Teddy tossed and turned in his sleep.
"No…Nooo!" he mumbled, yet another nightmare destroying his good night's rest.
"That rotten, good-for-nothing idiot!" He muttered, pacing back and forth. "Thinks he can keep me down…ha ha…I'll show him. He'll see! No one messes with me and gets away with it!" Behind him, two identical looking racers in matching blue jumpsuits looked on nervously.
"You okay, Turbo?" One of them asked. "You seem a little frazzled. Even more so than usual."
"Why on earth would I be okay, Jet?" Turbo snapped. "That pathetic fool kept me down for years! Now, I'm finally on top where I belong, and he thinks he can come in with his fancy graphics and advanced gameplay and ruin everything!"
"Turbo, chill out!" The other twin exclaimed. "The only reason RoadBlasters is doing so well is because it's new and exciting! As soon as the initial thrill wears off, the gamers will come right back to us!"
"You're wrong, Set! You don't know Jack like I do! He is ruthless, obsessive, and will stop at nothing to get his way!"
"So he's just like you?" Jet asked.
"In a way. Yes. But that's not the point!" Turbo growled. "Were you not paying attention when RoadBlasters was plugged in? The kids left us in the middle of gameplay for Jack!"
"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Set asked. "We can't control what the gamers think of us!" Turbo turned to see Stanley Litwak's car pull into the parking lot of the arcade, which meant one thing; it was about to open for the day. Already, kids were lining up at the door.
"Maybe we can't do that…But we can remind them what's really important!" He jumped into his kart and sped off through the power cord, heading towards Game Central Station.
"Turbo, what are you doing? The arcade's opening!"
"Exactly!" He shouted, driving out of sight. He sped out the exit, and into the normally crowded station that was now almost vacant, save for the students in Litwak High who had yet to get their own game, Surge Protector, and a few homeless characters whose games had been unplugged. He slammed on the gas and swerved into the outlet marked "RoadBlasters." As he reached the game, two kids had already inserted their quarters into the popular machine. He recognized them instantly. They used to play his game frequently. Now, it was time to remind them what they were missing! He zoomed through the screen, deciding the shout his signature catchphrase for good measure.
"Turbo-Tastic!" Jack, who, being the best racer in class, had become the protagonist of the new game, stared at his rival in shock. He knew that Turbo was as much (if not more) of an attention hog as he was, but game jumping during arcade hours? That was
completely unheard of and insane! The player was clearly as surprised as Jack was, and crashed him into a tree.
"Hey! Is that…" One kid said. Turbo zoomed across the screen once again, getting closer up so the players could see him better. Then they would forget about the other game.
"Turbo-Tastic!"
"That looks like Turbo!"
"Turbo-Tastic!"
"What's Turbo doing in this game?" The other kid asked. Turbo drove towards the other side of the screen; this time right near Jack's car. Once again, he shouted his catchphrase, forgetting two things. 1. That he needed to keep his eyes on the road, and 2. He was getting dangerously close to something alien enough to his code to make him start glitching.
"Turbo-TastiíïĩįİıɨɬͥίїᴵᵎᶖḭỉịỊἷΐῗ¡" He zoomed right into Jack, and he, along with the rest of the game erupted in a wave of binary and pixels. Turbo had glitched before; many times actually, but never this much, never during arcade hours it had certainly never affected an entire game before.
"Aww, come on!" One of the gamers exclaimed.
"Mr. Litwak!" The other called. The owner of the arcade rushed over, and didn't even need to look twice before slapping an "Out of Order" sign on the malfunctioning game. Jack and Turbo sped towards the exit, and just barely made it out as the plug was pulled. Turbo's eyes widened in shock as he saw the sign that said "Turbo Time" flicker off, as well.
"NO!"
"Wait to go, glitch. Now you got us both unplugged." Jack scoffed angrily, shoving his enemy. Turbo looked around and gulped as he saw the few inhabitants of Game Central Station glaring at him. But the only dirty look that he really noticed was the one that was being given to him by none other than Felicity. It was at this point that he realized just how bad what he did really was. And now, there was no going back.
Teddy's eyes shot open, and he screamed in terror. He had been plagued by nightmares ever since he was found inside Diet Cola Mountain, and the worst part was that he wasn't able to be comforted by the thought that they were all just dreams, because they were much more than that. They were memories. Memories of all of the horrible things that he had done as Turbo, and to a slightly lesser extent, King Candy. The door cracked open, and a familiar voice was heard.
"Teddy, you okay? I heard you screaming."
"Yeah, I'm fine, Vanellope. I just had a bad dream, that's all. Did I wake you?"
"No, I couldn't sleep anyway. Was it about Turbo again?"
"Yeah. You know, you really don't have to talk about Turbo as if he's a different person."
"Well, he is to me!" Vanellope said cheerfully. "He was basically just Jack's personality in your body. Only more extreme and mentally unstable."
"Thanks, that's so helpful." Teddy replied sarcastically.
"Hey, don't be like that! You're you now! Everything's alright! We're gonna get you feeling better, find Felicity, and everything will be just fine!"
"Vanny, can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What is it ya wanna know?"
"Why are you so sure we'll find Felicity? Felix has been looking for her for fifteen years, and he hasn't found a trace of her!"
"Well, yeah, but now that there's more of us, it'll be that much easier to find her! Especially now that you're back! Apparently, when you became Turbo, Felicity was absolutely heartbroken! Now that you're Teddy again, she might come back for you!"
"We'll just have to wait and see, kid." Teddy said unenthusiastically.
"Trust me, Teddy. Everything will be alright."