Can you tell I'm trying to drag this out? The next chapter might be a bit short but it's leading up to a cliff-hanger, and then it'll end. As for the green skin thing, well, I have a poster at home and Vanellope's skin is green on it.
Stop her! She's trying to destroy you.
Why would my betrothed try to destroy me?
She doesn't want you to race because you'd best her.
So what should I do? How should I stop her?
Use your newfound power. She's in the code-room behind the curtain behind the throne. She cannot erase the memory of when you came to be or you will cease to exist.
Vanellope floated over to the icon that she knew, in her code, she had to tap. After double-tapping memory, a few other icons came up. 'Delete system memory', 'erase scores', 'citizens memory', 'racers memory', and 'select data to erase'. She double-tapped this last one and was faced with several more options, all involving times and dates. She reached towards one in particular but froze before she could double-tap it. She wondered why but then saw her hand turn to code. She hadn't felt a glitch coming on...
Turning, she saw R- no, the virus, he wasn't her Ralph standing in the doorway. A line of blue was stretching from him to her, causing code to follow the string over to him.
"Let go!" she screamed, trying to wrench herself away from him. But the blue string followed her. It seemed to be attached to the licorice rope. So, steeling herself, she reached towards the rope to unravel it. But her hands wouldn't work while they were code and kept going through the rope.
'Racing, Vanellope, think of racing', she thought to herself, and finally her form stabilised enough so she could untie the rope and just float in front of the icons. She heard the virus roar in displeasure at finding the rope empty, but before she could get too scared she found the date and time she needed again and tapped it once. Before she could tap it again, the virus used the rope to float over to her. Its form was becoming unstable, looking less Ralph-like. This gave her comfort and strength.
"Why are you trying to destroy me? I thought you loved me," the virus spoke to her as it grabbed her ankle. She felt drained as the code flowed from her into him. She was aware that this was the worst place to glitch- code could easily get lost and corrupt the game in here.
"You're not my Ralph!" she spat at it. "My Ralph, the real Ralph, wouldn't ever hurt me." She managed to tug her foot from its grasp but then floated away with nothing to tether her. She made panicked swimming motions, feeling her strength continue to drain as she did so, but there was no other way to get around in the code room.
"You're right," the virus confirmed, its voice eerily like distorted sound. "I'm going to take over your game, though. And after that, all of the games in the arcade." It cackled and pushed her with enough force to send her flying through several more icons, which moved out of her way as she flew past them. She swam frantically for the area she'd been at before but soon her strength gave out and she could only float and cry.
With the little problem out of the way for now, the virus could happily go about perfecting the art of racing. His feet, he soon found, were a little too large for the pedals, but that just made it easier to keep his foot flat to the floor with the pedal wedged between them. His hands, too, were too large for the steering wheel, but that didn't matter too much. He just knew that he had to cross the finish line.
"Where are you going?" he asked a mint-themed racer.
"Oh, the Random Roster Race is starting soon," she informed him. After consulting the voice, the virus found out that he first needed a coin to enter the race. So he returned to the castle, found a coin in a bedroom, and made it to the track in time for the Random Roster Race.
"Ladies and gentleman," the sour candy informed them, "the princess cannot be here today due to illness but fear not, we will still have the Random Roster Race." He sighed and continued, informing the racers that they had to throw their coin into the trophy. When it was the virus' turn, he grinned as the coin went in and took his place behind the starting line.
"There she is."
"Oh my land. Vanellope! Vanellope, wake up!"
The princess of Sugar Rush slowly blinked her eyes open when the voices of Felix and Tamora reached her ears. She was still floating in the code room but now had the strength to slowly swim towards the voices.
"Vanellope, no! You have to go to the time codes," Tamora guided her. Now she remembered and nodded, swimming towards the icons with renewed vigour. As she went, she passed the trophy icon and couldn't resist having a peek inside.
"What are you doing?" Felix worried, worrying his hat in his hands. He could fix it after.
"I have to know how much time I have," she murmured, double-tapping the icon. Scrolling through the various coins in it, she found her own coin. Patting her stocking where she normally stashed it for safekeeping, she gasped. He was going to race. She had to stop him, and soon. But her fear, once again, had the opposite effect she needed. She glitched and ended up in the trophy, surprised at being there. But she quickly climbed out and jumped, being caught just in time by Tamora on her hover-board.
"Kid, you've gotta try not to glitch in there," the older woman warned her gently.
"Never mind that, just get me there. He's gonna race and if I don't stop him, it's game over," she mumbled. Looking at her hands, she noticed that she had a green tint to her skin. Her code was showing. She had to hurry.