Ralphs Trip to Reality

Chapter 3

Satellite Bouncing

I stared at Kintessae; I was horrified: "Get rid of Ralph?!" I said loudly. Unfortunately, no one was really around to hear me. Kintessae laughed: "Not just get rid of him, but strand him in the farthest reaches of the Human World. So far, no one could ever find him! Oh, and I'll double the pay if you get rid of Felix too."

"I don't want your stupid rewards!" I growled. "I refuse to abandon Ralph or Felix!"

Kintessae raised an eyebrow: "Are you sure? Because I know everything about everyone. Including you. I can get the dirt on just about anybody. And I'm sure you wouldn't want that." She smirked.

I didn't reply; there was nothing I could do. She was trying to blackmail me, and it was working.

She smiled: "Good. But I'll need your final decision by tomorrow morning. It's either yes or no." Then she (literally) melted into the shadows. Pretty scary. Suddenly, I felt like little ice needles were piercing my neck, and I heard evil laughter echo through the tunnel leading into my game. Great, she's trying to make me wet myself now. I sighed and flew into my game. Then plopped myself down on my bed, I continued to pack my stuff.

After a few minutes, I heard yet another knock at the door. I wanted to scream. Reluctantly, I went and answered the door, only to find that it was just Ralph. If it was Kintessae, I'd probably cave in her face or something.

I scowled: "What do you want?"

Ralphs eyes narrowed: "I just wanted to see if you wanted to go with me Tappers. Tapper said he has something to tell us, apparently something important."

I had an urge to slam the door in his face, but somehow, I actually agreed.

We traveled to Tappers game. Personally, I've never liked root beer. But I had a few drinks anyway.

When Tapper saw us, he seemed pretty delighted that we actually came.

"Alright, come here into the back room, I have something really important I want to tell you." He whispered, even though there was no one around us, not to mention inside the whole bar.

I rolled my eyes and we followed him into the back room. It was just a bunch of stored root beer kegs and stuff like that. Probably stale too.

Then Tapper stopped abruptly and started talking: "You know that is game is the oldest in the arcade right?" Tapper said.

Ralph and I exchanged glances: "Well, yeah. The fourth oldest is my game." Ralph replied.

Tapper nodded: "Yes, the third oldest is Turbo Time. And the second oldest…Is a game called 'Knights of the Mist'. Ralph, you might remember that one. And it was unplugged a little while after you game got plugged in."

Ralph tilted his head: "Why was that game unplugged anyways?" he asked.

"Yes, that is what I want to talk to you guys about. In Knights of the Mist, there were two twin siblings you could play as, along with a few others you had to unlock. The siblings weren't major characters in the game, so they had a lot of free time to do whatever that wanted."

Ralph and I nodded in harmony with each other.

Tapper continued: "They found out a way to get video game characters out of their video game, and out into the Human World."

"How? They couldn't have known how to do it back then. Did they?" I questioned.
"Some say it never happened, some people say they used the technique that we use now, and others say that they used a special machine. But anyways, the story says they did find a way to get into the Human World. But they were so eager to test if it worked that they forgot to use a technique, or machine whatever you prefer, to get them back to their game." Tapper finished.

"So you're basically saying that the twin siblings couldn't get back to their game and were lost in the Human World forever?" Ralph said.

He nodded: "Yes. Eventually, Knights of the Mist got unplugged because they weren't there to play their role. Almost like what happened when you were out of your game Ralph."

"Are you telling us this to scare us?" I asked.

"Not really. I just wanted to inform you. Its rumor that they're near the arcade, in that big forest."

"Yeah, whatever. Can I leave now? I still have to pack."

Ralph and Tapper glared at me.

"Sure you can leave now. But keep my story in mind, okay? It'll help!"

I flew out of his game, and into mine: "He's just an old man; I don't need any advice from Tapper. He's probably had too much root beer to drink tonight or something." I said to myself.

I (For the third time) started to pack again. And as soon as I was done, I practically dove into bed. I couldn't sleep though. I kept thinking about how my best friend black mailed me, that weird story Tapper had told me, Sour Bill and his talk of mutation, and figuring out I was in a search party with Ralph. Great. This all happened in one, single day. How nice. I was exhausted, and I eventually cried myself to sleep.

Today was the day. I was going to go out into the Human World, and I was too foolish to realize the dangers back then. Anyways, all the search parties met at the entrance, the wire that divides the Video Game World from the Human World. I glanced round; I saw Felix and Fiaeneste, Rancis and Duronto, Ninja Gaiden and some person from Street Fighter, and a few others.

"Wait..." I thought to myself. I looked back. Yup. Sure enough. Rancis was in a search party.

I basically wanted to strangle Sour Bill and the doughnut cops for letting Rancis be on a search party. That dumb, paranoid kid probably won't sleep for days; he'll be looking for Vanellope the entire time. He'll probably get himself killed in the process anyway… But maybe that wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Stupid Sour Bill, stupid Rancis…" I muttered to myself.

Ralph nudged me. I was up first in line to go into the Human World. Startled, I walked up to the satellite cable and stepped on it. I quickly warped up the cable, gathering enough speed to enter the atmosphere and hopefully into space.

A couple weeks ago, when we found out how to go into the Human World, everyone was taught how to do it. It's kind of complicated, especially for a visual person like me. But I eventually understood it. First, you step onto the satellite cable, and then it beams you up the wire until you get enough speed to go "wireless" and get blasted into the atmosphere. Then you exit earth's atmosphere and bounce off a satellite in space, then when you bounce off the satellite, you get beamed back down to earth, and thus; your code gets beamed down in the Human World (And hopefully onto land, not on top of the arcades roof or something). It's pretty complex.

As I blasted off into space and my code bounced off a satellite, a felt like I was going at the speed of light (Which I probably was). Then the next thing I knew was that I face planted into the arcades parking lot. Concrete isn't the kindest substance to land on once you just fell from the sky going at a couple thousand miles an hour. My landing made a pretty large sound and a big dent in the ground. Good thing no one was really around to hear it, because it was Christmas Break for the arcade and nobody was in the parking lot. I got up awkwardly; a kid who was taking a walk with his dog about a couple hundred yards away just yelled in shock and ran away. I had a few burnt and black marks on me, along with some singed fur. I made sure to get out of the way before everyone else came, face planting on the hard concrete as well. One by one, they all successfully arrived at the Human World.

Rancis and Ninja Gaiden were the first to stand up. Rancis said something to him that I couldn't understand because of the ringing going on in my ears. But it was probably: "Does my hair look okay?" or "Is my toupee in place?"

Then Ralph stood up: "Should we make camp here for the night?"

Everyone nodded or groaned in agreement and we slept on the concrete.

"Hey Daciana. Where should we go tomorrow?" Ralph asked me.

"Dude, I have no idea. But I think all the search parties should split up to look for Vanellope. But still stay in their search parties though, not one big group like this, but not alone either. It would be the best choice." I yawned.

Ralph nodded: "Yeah that sounds to be the best choice."

"As long as we find Vanellope!" Rancis chipped in.

"Yeah, we know that." Duronto said.

"Indeed, that is our mission, and we shall complete it! FOR THE ARCADE!" Ninja Gaiden shouted reassuringly.

"FOR THE ARCADE!" everyone echoed.

I went to sleep happily; completely unaware of what would happen tomorrow.