A/N: Sorry for the slight delay. I try to update every three days, but things came up, which prevented me from getting to my laptop for a day. I'll try to update in two days to get things back on schedule!

Thank you to those who reviewed and followed this story! Its people like you that keep writers like me going! :D

Finally, I know it's in my summary, but it's worth repeating. I don't own Wreck-It Ralph. However, there will be characters in this fanfic that are all mine! :D

Sweet and Sour

Chapter 4 - Meeting

##SUGAR RUSH SPEEDWAY##

][THE MUDSLIDE TUNNEL][

Three of the newest racers met in a hidden, underground race track known, so far, by only them. The track was all smooth chocolate, but cocoa powder and chocolate cookie crumbs fall from the cave's ceiling and onto the track, making the drive a bit bumpy and the course a bit slippery. Sour gummy worms were used as the walls of the track. It had no ramps, but two chocolate wafer bridges crossed over a fork in a chocolate syrup river, which filled a lake at the center of the track. Surrounding the track were buried jelly beans, polished by the falling cocoa powder and making it look like gems sticking out from the ground. Dotting the walls of the cave were tiny holes used by gummy bears to sleep. The purposes of the gummy bears were unknown to all racers, old and new. They were programmed to randomly select two different actions: come out of their slumber and cheer the racers on, or wake up grumpy and launch cookie crumbs at the racers.

"So, why are we meeting at the Mudslide Tunnel again?" One of the two new male racers asked while jumping out of his orange jelly bean race kart. He leaned against one of the Oreo wheels and looked at the girl expectantly, while playing with his orange baseball cap made of mamba fruit chews.

"Yeah, what's so important and why did we have to meet in secret?" The other boy asked, climbing out of his bright green sour warhead kart.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, and I'm terrified to find out," the only new female racer sighed, not wanting to jump out of her pie kart. "The Princess wants to meet with us tonight near the gates, but I don't know if that's the safest place to meet."

"I'd like for you guys to come with me to the castle gates tonight," the girl continued, "But I know you two would rather want to spruce up your karts for a possible race-off."

"Got that right!" Both boys said in unison. They both hopped into their karts and got ready to speed off to the Kart Bakery. One of them yelled out, "Keep us updated!" before they both raced off.

The girl sighed before starting up her kart. "Boys will be boys," she whispered before heading to Candy Castle.

][CANDY CASTLE GATES][

Vanellope stood outside, just beyond the castle gates, wearing the Princess dress she received during the game's reset. She was against wearing the dress, but Sour Bill explained that these three were new updates and did not know about her title as President, that their coding still has them recognizing her as their Princess.

She stared at the gloves covering her hands, not used to being all dolled up for a meeting. She looked up and saw a key lime pie kart driving up to her. She tugged slightly at the collar of her dress as the racer came to a stop a few feet away and hopped out of her kart.

"Your highness, sorry to have kept you waiting," The racer said and curtsied, I'm Anjelly Smartyfudge, one of the three new racers of Sugar Rush."

Vanellope smiled at the girl's curtsy. "Welcome to the wonderful land of candy, Anjelly!" She exclaimed. She looked around and saw that the girl had come alone. "I could have sworn I told Sour Bill to ask all three of you. Where are the other two?"

"Um," Anjelly hesitated. She looked down at her shoes. "Well, they're getting for a race..." She paused.

"Race?" Vanellope questioned. She noticed the other racer grimaced when she questioned. Confused, she looked out at the gingerbread screen and saw that it had been slightly enlarged. Then it dawned on her. "I guess it's okay to prepare for the Random Roster Race, but I expect all three of you to come to the castle tonight to introduce yourselves to the other racers."

Anjelly looked up and smiled, "Of course, Princess! I'll make sure they come!" She hadn't thought about using the Random Roster Race as an excuse, but if it kept her two friends out of trouble, she would go with it.

"Excellent!" Vanellope said happily, "I look forward to meeting them. But for now, I have a favor to ask of you," She looked at the other racer, whose facial expression went from happy to worried in record time.

"Princess?"

Vanellope grinned, "It's nothing bad, Anjelly. I was just going to ask you about the new updates." She paused and explained about their day away from the game and how she had just returned to see what had changed.

Anjelly let out a big sigh of relief. She had thought they were being enlisted to fight back against the strangers hidden in the castle. It was obvious that the Princess didn't know about the strange racer that barged into the castle earlier.

"Of course, Princess! Is it okay if we meet back here in about half an hour?" Anjelly asked, "I want to tell the boys about tonight's meeting, and I'm sure you want out of that dress!"

Vanellope laughed and nodded, "I'll see you in thirty minutes, then!" With a quick wave, she sprint walked towards the castle to change.

Anjelly watched as the Princess entered the castle before jumping into her kart and driving over to the Kart Bakery to tell the two boys about the meeting.

][KART BAKERY][

The Kart Bakery received an update, one that wasn't reported by other game characters. They thought it was a little bug fix and didn't feel it was worth mentioning.

The two boys were examining the changes to their karts when Anjelly drove up to them. She told them about her meeting with the Princess and how she expected all three of them to show up to a meeting later tonight.

The two boys looked at each other and asked whether it was safe to go, but their hesitations were quickly beaten down when Anjelly reminded them that they had already ignored one of their highness' invitations and how it wouldn't be wise to do so again. In anger, the lone female racer sped off to fulfill a favor and left the two boys to themselves to contemplate their plans for later that evening.

][VANELLOPE'S ROOM][

The update didn't leave Vanellope untouched. The moment she entered her room, there was a quick flash of light. During that short second, she had undergone a complete attire change. She was now sporting a white racer suit with a mint green stripe running down along both sides of the jacket and pants. In shock, she ran down towards the throne room to see if her kart was okay.

Once she got there, she saw her kart displayed in a sugar art display case along with her former hoodie attire. Near the kart stood a sugar cookie plaque that read "The kart that saved the world". Above the plaque was a fondant parchment that told the story of how she was shunned, called a mistake, befriended an outsider, and restored the world despite the bullying she took from her fellow racers.

There was another display next to hers, memorializing King Candy. It, too, displayed King Candy's kart and had a parchment with his story - how he fought against Turbo, lost, was impersonated by Turbo, and how Vanellope beat him despite his cheating ways.

After looking at the two karts being displayed, she realized she didn't have a kart of her own. She turned to look at the throne, where her kart was parked. In its place was a kart similar to King Candy's, but pink. It had white stripes down the middle and side and a mint green crown detail on the hood. She hopped into the kart and drove a few laps around the room. After a few laps, she tried to glitch around the room, hoping the bug fix didn't take that away from her. Though she still had the ability, the using it now took some energy. She sat still in her new kart for a short moment before driving out to meet with Anjelly about the new updates.

][MANGO MEETING ROOM A][

It was nearly eight in the evening when the racers met up in the same meeting room they were in the night before the updates. Vanellope walked in and straight up to the stage, sporting her new race suit. Jubileena and Citrusella high-fived each other, recognizing their Princess' old racing gear. Candlehead giggled at the sight. She was one of the few who still called Vanellope "Princess" and while she didn't mind the hoodie and skirt look, she loved seeing her Princess look more regal. The rest of them just stared.

"Hello ladies and gents, and welcome home!" Vanellope greeted. Several of the racers cheered, while the others continued staring at their leader. "As some of you have noticed, and I'm sure you have, I was part of the updates and bug fixes. My old kart and attire are now on display in the throne room. You'll see my new kart tomorrow morning at the Random Roster Race!"

"Thanks to the help of one of the new racers, I have a full list of changes that I'm sure will interest all of you." She paused for a bit when she noticed a lone racer sneak into the meeting room. "First of all, the Kart Bakery picked up an update that was never mentioned during the last meeting. Now, you can take your current kart into the Bakery and fix up one part of your kart. Whether you're after better wheels, faster engine, or easier handling, you get 15 seconds to make the fix and how you do will determine whether or not it'll be an upgrade or downgrade. The fix will only last the day. Everything goes back to base stats when the arcade closes."

"Anything you do after closing hours will be available only when players aren't involved - so days off, holidays, and at night. Those changes are permanent. However, you will only be able to make three upgrades per part for free. Any upgrade after that will cost you!" Vanellope paused again, looked at the crowd of racers, and saw all but one racer smiling at the changes made to the Bakery.

"We have two new tracks," Vanellope continued, looking at the one racer with worry. She'll deal with that situation when she invites the racer up to the stage, but for now, she needed to focus on completing her announcements. "One track is an underground track just south of Frosty Rally and west of Diet Cola Mountain. This track is called The Mudslide Tunnel and I have been told that driving on it will be very bumpy and uncomfortable. The second track is to the east of Diet Cola Mountain. This track is called the Sourpuff Raceway, and while the scenery around the track is one of the best I've seen, the track itself seems a bit slippery to drive on."

"We also have three new power-ups focused mainly on hindering our vision during a race. First, we have Lemon Juice, which we can squirt into the air and hope it lands on the racers behind us. As a puddle on the ground, you can splash it into the eyes of racers near you. We also have Pixy Dust. It starts off as a small tube. Once you throw it down on the track, it'll be difficult to see it on the ground while driving. When someone runs it over, including you, it'll explode into a large pixy powder cloud, which will fog up that section of the track until someone wins the race. Finally, we have Smarty Disks. The moment we throw it out, it'll bounce around the track until it hits someone."

"And finally, we meet the new racers! Can you come up, please?" Vanellope watched as her invite slowly walked up to the stage, head hung low. "Fellow racers, this is Anjelly Smartyfudge! She's the one that helped me with learning about the updates and showing me the new tracks, please treat her well!"

She turned to look at Anjelly, who was waving at the racers. "Is everything okay?"

"Your highness...I'm sorry," The new racer cried. On instinct, Candlehead and Jubileena climbed up to the stage and tried to console their new friend. "I invited them, I know I did. I just don't know why they refuse to show up!"

Vanellope sighed. "You do realize this is the second time they ignored my invite, right?" The other racer nodded. "And you know I can't let it go without punishing them, right?" This caused Anjelly to look at her Princess in shock. Jubileena and Candlehead mirrored the shock, not having seen this side of her before.

Vanellope turned to the mic and addressed the racers again. "Unfortunately, Anjelly's friends have decided to ignore my invite. This would be the second time they have done so." She turned to the three racers on stage and frowned, before continuing. "As punishment, no power-ups will be made available to them during the day's races. In addition to that, they are banned from participating in the Random Roster Races. These punishments will be lifted when they finally decide to meet with me."

Vanellope rubbed at her forehead and sighed. "That ends the meeting. Feel free to drive around and check out the new tracks." She stepped away from the mic and off the stage. "I'll see you all at tomorrow's race." With that, she left the room.

Candlehead wanted to chase after her to make sure she was okay, but Taffyta and Rancis held her back. Now wasn't the time to disturb their Princess. Anjelly, however, jumped off the stage and rushed out of the room, hoping to catch up to the Princess. Unfortunately, once she got to the castle entrance, Vanellope was nowhere to be found.