(A/N: Sorry this took FOREVER but with school and work and all that shit, I was having a hard time keeping up with even my normal daily tasks. Next on my list is Defying the Norm, but that may be a bit seeing as I am very very busy. I will try and get a new chapter out soon though.

I hope y'all enjoy the plot. :3)

Vanellope could not believe it! She came in seventh place in the first race of the Grand Prix! It was infuriating! It was maddening! It was...great! It was a challenge and there was nothing the candy-covered child loved more than a challenge. Maybe Ralph, but that's about it; and only like a big brother.

Calhoun had held her own and wound up in fourth, Ratchet—the smug jerk—was in third, Nougetsia was in second, and Luigi and Toad were in first. It truly was the year of the Luigi. Best of all, unlike Mario, he was humble about winning. When praised and congratulated, he just scuffed the ground and chuckled shyly. Toad was even more pleased; after being a side character in so many of the Mario-branded games—not directly, but he knew about the roles "Toad" played in the other games the character was in—it was nice to be in the spotlight for once. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased with the results; the exception being Sonic, who came in fifteenth and threw a bit of a bitch-fit about it. Amy had to hit him over the head with her hammer and shove a chilli-dog down his oesophagus to get him to stop.

The first race was a grand success overall and everyone was eagerly awaiting the next race. Vanellope had originally toyed with the idea of having an after-party in her castle but, with the addition of Turbo, her normally sweet décor had taken a grim turn. Instead, she promoted Tapper's again and excused herself from the after-race binge-drinking and karaoke extravaganza. The Sugar Rush racers gave her an odd look or two, but most everyone else let her go without a second thought. Ralph followed her, however, and Felix and Tamora decided to forgo the partying for some cuddling.

As Vanellope and Ralph ran off towards the castle, a foreboding feeling settled in Ralph's gut. Something was wrong. The Grand Prix was going off without a hitch and that worried him. There should at least be some resistance from Turbo. Yet he's not even mentioned the Prix...that's not right.

"Vanellope," he got the young president's attention. "Why is it that Turbo hasn't said a word about the Grand Prix?"

"Huh?" She pondered for a moment, then shrugged. "'Dunno...maybe because he's a huge butt and likes watching us squirm?"

"But if he really wanted to watch us squirm, he would have said something and then not done anything. I know Turbo. He did that all the time when we were friends." Before he went Turbo remained unspoken yet understood. Ralph tried to block out pleasant memories of times that had happened with Throttle and Torque or Sonic, but was hit with a wave of nostalgia and nausea at the same time. Something was very wrong. Very, very wrong.

Mario met them halfway to the castle, sweat pouring down his face, gasping, and looking like he had seen a remnant. Considering the strange goings-on of late, him seeing a remnant wouldn't have been too farfetched. He panted out word after broken word, "He's gone...lost...why-a is he...Sour Bill...the booster...Turbo..."

Ralph immediately caught on, "What happened?! Where is Turbo?!"

When he finally calmed down enough to be coherent, he said, "Gone."

It was as if time had stopped and a frozen dagger had pierced the very core of their Mesh. Turbo was gone. Turbo, the Virus-ridden Program Void-bent on destroying everyone who ever stood in his way, was no longer in the safe confines of Vanellope's castle dungeons.

Ralph took off at full-tilt towards the castle without saying another word; the look of absolute horror on his face conveying everything.

Vanellope stood there in shock, unable to think, unable to move. Sour Bill had left him alone for five minutes. Literally five Light-forsaken minutes. And now he was gone. How could this have happened?! Ohh...this week was going from bad to worse at 50FPS.

She turned to Mario and began interrogating the plumber. "Was anyone else there?"

He shook his head, "No and I didn't see-a no one coming out-a the stairwell when I was going down."

"Was there any clue to how he escaped? Anything at all?"

Mario had to think about that question. To be honest, not seeing Turbo in his cell was a huge shock that rendered him incapable of processing fine details. That and Mario was more of a big-picture hero than the puzzle-solving heroes like Link from the Nintendo Classics cabinet. "I didn't see any large holes in-a the walls or floor, but there-a was a whole lot of rubble in there. I didn't get-a good look at the scene since I had-a figures getting the information to you was-a more important."

Vanellope processed the information quickly and, upon reaching a decision, turned back to the Italian hero. "C'mon. We're gonna go find out what happened." Glitching forward rapidly, she made her way to the castle, only to have Ralph blow by her and run towards Kandy Kein forest. His panic was infectious and Vanellope sped up. She passed by and grabbed ahold of a confused Sour Bill on the way into the castle, dragging the poor Warhead behind her like a rag doll. She flew down the stairs and dashed into Turbo's open cell.

There was candy-based rubble on the floor but no holes in the walls or floor. The room was mostly pulsating Void and tattered red Mesh, with very little of the original graphics remaining, and the damage extended into the stairwell and outside of the castle walls. Thankfully the room she had been keeping Turbo in was a room directly above the saltwater taffy moat and facing away from the main areas, otherwise someone might have noticed the damage.

Vanellope stepped in a little more, moving around the rubble while looking for the source of the damage. As previously observed, the maple-fudge walls were intact, as was the peanut-brittle floor; the butterscotch door was untouched as well, albeit mostly Void and Mesh like the rest of the room. She bent down and tasted the candy debris that was piled on the floor. "Caramel?" None of the architecture here was caramel—well, not just caramel. The only thing that was caramel was...the ceiling!

Her head whipped up and she stared at a giant hole in the ceiling. It didn't go very far in, nor did it have an exit hole, but it was just big enough for the Void-riddled Program to hide out in it. Fear turned to rage as she pieced together what happened and she turned to face her pudgy companion. "You," she hissed at Mario, "you left the door open, didn't you?"

While he didn't have a puzzle-solving hero's wit, Mario was by no means mentally slow. He knew the implications of what Sugar Rush's saccharine ruler was saying. "Y-yes, but he was-a gone! What point would locking the door have-a had?"

"D'you see that hole?" She pointed up to the ceiling, quivering with rage. Mario nodded and Vanellope took a shaky breath. "To me, it looks like Turbo burrowed into the ceiling and waited for you to come in with his booster and notice he was "missing". He figured you would run for help, leaving the door wide open, and he could escape. That way he wouldn't damage "his" castle, and still could escape. He played you for a fool and fooled all of us with his complacent act!" Her voice was loud now, loud and full of rage. "You are the reason he escaped!"

Mario simultaneously bristled with irritation and was cowed. On one hand: this was not entirely his fault but on the other: this was not his game and if Vanellope decided she wasn't happy with his incompetence, she could easily dispose of him. Not that she would, he hoped. If he knew anything about Vanellope it was that she was pretty easy-going most of the time. He had never seen her lose her composition before so he had not frame of reference for her rage.

The Italian plumber remained silent while she turned her attention to Sour Bill. "And you—" she began.

"May I remind you that you were the one who wanted to participate and needed me to MC and be acting announcer. I did tell you it would be a bad idea to leave him on his own." The droll candy man rebutted, not standing for any sort of abuse from the girl. Leader or not, under a lot of pressure or not, no one deserved that kind of attack.

Vanellope bit back a retort, realising that she was crossing a line, and had already crossed it with Mario. She hung her head in chagrin, "You're right, you did tell me not to leave him alone. I just thought...since he hadn't tried to escape yet...that maybe he wouldn't yanno?" She was tearing up now, snuffling and furiously scrubbing at her eyes. Embarrassed at her reaction to situation, she growled and kicked a piece of caramel. It bounced off the wall and connected with her head, causing her to yelp in surprise. Sour Bill walked over to her and gave her a weird little not-quite-hug that calmed her down a smidge.

Mario just watched the whole scene with a bit of cynicism. He realised that she was just a little girl, despite how she acted sometimes, but she was also a monarch—or what passes for one in Sugar Rush anyway—and therefore should not lose her composure like that. Peach, she was a great ruler! Strong, kind, unwilling to take any sass! She knew what she was doing, and had been doing it well for some time now. She could stand to be a little more assertive though, and that may as well have been the problem Mario had with their relationship.

As soon as Sour Bill let go of her, Vanellope straightened up and brushed off her skirt. "Enough," she stated, "I can't afford any more delay. We need to find out where Turbo's gone. Mario," the plumber jumped to attention, "you head over to Kandy Kein forest and help Ralph out. Do you have a second booster?"

He shook his head. "No. Only the one, sorry..."

"Okay...take it with you. If anyone can actually get Turbo to take it, it's Ralph. He has the muscle to back it up, after all. If you find him, just shoot a fireball in the air and we'll come to you. Sour Bill and I are going to get Wynchell and Duncan to go to Diet Cola Hotsprings and check that area out while the two of us investigate around the castle to look for clues."

There, Mario thought, is a leader. He nodded and pulled a feather from his overall pocket. Swallowing it quickly, he put his arms to his side and dashed out of the castle and flew away, bobbing in the breeze.

Sour Bill smiled faintly as Vanellope went about her business, calling Wynchell and Duncan and informing them of the situation and their mission. Looks like this was the correct place for me after all...I'm so proud of her...

|-|3|_73|?-5|{3|_73|?

Ralph ran and ran and ran, as fast as he could, completely disregarding any and all foliage and terrain around him. Turbo is gone, he fretted. Turbo. Is. Gone!

This was all his fault. He wasn't racing like Calhoun or Vanellope, he wasn't MC-ing like Sour Bill, nor was he keeping the peace like Wynchell and Duncan. He had just been sitting there while Turbo escaped off to who-knows-where!

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!

Now Turbo was gone and it was his fault. His fault.

He barrelled through candy cane tree after candy cane tree, gathering up sticky refuse all over his body. His frenzied heartbeat matched his footsteps as he raced through the woods. He had to find him. He just had to!

He's gotta be in here somewhere, the wrecker thought as he passed multitudes of almost identical trees. This is where Vanellope found him, so he might have come back here. His reasoning was weak but at this point, grasping at straws was better than panicking. He was doing a bit of both, but that was a moot point.

As he progressed through the forest, more and more of the graphics had been worn away to reveal Void and red binary and, in some places, mesh. It was eerie, but let him know he was going in the right direction. Where there was Void, there was a Virus.

The areas of Void became more and more concentrated until it became very hard for Ralph to run as quickly as before because the graphics around him were so far degraded that judging distances became impossible. Everything was Void and mesh and soon Ralph came to the epicentre of the plague.

This must be where Vanellope found him... Rallh mused. He stood, feet spread apart for extra balance, a few metres away from a large black...nothingness. Not Void, not Light, not mesh, just absence. Abyss... he realised. Worse yet was the shape of the Abyss.

It was shaped like Turbo, only not quite. More like it was shaped like Turbo if he had been put through a taffy-puller, had his arms and legs and neck removed a la Rayman, wore a large pointed crown, and had large, Cy-bug like wings.

The Turbo-shaped patch of Abyss pulsed and twisted the more Ralph stared at it and the wrecker could swear that it's head turned to face him for a moment. The class of the Abyss were spread wide, as if engulfing the forest around it, and from the tips of its wings flew red glitches like wildfire. It seemed as if the Abyss were trying to pull the whole Game into its empty depths.

He's not here, but he could be close. From behind him came the 8-bit patter of running. He curled his large hands into fists that could easily destroy the toughest of enemies in preparation for whatever—or whomever—was coming.

I only know three Programs who run like that, Ralph focused on the noise behind him, tensing up in preparation for a fight. Turbo, Felix, and—

"Mamá-miá!" Mario ran face-first into Ralph's fist as the wrecker swung it out to stop whomever was coming up behind him. When he realised he had just hit the good guy right in the schnoz, Ralph apologised immediately.

"I am so sorry," the bad guy helped Mario back on his feet as he sheepishly checked to make sure nothing was broken. "I shouldn't have—"

"No, no," the Italian dismissed, tenderly rubbing his sore nose, "it's-a alright. You weren't notified of-a my coming."

"Vanellope sent you?"

"She figured it would-a be better if we traveled in groups of-a two. I'm with you, she is with-a Sour Bill, and her cops-a are together," Mario explained.

"Why you and I though?"

Mario shrugged, "I have the booster and you-a are the one who could get Turbo to-a take it, according to President Vanellope." His eyes wandered, caught a glimpse of the Abyss stain on the landscapes, and widened in surprise. "What the hell is that?!"

"Abyss." Ralph stated, eyeing the shadowy nothingness warily.

"I know that! But why-a is it shaped like-a Turbo?!" Mario squinted and modified his observation slightly, "Like-a Turbo if he-a was a boss from Rayman?"

"I think that's where it started. The Virus," Ralph elaborated, "This may be the spot where Vanellope found Turbo, so whatever is eating Turbo up, originated here."

"Shit."

They stared at the pulsating Abyss for a few moments longer, then Ralph turned to face Mario. "Go back to the castle and work on that antivirus."

"But—" he protested.

"Give me the booster and work on that antivirus because if Turbo is loose, who knows what kind of damage he could be doing. You saw Swizzle, Jubileena, and Rancis, right? It's getting stronger and spreading. If this is any indication of what is coming than we may need that antivirus much quicker than before. I'll handle searching for him; you're the only one who can make an antivirus and fix this mess." Ralph held out his hand, silently imploring the hero to cave in to his wishes.

Mario pondered for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of both options, and reached a conclusion. He handed over the booster and nodded. "I won't-a let you down." With a smile he swallowed another feather and flew off, gently bobbing above the horizon.

Ralph curled his hand around the small salmon pill and swallowed heavily. I just have to find him...everything will go to shit if I don't... With his resolve tightened, he pocketed the booster, put his back to the Abyss, and dashed off. I will find him though...and I will fix this...I promise...

As he receded over the horizon, the Abyss shadow watched him, a cruel grin playing across its shadowy lips. Now thizzzzzzz izzzzzz in-in-in-interezzzzzzting...

3|?|?0|? 404: |*493 |\|07 |=0|_||\||)

Turbo watched as Taffyta flitted around him, buzzing with energy and shimmering with red binary and Void. Why had that girl saved him? How had she even know he was there in the first place?!

Don't worry...it's a-all par-par-part of the p-p-p-p-p-plan...

"I was right! Iwasrigh-righ-right! That st-stupid glitch—thatstupidglitchwaswrong! Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar!" She giggled furiously as she danced around her King. "Now you're here and you'rehereandyou'remine! Al-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-ll mine!"

Pathetic-tic-tic-tikchhhhht isn'tshe?

He remained silent.

Taffyta grabbed ahold of one of his carapace claws and swing herself around, gazing deeply into his eyes. "The Voice said you were alive—werealive and it was right! Now you're all mine—allmineandnooneelse's!"

You kn-kn-know whatmuzzzztbedonenow—what must be done now.

Turbo said nothing.

"Now w-w-w-we can take back your throne—takeitback! That Glitch will p-p-pay dearly for her c-crimes!"

You have no choizzzzzzze.

Turbo simply sighed.

"Of course."