugar Rush Speedway, otherwise they would cease to exist if they were in the game while it was being unplugged.
The Surge Protector whistled to himself in Game Central Station until he noticed something out of the ordinary and was ambushed by the people of Sugar Rush Speedway. The panicked crowd screamed as they ran for their lives into the halls of Game Central Station.
"What are you people doing out your game, for Pete's sake?" The Surge Protector glared at them. "The arcade is open!"
"Sugar Rush is getting unplugged!" Ralph told him as he rushed with the ones he saved.
Sugar Rush was soon unplugged, panicking the characters instantly.
"We're homeless!" The donut cops cried out, hugging each other.
"What're we gonna do?!" Candle Head panicked.
"Waaaaahh!" Taffyta cried like a baby.
Lionel morphed back to his normal form. "Racers, spectators, incidentals! CALM DOWN ALREADY, WOULDJA?! ALL YOUR PANICKING ISN'T GONNA DO JACK-DIDDLY-SQUAT ABOUT YOUR CURRENT PROBLEM!"
The others soon tried to calm down and Taffyta kept crying until she saw everyone else looking at her and she soon cleared her throat to calm herself down.
"Thank you, I needed that." The Surge Protector said to Lionel.
"Yeah, sure, no problem," replied Lionel. "Anyways...all hope is not yet lost. Especially not this early!"
"Unplugging... Good Lord, I haven't seen this many game-less characters since Space Invaders went down." Surge said as he made a note in his clipboard.
"Where are we gonna live?" Vanellope asked him.
"You can stay here until the arcade closes, I guess, and then we'll figure out where the heck we're gonna put you all." Surge replied.
Vanellope looked a bit sad from that and glitched up slightly.
"Maybe we could make a temporary home for them?" Lionel suggested. "Too bad all those cool new tracks I put into the game are gonna go to waste..."
"Well, if you think you could do that, I guess it would be alright." Surge said to him.
"Alright then," Lionel replied. "Time to get buildin'!"
"Uh, Lionel, if it's okay with you, I think I'm gonna hang around Ralph for a bit." Vanellope said since she and Ralph were so close.
"Well... Okay then." Lionel replied.
The people of Sugar Rush looked panicked as they were stuck on what to do next.
"Vanellope?" Rancis asked.
"I'm going with Ralph." Vanellope told him.
"Well, he WAS the first person to actually befriend her..." Lionel replied.
"Yes... I suppose that's fine..." Rancis said, rubbing his arm bashfully.
Vanellope soon went to go with Ralph to Fix-it-Felix Jr while everyone else waited in Game Central Station.
"It's gonna be okay, Minty," Swizzle told his girlfriend. "I promise you, we won't be homeless forever. I just know it."
"Oh, I hope so, Swizz." Minty cooed to him.
"So what're we gonna do?" Atticus wondered.
"I guess go back to work until the arcade closes since we have our own video game now in this world." Cherry shrugged.
"Well...okay." Lionel shrugged as they headed back to their game.
And so, began a busy day of work for everyone else. Rancis watched Swizzle and Minty and he wished he could be that way with Vanellope; so brave and outgoing, even when times were tough.
Eventually, a long day of gaming came to an end, and Vanellope sat on top of the building were the Nicelanders of Ralph and Felix's game lived inside of.
"Alright...we're back," Lionel sighed, wiping his brow. "And I'm ready to get started."
"That's so nice of you to help out Sugar Rush, Lionel," Mo said. "I'm sad to hear about what happened until you guys came back."
"Yeah, bummer about the game," Lionel replied. "I figure I can get the half-pints settled into their new homes soon after I finish makin' them."
Mo smiled to that.
"I hope the Racers aren't too upset... I mean... They are kids..." Cherry said. "We met their parents in Candy Land, but... We were told we would meet Vanellope's parents later on."
"Intriguing..." Lionel replied as he snapped his fingers, creating four very large houses in a nearby field.
"Nice." Atticus commented.
"Thanks. Figured I should go all-out for this one." Lionel replied.
"Hey, you guys see Vanellope?" Ralph asked.
"She's on the roof." Cherry told him.
"Thanks." Ralph smiled as he climbed up the building to see Vanellope.
"No prob." Lionel replied.
"Poor Vanny..." Cherry sighed. "It's gonna probably take her some time to adjust."
"It always does for most people," Lionel replied. "Now...we'll need a plan about how to get the wheel without Litwak knowing of my powers."
"Hmm... That's a toughie." Atticus said.
They all soon pondered on this on what to do now since they had Lionel in their adventure team.
"Wait..." Lionel spoke up. "Mr. Litwak said something about finding that wheel online...so maybe we could find it ourselves!"
"What're you saying, we go into the internet?" Cherry replied.
"Hm...YEAH!" Lionel nodded.
Cherry and Atticus looked to each other.
"Uh..." Mo blinked.
"Well, all right," Cherry said. "I guess it might help if we went to the internet. I mean, I've pretty much been online since 1998."
"Alrighty then," Lionel replied. "Let's go for it!"
They soon went to get going to do just that, though Vanellope and Ralph seemed to have the same idea.
"Surge! Are we glad to see you!" Ralph said to the protector of Game Central Station. "We want to report some malfeasance over by the Whack-a-Mole."
"Yeah, we saw some undesirables causing a real donnybrook over there!" Vanellope added.
"Oh, heck no, not on my watch!" Surge glared as he ran off to get to work.
"And that takes care of him," Lionel remarked before cutting the rope. "Ladies first~"
"You're too kind." Vanellope curtsied with a smirk before running off.
Cherry and Mo soon went next with Atticus, Lionel, and Ralph following behind.
"Kinda reminds me of my old life." Mo commented.
"What was that like?" asked Lionel. "Despite hanging out with you as part of our merry band, I don't know much about you."
"Ah, I had to be careful," Mo said. "Had to take some food, sometimes Angel or the other dogs would distract the bakery owner so I could take some bread... Same with other stores... Sleeping in a junkyard, though I kinda liked sleeping under the stars every night... The only problem I had was probably Buster threatening to bite me."
"Oh..." Lionel replied.
"Basically, I was kind of a female Aladdin like in Scooby-Doo's Arabian Nights." Mo smiled bashfully.
"Cool." Lionel nodded.
"So, all we gotta do is find this eBoy place." Ralph began as they started their new journey.
"eBay." Vanellope corrected.
"Right, eBay," Ralph replied. "So we go over there, get the steering wheel, have it delivered to Litwak before Friday, he'll fix your game, everything goes back to the way it was! Happily ever after!"
"And you get to see the new tracks!" Lionel replied. "Not to mention the new racers I made up for 'em!"
"Sounds sweet." Atticus smiled.
"Yeah, it sure does," Vanellope replied. "I look forward to it."
"Good then..." Patch remarked. "Now in we go!"
"This is a shockingly sound, well thought-out idea for you, Ralph, no offense." Vanellope smirked.
"I know, and none taken." Ralph replied.
They soon rode up together out of Game Central Station.
"Here it comes!" Vanellope beamed. "Ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, I give you the internet!"
However, once they got there, it wasn't at all how they imagined or how Sonic had described to them.
"Kind of a letdown, isn't it?" Mo asked.
"The internet is not nearly as impressive as how Sonic described it." Ralph remarked.
"I gotta admit, I'm underwhelmed," Vanellope added. "Where do you think they keep their eBay?"
"I think this is just the router for the WiFi." Cherry guessed.
"So we need to find where the router leads into the Internet!" added Lionel.
"Cherry?" Mo said. "You know the internet better than any of us. You have any ideas?"
"Hmm... Let me see..." Cherry paused to think, taking out a spy gadget. "I think I need a moment... Especially in a place like this..."
"What's that?" Atticus asked.
"The Cone of Silence." Cherry smirked before pushing a button to give herself some privacy.
"Interesting..." Lionel noted.
Everyone soon wondered what to do, then looked over as Ralph and Vanellope were soon having fun with the echo.
Cherry soon came back out. "Okay, call it a gut feeling, but I don't think the internet is connected just yet." she then told them.
"Maybe we need to turn something on to get it connected?" suggested Mo.
Suddenly, the whole room glowed green.
"I think that did it." Cherry soon said.
A bright light soon nearly hit them, but made Ralph and Vanellope fall off as a block-headed figure appeared.
"Augh! It's a gremlin!" Ralph yelped. "Stay away, it's a gremlin!"
"Dude, calm down," Lionel replied. "Hey, buddy. Who are ya?"
"It looks like a tiny Mr. Litwak!" Vanellope smiled.
The block-headed figure looked at them and soon suddenly dashed off to leave in a pod.
"Cool!" Vanellope beamed, glitching from the excitement and soon followed after their new friend. "Come on, guys, let's follow him!"
And so they followed the small Mr. Litwak look-alike.
"Kinda reminds me of my Nintendo 3DS game, Tomodachi Life with the Litwak look-alike." Cherry commented.
Lionel nodded in response. Ralph soon went to follow after them, though he was squeezed a bit in his pod due to his large size.