Strawberry Chapter 2: The Present
Roughly 15 years later...
All the cy-bugs scattered around Sugar Rush, with only a matter left of time before they completely destroyed the sugary game.
A big flash shot out into the sky.
It caught all of the cy-bugs attention, including the half-cy-bug King Candy, otherwise known as Turbo.
As if in a trance, all of the bugs wings flapped and they all started to fly up towards the glowing bug-zapper.
Turbug flew up as well, but he tried to refrain himself from looking at the mysterious gleaming light.
He glanced around at all the surrounding cy-bugs and yelled at them.
Thinking he knew better than them, he yelled, "You fools! Don't look into the-"
He stopped as soon as his eyes caught sight of the light. It was so tempting to go up to it.
He looked straight at the exploding Diet Cola light and his face changed into a look of awe.
"Light..." He murmured; the light mesmerized him, like it did with all the other cy-bugs.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!" He argued, but the cy-bug got the best of him.
"Look into the...light!" He screamed as he felt the boiling hot soda burn him to the core.
After King Candy Cy-bug was gone, there were two loud thuds, but only one was heard.
While Ralph and Vanellope screamed out of joy, they did not know what was happening in Vanellope's old home, Diet Cola Mountain.
A little while later, the Diet Cola stopped exploding once the cola finally ran out. The now topless bottle was mostly empty and destroyed. All that was left was debris everywhere.
A tiny sound was heard and a glitching figure appeared soaring through the sky.
He slowly opened his eyes and glared down at himself while he was falling.
A loud thud was heard when he hit the cold ground of the mountain.
He was weak, but he sure remembered everything that had happened. He muttered something under his breath.
"At least she's gone now."
A month later...
Inside the Great Cave Adventure, everything was silent. The only sound to be heard was the soft murmurs of bugs and the flutter of bat wings. They were in a cave after all.
In one of the many sections of the cave, a young girl laid sprawled out over a bed. She had brown curly hair and wore a tan outfit.
She rolled around on her bed and slowly blinked her eyes open.
"Mmmmmmmm..." She moaned as she tossed and turned a tiny bit more in her bed before finally sitting up.
"Six o'clock already? Well, I guess I got a busy day of work ahead of me." She muttered to herself before getting up and stretching. Once she was done, she started to get ready for the day.
She grabbed her heavy backpack, full of tools, and threw it onto her back. Then, she placed her miner's hat on her head. She was ready for the day.
There were still a couple hours since the arcade opened, so she decided to go wander around the game, searching for extra gems, like usual.
About an hour later, she was done mining, and all the other characters in the game were up and at it.
Most of them, however, just pasted on by her.
"Hey guys!" She added friendly, even though nobody seemed to care.
After no response, she just simply shrugged and walked away liked she normally did. Not usually anyone talked to her outside of game-play, anyway.
'Nothing new, really.' She thought. With nothing to do, she decided she might as well get into game position, since the arcade would open shortly.
As routine, she walked over to the entrance of the cave.
The game usually started in the woods just outside the cave. The majority of the game was played within the humongous cave setting inside the game.
Near the entrance of the game, all the other characters appeared to be discussing something.
A girl with blonde, near white, hair glared down at her painted fingernails as she added her opinion to the mix.
"She should really leave. I mean come on Oliver, we gave her a chance and all she ever does is get in the way! I barely get any screen time as it is! Besides, I think fifteen years is long enough for an outsider." She argued.
"Look Diamond," The boy named Oliver confronted. "Yes, Strawberry or 'Katie', as we call her in-game, has overstayed her welcome. True. But still, she's homeless without us. Also, fifteen years? Come on guys it is kind of unfair to do it after so long."
"But..." Some of the characters whined.
"Then again, she doesn't belong here." Someone else stated, bringing up another good point. "She should go somewhere else. We'll see what will happen with The Great Cave Adventure after she leaves."
"I guess that's so." A girl with bright red hair muttered under her breath.
"So, it's settled, then?" Oliver asked.
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Almost as if it was on cue, they noticed their unofficial member approaching them.
"Katie, come over here." Diamond yelled.
"Strawberry." Oliver corrected her in a quiet whisper.
"Oh whatever!" Diamond screamed back.
"Yeah..." Strawberry answered nervously as she walked over to the crowd.
"In a unanimous vote between Diamond, Ruby, Greg, Emerald, Georgia, Trevor, Peter, Marble, Tommy and myself, we have reached an agreement." Oliver started.
"Unanimous? But I'm a member of The Great Cave Adventure too. I didn't vote." She asked confused.
"Well, it's kind of about that..." He replied, rubbing the back of his head out of nervousness.
"Go on! Say it!" Ruby yelled to the boy who had to tell Strawberry the hard part.
Oliver took a deep breath and started to explain and break it down to her.
"Roughly fifteen years ago, we let you into our game because we decided to give you a chance. You said you wanted to join another game to try something new and meet new people, well I think by now that you have achieved your goal. I've been told by others that you have overstayed your welcome, which I totally agree upon. I think we'd let you stay in our game long enough and I think you should go find somewhere else to stay."
"What?" Strawberry asked confused; unsure she heard correctly.
"Strawberry, we are not going to call you by your in-game character name of 'Katie' anymore. You are also going to have to find another place to stay. All in all, we are thinking that..." He paused; the next part would be hard to say. "...that you should leave the game."
Strawberry felt tears well up in her eyes. She rarely cried, but how could she not at a time like this?
"Why?" She stuttered out.
"Because we think it is for the best; for you and us." Ruby answered.
Here Strawberry stood seconds ago, expecting the day to be like an average day. Now within a few sentences, her life changed.
She ran out of the section of the cave and rushed over towards her room with her bed and items. As soon as she got there, she plopped down head-first into a pillow and cried.
Back by the other characters, the group decided that it would be best to send somebody to go check on Strawberry to see if she was alright.
The chosen person wandered over to Strawberry's room.
"Hello Strawberry." The girl greeted.
Strawberry wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around since she recognized the voice.
"Hi Marble." She greeted back; even though she didn't sound very happy from all the crying just minutes before.
"The others want you come to back to the starting position. You got one more day to be a part of our game." She calmly explained.
Strawberry sat up in her bed. "Why should I work with those jerks?" She questioned.
"Well it is almost time for the arcade to open. Also, you still have all your stuff here, including your codebox. It'll take some time to fully safely disconnect your codebox so you can go back to your original settings and outfit. Besides both your bag and backpack full of stuff. I'm sure you want that too."
"I guess so..." Strawberry murmured in realization.
"So soon you can go to different game, just not yet." Marble summed up.
Strawberry rubbed her eyes once more and got out of her bed.
"I guess one more day, here I come." She added before leaving with Marble.
After a long day of collecting gems and running around, all the characters in the Great Cave Adventure were tired.
It was almost the end of the day. Strawberry bit her lip out of nervousness. She knew what was coming soon.
Just as she expected, Mr. Litwak flicked the light switch off and everything in the arcade was silent for a couple minutes until he was out of sight.
"All clear!" A character shouted out.
Strawberry gulped, she knew what was coming.
All the characters inside The Great Cave Adventure turned towards her.
"It's about time for you to be heading out." Oliver reminded her.
She just simply nodded as she went over to grab her stuff.
Emerald yelled out to her, "You should regain your original appearance within fifteen minutes or so. Your codebox has been safely disconnected from our game."
Strawberry heard what she said, but didn't even bother to turn around to face the group.
'All I wanted was friends, but apparently nobody here is my friend. If they truly were, they wouldn't have kicked me out of here. I just wish I could make one friend someday, though.'
Strawberry grabbed her stuff and turned around. She looked like she was trying to stay strong, but small tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
She wanted to take as slowly as possible to leave there, but she also knew it would make no difference. She was still going to end up having to leave her second home no matter how slowly she did it.
Cutting to the chase, she quickly walked out of her bedroom and over to the crowd of characters.
"Well, it was nice meeting all you guys and thanks for everything. Bye!" She replied with a wave.
Only two out of the huge group even had the decency to wave back to her.
"Bye!" They muttered somberly.
"Bye!" Strawberry added before exiting out of the cave.
"I wonder what it's going to be like around here without her." One of the characters responded.
Diamond, careless of Strawberry once so-ever, decided to answer. "Probably not much different. She never belonged here in the first place."
"I think I might actually miss her." Marble muttered.
Diamond gave her a look like she just said the craziest thing in the world.
"Are you crazy? That Strawberry girl did nothing around here. Nothing but waste space! She took time away from me while the game was being played. She did nothing but whine and complain about her lack of friends. She just acted so much like a-"
"Diamond." Oliver interrupted her. "No need to lie about her. She didn't even do half of the stuff you mentioned! We weren't great friends with her; true. But, we didn't treat her as badly as you did! So back off and leave the lonely girl alone!"
Diamond gave him a glare before finally deciding to leave the room.
"I'm going. I don't need that Strawberry girl to dictate my life while she's not even in this game anymore!" She angrily muttered.
The others just stood around silently for a while after the big event happened.
"Do you think we made a mistake by getting rid of Strawberry?" Emerald questioned.
Oliver shook his head. "No, I think she needed a push, she couldn't stay in this game forever. I think she understands that, even though she doesn't particularly like it. In the long-run, it's for her own good. Now Diamond, on the other hand, shouldn't have treated her the way she did at all. I don't know what the heck is wrong with her. Maybe she's jealous or something? I don't know for sure, but I'll handle her later."
"Okay." One of them responded, nodding their head.
While the characters in the Great Cave Adventure argued, Strawberry stood outside the cave, in the forest.
'Wow. It's been a long time since I've left the game. I wonder if much has changed since I left.'
She shrugged.
'I guess I'll just have to wait and see.'
Strawberry started approaching the glowing light that led to the station. Eventually, she found train made of mine carts which led to the station.
'I guess it's time to go. Maybe I'll meet some friends while I'm there.'
She hopped into the train and waited patiently for the train to start.
Within seconds, the train started moving towards the light.
"Almost there..." Strawberry muttered softly to herself as she felt the train jerk quickly towards the station.
"Now arriving at outlet ten. Welcome to Game Central Station." An intercom informed.
Strawberry patiently waited in her seat as the train slowed down to a stop.
'I guess this is it.' She thought to herself as she got out of the train cart.
While the train moved back, she moved forwards towards the crowded station.
Strawberry's eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the sight of the new station.
The station itself appeared to be upgraded not too long ago. There were a few more lights and signs added, but nothing too much. Then, there were the people; Strawberry couldn't recognize the majority of them.
All the new faces startled her and she felt like she was frozen in place.
'Is this still Game Central Station?' She thought. She was taken aback by all the new stuff there. It seemed almost as if it went through a transformation within the last fifteen years.
Soon enough, Strawberry fought over the anxiety and started to walk into the station.
Beep
She jumped, startled by the random sound.
'What the heck was that?' She wondered. She looked around to see what caused the loud noise.
Nothing appeared to have caused it.
Strawberry just simply shrugged and took another step into the station. But before she could get too far, she heard something, causing her to turn around.
"Name?" An impatient holographic blue man questioned.
'What should I tell him?' Strawberry worried. 'My real name or my name from The Great Cave Adventure?'
"Uhhh..." She stuttered
"Look miss, I don't have all day. Name?" He repeated.
"Strawberry." She decided to answer.
Most of the time the Surge Protector was careless when people answered and he just wrote down what they told him, but he glanced upwards in a suspicious manner.
"Strawberry?" He questioned, an eyebrow rising.
"Yep." She nodded.
"Okay...What game are you from, Strawberry?"
It almost seemed like he knew. But, Strawberry wasn't stupid; she knew he was on to her.
"Just now?" She wondered.
"Yes." The Surge Protector answered.
"The Great Cave Adventure." She firmly replied.
"But I don't know a character by the name of 'Strawberry' there." He argued.
"Well, technically I was from Berry Picking, but that got unplugged, so I came in here. I asked politely if I could be a part of the game and they agreed. So, I was a part of the Great Cave Adventure as a character named 'Katie'. For a while that was who I was, but now, I think I'll just be me." She quickly explained.
The Surge Protector just nodded, letting all the information sink into his brain.
"What game you're heading to, missing girl?" He questioned.
"Missing girl?" Strawberry asked, confused, "What do you mean by that?"
"You mysteriously disappeared from Berry Picking years back. No one knew where you were. Everyone just assumed you were dead or something terrible happened to you. Your game got unplugged, you know." He replied.
Strawberry's eyes widened, she didn't think that would happen. She bit her lip out of nervousness as she prepared herself to ask the next question that scared her to pieces.
"Did they all make it out? Are...they okay?" She worried.
"Thank goodness that they all did. They evacuated the game a couple minutes before the arcade opened for the day after your disappearance. Even though they all made it out safely, that girl with the blue hair really looked ticked off."
"Blueberry." Strawberry murmured under her breath.
"Well that girl wasn't happy for sure."
"I should go see her sometime..." Strawberry brainstormed aloud.
"I wouldn't." The Surge Protector advised. "That girl looked pretty furious at someone. If that girl was mad at me, I wouldn't particular go see her if I had a choice."
"Well, I guess I could wait for now. But, I do need to give her a visit when I get chance. But before I find Blueberry, I should figure out a place to at least crash for the night." She muttered to herself, speaking her thoughts aloud again.
"Well, make sure to not go turbo." The Surge Protector scolded her before disappearing to go stop somebody else.
"Go turbo?" Strawberry asked confused."What the heck does that even mean?"
Nobody answered her question.
After a few minutes, she shrugged and decided to walk deeper into the bright station.
"Whoa..." She replied once again, with star-stricken eyes. Game Central Station was just more advanced and bigger than she thought it was. It was just amazing to even think about. It was the place where different game characters could meet or even confront one another. Without GCS there would barely any friendships or even romances inside the gaming-universe. It was just mind-blowing how important this place was to all the game characters.
"Now, where to go..." She started as she wandered around the arcade, like she did many years ago.
'I remember there was a good game somewhere in the arcade. What was it called...no...no.'
Strawberry walked by many more game outlets before finally finding the game that she was thinking about.
"Sugar Rush..." She muttered as she stopped wandering to stare down the cord of the game.
'I don't remember what type of game it was, but I remember that someone said it had good graphics or something.'
She shrugged, unsure.
"I guess I'll just stay for the night and then, I'll figure out where I'll stay." She stated as she walked down the cord into the game.