CHAPTER 3

A Regretful Wish

Ralph and the girl he saved sat in Q*Bert's living room, drying off. Q*Bert brought them towel's and made sure the heat was on. Ralph was nursing a headache and noticed his lip was bleeding. He wiped of the blood from his mouth with a towel before speaking to the girl he saved. "What's your name, kid?" Ralph asked the fairly young looking girl.

"I'm Clarice," she replied.

"So, what happened back there?" Ralph asked Clarice. "How did you just fall into the lake like that?"

"I didn't fall," she replied. "I jumped in."

"Jumped in?!" Ralph said in disbelief. "What were you tryin' to do, get yourself killed?"

"No, but you were," said Clarice. "I jumped in to save you from doing yourself in."

"! #$%!" Q*Bert told her.

"I know that," she replied. "But he wouldn't regenerate in Sugar Rush, where he could easily drown himself in one of those taffy pits."

"I was gonna do what?!" Ralph shouted. "And wait…you can understand him?" Ralph asked.

"Oh sure!" Clarice replied. "I used to have a Q*Bert I was good friends with back in the arcade I used to live in. " The room suddenly grew silent.

"Uh, say, kid, what game are you from? " Ralph asked, deathly curious about where exactly this girl was from."

"Oh, who remembers? I was just some NPC in the background of a fantasy game. Wasn't all that popular if I remember correctly, that's why it was unplugged. I was still inside it too."

Ralph and Q*Bert exchanged half-confused, half-terrified looks. Without saying anything, Q*Bert hurried over to the front door and left. Ralph turned back to Clarice who was ringing out her long dress. "So then why are you here?" Ralph asked cautiously.

"Well, I was sent here!" Clarice responded. "Angels can't get their wings until they prove themselves. One of the ways to do that is to save some poor soul! And that's you, Ralph!" Clarice had a doofy smile on her face as she stared at the incredibly baffled Wreck-It Ralph. Clarice clearly saw he wasn't entirely comfortable with this concept. So Clarice tried to explain it a bit better, "Look Ralph, I know that you've had a dreadful Christmas Eve and you're feeling worthless, right?"

Ralph sighed and looked down at the floor, "I'll say… I guess being where you're from you saw it all. Right now I just feel like I just messed everything up for everyone."

"And you think killing yourself would make everyone happier?" Clarice said, lifting an eyebrow.

Ralph sort of half-chuckled, "Well, when you put it like that… I guess everyone would be better off if I were never programmed in this game at all."

Clarice then got an idea. "Never programmed in at all, huh?" she repeated. "Yes, that would work… Come with me!" Clarice pulled on Ralph's massive hand.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming!" Ralph got up and Clarice leaded him out into the middle the very empty Game Central Station. Ralph carefully watched Clarice as she scanned their surroundings.

"This looks just like the power grid my game was plugged into!" she stated. "This shouldn't be too hard."

"Look, angel, I don't know, what you're trying to do but–" Ralph was then interrupted.

"It's done," Clarice told him.

"…What's done?" asked Ralph.

"It's done. You were never programmed in," Clarice informed him. Ralph cocked at eyebrow. "Never coded. Never written in. You were never even drawn on paper first!"

"…You're insane," Ralph said.

"No, I'm not," Clarice said. "I want you to notice something. Are you clothes still wet?" Ralph ran his hands across his chess and arms. He was completely dry, even though just a minute ago we was still sopping wet. "Yup…your mouth stopped bleeding too." Ralph felt his lip, which felt like it was never hurt at all.

Ralph gave her a long, disconcerted look. "Okay, look, I think there must be something wrong with your code, because you are talkin' crazy right now, honey! Now you go back to your game and I'll go back to mine!"

"What game?" Clarice asked Ralph as he stomped off.

"What do you mean, 'what game?' That ga–" Ralph looked over at the empty and closed off outlet where the Fix-It Felix, Jr. game was supposed to be. "What? Where'd it go?! This is where Fix-It Felix, Jr. is! Where is it!?" He turned to Clarice, who was standing in the same spot with her hands behind her back. "Did you do something?"

"I told you what I did," Clarice bluntly responded.

"Yeah, okay, I was never coded or programmed or whatever. Sure. But then where's Felix's game?!"

"It was never made either."

"What?! Why? I was just the bad guy who wrecked the building. Why should me not existing make the whole game not exist?!"

Clarice strolled over to Ralph and looked up at the unused outlet too. "Tobikomi wanted to make sequel to Fix-It Felix, but they couldn't think up a good antagonist. Without a decent bad guy to wreck what Felix needs to fix, there can be no game. They couldn't think up a good villain, the project couldn't move forward, the idea was scrapped."

"So, Fix-It Felix, Jr. was never even made?" Ralph asked, beginning to quiver. Clarice shook her head. Ralph looked around and ran up Game Central Station looking over all the other games, which were still all in their proper place. When he came to the very end he saw the most heartbreaking sight. Q*Bert and the other characters from his game cuddled in a corner with a sign in front of them reading, 'Game Unplugged! Please Help!' Ralph's jaw dropped. He quickly ran up to Q*Bert and his friends. "Q*Bert! It's me!" Ralph said. The characters looked up. Q*Bert turned around and tried to see if he knew the strange gorilla-man talking to them.

"…?^&%$" said Q*Bert.

"He asked what game you were from," Clarice said, suddenly appearing beside Ralph. Ralph turned back to Q*Bert.

"I'm Wreck-It Ralph! Remember? From Fix-It Felix, Jr.! Where is it? It's gotta be hear somewhere! Come on, don't you remember? We let you move into our game and made you part of a bonus level! Remember that?"

The Q*Bert characters looked at each other, not sure if they should be terrified or confused. Q*Bert nudged them, making them get up of the floor. Q*Bert kept his eyes on Ralph while leading his co-stars into the nearby Pac-Man game. Ralph began to breathe heavily, as if he was about to start panicking. "You see?" asked Clarice. Ralph swung himself around to Clarice.

"What happened? Why aren't they in their little town houses Felix built for them?!" Ralph was getting worked up. He didn't want to believe anything Clarice was telling him, but he was starting to whether he wanted to or not.

"I just told you. You don't exist here."

Ralph backed into the wall. But then he thought of something. "Sgt. Calhoun. Where is she? She's supposed to be helping Felix set up the Christmas party! Where is she?"

"Sgt. Tamora Calhoun? What game is she from? I'm terrible at remembering things like that…" Clarice asked.

"Hero's Duty."

"Well, you just answered your own question then." Clarice followed Ralph as he hurried off to the outlet where Hero's Duty was plugged in. He began to go in, but then noticed something very strange.

"Wait, where's Surge Protector?" he asked. "He always stops me!"

"These force fields or whatever read your code, which is what triggers him to come out. You can't read a code that isn't there." Clarice had no expression on her face that told Ralph anything he needed answered. Ralph looked up and the entrance to Hero's Duty and went in anyway.

"Sgt. Calhoun?" Ralph called out. "Calhoun? Sarge? Tamora?" He called out all these while looking for her. He went so far into the game that he came across a church. "Hey…" he said. "This is the church Felix and her were married in."

"Is that so?" Clarice, once again, appearing out of nowhere beside Ralph.

"Yeah! I was his best man! Sounds like they're holding a Christmas Ever mass or something." Ralph could tell by the loud organ playing 'Hark the Herald, Angel Sings', he could hear it even from outside. "Maybe she's in there." Ralph opened up the doors. The mass looked like in was just about over with everyone heading out. Ralph stepped to the side to as he scanned the crowd carefully for Sgt. Calhoun. He didn't see her, but he did see a familiar face. "Murkowski!" he said. Private Murkowski looked over and Ralph gestured for him to come over.

"Who are you?" Murkowski asked.

"Ralph, remember?" Ralph told him. Murkowski looked at Ralph, looking like he had never met him before in his life. "Uh, forget it. Do you know where Sgt. Calhoun is? Is she here?"

"She doesn't come to this church anymore," Murkowski informed him. "She said it makes too many bad memories resurface."

"B-But this is the church she got married in!" Ralph objected.

"Almost," Murkowski said. "But she forgot to do a perimeter check and well…" Now, Ralph was talking about the matrimony between Calhoun and Felix, but Ralph gathered that Murkowski meant when he former fiancé was tragically killed by a cybug.

"Um, okay, can you tell me where she is?"

"Back at the base probably, " Murkowski told him. "Probably all alone too." Without saying another word, Ralph rushed off to the platoon's base.

Ralph banged on the door. There was several seconds of silence until the door opened up partway, still being restrained by a chain lock. "Who are you?" said the bitter and angry voice of Sgt. Calhoun.

"Can I come in, Sarge?" It's Ralph!"

"Never heard of you!"

"I'm…from another game in the arcade! I need your help, just please let me in!"

Calhoun examined Ralph and thought about it for a moment. "Okay…" she said. She closed the door and unhooked the chain, letting Ralph in. "So what is it you want?" Calhoun had a gun in hand, just incase.

"I want to know what's going on here!" said Ralph. "Why aren't you in Fix-It Felix, Jr. helping Felix set up the Christmas party?"

"Fix-It Felix? Never heard of him either," said Calhoun. Ralph was stunned.

"Never heard of him?! You married him!" Ralph shouted. "The only times I ever see you smile are around him! You met him when I game jumped to Sugar Rush!"

"I've never been that game in my life!" Calhoun informed him.

"But…but… You were married in that church they just held a Christmas mass in! You have to remember!" Ralph soon saw that bringing that up was a mistake. Calhoun clutched her gun and had her finger tight on the trigger.

"Get out…" she murmured.

"…Sarge, I'm sorry, I should've known not to–"

"I SAID GET OUT!" Calhoun pointed the gun right at Ralph head. Ralph put his hands up and backed away toward the door. "I don't know who you are or how you know anything about me, but I don't care! Just get away from me!" Calhoun moved toward him. Ralph ran out of the base and the door was slammed behind him. Ralph could hear some frustrated sounding shooting from behind the door.

"Now do you believe me?" asked Clarice, appearing next to Ralph out of nowhere.

"I don't know what I believe…" Ralph hopelessly answered. He sighed and said, "I need a drink. I'm going to Tapper's."