Chapter Three: The Mystery Racer

"Are you sure about this?" Changelina asked in a hushed tone. Vanellope was standing in front of her with a wide grin.

"Just trust me, alright?" Vanellope replied in an exasperated tone. Vanellope knew what she was doing, or at least felt like she did. She hadn't done anything so far that was not for Changelina's benefit. So she found it both odd and annoying that Changelina kept questioning her.

"Okay… what do I do again?"

Vanellope smacked her face and slowly ran her hand down it at the girl's question. "It's simple, alright." Vanellope paused and looked at the other racers getting into their cars. "First, we all put in our coins to begin the roster race. All of our names will light up and we will get ready to drive. But this is where you come in!" She jabbed a finger into the girl's gut. "Wearing the robe I gave ya," she said, gesturing to the dark robe that Changelina was now wearing, which covered her face and body. "You'll walk up all 'casual' and 'cool' looking."

Changelina nodded. Vanellope had already explained the finer points of acting casual. She only hoped that she could pull it off.

Vanellope added, "You will look at the crowd and immediately pop your coin in to join the race. Then, walk up to Candlehead and take her costume. And then, after everyone is all amazed and maybe scared, WE RACE!"

"But what if it doesn't work?"

"What?" Vanellope replied in confusion.

"My power, my thing?"

"Just concentrate and I'm sure it'll work! Oh-I need to go, remember what we talked about!"

"Wait! What if I can't win the race?" This last question was not heard, the president leaving her behind, Changelina standing alone.

Vanellope entered her coin last and the entire roster was shown on the screen high up above the racers. A candy crowd was cheering various names to win.

"Alright, that everyone?" Vanellope called out, knowing full well that it wasn't.

"Yep! Let's get this show on the road," Crumbelina replied and jumped into her car. The other racers obliged by jumping into their cars in a synchronized union. Before any of the engines could start however, Crumbelina noticed a looming shadow out of the corner of her eye. "Huh?"

Changelina, still cloaked, slowly walked over to the racers and was immediately joined by well over a dozen eyes looming in her direction. Eventually, all eyes were on her. Changelina nervously looked them all over. The racers began to mutter amongst themselves.

She did her best to remain focused and hesitantly brought out one large golden coin from under her hood. The other racers gasped-except Vanellope, who figured her acting skills stunk anyway. With a fling, the coin was in motion and tossed into the air, landing in the large cup just above the starting line. It pixelated out of existence. The other racers had followed it entirely.

Racer Added: Mystery Racer

More quiet and hushed talking began, but Changelina was going on autopilot. She found the car of her desire.

"What are you-eep!" Candlehead screeched as Changelina grabbed her hand. The mystery girl concentrated and strained her mind to will her glitch or whatever it is that she had into existence, ignoring the yanking from the other girl. Finally, she was rewarded and both girls felt an electrified pulse go through their bodies. Standing before them now was a clone of Candlehead, who was grinning from ear to ear.

The other racers were too shocked to do or say anything. Vanellope resisted the urge to cheer out in glee. She had finally had a racer who could match her!

"Who's ready to race?" Changelina's voice called out, her car flashing into existence. The other racers looked to see the sour-coated car and then looked back to Changelina, who had changed back into her robes from before. The mystery girl then jumped into her car and started her engine before anyone could get a single word in.

Vanellope then started her engine in return, which snapped the other racers out of their shock. They all turned on their cars, each and every racer taking nervous glances back at the mystery girl. Inside, Changelina was feeling a flutter of emotions, from nervous excitement to reckless aggression. No one emotion dominated fully, but excitement was close enough, she figured.

Three… The scoreboard ticked to life. Changelina's car was in the back and ready to go. Vanellope, out of respect for her fellow racers, had put in her coin second-to-last and was close by. She gave a simple wink to Changelina in a split-second decision, but no one noticed but her.

Two… All of the girls snapped to attention and awaited the final announcement, ready to gun their cars and speed off.

One… Changelina snapped and in a last-second decision, she concentrated. Her car willed to life and switched to Vanellope's. Vanellope was impressed, but hoped the girl remembered what she had told her about teleporting on the track.

Go! All of the racers sprang to life and gunned their gas pedals. Changelina's car glitched ahead of all of them and she shrieked in laughter. Her car then glitched again back into the sour racer. Most of the racers were shocked and surprised, but kept their cars going at a steady pace to catch up.

Vanellope glitched as close to Changelina's car as she could. She hoped to at least finish the race in second place, so she focused on eliminating the other racers. To her right, Candlehead sped up and her car ran through a power-up box. A candy-powered gun materialized and aimed directly for Changelina's car. Vanellope panicked and rammed the side of her car, causing Candlehead to whip her head around. Vanellope played it off as "playing around" before speeding up. Candlehead silently cursed when she noticed the mystery girl's car had vanished up ahead.

Candlehead was not giving up so easily. All the cars whirled into a chocolate-coated tunnel with large pillars holding it up. She aimed her gun to the nearest pillar and fired, immediately blowing it to pieces. Her car sped by as two of the remaining racers were smashed to pixels and regenerated in last place. Changelina was still in first place, but Candlehead was doing her best to change that. She fired a few more shots, collapsing the tunnel almost entirely, but the three racers in the lead managed to escape without destroying their cars.

Changelina was in first, Vanellope in second, and Candlehead in third. The gun had disappeared after running out of ammo. Candlehead's car could not match their speeds. She grinned, noticing that the three were coming up on her favorite spot of the race, the place where her special talent came into play.

Changelina also noticed the hill and did her best to change into Candlehead in order to light up the cherry bomb traps that lined the hill. She concentrated and concentrated, but nothing would work. She was still the plain racer in first place who was about to be blown to smithereens. She turned back nervously and noticed that Candlehead had already begun to light one of the cherry bombs.

Vanellope saw her friend's distress but was unable to do anything but retain her lead in the race. If she fell behind, her friend would be on her own.

They were too late to plan anything; the bombs had begun to explode in a synchronized union only milliseconds apart. Candlehead grinned as the explosion of frosting and track jettisoned all three cars forward. Her car was now out in front. Candlehead's car landed without any issues and sped off almost immediately.

Changelina's car landed and whirled around a few times before she had a chance to hit the gas. However, she was fine. Vanellope's car landed and crashed into the wall, causing her to end up in last place after regenerating. Changelina failed to notice this and tried her best to glitch ahead, but Candlehead had a head start and was too far to catch up to now.

"Ha! I'm gonna win, you little freak!" Candlehead hollered back.

That did it. Whatever passivity Changelina had been feeling throughout the race had vanished in an instant. She got angry, really angry, and wanted nothing more than to inflict as much pain to the racer up ahead as possible. But since pain was not possible on the track, something else would have to do.

She focused her anger into something menacing, something that she hoped would stop that mean racer in her tracks. Her car slowly started to disappear.

"Whoa…" Suddenly, she was forced to stand and balance on what she could only describe as a board of some sort. The board was hovering and moving forward at a breakneck speed. She looked down and noticed the sergeant's costume from before; she knew exactly what to do with it. She slowly brought her hand behind her back and found the instrument of Candlehead's destruction, a gun.

"Hey, freak!" Changelina called, in a voice not of her own. She should have felt remorse for saying that, but she felt good, she felt really good.

Candlehead turned her head around, confused. "Huh? Geez!" Changelina had her gun aimed and ready to fire. Candlehead looked back and noticed the finish line was coming up.

"I'm a freak, huh? Well, looks like it's time for my freakish gun to teach those lips of yours some manners!"

Candlehead's eyes grew wide as dinner plates, time ceasing to exist. The girl's gun unfolded and was ready to fire. She aimed precisely and the racer in front never had a chance. Green energy burst from the weapon and completely shot her car in two, causing it to halt just before the finish line.

The girl's hover board went through the split car and crossed the finish line. Her car changed back to her sour-coated one as she stopped, her costume morphing to the brown dress once more.

All rage left the girl in an instant. She could hardly believe those words had left her mouth or that she had acted so violently. Vanellope was hearing none of her silent protests, however, and drove up along with the other racers and began to cheer.

"You did it! I told you that you're awesome and you could win, Changelina!" She hugged the racer, but Changelina was busy dealing with her emotions, too strained to respond.

"Wait, so you knew who this was?" Candlehead questioned while getting out of her car.

Vanellope frowned when she realized her mistake, though she figured it wasn't anything terrible. "Well yeah, it's a long story… but, I promised her I'd help her win a race and here we are!" She gestured to the racing board. The other racers looked up, astonished to find that Changelina or "The Mystery Racer" was nowhere to be found.

"Wait, what?!" Vanellope exclaimed. The board showed the first nine racers that would be on the roster for when the arcade opened. Vanellope was part of it, having caught up to eighth place at the last minute, but her friend was not.

"I don't…" Vanellope turned to face the girl and found tears welling up in her eyes. They were not for the reason she assumed.

The other races looked at her in amazement, some in anger, and others in confusion. Changelina ran past them, tears rolling down her cheeks. Vanellope couldn't glitch fast enough and, before she knew what was happening, the girl was out of sight.

"Vanellope, what-" Taffyta was cut off as Vanellope raised her hand just over her face and shook her head grimly.

"Don't ask. I need to go find her. You all just…" All of her racers had stopped talking and were actually listening for a change. She would have loved to relish this rare moment, but it had to be cut short. "Just enjoy the rest of your day."

Changelina had found a secluded spot on the very race track that they had just finished. She figured no one would come to search for her back in the same spot, and she was right. Her crying ceased for a while and she felt content to simply listen to the digital wind blowing past her.

She was sitting just where she had made her first change in the race. It wasn't something mean like with Calhoun's outfit, no, but it did make her feel off. The first few times she changed, the girl played her feelings off as pure adrenaline. Doing exactly what she was meant to be doing felt like pure euphoria washing over her body. Through each change and each pixel switching around to form a clone of another character, she would tingle and feel amazing.

But, she now knew that something had to be wrong with her. "Why was I so angry?" Switching into Calhoun's outfit brought forth new feelings, feelings she would rather keep inside or not feel at all. She felt hatred for the other racer, but she wasn't sure if it was Calhoun's hatred or her own. Either way, she concluded that those feelings were wrong.

She had won the race, yes, but somehow the roster thing had refused to work for her. That would not have bothered her as much if Vanellope had not been there watching it all happen. The tears were not just from her lapse in judgment; they were there because she had disappointed her friend. Even if she did win, the roster refused to acknowledge it. But that wasn't what bothered her.

"There you are!" Vanellope exclaimed and ran up to examine her. "Are you okay?"

A meek nod was all she got in response, the girl's hands resting on her chin.

"Uh, good. Look, you were awesome-"

"But, I didn't win," Changelina whined.

"Yes you did! The roster just—okay, I'm not sure why it didn't work, but you won in my book!" Vanellope mustered up as much enthusiasm as she could.

It worked: Changelina was smiling all of a sudden. "Really?!"

"Yep! I mean, wow, turning into Mini-Calhoun on the track and using her gun! That was brilliant!" Upon hearing this, however, the girl's face fell. That was enough for Vanellope to understand that something was the matter. "What's wrong?"

"I felt so angry at her… I wanted to hurt her…Why?" Changelina's eyes teared up slightly. She stared into Vanellope's, hoping for any answer. Vanellope had to resist the urge to sigh. She was doing her best to turn Changelina into a real friend, into an equal or even more. Vanellope had to keep reminding herself that Changelina was new and she was certainly not Ralph, even if she could mimic him.

"Well," Vanellope began in a slow, calm, and collective manner, "if I had to guess, it just has something to do with who you change into. Maybe you can learn to control those emotions. It can't be impossible!" Vanellope exclaimed, but Changelina wasn't buying it. "Look, I'm still your friend and no one was hurt, so, buck up!"

Changelina scratched her head a few times. Vanellope was being sincere and she did say that they were still friends, so why worry? She figured that, for now, there was no reason to worry, and finally smiled.

"There we go! How about we head to Tappers or something?"

Changelina smiled and skipped off ahead, her dress shifting to Vanellope's clothes along the way.

Ralph had been laying in his "house" alone for the remainder of the day. House was a strong word he decided, being so small for his physique, but it was better than living in the dump like he had for thirty years. During his free time, he had become more and more detached from the other characters, even from Vanellope.

Thoughts continued to linger to the outside world; not on the world itself, but what it meant for their worlds. He knew what happened to all arcade games eventually, and that there were only had two options. You could either go down with the ship and hoped to be plugged back in somewhere else and move on. Or, you could abandon ship entirely and wait for another character to invite you to be part of their game.

What was he to do on that faithful day when the arcade went out of business? All characters knew it was inevitable. From the business they were getting, that day was a long ways off. Still, that did not stop him from thinking about what would happen to all of his friends, to what he called his family, to Vanellope, and, finally, to him when that finally happened.

"Why can't I just… Argggg!" He resisted the urge to pound his wall into oblivion, even though he really, really wanted to at that very moment. His sentence was the same thing he kept trying to repeat. He kept trying to convince himself that he could get over this issue, but it was still bothering him.

He opened the door to his house and walked outside, slowly as to not be noticed by his neighbors. He looked out the screen of his arcade and sighed.

"Back again, huh?"

Ralph whipped around to find Felix staring at him in concern.

"Uh… yeah." Ralph figured he had no chance of lying at this point.

Felix took a seat on the fake road in front of their apartment and motioned for Ralph to do the same. Felix was nearly thrust up into the air as his six-hundred-pound friend "took a seat" beside him, but thought nothing of it. "So, what's on your mind?"

"I don't know," Ralph admitted. In truth, many things were on his mind, but he had no clue where to start.

"Got anywhere you could start?"

Ralph looked down at him and shook his head. "It's too messed up, up there, you know?" Ralph scratched his head while Felix laughed a bit.

"Well… what's the main issue in the old noggin?"

"…Everything," Ralph said after a long silence. "I mean what happens, Felix? What happens the day-"

"Why are you so fixated on this, Ralph?!"

Ralph stared at him. This was one of those rare moments where the small handyman would lose it.

"Because, when it happens, I just keep wondering…is there anything we can do to stop it?"

Felix considered his words for a while before miserable shaking his head. "No, probably not. It will happen someday and, when it does, hopefully we will have lived a long, happy life. I mean… aren't you happy, Ralph?"

"'Course I'm happy! I have the best friends in the world! I just can't stop thinking about it! I know I shouldn't, but…"

"Alright, I'll admit that, occasionally, I think about it too…"

Ralph looked down at him and found the same strange, longing look he had given to the screen. Felix quickly shook it off.

"Well, what do you think about?" Ralph asked.

"Calhoun claims that there is a way out of the arcade if it ever happened."

"…What?" Ralph's mind went blank.

"Yeah, think about it. The power grid is plugged into the wall, and where does the wall lead?"

Ralph pondered his words for a while before realization struck. "That's brilliant!" he exclaimed.

"It's not that simple-"

"But, at least we'd have a chance, right?!" Ralph inquired excitedly.

Felix practically grinned, happy that his friend was happy for once. "Yes, we would have more of a chance than if we just waited, yes."

"Well, that helps, buddy! It helps a lot!"

"I'm glad, Ralph. So, you think you can move on now?"

"Yeah, I think so. So, Calhoun has a plan for when this might happen someday? For all of us?"

"She said as many as she can, but she definitely means you, me, and Vanellope at least."

"Cool, cool," Ralph replied. An awkward silence soon overcame them. Ralph, disliking these moments, broke out with another question. "What's past that barrier? What would we find exactly?"

Felix shook his head grimly. "That's why I said it wasn't that simple. It could be anything, really. We could find another arcade or a game console or something else. But, Ralph?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"That day is a long, long ways away. I promise you that."

"Well—you know what, you're right. How about we go to Tappers?"

"Well, gadzooks, you read my mind!"

"It's still kind of freaky how you do that, Changelina," Vanellope declared, watching her friend chug down six glasses of chocolate milk while wearing Ralph's uniform. The girl burped and shifted back to her brown dress. Vanellope looked on with wide eyes.

"What did I do?" Changelina asked.

"Nothing. Oh, nothing." Vanellope sighed, suppressing a small giggle.

"Hey, who's that?" Changelina pointed to another character and Vanellope turned around to find Mario (of all people) mingling at the bar.

"That's Mario. Real popular for the most part."

Changelina nodded and then looked at her hands and then back to Mario. "Do you think if I…" Changelina's words trailed off, her eyes meeting Mario's gaze.

Vanellope waved a hand in front of her. "Think what?"

Changelina ignored her friend and stood up from her stool. By instinct, she felt she had to touch Mario. She walked over and grabbed his arm without even thinking.

"Hey! What-a do you think you're—"

They both glitched slightly and, before Mario knew it, a clone of himself was standing there, only with a female build. She looked down and, obeying her instincts once more, jumped into the air again. She hit her head on the ceiling and glitched back into her old clothes.

"Ow," she groaned. She picked herself up, meeting Mario's glare.

"Serves a-you right!" Mario scoffed and left the game in a hurry. Changelina looked down and sighed.

"You good?" Vanellope asked, growing slightly tired of asking her.

"Yeah. I didn't want to make him mad, though."

"Well, maybe don't use that ability unless you ask them first?" Vanellope offered her infinite wisdom with just a hint of sarcasm that went over the girl's head.

"But, it-" Changelina shook her head and tried to think of the right way to explain why she did it. She scrunched her face, concentrating, but kept quiet.

"You know, if you do that enough, your face will stay that way." Vanellope giggled. The other girl was lost in thought. "Snap out of it!"

"What? Oh, sorry…"

"Right, so why'd you glitch on Mario over there?"

"It just felt right!" Changelina exclaimed.

Vanellope stared, her eyes wide, though she could tell that was all the girl had to explain."Alright, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then go for it."

Vanellope hadn't realized though that the girl would take her advice to heart, and was surprised when Changelina whipped around to look at the other customers trying to relax at Tappers. Everything happened so fast that not even Vanellope's glitching could keep up with or stop her friend.

In a flurry of motion, Changelina ran up to Sonic and glitched. Standing in front of him was a mint-green-colored hedgehog but, before he could even object, she ran up to another character. She spotted Mega Man and latched onto him. Soon, a pink-colored version of him (or a robot/girl mix) was standing there. Then, she spotted another and another.

"Changelina, slow down!" Vanellope warned. Her words fell on deaf ears. Soon, Changelina had copied Pac Man, Dig Dug, Q*bert, Tron, Ryu, Sir Arthur, The Yellow Wizard, and Dirk the Daring. She was going so fast that her brain barely had any time to register what and who she was changing into.

"Changelina…" Vanellope's breath caught in her throat when she saw the state her friend was in.

"Make it stop!" Changelina practically screamed.

Changelina suddenly froze, all eyes on her. Her body shuddered, and then she grabbed her head and groaned. Pain coursed through her code, and her entire body felt like she was on fire. Her breathing increased rapidly, but nothing would stop the pain until, finally, she screamed at the top of her lungs. She then collapsed on the floor, spasming, her code glitching all over until her vision blurred. And, then, darkness.

Changelina awoke to find herself drenched in sweat and shaking slightly. She looked around and found the room she was in was dark, drapes covering the windows. She looked down and saw she had been tucked under the covers of a very lavish-looking bed.

Her right hand massaged her scalp. She felt fried and very foggy. She let out one small yawn and realized she did not have the strength to even get up. She slumped back into the bed, waiting for something to happen.

She tried to remember what happened, but anything before the pain was a blur. She took a deep breath, holding it in when she heard voices coming from the door outside.

"….Died…glitching …..code…." The voices were muffled and stopped just as soon as they came. She then let her breath out and sighed.

The door slowly creaked open as light washed over the room. The occupant squinted their eyes to find Changelina and then sighed in relief.

"You're awake!" Vanellope came running up and hugged her gently.

"What happened?" Changelina's voice sounded groggy.

"…You don't remember?" Vanellope's question only got a shake of her head in response. "Well…I guess that makes sense. We were at Tappers, and you went just a wee bit crazy with that ability of yours and started copying everyone in sight. Then, your code got overloaded from how fast you were going. I had to glitch you back to the kingdom before-" Vanellope stopped herself and hoped the girl understood.

"Before what?"

Vanellope swallowed a lump in her throat. "Changelina, you died! You reset, of course!" she quickly added. "But, you could have die-died out there and…" Changelina was amazed to find her friend wiping away a few tears.

Changelina looked down at her hands in disgust. Had she actually almost died for real? She didn't know Vanellope that well yet, but she knew her friend had no reason to lie.

"Please don't cry…"

Vanellope whipped her head to meet Changelina's gaze, and then frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Just promise me you won't do your thing outside our game? Promise me!" The president's voice practically hysterical.

"I promise." Before she knew it, Vanellope was hugging her again, only not holding back this time. Changelina began, "But, why are you-"

"Crying?" Vanellope sniffed and wiped her tears away. "It's a long story, Changelina. I guess it also has to do with almost losing you…idiot." Her weak attempt at humor did nothing to lift her spirits.

"And something else?" Changelina did not assume she was stupid. She knew she was new and that Vanellope did not cry unless something was really bothering her. At least, that's how she assumed how her friend worked.

Vanellope sighed and nodded, climbing onto the other side of the bed while using the same pillow as her friend.

"I didn't used to be the president or princess or whatever. Someone named Turbo had lost his game and decided he wanted to rule this one. So, he snuck into the game's code vault and rewired everything. He locked up everyone's memories, even mine, and made me think I was a worthless glitch. If it wasn't for Ralph and my friends, I wouldn't be here in my nice room."

Changelina looked around, just now realizing she was in Vanellope's bed of all places. "But anyway, the point is, I have friends now, but most of them are outside my game. Not that the other racers are bad, but… I'd like our friendship to last; I don't want to lose you. I just-" She bit her lip and made sure that no one was listening but Changelina, who was hanging on her every word. "I don't want to be alone again."

Changelina blinked and resisted the urge to hug her friend or say anything at all. Was this the same spunky girl that she had been getting to know?

"I won't leave you alone," Changelina replied quietly, and then moved her hand and laid it over Vanellope's. The spunky girl leapt over, giving her one last hug before switching right back into character.

"I know you won't! Now, get out of bed, switcheroo." Vanellope chuckled and carefully helped her friend to her feet. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah…" She nodded skeptically. "What about you?"

Vanellope rolled her eyes and lied slightly. "Yep! Now, let's get going before barf brain has a heart attack."

"Who?"

"Ralph."