Ralphs Trip to Reality

Chapter 2

I Make a Bargain with Fear Herself

That must have been the most horrifying news I've ever heard. Being convicted of kidnapping was enough, but now I had to partner up with a big dumb brute to save a little irresponsible girls life. Great. Lucky me. I took a step back: "You're not serious, are you?" I said, still in shock.

"As much as I hate it too, it's true." Ralph replied coldly.

"How wonderful. I'll go pack I guess…" I grumbled.

I sighed and flew out of Ralph and Felix's game and into mine. I started packing immediately, and then I heard a knock at the door. "Who could this joker be?!" I thought. I opened the door to find out it was my best friend: Kintessae.

"What's up Daciana?!" She said happily "Oh, by the way, I found out that you're paired up with Ralph on a search party! How cute!"

"Tell me about it." I mumbled to myself.

Kintessae was the Lady of Fear, she could control it and she was pretty good at it too. She had short black hair, and big white earrings hanging on her little demon horns, which would have looked nice if they weren't actually dangling maggots. Kintessae had two Chaos Claws on each arm, and literally a button nose and sewed-on eyes. But in a nutshell, anyone would be running for dear life if they saw her.

"Where'd you get two Chaos Claws from?" I asked. Everyone in my game got a Chaos Claw to start with; I had mine under my bed since I didn't use it very much. But having two Chaos Claws was just unheard of.

"Oh yeah. I got this one from a…friend! Yeah, a friend." Kintessae responded.

I gave her a confused look: "Cool? Anyways, I heard that there's a meeting for all the search party people, I guess I have to attend it now."

"Yeah, good luck with that. I've heard that Fiaeneste's paired up with Fix-it Felix, can you believe that?!" she said.

"That's definitely better than me and Ralph." I laughed. "I'd better get going now! See you later!" I said, rushing out my door.

'Okay! But after the meeting, I have to ask you something!"

"Sure!" I replied, flying off into Sugar Rush.

I stopped at the Von Schweetz Castle, where the meeting was held. The doughnut cops scowled at me as I walked in and looked for a seat, waiting for Sour Bill to arrive. I saw Ralph, Felix, Fiaeneste, Duronto (He's the Lord of the Flies), and a few I didn't really recognize. I clenched my teeth in frustration and plopped myself down next to Ralph. "This is stupid…" I thought to myself, looking around and avoiding eye contact with Ralph.

"Where's Sour Bill?!" I heard someone whispering to Duronto.

"I have no idea; he was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. Hehe, I hope he wasn't kidnapped like Vanellope was!" Duronto laughed.

The person laughed and then turned his attention to me: "Sour Bill…" He muttered to me. "He's always late. What a los-"He was interrupted by the green little gumdrop entering the room.

"Hello everyone. Anyways, since you are going to the Reality World with your partner, I'm going to teach you some things you might need to know about humans and stuff like that." Sour Bill said in his usual bland voice. "First rule while in the Reality World; stay away from humans. Simple enough, right? Good. Second, don't do anything that might attract attention to you. Third, stay in places humans wouldn't really go to. Fourth,"

Sour Bill kept going on and on about stupid rules of the Reality World. It got boring real fast.

"And the fifteenth rule is; remember your mission and stay on task. Everyone got it? Great, let's move on. Now, I'm going to talk about things that-"He looked down at his flash card, then continued speaking. "Well, I'm going to talk about things that might go wrong."

Everyone gasped and started to chat among each other:

"What does he mean?!"

"This is stupid; we're not going to play kamikaze just to rescue that girl!"

"Does he want us to die or something?!"

"Things that might go wrong?!"

"This isn't just stupid, this is suicide!"

Sour Bill rolled his eyes: "Settle down everyone. It's not that bad."

Some people glared at him, but let him continue.

"Okay, first, side effects. Side effect one; you might get a little mutated. Side effect two; you-"

Some people in the crowd huffed:

"Mutation!?"

"This is still stupid."

"Why did I get chosen for this?!"

"SETTLE DOWN! It's not-"He was interrupted once again by some wise crack in the crowd.

"It's not like you have to go out there! You just get to sit on your little green a-"

"SHUDDUP!" Sour Bill shouted. The whole room got really quiet and Ralph and I exchanged nervous glances.

Sour Bill cleared his throat and continued on as if nothing ever happened: "Anyways, the mutations could include irises changing colors, skin changing colors, fangs, and a bunch of small things like that. See? It's not that bad."

Everyone blinked a few times, waiting for him to go on.

"Moving on, going into the Reality World also could result in temporary memory loss, odd cravings, dreams, and stuff like that. And the whole 'memory loss-thing' would be restored once you would enter back into the Video game World. See? It's not that bad, it's quite fun actually. And nothing may not even happen at all, but it might happen. So just be aware. Okay everyone can leave now, we're done."

Everyone poured out of the meeting room like a pack of hungry dogs escaping and into Game Central Station. Kintessae was waiting for me outside my game; I had almost forgotten about her: "So, what'd you want to talk to me about?" I asked her.

She smiled: "Do you realize how different this place is without Vanellope?"

I tilted my head quizzically, as if to say; what do you mean?

"Okay imagine this arcade without Ralph or Felix too. Do you think it'd be bad or good?"

I looked down and thought; I imagined a world without Vanellope, Ralph or Felix. First of all, the game Fix-it Felix Junior would be unplugged. Then all the Nice Landers would be homeless and probably live in Game Central Station for a while, until another game would find some way to put them into their game. It was odd to think about Gene sitting in Game Central Station, curled up in a ball or something. Then Sugar Rush would just be a total wreck, like how it was when King Candy was trying to take over. All those Sugar Rush racers would be paranoid and such, trying to find a new ruler, kind of like how they are right now. Rancis would be spiraling into depression or something… As if he already isn't. So he wouldn't be able to rule Sugar Rush, and probably Taffyta or Swizzle would take over, maybe Sour Bill. And another tyrant would probably try to take over the arcade. That wasn't a very pleasing thought at the time. I looked back up at her: "Why would you be talking about something like that? That's insane!"

"Oh no, actually, it's very real. More real and a lot more close than you'd think. It might just happen. Or, let me rephrase that; it will happen." Kintessae said, with a maniacal grin. "Okay, let's get down to business; you help me, and you can rule with me, and my master. Whose name I shall not say, but anyways…" Her voice trailed off, like she was spacing out or something, then her facial expression was totally blank.

I narrowed my eyes at her: "Dude, what are you talking about? And stop doing…whatever it is that you're doing, it's creeping me out." I said. Then I snapped my fingers in front of her nose. She jumped as if I had scared her or something: "Oh! Yeah, anyway, if you help me, you can rule this entire arcade with me. And not to mention, preserving your…secrets." She chuckled demonically at that last part.

I bit my lip in frustration and smoke seeped out of my nose, the way it usually does when I get mad. But I didn't say anything.

Kintessae smiled: "Good, we understand each other now, don't we? All you have to do to help me is; get rid of Ralph."