I am back with your next update! And expect more since I'm free from the dungeon known as high school! XD Enjoy!
PLEASE NO MORE PRANKING SUGGESTIONS.
Everyone in this story is owned by the magical company of (classical) Disney! Except Spook and the other pets.
Gloyd's head pounded. The entire room was spinning. Yet, he felt frozen in place. Gloyd slowly opened his eyes to straighten his vision, feeling the pain seethe through his code.
"Ooh...," Gloyd squinted his eyes shut, trying to cope with the pain. 'My head's killing me...What happened?' His forehead throbbed, as if it were suffering trauma. Gloyd tried to rub his head, but he realized that he couldn't move his arms.
"What the-?" Gloyd gasped when he saw his body was strapped to a chocolate chair by a Twizzler rope. The rope was bounded tight, and Gloyd tried his best to struggle out. But the more he tried, he could feel the ropes tighten after each time.
"Morning, sunshine!" Gloyd froze. He knew that voice from anywhere. Beard Papa stepped out of the shadows with a smile on his face. "Seems like my frying pan worked well." Gloyd's face twisted into rage. "Lemme outta this chair, you piece of jerky!"
"I don't think so," the baker replied smugly. He got in Gloyd's face. "I told you that your little bat would get his one day." Beard Papa chuckled as he pulled away, savoring the anger printed on Gloyd's face. "The little blood sucker is pretty scared without being beside you."
"You better let him go, Beard Papa!" Gloyd shouted, trying to struggle in his restraints. But the ropes wouldn't loosen. It just made things worse. Beard Papa's smirk didn't fade. "Don't waste your time. That knot won't come undone unless I pull at it."
Gloyd stopped struggling, thinking he might suffocate if he continued to break free. "Why are you doing this?! Spook didn't do anything to you!"
"He almost made my bakery go obsolete! All because he's a candy glutton!"
"He can't help it! He was hungry; and you should be thankful that he likes your crappy candy!" Gloyd's glare shot daggers. A sudden chirp caught Gloyd's attention; his head snapped up to look around for the source. "Spook! Spook, where are you?" Another chirp sounded off, and Beard Papa let out a snort. "Damn thing. Why won't he shut up?"
"I wish you were the one to shut up!" Gloyd spat, nearly toppling over from his soon-to-be boiling rage. Gloyd's eyes traveled up, and then he spotted Spook inside a golden bird cage. The frightened bat was placed on a shelf, and Spook looked at Gloyd through his prison with his big, golden eyes. Gloyd never saw Spook so scared before. The hole in his heart multiplied when he saw how scared his friend was.
The pumpkin prankster turned to Beard Papa, his brown eyes digging into baker's own beady, vengeful orbs. "Let Spook go. Now!"
"And why should I? You're powerless, kid! You lose!"
"Just wait until I get out of this chair, Beard Papa!" Gloyd roared, wiggling his wrists to try and find a weak spot. Beard Papa flicked Gloyd's nose. "Good luck, kid. But even if you did..." the baker stood upright, crossing his arms. "...Who do you think will ever believe you?"
-Outside the Bakery-
"Who do you think will ever believe you?"
Swizzle held the walkie talkie in the middle of the group, silently pleading that the other racers would believe that this was real. Ty-Dye sat upon his master's beanie, hoping for the same thing.
The entire Sugar Rush group had mixed reactions, mostly because they were confused. Beard Papa being an animal hater? Especially to a loveable and sweet candy bat like Spook? Vanellope and Whipcream didn't think it was possible. The white bunny was beside her master's legs, listening closely with everyone else.
"I saw what happened on the race track, kid. You were rejected! Just like Spook at the Pet's Fair!" Beard Papa's laugh echoed through the speaker. Swizzle clenched a fist. Minty watched Swizzle closely; it was obvious he was getting really mad.
"How would you know about Spook like that?" Gloyd sounded surprised, and the others saw the same reaction on Vanellope, Crumbelina, Swizzle, Rancis, and Snowanna's faces. How would he know about that? Their pets started to become irritated, but the owners acted quickly to calm them down or keep them quiet.
"C'mon, kid. Use your head. Who do you think started up the fair in the first place? That bat was the first thing there when it first opened. All the other pets arrived a few hours after." A few more snickers were heard. "And even before the other animals arrived, that bat was receiving hate from all around!" Beard Papa laughed again.
Swizzle looked up at the others, who seemed to be going through a change of heart. "Do you see now? We were telling the truth...Spook needs our help. And so does Gloyd too..."
Jubileena looked down at her feet, ashamed. Maybe they did misjudge the prankster too early. However, Rancis wasn't sold yet. "But he still has to apologize with sincerity." Beside him, Lord Nuttingham nodded. Something crackled on the speaker. The racers weren't sure, but they could hear something else in the background through the baker's laughter.
It sounded like sobbing.
-The Bakery-
The tears flowed down Spook's cheeks. The memories of that painful day tugged at both Spook and Gloyd's heartstrings. That bat's heartbroken sobs reached Gloyd's ears, and the Halloween prankster could barely take any further abuse. Regardless of whether it was him or Spook.
"Listen, Beard Papa! It's me you want, not Spook!" Gloyd looked at the baker with direct eye contact; wanting Beard Papa to spare Spook's life. "I was the one who devised the plan."
"Nice try, kid. But my mind's made up." Beard Papa walked to the shelf and grabbed the bird cage. A sobbing Spook wiped his puffy eyes to look up at his captor. "This bat will not live to see another day in this game."
In a second, Gloyd froze. He realized something that Beard Papa failed to see. A smile creeped up the boy's face as he started laughing. Beard Papa and Spook stared at him as if he were crazy. "What's with you, kid? One minute you're yelling at me to let your pet go and now you're laughing?"
"You forgot one thing, Beard Papa!" Gloyd said between his laughs. "Even if you do kill Spook, he'll just regenerate again! His code is attached to mine, so unless I die outside Sugar Rush, he can't be killed!"
Spook stared at Gloyd in disbelief. Why would his master say that? Gloyd winked at Spook, mentally telling him to go with it. "And you can't give me a Game Over outside Sugar Rush anyway. You're under constant surveillance here, and Wynnchel and Duncan won't allow racers to be deleted in case of being unplugged. Plus, even if Vanellope does hate my guts right now, she wouldn't allow me to die because I still play an important role in this game."
Beard Papa gave a lopsided smirk as he raised a brow. "You're pretty bright, kid. But I'm already aware that his code is attached to yours." Beard Papa's smirk returned to his face. "So that's why I hacked it out!"
Gloyd and Spook felt their hearts stop. "No! You're lying! You can't hack a code!"
"Oh yeah?" Beard Papa gave Gloyd's a smirk. He turned to Spook, who cowered under his gaze. The baker then reached into the cage, and flicked one of Spook's ears. Instantly, the bat's ear glitched and Gloyd's face fell as dread overcame his very being. "No..."
"See, kid? I'm not as stupid as you think I am." Beard Papa pulled his hand out to watch Spook look at his glitching form. "I knew that the animals at the fair would be attached to their owners codes when they were selected, making it impossible for them to die within the game. So that's when I figured out that if you want to get rid of your pet, or replace it into something new, you'd have to change the code."
Beard Papa pulled out a napkin from his pocket and showed Gloyd the symbols written on it. "This was the same napkin King Candy used to hack the Sugar Rush game fifteen years ago. And I knew Vanellope would try to fix that code; and she did." Beard Papa's eyes had a dangerous glint in them. "But what she didn't know is that I have access to the codes as well!"
"What?! How? You're just the gatekeeper to the bakery!"
"That's right! And how do you think all these things get out in here?" Beard Papa gestured to the icing tubes. "I have to access the codes in order to install them properly, giving me access to everything that's included in this game! So when that little incident happened with the candy corn icing..."
The baker paused, voice lowering as his anger began to show. "...I knew I had to exterminate the problem from the beginning! I don't care how long I get locked up in the fungeon, as long as this blood sucker is out of my bakery, I'll serve time until our game get's unplugged! And there's not a candy coated thing that you, the President, or anybody in this world is going to do to stop me!" Beard Papa let out a maniacal laugh.
Gloyd's heart sank. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't do anything to save his friend. And not only that, but the other racers didn't even believe him. Only Swizzle believed him, but he was nowhere to be found. He looked at Spook, his eyes welling up with tears.
Spook stared at Gloyd, his code glitching for a second. His soft, sad chirps stung at Gloyd's heart as the tears fell from his master's eyes."Spook...I'm sorry..." Spook's ears perked up as Gloyd let out a shakiy breath. "I told you I'd protect you, but I couldn't even do that...You were the only friend I have left besides Swizzle and Ty-Dye...and I lost you because I got careless in my pranking..." Gloyd began to sob, his tears trickling down his reddish-orange face. "I'm so sorry, Spook..."
Spook's eyes filled with tears. Beard Papa gave a snort. "You only have yourself to blame, kid. Like you said, if you didn't get careless, you'd still have friends."
"SHUT UP, WILL YOU?!"
Both Beard Papa and Spook flinched. Gloyd never yelled so loud before. It was obvious that a nerve was struck. Gloyd stomped his foot. "I get that I screwed up, okay?!" He sniffled between his sobs. "I don't need you to tell me that I screwed up so bad that I failed to protect the only friend I have left! I let down Swizzle, and I screwed up all the relationships I had with everybody else! Even Vanellope probably hates me too!"
Gloyd looked down, letting the big teardrops roll down his cheeks. "If I'm able to make Vanellope hate me, then you know how bad I screwed up! I'm a horrible friend! I can't even apologize to people to save my life! I'm the biggest screw up to ever reach Sugar Rush, and I can't even tell everyone how sorry I am for treating them like that! I only do it because I feel like it's the only way for them to notice me..."
He sniffed, trying to control his shaking body. "But because I get so caught up in it...I forget the real reason I do it...I just wanted to hang out with everyone else...But I can't do that now because all they plan on doing now is ostracizing me for the rest of Sugar Rush's days of being plugged in, and it's all my fault!" Gloyd looked up at Spook, trying to decipher him through his watery eyes. "And now...it cost me the only friend I have left..."
Beard Papa watched Gloyd break down. The pumpkin prankster finally knew what it was like to feel overwhelming guilt. And it was awful. Gloyd couldn't stop his tears. They just kept coming. The fact that his friends don't believe him about Spook, let alone accepting his apology, and losing Spook when he promised to protect him from day one was too much to handle.
Spook chirped loudly, trying to get his master's attention. He himself was close to crying too, but the bat bravely held them back in order to see his master. Beard Papa gave a snort as he turned around. "You only have yourself to blame, kid. This is what it's like to be the weak link." He grabbed Spook's cage as he walked outside, and the bat desperately chirped at the baker to put him down. "And now, you have to learn your lesson."
Beard Papa glanced back at Gloyd. "Even if you break free, you won't be able to find me. See ya later, Orangeboar." Laughing, Beard Papa walked out to finish his drastically cunning murder. Spook's chirps echoed through the bakery, fading as he was dragged out to his unfair fate.
Gloyd was frozen in his chair. After what seemed to be five minutes felt like five hours to Gloyd. His heart yelled at him to try and break free, but his mind told him to stay out. The Twizzler ropes would just suffocate him. Gloyd sniffed, trying to regain some air. He never cried so hard in his life. "Spook, I'm sorry...I wish I never left Sugar Rush so I could protect you...I'm such a failure..."
"You're not a failure if you managed to pull off a bunch of successful pranks, candy pig."
Gloyd froze. He turned around and saw Vanellope with the entire Sugar Rush gang with their pets. Gloyd blinked away the stray tears, wondering if he was just imagining things. "Guys? How did you...?"
"Swizzle led us here," Adorabeezle said as she walked to the chair. She, Snowanna, and Disco approached the chair to untie (and bite) the ropes away. The Twizzler ropes fell to the ground as Gloyd stared at Swizzle. "Swizz?" A smile creeped up onto Gloyd's face.
Swizzle smiled as he pulled out the walkie talkie from his pants pockets. Minty giggled, "Hero's Duty. Their gear came in handy on this one." Ty-Dye cawed in agreement. Swizzle and Minty smiled at each other.
"It really did, Gloyd." Candlehead agreed meekly as she approached the Halloween prankster. "We heard everything thanks to Swizzle's radio..."
"Without it, we never would have found out that you really were telling the truth..." Taffyta looked down, ashamed. Everyone else did too. Snowanna put a hand on Gloyd's shoulder. "About Spook, and that you really were sorry about pranking us."
"Do you really prank us in order to get our attention?" Jubileena asked, clearly confused. Gloyd nodded, looked down at his feet. "Well...yeah. I mean, you guys always hang out in a group. And even though I like hanging out with Swizzle and Rancis a lot," Gloyd glanced to said boys, but then he looked towards the girls. "I wouldn't mind us all hanging out outside the race track..." Gloyd's cheeks flushed a reddish-orange. He felt embarrassed to say it in front of everyone, but what choice did he have? Everything was coming out now.
Rancis and Swizzle exchanged glances, and smiled. Rancis put a hand on Gloyd's shoulder. "Dude, if you wanted to hang out as a whole group, why didn't you just say so?"
"Yeah," Vanellope agreed, stuffing her hands in her hoodie pockets. "We would have set something up if you said so."
"That's why we have the Pet-nics too," Crumbelina said with a smile. Snowanna and Disco nodded. "We're all programmed to be friends for a reason, Gloyd."
Gloyd smiled. The guilt in his heart lightened up drastically thanks to Swizzle. If it wasn't for him, the others never would have heard his apology. His real apology. Gloyd gave Swizzle and light punch on the shoulder. "Thanks for being a nosy jerk, Swizz. You saved my butt on this one."
"Don't mention it," Swizzle said with a laugh. Vanellope put a hand on Gloyd's shoulder. "And we're sorry for not believing you, Gloyd. We thought it was another prank of yours..."
"But now we know better." Taffyta said. She crossed her arms. "If it involves Spook being in danger, you're not lying!" The rest of the Sugar Rush racers nodded in agreement. The relief on Gloyd's face was beyond words. It was because of Swizzle's fast thinking of spying got him his friends back. They heard his apology, his love for Spook, and the love for his friends. He was a Sugar Rush racer again. "Thanks, guys. I really do appreciate it."
Vanellope nodded. But her expression turned serious. "Okay, now that the Sweet Seeker show is over, we have to help Spook!"
"There is no way in Bowser's kingdom that Beard Papa is gonna get rid of Spook!" Crumbelina shouted, infuriated. "How can he be so heartless?!"
"He's a cranky old man," Rancis said as he rolled his eyes. "What else is new?"
"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," Minty said, pulling the racers in.
Gloyd glanced at Swizzle, who was staring at Minty. He had a dazed look in his eyes. Gloyd smirked and nudged Swizzle in the stomach. The daredevil snapped out of his trance and glanced at Gloyd. "Huh? What?"
Gloyd smirk grew. "So...Minty, huh?" Swizzle's face flushed. He leaned towards Gloyd's ear. "Hey...STOP TALKING!"
Will you people stick around to see the end, or will you just wave it off because I changed the pranking? Will the racers save Spook, or will it be too late?
