Rancis sat gloomily in his chocolate bed, holding up a small brown book. Rancis stared at the cover of the book sadly. The cover read:
The Buttercup Trio - Winning Looks and Winning Races
With a sigh, Rancis flipped through the pages of the book, all featuring pictures of him, Creamy, and his deceased brother, Peterbelly Reese.
Peterbelly was a recolor of Rancis, but he was considered Rancis' brother by the other racers. The two had been friends up until Creamy, having become envious of the two's increasing popularity, murdered Peterbelly outside of the game.
Rancis clutched the book, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness, when he heard the sounds of a kart driving into his driveway.
Throwing the book on his bed, Rancis raced over to his window to see who as at his driveway. There, he saw the scrappy Licorice Liqued, having parked her Liquorice kart, the Liquoir, next to his kart, the RV1.
"Licorice, what in Buttercap's name are you doing here?" He shouted from atop the window. Licorice, oblivious to the obvious hostility in his voice, simply waved up to him.
"President Vanellope told Sour Bill who told Wynchel, who told Duncan, who told Witchy, who told me, that we're going on a copy hunt!" Licorice shouted up at him. "And all the racers must come, lest they be bloodily executed."
"Say what now?" Rancis said, his eyebrow raising in concern.
"I'm just kidding about the execution part," Licorice said, giggling. Then, she attained a deadpan glance and whispered, "But seriously, you better come."
Rancis sighed. "Vanellope said the Glitched Candy-Tree Forest was off-limits, anyways," He reminded.
Licorice shrugged. "Well now she's saying the opposite," She said. "Kind of like politician in general."
"Alright, I'll come," Rancis said. "But if we get ambushed by a bunch of psycho palette swaps, it's all on her." With that, he got his chocolate blazer and raced downstairs and out the door to follow Licorice.
Vanellope stood at the entrance of the Glitched Candy-Tree Forest, Wynchel and Duncan at both sides of her.
Sour Bill strutted over to her. "I informed all of the racers of the expedition," He droned on. Vanellope responded by folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Well, where are they?" She asked. Sour Bill shrugged in response. "Oh, come on!" Vanellope complained. "I spent a whole of five minutes planning this thing, and those racers in their fudging karts are too slow to-"
As if on cue, all the racers drove hastily towards the entrance. Vanellope screamed in horror as Taffyta's kart skidded to a stop mere inches away from her. As the presidents sighed in relief, Candlehead drove up as well and her engines fired smoke into Vanellope's face.
"Oh fudge!" She complained as she coughed dirt out of her mouth.
"Okay, madam President, would you care to explain why you called us all here?" Taffyta asked, hopping out of her kart. The other racers began mumbling the same question.
"Well, I was prompted by a certain imprisoned racer and I felt maybe we should go in here and see whether or not there are actual gray copies here," Vanellope explained.
"You WHAT?!" Rancis shouted as he drove up towards her. Vanellope's eyes widened a bit as she saw how upset Rancis looked as she pulled himself out of the kart.
"You let CREAMY convince you to call this expedition?!" Rancis shouted in disbelief.
Vanellope shrugged. "Hey, she made a few good points…" She started but Rancis cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"Creamy can never made good points," Rancis said. "Haven't you learned that from last time? She can't be trusted!"
"Yeah, Creamy's probably setting up a trap," Minty agreed. "She's likely in cahoots with those palette swaps and wants them to kill us so that she can regain control of Sugar Rush!"
The racers started mumbling in agreement.
"This is stupid," Gloyd said. "We're better off not knowing anything about these gray people. For all we know, they're ghouls that want to eat our code!"
"Oh, come on, guys, we can't be so superstitious!" Vanellope said. However, the racers instead turned away from her and began to enter their karts.
Suddenly, a voice called out, "Stay where you are."
The Sugar Rush racers froze. The scrapped racers shook with fear. All the racers turned to see a girl standing in the center of the karts. A purple handkerchief concealed her mouth and nose, and she narrowed her eyes.
The racers recognized her instantly. It was Candace Mysterious.
Candace was a well-known figure throughout the Sugar Rush kingdom despite very rarely revealing herself. Barely anything was known about her except her name, and because of this, the other racers were wary of her.
"You insignificant racers shall disobey your ruler?" Candace chastised, moving towards Taffyta in particular, who shivered in fear.
"You think you have the right to refuse to listen to your ruler?" She asked as she stood in front of Taffyta. Extending her arm towards the platinum blonde racer, she flicked Taffyta's chin. Instantly, the girl toppled over.
"The Glitched Candy-Tree Forest is a place of mystery and interest," Candace continued, aiming her finger around at the racers surrounding her. "At least, it will continue to be, if the lot of you continue to avoid it."
The racers froze in fear, unwilling to say a word. Eventually, Candlehead whimpered, "But that place is creepy."
"Hold your tongue!" Candace shouted, and suddenly, she was right next to Candlehead. The cake-themed girl squeaked and tumbled away from her kart.
"Mysteries are there to be solved," Candace explained. The racers listened intently.
"And that forest," She pointed her finger at the entrance. "THAT forest is a mystery, and it shall be solved by you. Understand me?"
The racers nodded nervously.
"Good," Candace whispered. Then, before any racer could do anything else, Candace vanished into thin air.
Vanellope smiled as she stared at the pale-faced racers.
"Well, my royal subjects, don't we have an investigation to continue?" She asked mockingly. The racers nodded and advanced towards the entrance of the forest.
Unbeknownst to any of them, two girls who hiding on a tree branch, watching the racers.
"I told you there were copies of us, Tabitha," Jubilee said to a gray copy of Taffyta. The Taffyta palette swap squinted her eyes at the racers as if she could not believe it.
"They're coming into our forest," Jubilee said urgently. "What do we do?"
Tabitha stroked her chin thoughtfully, and then answered.
"Time to bring in the cavalry."
