CHAPTER 9
Ralph clenched his fists, partly out of nervousness and out of preparation for a fight that seems inevitable.
"Perhaps there is a diplomatic solution to all of this" Ranny suggested mockingly "You all probably want your pony back, right? How about an exchange?"
"Diplomatic?" Victor said sarcastically, donning his own antiviral pistol in his right hand. "There is nothing about you that marks you as a diplomat".
Ranny eyed Victor's pistol and looked back at him.
"Do we always have to resort to violence, old pal?" Ranny said sharply "You took out poor Betty, that's fine, he was practically useless anyway."
Vanellope chimed into the discussion.
"What do you want with this game anyway?" she asked with a bit of naiveté "You're not even a part of this arcade!"
Chuckling in response, Ranny continued.
"You guys win!" he said, smiling a deceiving smile "There's no point to take this any further, baby. Don't need to beat this poor old puppy to death. You took out the bad guys that I tried to put in power of this game and now we are forced to runaway to continue scheming our next diabolical plan. Come on now. Vic…"
"Don't…" Victor said astringently, cranking up his arm and aiming his antiviral pistol right at Ranny's head "Call me that again."
"Short history lesson!" Ranny exclaimed "For the new guys. The good ol' cop here had me cornered a few years ago over at the Ayala Café. He was extremely confident, competent, and all that good stuff. Still is, if I say so myself. He had me right in his crosshairs and he could have taken the shot. But he didn't, and I got away, and now I'm more viral than ever, baby! Ever since then, I've been sure to not make the same mistake, and learned from his mistake too. Won't be in that kind of situation anymore! It's free sailing from here on out."
Victor was visibly irritated and slightly humiliated by Ranny's disclosure.
"So how about a peaceful resolution," Ranny offered, buttoning up his jacket, no longer revealing his weapon. "Hear me out."
"The girl," Ranny pointed at Vanellope "For the pony. Sounds fair?"
"WHAT?" Vanellope yelled with absolute shock.
Ralph, in anger, smashed the ground with his two large fists, sending tremors across the desert floor.
"That's quite a temper you got there, Donkey Kong." Ranny said jokingly.
Ralph swung his finger at Ranny with an absolutely threatening undertone to his gesture.
"If you take one step closer to this kid," Ralph said, boiling red with agitation "I'll wreck the both of you!"
"Hold your horses, angry man" Ranny warned him, patting his jacket "Three reasons why you wouldn't want to do that. First reason is the guy next to me, well, you know him, he's a prince and he's also one of the best swordsmen in the gaming world. He'll cut you up pretty bad if you don't know what you're doing. The second reason is that if you do something stupid, good luck finding the pony! I won't tell you where the little horse is! You better pray you find it before opening time or else this game is going to the dump!"
"And baby makes three," as he patted his jacket, referring to himself "I'm packing too and as your cop friend would know here, I'm dangerous."
The standstill continued for a few seconds longer until Vanellope broke the silence as she jumped out of the driver's seat onto Ralph's shoulders.
"Okay, you giant chess board" she said insultingly to Ranny "I'll turn myself in. It's a deal"
Ralph looked over at Vanellope with concern and surprise.
"Kid! What are you doing?" Ralph said in a mixture of sadness and stress.
"Don't worry, I got it under control" Vanellope whispered lightly into Ralph's big ear.
Vanellope continued talking to Ranny "But you gotta get us a map, or least tell us where the pony is, first, before this becomes official."
Ranny laughed "Other way around, sweetie. Come to me first and then you get the pony. That's how you deal with the Ran-man."
"Fine" Vanellope said as she leapt off of Ralph's shoulders. During that very brief, quick leap, she winked at Victor Vector before landing right in front of Ranny.
"I don't know what you want me for" Vanellope said to the man in the checkered suit "But we had a deal. Tell my pal's over here where the pony is."
Smiling with satisfaction, Ranny replied.
"All right sweetheart" he said "I may be a virus, but I keep my word…sometimes. We buried the pony about twenty meters south of the pub. Don't worry, if you get there in time, he should probably be alive." Very swiftly, he pulled out his jeweled gun with red diamonds on the barrel on the pistol "You're coming me with me, you glitchy broad."
Marth took out strands of rope from one of his satchels and began wrapping Vanellope's arms.
"Guys!" Vanellope shouted over to Ralph and Victor as she looked over to them "Now!"
GLITCH
Vanellope, utilizing her trademark superpower that she displayed in sugar rush during the reign of King Candy and the same superpower that players and gamers adore her for, she glitched over from Marth's grasps right onto Ralph's shoulders again, leaving behind a soft trail of blue pixels. The ropes which Marth placed on Vanellope's hand simply fell to the floor. Vanellope followed that display of her glitch abilities with a raspberry directed at Ranny and Marth.
Once Vanellope was safely in Ralph's reach, Victor immediately fired shots at Ranny and Marth. Marth was able to deflect the bullets with a counter move with his famous Sword of Light, Falchion. Ranny brandished his jeweled gun and snarled,
"Suit yourself, baby."
"Let's get out of here!" Victor shouted as he evaded bullets fired from Ranny's pistol "Now! Mayor! Get in the kart!"
Ranny emptied his chamber, attempting to shoot Victor, and began reloading his pistol once his chamber ran out of bullets. Marth charged up to the kart swiftly, his footsteps only making the slightest sound. Ralph swung several blows at Marth with his large arms, all of which he missed. Victor Vector put his antiviral pistol back in his holster and unsheathed his very own antiviral blade. The blade was very plain and round and didn't look as presentational as Marth's Falchion, but it was very light and maneuverable. Before Marth could land an attack on Ralph, Victor managed to block Marth's move with his blade.
Victor proceeded to duel Marth right in front of Vanellope's kart. Marth was immediately on the attack. Victor managed to block each strike from Marth's blade but without being to take the offensive in the sword-fight, Marth was free to continue slashing ferociously at Victor and yelled every time he made an attack. Vanellope revved up the engine of her kart and shouted out to Ralph and the mayor.
"Guys!" She yelled with urgency "Hurry up and move your molasses!"
Ranny finished reloading his jeweled weapon and took his aim at Ralph.
"You asked for it, baby." Ranny said plainly as he fired two shots.
Instinctively, Ralph closed his eyes but was surprised that he didn't feel any pain. He couldn't believe that he didn't feel two gunshots. He slowly opened his eyes to realize that the mayor had been hit and was on the ground moaning in pain.
"Oh, how sweet" Ranny said mockingly "The mayor jumped in front of you and took a couple bullets for you. I hope that makes you feel guilty, you dirty ape."
"Mayor!" Ralph exclaimed as he picked him up into the S.S Stinkbrain.
The mayor's only verbalization was a couple quiet moans of pain. Vanellope, trying to soak in everything going on around her, naturally felt very anxious during the whole debacle. She made sure that the mayor was safely placed in the back seat with Ralph but realized that Victor wasn't in the kart.
"Double V!" She shouted, realizing that even though Victor heard her, he was busy parrying and blocking incoming attacks from Marth's offensive.
Shifting the gears of the Stinkbrain, Vanellope sped as fast as she could towards Marth. Before her kart collided with the blue prince, he jumped backwards very quickly and by the time he looked up, Victor had already gotten into the front seat of the Stinkbrain and Vanellope drove the car off into the desert, leaving behind clouds of dust that covered their trail.
Marth just kept looking at the dust clouds in disappointment.
"I could have killed him if I wanted to." Marth said to Ranny, who in contrast, did not look nearly as pressured.
"He's alive for a reason, Marth." Ranny answered as he put his gun back into his jacket "Now let's get out of this game before every good guy in this arcade comes after us."
