Sonic raced as fast as he could to catch up with Flash's evil alter ego, Nega Flash, who was flying toward Green Hill Zone. With no time to wait for the space elevator, Sonic entered Terminal Velocity, running right on Nega's tail.

"Come catch me if you can, Sonic!" Nega taunted, as he flew just above Sonic.

Ralph came to the station for the space elevator with Vanellope on his shoulder. He entered the vehicle and accelerated toward the world below. Vanellope got off of Ralph's shoulder and sat on a seat, sniffling, still upset about Flash's deactivation. Ralph was looking out the window for Sonic and Nega while also being cramped inside the elevator, being that it wasn't designed for characters his size. He turned his attention to Vanellope.

"Hey. Hey. Don't cry, kid." Ralph said, lifting her chin.

"I...I just miss him...so much, Ralph." She sniffed, looking back down.

"We'll bring him back. He's not gone for good."

Vanellope wiped her eyes and looked up at the wrecker, giving him a small smile. A small tremor shook the elevator. Ralph and Vanellope looked out the window to see that Nega was shooting purple lasers at Sonic. Sonic dodged by quick stepping left and right. Nega demolished parts of the road where Sonic was running on, but Sonic jumped over the damaged areas to avoid falling into space. Nega left himself open and Sonic jumped high to homing attack into Nega, but Nega kicked him down like a soccer ball.

"Is that the best you've got, hot shot?" Nega shouted.

He tumbled on the ground, dropping his rings, while Nega sped off toward the planet below. Sonic quickly got up and accelerated to keep up while he and the elevator were nearing the planet. He jumped off of the tower to the grassy ground, scanning the area for Nega. Ralph and Vanellope exited the elevator and caught up with Sonic.

"Where did he go?" Ralph asked.

"I don't know. I lost him." Sonic answered, still looking around.

From the corner of his eye, Sonic saw Nega emerge from behind the tower, about to shoot.

"Look out!" He shouted.

Sonic pushed Ralph and Vanellope as hard as he could before getting hit with Nega's laser. He tumbled backwards to the ground, knocked out.

"Sonic!" Vanellope shouted.

Sonic flickered and blinked for two seconds before he regenerated on his feet.

"I'm okay! Don't worry."

Vanellope sighed in relief.

"That was a cheap move, coward!" Ralph shouted at Nega.

"So? I don't care. I'm far more powerful than Sonic or my pathetic positive side."

"Why are you doing this? You're a beta character like Flash so what would you possibly gain by crashing games."

"You don't listen very well, do you? Isn't it obvious? That virus that my opposite was infected with? I am that virus."

It made sense to Sonic now. That was why Flash was acting like a virus back at the party. He was under the influence of Nega Flash. He was the voice the Flash was hearing in his head.

"You...You were the one who caused Flash to go nuts at the party!" Ralph stated.

"Finally! Someone catches on!" Nega falsely praised. "In case you have anymore dumb questions, I'll tell you everything. I was programmed to be the Flash's dark side, which is why we used to share the same code. I hated being the lesser side of the same character, so I split from him. I would have separated from my positive side sooner, but I wasn't strong enough. I needed to absorb code in order to grow, so I influenced him to crash the mansion area for me to absorb its code. Also, unlike him, I don't glitch because my programming is complete. And now that I split myself from his code, I'm now free to crash every game in this arcade and become the most powerful virus ever!"

"In your dreams!" Vanellope protested.

"Yeah?" Nega chuckled. "Well, who's gonna stop me?"

"I am." She announced.

"And me." Sonic said.

"And me." Ralph said.

"Suit yourselves."

CUBE!

Nega transformed into a dark purple cube and slammed himself to the ground, causing a powerful shockwave which threw the three backwards.

"Oh! Did I forget to mention I can use all color powers?" Nega mocked.

LAZER!

Nega transformed into a purple laser and shot himself toward the portal to Game Central.

"...Hey! Get back...here!" Sonic shouted as he slowly got back up.

Nega Flash was long gone and flew through the electrical wiring into the station. Upon reaching the Station, Nega's presence caused a panic among the characters who were at Luigi's party. Among them were Felix and Calhoun, who were just walking out of Fix-It Felix Jr. Everyone began to run for their games.

"Tammy! Look!" Felix shouted, pointing at Nega.

"Flash has gone viral again!" Calhoun gasped.

Nega chuckled darkly and zipped into the first portal that caught his attention, Hero's Duty.

"He escaped into your game!" Felix pointed out.

Suddenly, a beeping noise was coming from Calhoun's belt. She pulled out what looked like a communicator.

"Johnson, report!" She ordered.

"Ma'am, cy-bugs broke loose in our game! We need your help!"

"On my way! Come on, Fix-it."

"Flash and Cy-bugs? Jiminy jaminy. This day cannot get worse."

Felix and Calhoun made a break for the portal to Hero's Duty.

"Are you guys okay?" Sonic asked after dusting himself off.

"We're fine. We're fine." Vanellope answered after helping Ralph up.

"The guy's gonna destroy the arcade." Ralph said.

"What can we do?" Vanellope asked hopelessly.

Sonic paced for a moment, mumbling to himself.

"Sonic!" Called a friendly voice.

"Tails!" Sonic greeted.

"I saw Flash shoot by me, heading to Game Central. What's going on?" The fox asked.

"Flash's dark side split himself from Flash and is going to wipe out the arcade if we don't do something." Ralph answered.

"What!? Split himself from Flash!? How?"

"We'll explain later. Right now we need to get to the station."

The four wasted no time in reaching the portal and taking the monorail into Game Central.