Chapter 10: Race For The Code Part II: A Piece Of Cake!
'Having barely cleared one race, Vanellope and Garry's team are headed for the second two-part race, Cake Way and Ice Cream Mountain. Will Vanellope be able to come out victorious on round two?'
Previously
"I can do this, I can do this." Vanellope said taking a deep breath.
Gaining all of her concentration, she once again glitched and zipped herself right out of the flock of bats. Unfortunately, she reappeared right in front of a gumball.
"Fudge!" Vanellope screamed as she gripped her steering wheel tightly.
She swerved again, but the gumball winged the side of her kart. She went spinning out of control and onto the side of the road. It's always nice to get that nice broad side out of the way! The others went whizzing right by her with triumphant cackles and laughter.
"Catch you later princess!" Minty taunted.
Garry smiled as he watched his racers leave her in the dust. He would be sure to reward Minty for pulling that off later. Vanellope, meanwhile, sat on the side of the road so to gather herself.
She kept her eyes closed for a moment while trying her best to collect herself. Rushing back into the race angry would only make things worse so she had to get her head back in the game and fast as too much was at stake for her not to! After a few seconds, she grew a determined look and then drove after them. She quickly caught up with the four racers and easily whizzed by them with every danger on the track out of reach due to how close the finish line was, thus gaining the first place in the first race. One track and lap down with two more to go!
Ralph, Felix, Jet and the prisoners cheered as they witnessed Vanellope win first place in the race! A scowl etched into Garry's features as he witnessed Vanellope cross the finish line first when he was sure it would be one of his racers.
"You might have won this race, but I can guarantee you won't get lucky a second time!" Garry darkly spoke.
It wasn't long until Vanellope and the others reached the second part of the race: The Cakeway and Ice Cream Moutain!
Currently
Having entered the second part of the race, Vanellope landed at the beginning of the Cakeway and was in the lead, having left Garry's four racer's in her dust, but she knew her role in first place was temporary and that they would come gunning for her sooner or later. However it was sooner as the sounds of kart engines could be heard gaining on her from less than a dozen feet away.
"Gee, what took you guys so long?" Vanellope mumbled to herself as she looked in her side mirrors to see Minty and King Candy's karts steadily approaching hers.
Within a blink of an eye, Minty and King Candy's karts whizzed by Vanellope while kicking up a light cloud of dust in her path. Pulling her racing goggles over her face before the debris could get in her eyes, Vanellope grew a determined look at the racers who were taunting her and knocked her from first place.
"Were you in first place? Woops sorry!" Minty taunted as she sped further ahead of the princess. "See you later loser!"
To match her determined expression, a dark growl erupted from the royal as her angered eyes trained to Minty's kart.
"Okay Vanellope, you got this." Vanellope expressed as she slammed her foot on the gas petal, accelerating her kart so to catch up with Minty and Candy. "This is your game and once this is over, Garry will be buried beneath the track, code by code and I'll personally see to that!"
It didn't take her long to catch up with her two adversaries and gained a sly grin as she tailed them, Minty's kart coming into her line of sight particularly. Just to gain her attention, Vanellope rammed the front of her kart into the back of Minty's. The front bumper took a bit of damage, but it was worth it!
"Hey Cy-butts! You didn't think you could lose me that easily did you?" Vanellope taunted as Minty and King Candy turned to notice Vanellope tailing their karts.
Minty looked slightly surprised to see her, having through that Vanellope was still further back on the track. She didn't think Vanellope would catch up so easily considering how far behind them she was, but Candy on the other hand looked delighted. King Candy then signaled to Minty with an expression that only she understood, which made her slow acceleration as she drifted behind Vanellope's kart, knowing exactly what King Candy's next move was going to be. A look of confusion crossed Vanellope's face at noticing what Minty was doing, but she didn't let that deter her determination for winning the race. She did get the inkling the two were up to something dirty however.
"Didn't want it to be too easy brat!" King Candy voiced before pulling out a Gum-zooka as Vanellope's eyes widened at the sight of the weapon. "Here's gum in your eye!"
Pulling the trigger, King Candy fired, but Vanellope glitched out of the way at the last second! The large wad of gum ended up hitting Minty directly, who had been caught completely off guard! Her kart tumbled over numerous times and she came tumbling out of it. The green haired girl bounced off the ground a few times, hitting her head as she did! When she finally landed, she tried to push herself off the ground, but her head was ringing too badly for her to do so. After a few seconds, she passed out onto the ground. Vanellope smirked and looked back at what remained of Minty's kart.
One down, three to go!
"Why you cheeky little brat!" King Candy shouted angrily. He fired the Gumzooka again, but Vanellope was skillfully avoiding the shots. "Stand still you little runt!"
But Vanellope kept on glitching out of the way with each shot fired. She thought she would have to come up with something clever to take King Candy out of the race, but it looked like he was about to do himself in. Vanellope began to drift, and King Candy smirked. He had a perfect shot now. "Got you now you little-what the?!"
He had been so focused on shooting at her that he had missed them approaching the spiraling multi layered cake. He quickly dropped his Gumzooka and tried to start drifting around the corner, but it was too late. His kart slid right off the cake, sending him falling into a cupcake on the side of the track! Now two down and two more to go!
"Alright Vanellope!" Taffyta cheered. "That'll show these bug-eyed freaks whose game this is!"
The strawberry themed racer was quickly quieted by the cattleprod gopher rod that the first Turbo humanoid were holding that wigged her code out a bit as she was slightly electrocuted
"Quiet down prisoner." The humanoid spoke in a deadpanned voice.
"Don't you ever touch me again you freak!" Taffyta screamed, having recovered quickly from her slight electroshock.
"Way to go kid!" Ralph cheered to Vanellope, having witnessed her victory.
"She can actually win this." Felix cheered. "Go Vanellope!"
Jet remained silent as his focus and thoughts were on his brother, but he kept his focus on the jumbotron.
"Save my brother please Vanellope!" Jet mentally prayed.
Garry looked annoyed. Minty was out cold so even if he did fix her and her kart up, it was pointless and Candy was currently sunken in cupcake frosting. By the time he got out, he'd be much too far behind to do any good. The only ones left now were Rancis and Set. They were a good distance behind her, but he had no doubt they would catch up to her in no time. When they did however, she would be in for a big surprise. If she thought they'd be as simple as the others, she was dead wrong!
Vanellope kept speeding forward, hoping to stay ahead of Rancis and Set. They couldn't have been that far behind her, but she needed to hurry up and make up the lost ground. As he made her way through the Cakeway, she suddenly noticed a large shadow looming over her.
"What the-?!" Vanellope gasped as she quickly turned her vision to the sky above her to see just what trick was heading her way this time.
In noticing what that large shadow was that was looming above her, Vanellope drove to the side just before a large piece of cake crashed down on top of her. Vanellope looked back at the chunk of cake and then up towards the walls at the beginning of the stage. Sure enough there was a large chunk of it missing, which made the royal frown. That had NEVER happened before! This had to be Garry's work!
Noticing another shadow looming over here, Vanellope turned to the sky and gasped. What she saw were that the cake walls surrounding her were caving in.
"Fudge…!" Vanellope cursed as she slammed her foot on the gas to get out of the area and quickly. The ending to the race track was not that far away and right up ahead!
With the walls seemingly caving quickly, she picked up speed and began swerving and glitching to avoid the falling chunks of cake from above. Just as it looked like she was about to make it out free and clear, the walls completely caved in on her.
Gasps erupted from Ralph, Jet, Felix, Taffyta, Gloyd, and Swizzle as they witnessed what took place on the Jumbotron's screen. Garry, however, smiled at the sight in delight. If his racers didn't stop her, somehow, something would and that did it.
"Vanellope!" Ralph shouted as he jumped to his feet along with Jet and Felix.
"Cheater!" Taffyta said turning towards Garry. "You are not getting your grimy hands on this game by any means!"
The antagonist simply shrugged.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Garry mused with a smirk. "But if she can't continue the race then I guess this little competition is-"
A spark appeared on the screen and Vanellope appeared in front of the massive pile of cake that had collapsed in on her, instantly shutting Garry up! She gasped for breath and wiped the cake batter and icing that were covering her hair and face. Vanellope had barely managed to glitch her way out of there. She then looked up towards the camera with a glare.
"That the best you got?" Vanellope dared as she drove off again.
Garry raised his eyebrow. If she was going to call him out, then he wasn't going to be subtle about it anymore! The rules were officially going to change!
"Fine glitch, you want a battle, I'll give you a war." Garry muttered snapping his fingers together. A large scoop of ice cream suddenly appeared in the air above Vanellope.
Spotting the scoop heading right for her, Vanellope gasped.
"Aw c'mon! Now you're not even trying to hide it!" Vanellope yelled as she swerved out of the way of the ice cream ball.
The scoop just barely missed Vanellope, and she almost lost control of the kart. The ground beneath her suddenly began shaking, and a large crack formed into the ground.
"Oh Man!" Vanellope groaned. "Now what?!"
Appearing before her was a Sweet Seeker item that floated above the crack in the ground. Vanellope reached out and grabbed the item as the crack in the ground grew wider.
"Soda Burst!"
Two cans of soda appeared on the side of her kart. They opened and fizz shot out from the tops, sending her shooting forward with a quick boost.
"That user for good cheats." Vanellope mumbled to herself in praise.
She managed to outrun the crack in the ground and felt a shiver up her spine when the track behind her split in two. Vanellope was starting to regret egging Garry on like that. The more she had to keep dealing with the traps he sent at her, the further the others would get ahead of her.
Garry was growing irritated. He knew taking her down would be difficult, but her driving skills were more impressive than he'd given her credit for.
"Alright then princess, let's kick it up a notch." Garry dared as his eyes shined a lime green.
Vanellope gasped as candy cane spikes began shooting out of the ground. She zipped left and right trying to avoid the spikes.
"I'm going to beat him to a pulp when this is over!" Vanellope shouted angrily as she continued swerving so to avoid the spikes.
She sped up moving as fast as she could, but then felt the kart rock. One of the spikes had managed to skim a wheel on the kart!
"You've got to be kidding me!" Vanellope yelled as she was trying to regain control of the kart. Another spike came up and scrapped the side of her kart. She went spinning out of control and slammed into a piece of cake on the side of the road.
"I'm going to slaughter you for doing that to her!" Taffyta screamed to Garry as she jumped to her feet, despite the bonds on her hands.
"That's one wipe out." Garry said smirking. "One more and she's done."
Vanellope tightened her grip on the wheel. Her kart was slowly repairing itself. There were plenty of crashes in the game, and the karts always repaired themselves mid race, but while they usually were back on the track in seconds, this repair felt agonizingly long.
"C'mon! C'mon!" Vanellope groaned, slamming her hands on the wheel. The repair was taking entirely too long!
The kart finally fixed itself and Vanellope took off. She reached the end of the Cakeway and made it to the Ice Cream Mountain. She drove upwards, feeling the temperature dropping as she moved forward. Forty degrees, thirty degrees, twenty degrees, the temperature just kept dropping with each mile she crossed on the ice cream'd track.
"Okay, gone through this plenty of times." Vanellope spoke to herself in an attempt to get her nerves under control despite the plummeting temperatures. "I got this-"
The royal's thought was immediately cut off as a large scoop of ice cream suddenly came rolling towards her. As it rolled it grew, collecting more ice cream as it rolled towards her.
"Fudge!" Vanellope cursed.
Vanellope was able to move out of the way of the first boulder, but saw more coming toward her up ahead.
"The boulders aren't supposed to come this early!" Vanellope reasoned, knowing the all knowing reason why the boulders were arriving sooner than they were supposed to. "Now you're not trying anymore Garry!"
Three scoops up ahead began rolling down at once and they took up the whole track with no way to avoid them. Vanellope grew a determined look as she eyed the boulders.
"Off road skills, let's go." Vanellope declared, driving off the road as she began making her way through the thick number of trees. At least this way she didn't have to deal with the boulder like scoops of ice cream. While that was indeed Ice Cream Mountain, that was ridiculous!
Set and Rancis had finally caught up to Vanellope's mileage, but didn't anticipate on what was to take place next.
Rancis spotted Vanellope within the forest area below the track, but wasn't paying attention to the large ice-cream boulder that was heading in his direction at lightning speed. When he finally looked ahead, the boulder smacked right into him, knocking him and his kart off of the track! The racer and his kart tumbled to the left and into a ditch!
Three down one more to go!
"Amateur!" Set chuckled as he dodged the incoming boulder with ease that threatened to knock him off of the track. He spotted Vanellope in the forest below, but didn't bother to give chase as he had something much better planned that would guarantee to throw the royal off of her game. He then continued into the cave up ahead so to head off with Vanellope at the end.
In the mountain's forest, Vanellope knew she couldn't keep that up though. She couldn't move as fast off road, but she just figured this would be better than dealing with Garry's stupid traps on the tracks. At some point she needed to get back on the track, but it wasn't a matter of how, but more, when. She then heard a loud noise and saw a tree falling towards her. Vanellope didn't even bother groaning this time; she needed to focus on staying alive and winning.
She sped up barely managing to dodge the falling tree. As expected, more started falling towards her. Vanellope used her glitch to avoid most of them. It wasn't too difficult. Unlike the other traps, the trees couldn't just change directions.
Vanellope finally zipped back onto the track, around the cave, and found she was further up the mountain. She was near the top already, which meant she at least had a chance at catching up. As Vanellope reached the peak of the mountain, she decided to do something crazy. The track downwards was curvy and she didn't have time to deal with it so she figured she'd cut straight across.
Vanellope kept driving straight, right off the side of the road and landed down on the side of the mountain while struggling to keep her grip on the wheel. The terrain was very rocky and rough, but she somehow managed to keep going. Continuing to struggle to maintain her trek through the rough terrain, Vanellope didn't spot Set driving right alongside her, having exited the mountain's cave and driving on the same terrain as her. However, the rough slam he gave the left side of her kart surely caught her attention.
"Give it up Glitch!" Set yelled over the howling wind of the frosty mountain. "You're done for and with you out of the way, Garry will surely rule this game!"
"Not if I have something to do with it!" Vanellope retorted as she slammed into the right side of his kart while the wind blew her hair around. "It will be that terrible excuse of a ruler that will be living out in Game Central Station because I'd rather die saving this game than to let him run my game into the ground!"
"Famous last words!" Set slyly spoke.
The two continued to drive through the rough terrain side by side as Set gave her kart another rough slam, which nearly sent her kart spiraling into a tree, but glitching out of the way mere seconds before her and her kart were goners is what saved the royal from a vehicular homicide.
Looking past Set, Vanellope noticed the distance she was from the track and getting back on it was going to pose a challenge, especially with Set standing between her and it. However, a little light bulb came on in the royal's mind as a sly grin graced her face. With some quick thinking, Vanellope quickly decelerated backwards and glitched behind Set, instantly confusing the twin as he nearly slammed into an approaching tree, but he was able to avoid it at the very last second.
"How does Swizzle keep doing stupid stuff like this?!" Vanellope shouted as she made her way towards the next track, having crossed the milestone from Cakeway and Ice Cream Mountain.
Having witnessed yet another win on behalf of the Princess, a fierce growl erupted from Garry as he slammed his fists on the armrest of the announcer's chair.
"How could she manage that?! HOW?!" Garry fumed as he watched Set make his way back onto the track, miles behind Vanellope on the jumbotron. "I have done everything to stop her, but yet nothing will!"
Noticing how outraged he has become, Garry immediately took a calming breath to relax himself, despite the victory cheers that erupted behind him.
"Still yourself Garry, still yourself." Garry mused. "There's always the last and final track, my ace in the hole. She will surely meet her end there, but just to make sure to level the playing field evenly."
The game's information, from the absorbed code box, scrolled down Garry's eyes with the list of the game's racers appearing before his vision. Three racers were highlighted on the list and, just as quickly, were removed with a sickening grin gracing the hybrid's features as the word DELETED appeared. His vision then returned to normal.
A colorful aura that matched the racers' themes suddenly surrounded Taffyta, Jubileena, and an incapacitated Adorabeezle Winterpop, the three quickly disappearing as tiny trails of their code remained in their wake.
"Oh no! Guys!" Candlehead screeched as Gloyd and Swizzle lowered their visions in despair.
"NO!" Jet screamed as he leapt to his feet.
"What just happened?!" Felix questioned.
Ralph didn't respond, but yet, turned his infuriated gaze to the announcer's stand, to Garry.
"Whoops, my fingers slipped." Garry lightly chuckled.
Can you believe that the drive behind this chapter (other than HardWrapping's amazing race writing skills) was the song "Weird Science"? Don't ask why lol, it just was!
My apologies for my two week hiatus as I had to contend with finishing my summer term's final exams and life in general. However, my Fall terms begin soon and I will try to have 'Friend' for Schweet Deal written and posted before then. With that said, please don't forget to,
Review Please!