Hooray! This story now has ten chapters! I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Things will start getting even more intense. Please remember to read and review and tell me what you think. I still love hearing what you have to say! To be honest, I'm a little bit jealous of the writers whose stories have hundreds of reviews. I would love to be able to do that.

I do not own Wreck It Ralph or the characters, only my OC Lemona Lime, and once again, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 10

Ralph tore down the bleachers towards the race track for the fourth time that day, Felix and Calhoun on his heels. Something was not right. Normally, the only time Vanellope crashed her cart was when she was being driven by a new gamer who wasn't used to the controls. Today she had been crashing all day. Ralph was pretty sure her head wasn't in the game.

Crossing the track to the mess that Vanellope's cart had become, Ralph scooped up the little racer in his gigantic hands and held her up while Felix set to work repairing the cart. Holding her up at eye level, Ralph gave her a puzzled look. "Kid, what gives? That's the fifth time you've crashed today, and it's only a couple of hours after lunchtime!"

Normally Vanellope would have started squirming in his grasp or glitched out of the position she was in, but this time she just hung like a coat on a coat rack. Her hazel eyes widened out of concern as she stared back at Ralph. "Sorry Sir Stinks-a-lot, I just can't stop thinking about Lemona. You saw how she was acting this morning! I can't help but feel like there's something wrong!"

"Yeah, I'll admit, there was something off about her this morning," admitted Ralph, remembering Lemona's strange attitude throughout their breakfast. "You think we should ask her what's going on?"

"Negatory," butted in Calhoun, who had been listening silently as she watched her husband work. "This strange behaviour could be the result of a virus, and if it's a virus, she may not realize she has it. She may not realize that anything is different or wrong about her. Our best bet if we want to know what's going on is to go into the game's coding again."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Ready for action, Vanellope glitched into her newly-repaired cart and revved the engine. "My subjects can race without me for a little bit. I wasn't really doing that well anyways."

So the group headed back towards the castle. Sour Bill let them inside with his dead-pan expression still on his face, and they all headed down the hallway towards the door that provided access to all of Sugar Rush's coding. Vanellope was about to go inside alone when Ralph halted her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're coming with you kid." That was all he needed to say. Once the door's password had been entered inside and the door opened, the group dove inside and started to swim. Everybody followed Vanellope because she had been the one to find Lemona's coding before. Glowing blue wires and multi-colour boxes were everywhere, and everyone had to be careful that they didn't bump into any of it. The slightest bump could cause problems, and with the arcade open, they couldn't afford any problems.

It was easy for Vanellope to find the place where Lemona's coding was supposed to be. But when she saw the blue strings of numbers and letters, she had to do a double take. What she had first seen as weak, limp strings were now much stronger. They were not as strong as the coding of the characters without glitches, but there had definitely been some unknown improvement. Not to mention, they were also starting to turn a dark shade of black. One of the changing wires sparked as Vanellope carefully brushed it with her hand, and then something else caught her attention. Turning her head towards it, Vanellope felt herself go speechless along with everyone else who looked where she was looking.

Finally Felix said the words that were on everybody's mind: "Oh my land."

The main code boxes, the ones with the character names written on them, were where all of the wires and codes that made up the characters were connected. Each was a different color, depending on the personality of the character they were programmed to keep alive. In a sense, the boxes were the hearts of the characters, pumping electrical energy like blood into the pulsing blue codes and wires. If anything happened to the box or the wires, it directly affected the characters.

Vanellope distinctly remembered Lemona's box being yellow the last time she'd seen it. Now, there was a horrid black-brown substance completely covering it. It seemed quite thick, and when Vanellope reached out to touch it, she realized it was hard too. Carefully, she scraped a little bit of the coating off, and sniffed it. It didn't smell bad. In fact, it smelled like chocolate. So before Ralph or any of the others could stop her, she stuck her finger in her mouth to taste it. There was a pause as she smacked her lips and rolled her tongue around in her mouth, trying to figure out what the taste was. Suddenly she got it. "Ralph, her memory box is coated in almond rocca!"

"Oh my land!" Felix repeated, his hands flew up to cover his mouth, but his eyes betrayed his true feelings. "What's happening to her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Calhoun demanded, picking up one of the wires with a glove covered hand and inspecting it. "Something's corrupting her code, and whatever it is, it's been working quickly.

"Corrupted?" A light seemed to go off in Vanellope's head. "That explains the way she was acting this morning! Come on! We've gotta find her!"

Vanellope turned around and swam out of the coding room as fast as her little arms and legs could carry her. Everybody else followed suite, and when they were back in the doorway, they saw Sour Bill waiting expectantly.

"Your Highness, did you happen to go into your room earlier?" he asked in his monotone. "I was just about to go inside, but I saw your door open a crack."

"What?" That didn't sound good to Ralph, who watched as Vanellope's face paled as she spoke. "My door was closed when I left this morning." She turned to Ralph, a look of wild panic flaring up in her eyes. "Come on Booger Breath!"

Vanellope tore down the hallway, her friends still right behind her. Unfortunately, Vanellope was so stressed that she glitched away, so by the time Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun got to her room, she had already been inside. She was gripping a photo of herself and Ralph and staring at it, the fear plain on her face. That emotion was not one that Vanellope liked being expressed; she was a lot like Calhoun in that sense. Seeing it so clearly made Ralph know that something serious had happened. "Kid? What's wrong?"

Vanellope ran up to him, flapping the picture in her hand frantically. "Take a look at this photo Ralph. Look at it!"

Ralph had no idea what the picture had to do with anything, but his friend was in so much of a panic that he felt it wouldn't be a good time to ask about it. So he obeyed, taking the picture and giving it a good, hard look. Nothing seemed wrong with it. "This is the picture we took of us after your very first race as president."

Vanellope nodded. "I keep it stuck on my bed post with extra sticky taffy so that when I get up every morning it's the first thing I see. I found it on the floor."

Ralph still didn't really get it. "Vanellope, I don't see—"

"Think about it Ralph!" shrieked Vanellope, a wildness taking over her as she threw her hands in the direction of her bedpost. "What do I keep hanging on the bedpost with that picture?"

"Nothing, except for the keys to the fungeon." Suddenly Ralph understood the reason behind Vanellope's panic. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Vanellope nodded, confirming his suspicions. "The keys are gone. Someone stole them Ralph."

"Jiminy jaminy," Felix gasped, and Calhoun whipped out her machine gun. "We'd better get down to the fungeon pronto and make sure Turbo's still down there!"

As the situation got worse and worse, the four found themselves moving faster and faster. If Turbo somehow managed to free himself, they would have a real situation on their hands. Not to mention, they still hadn't found Lemona. Vanellope couldn't stop herself from praying that Turbo hadn't done anything to her.

Arriving in the fungeon, they made their way to the cell Turbo was supposed to be locked up in. Before they made it that far, Calhoun gestured to the floor with her gun. "Look. Footprints."

"They're probably mine," Vanellope brushed off Calhoun's observation. "I come down here twice a day to feed the no good, rotten piece of black liquorice. Today because I was racing I asked…Adorabeezle!"

Picking up the pace, everybody ran to the cell. Pieces of candy littered the floor and it looked as though a brawl had gone down right in front of it. There was somebody inside the cell, but it wasn't Turbo. The person sitting and tied up with chains was none other than Adorabeezle. She was shivering in the cold fungeon, and her face was tear-stained. There was a goose bump the size of a jawbreaker on the top of her head. When she saw Vanellope, she started sobbing fresh tears. "Vanellope! Thank snow cones! Please, let me out of here!"

Immediately, Ralph used his hands to beat the cell door down, and everybody rushed inside. Without the keys to the fungeon, Vanellope was no help in getting Adorabeezle out of the chains, but Calhoun shot a couple of bullets in a couple of certain places, and within moments, the chains tumbled to the floor around Adorabeezle's feet. Still sobbing, Adorabeezle threw herself graciously at Vanellope. "Thank you! Thank you!"

A lump swelled in Vanellope's throat, and she tried to swallow it so that she could look as comforting as she could be under the circumstances. "Adorabeezle, what happened? Where's Turbo?"

"Gone!" gasped out the terrified racer, choking out her words along with her sobs. "I came down to give him his breakfast like you asked, and I saw him out of his cell." Here Adorabeezle sniffed, and her voice lowered to a hushed whisper. "Lemona was down here too. She was hugging him! And when they heard me behind them…They knocked me out and threw me in the cell."

Vanellope didn't want to believe it, but she knew that Adorabeezle was too traumatized to be lying. She continued to hold the sobbing racer, but turned her head so that she was looking straight at Ralph. Her orders flew out of her mouth in a commanding tone that she'd only had to use once before: when everyone had assumed there was a Cybug in the Black Liquorice Forest.

"Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, let's go. We've gotta visit every race track in Sugar Rush. Chances are that's where they'll be.

"What are we gonna do when we find them?" Calhoun asked, shifting her weight onto one side as she adjusted her grip on her gun.

Vanellope was silent for a moment. Then she looked at Ralph again, biting her lip. "I don't know."

"Did you see the look on her face when you hit her with your cane? Priceless!"

Lemona grinned deviously as she whipped around another corner on the track and passed Turbo, who was speeding along in his white chocolate cart. They had managed to find it hidden in the kingdom's bakery and were now racing each other playfully on one of the more complicated tracks. This one had a sugar cane forest theme, complete with tall trees made of sugar canes that had delicious candied apples growing plentifully. This track was also one with power ups, so Lemona threw her head back and laughed as her cart ran into one and she obtained the Sweet Seekers gun. "Here, have some candy!" she cackled, loading up the gun and jamming her finger on the big red button on her cart that would unleash the fiery power up.

"Hey, that's my line!" Turbo exclaimed playfully, yanking his steering wheel expertly from side to side in a desperate attempt to dodge what was being thrown at him. He managed to swerve around two of them, but the final one clipped the side of his cart, throwing it into a spiral. Cursing loudly, Turbo tried to get his cart back into control, and luckily he got back on track just before his cart drove into a ditch on the side of the Rocky Road. By the time he crossed the finish line, Lemona had put her cart in park, a vivid grin on her face. "I win again."

"Turbo-Tastic!" Turbo chuckled, shaking his head with amusement and adjusting his red bow-tie. "I swear Lemona, if you keep this up, you'll be an even better racer than me!"

"Really?" Lemona hopped out of her cart and bounced up on the hood of Turbo's her smile still on her face. "Sweet and sour lemonade! I haven't had this much fun since I tried going tree-climbing." She felt her neck again when she mentioned that day. Her scars were definitely getting better; they weren't quite as red now. But they could still be seen pretty easily. Keeping her hand on her neck, Lemona made sure to keep her smile on her face. She didn't want her day to be ruined just because she was talking about them. "The only difference is that nothing bad can happen because nobody knows we're doing this."

"Guess again, Lemona."

Never in a million years would Lemona have expected that voice to appear behind her. Startled, she whipped her head around, and the sudden motion made her tumble from Turbo's hood onto the road. Quickly jumping to her feet, she stared in utter shock and disbelief at the four characters in front of her, all of which did not look happy to see her. Ralph was cracking his knuckles, while Felix held his hammer tightly at his side and Vanellope stood with her arms crossed over her chest. Calhoun's face was riddled with a scowl and she had her gun aimed directly at Lemona and Turbo. That lady did seem pretty passionate about her guns.

Her blood running cold, Lemona gave the four a panicked smile. "Vanellope!" Too high. There was no way that could pass off as normal and casual. "I thought you'd be racing all day. What brings you here?"

"Someone was in my room," was the president's stiff response, "and someone locked up Adorabeezle in the fungeon. We learned something horrible about your coding and we were concerned about you, but we couldn't find you. It was like you'd vanished." Vanellope's serious expression grew darker as she spoke. "Just like the keys to the fungeon."

"Oh, you mean these keys?" Trying again to hide her fear, Lemona gave the quartet in front of her a smirk and held out the mentioned keys tauntingly. "You know, you really shouldn't leave these in such obvious places." She was lying; it hadn't been easy finding them. But there was no reason to let them know that. Besides, for some reason she felt like gloating. It helped the fear leave her system, and allowed pride and satisfaction to take its place.

"What are you doing kid?" Now it was Ralph's turn to speak, and he sounded even more panicked than Lemona had been. "Don't you remember what we told you about Turbo? That guy's dangerous!"

"Oh really?" So they were deciding to go back to that story. Well, Lemona wasn't going to back down without a fight. "Is it him that's dangerous Ralph? Or is it HER?"

As she jabbed her finger in Vanellope's general direction, a glitch started to build up inside of her, due to the amount of rage in her words. Everybody saw the glitch coming, but Turbo was the only one to react, grabbing onto Lemona's hand as she shut her eyes and held back what was supposed to come. Once the jerking and spasms stopped, she opened her eyes again to see everybody staring at her with even more shock on their faces.

"Wait…That wasn't the first time you'd been down in the fungeon, was it?" Vanellope demanded, pointing an accusatory finger right back at Lemona. "You've been seeing Turbo ever since we locked him down there, haven't you? That's why you know how to hold back your glitches! You didn't learn how to do it in your room, Turbo's been teaching you!"

The little cavity was smart; she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Lemona knew that telling the truth was inevitable. There was no way that she'd be able to deny the accusations. And really, what reason did she have to deny what had been going on right under Vanellope's nose? Lemona's smile disappeared and was replaced with a dark scowl just as ugly as Calhoun's as she spoke again. "Yes Vanellope, I'll admit it. Turbo's been helping me. And he's also the guy that told me what YOU did to my coding!"

"Huh?" Bewilderment clouded Vanellope's thoughts and rang out in her tone. "What are you talking about Lemona?" The intensity of the events that were taking place was making her face pale until it was whiter than a mound of whipped cream, and Felix grabbed onto her hand reassuringly, as though ready to help her if she suddenly swooned. Vanellope now understood why Lemona's code was being corrupted, and she needed to figure out a way to make Lemona realize that what she believed wasn't true and that it was causing her body more harm than good.

"Oh please," Lemona snarled back, her emotions continuing to boil inside of her. "Don't play dumb with me Vanellope. We all know that you're the one who destroyed my coding and gave me my glitches, just so that I wouldn't be able to race."

"What?!" The news was too much for Vanellope to take and the word exploded out of her as her hazel eyes narrowed in disgust and fury at Turbo. "Is that the crud this psychopathic pile of toxic waste has been feeding you? Lemona, that's ridiculous! Why wouldn't I want you to race?"

"Shut your chew hole kid," Calhoun advised Vanellope, her military urges kicking in. "I've dealt with this sort of thing before." Directing her attention back at Lemona, she spoke in a calm, but strict tone that told Lemona she meant business. "Listen kid, this scum has been lying to you since Day One, and staying with him is causing your code to become horrendously corrupted. Why don't you just step away, we'll lock him back up in the prison, and then we can continue this discussion in a calm, safe manner elsewhere?"

"Are you daft?" demanded Lemona, shooting daggers back at the quartet. Another glitch threatened to take over her, but with the amount of negative emotions inside of her to harness, she was able to hold it back with ease. The stiffening inside of her chest that she had felt that night returned, though now it didn't feel uncomfortable. Instead, it was almost comforting. But she didn't have time to think about it. She needed to figure out what she and Turbo were going to do about the four pests standing in front of the only exit.

"Do you honestly think that I'm going to believe that he's been lying to me after all the things that he's done for me?" the anger in her voice was making it quite shrill, and the four winced at the sound, but didn't respond. Lemona continued to speak, needing to get everything out. There would be no more secrets. Besides, once she and Turbo dealt with the four cavities, it wouldn't matter what she had told them.

"You didn't want me to beat you in any races, did you Vanellope?" Lemona continued to snap. "But you decided you didn't want to throw me in the fungeon with Turbo. So what did you do? You got one of the other racers to destroy my coding and completely remove racing from it so that I would think I had no purpose! Then you invited all those glitch-hating twits to your castle so that they could laugh and make fun of me, further destroying my confidence. And yes, you may have acted like a kind and loving president by offering to allow me to work in the castle, but then you made me fall out of a tree, breaking every bone in my body, and then, when you supposedly tried to 'fix' me, you gave me these!"

While everyone's attention was directed at her face, Lemona took the opportunity to reach into her pocket and pull out some black liquorice. Wordlessly, she reached behind her and passed it to Turbo, who took it from her instantly. He could tell that a plan was forming in her mind, and once she was sure Turbo had gotten the hint, she took a deep breath and continued speaking.

"Now that I think about it Vanellope, you've done a lot for me too." Everybody watched warily as Lemona began walking up to Vanellope, who looked like she wanted to back up the closer Lemona got, but stood her ground, trying to look brave. They all looked like they weren't sure who to keep a better eye on, the angry girl or the manipulative psychopath who had convinced her to free and trust him. Calhoun kept her gun trained on Turbo, but her eyes kept darting back and forth from the man to the girl.

Lemona continued to advance, a sick smirk curling up on her lips. "You know what? I think I'll repay the favour by taking over your kingdom, kicking you out of it, and then, when you're stuck inside of another game, deleting your code!"

Snarling the last part, Lemona reached out her arms and gave Vanellope a vicious shove. Crying out in pain, Vanellope stumbled back and tripped over her feet, tumbling face first into a chocolate mud puddle. Ralph was the first to react, leaping over to her to try and catch her before she actually landed in the puddle, and the sudden movement caused the tense Calhoun to shoot her gun. The bullet whizzed towards Turbo, but he ducked just in time, revving his engine so that he was headed straight towards the group. Before anybody could do anything, he grabbed the now frozen Lemona, and shoved the black liquorice in her mouth along with Vanellope's. Then he tore away with his foot stomped down on the accelerator, the cart roaring away as fast as it could go. They left Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, Vanellope, and Lemona's cart in the dust. As Ralph helped Vanellope to her feet, she felt utterly hopeless and betrayed. "Ralph…" she gasped, staring up at him with defeat in her hazel eyes. "I'm doomed."

Bum, bum, bum! Sorry, I had to do it. I'll try to update ASAP, but I'm still kinda busy. Once again, please review! Thanks for reading guys! You are all amazing! Ciao!