Chapter 12: Progressio

All that remained from Ralph's furious blow was a napkin that lingered in the air for a time.

It was only Tapper who noticed the peculiar object that flew out from King Candy's clothes. The bartender felt as if he was on the verge of discovering another clue, and apparently he was right. "Ralph, can I see that napkin over there?"

Wreck-It first released Tapper from his restraints before handing the napkin over. The big guy wasn't paying attention to what was written on it, most likely because he was still in shock that he actually killed a person. (He was supposed to regenerate, I don't understand…) While he has 'killed' Felix many times over the years, that was in their own game; this incident was different, evidently.

Tapper mumbled as he read the contents of the napkin, "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start..."

His suspicions about the King were becoming even more justified. "T-This is my napkin… and my handwriting."

Ralph snapped out of his state of being in shock in order to pay attention to this important discovery. Vanellope on the other hand, was still in shock after witnessing for the first time violence to the degree of bursting code.

Then, in a sudden moment, Tapper collapsed on the ground from exhaustion by the pain he endured from King Candy. His posture was already weak, part of his face was bruised, and his clothes were covering other wounds he had.

"Tapper!" Naturally, Ralph ran over to him to assess the situation; the bartender was, needless to say, in bad shape.

"Tapper, I need to take you to my game and fix you u-"

"No no, don't take me through Game Central Station…" Tapper interrupted, taking into account the Neighborhood Watch Program that was still going on that night. "If anyone sees me like this, Surge is going to send people to conduct an investigation of Sugar Rush."

"What's the problem with that…?"

"They're going to investigate everyone here in Sugar Rush, and eventually they'll find out that the ruler of this place was killed. There's going to be alot more trouble."

"Yeah..." Then Ralph had an idea pop in his mind. "Oh wait! I could drop you off at Vanellope's place and fetch for Felix's hammer myself."

Vanellope commented sarcastically, "Yeah, no yeah, you don't have to ask for my permission."

"Vanellope, are you okay with that?"

"My place is shabby, but it'll do…"

The only way they could've exited the factory was through the booth where Beard Papa was posted, so with Vanellope on the seat of her kart, Ralph at the back, and a weak Tapper securely wrapped around his neck, they speeded out of the factory. Since Vanellope didn't know how to drive, Wreck-It had to use his own hands in order to keep the kart moving.

They flew by Beard Papa, who would have called security, but didn't have the authority to. All he was able to do was alert King Candy, who would then send out security - although the King decided to go alone this time. One thing that Ralph and the crew didn't know was that Papa saw everything that happened at the factory.

Vanellope directed Ralph towards Diet Cola Mountain and told him to drive into the wall between the sugar free lollipops.

"Are you crazy!?"

"Don't worry, it's a secret opening!"

Ralph really had to trust her for that moment as they were passing the wall. Nevertheless, he yelled as they were glitching through.

His hands made the kart come at a full stop. With everyone safe on board, Ralph climbed out the kart and observed what he thought looked like cave, and he wasn't so impressed.

"So this is where you live? In a cave?" (Gee, this place looks like a dump…)

Vanellope was a little offended. "This is only the entrance, Bub, check this out."

With Tapper still hanging on Wreck-It, Ralph followed Vanellope out into a giant area that can be only described as an unfinished bonus level. A pillar of Mentos was hanging over a giant pit of Diet Cola at the center.

"Diet Cola Hot Springs," Ralph read the sign in front of him, "Watch out for falling Mentos?"

"Yeah! Check this out," Vanellope grabbed a pebble and threw it as high as she could at one of the hanging Mentos, but missed by a longshot.

"Well, that was lame…" She embarrassingly admitted, "Well anyway, hey, look look look look!"

She ran up to a crude, makeshift shelter with a spongecake bed and candy wrappers, proudly proclaiming, "Welcome to my home!"

(She lives here by herself, with all this garbage around her…?)

She pointed at Tapper, saying, "He can rest on my bed… There's no other comfortable place around here."

Vanellope went to tend for her kart as Ralph placed the bartender on the spongecake bed as carefully as he could.

"Alright Tapper, I'll be back soon."

"Thanks, Ralph."

As soon as he layed down, Tapper almost immediately went to sleep.

And so while Ralph had the duty of finding Felix, Vanellope had the duty of babysitting for a time.

She was quite bored after fiddling with the pedals of her kart while waiting for Ralph to come back - or at least for Tapper to wake up. When the bartender awoke, he was quite calm yet weak. He saw Vanellope sitting on a rock, playing with her doll to pass the time.

Tapper greeted,"Hey there."

"Hiya mister," She replied politely, placing her doll on the side of her.

Tapper only had enough strength to sit on the bed, and when he got up to sit, he asked, "I haven't formally introduced myself, have I?"

"Tapper, right?"

His nod of confirmation gave Vanellope the cue to add, "I heard from Ralph that you're a bartender."

"And a counselor by night…unofficially."

Vanellope became concerned for Tapper after he started hurting as soon as he tried to stand up. He sat back down to ease the pain.

"If there's anything I can do to help, just ask," The girl offered, "You don't look so good right now…"

Tapper replied with a smile, assured that although Vanellope lost her memory, she was still the same in a way. "Thanks, kid."

Vanellope stood up, dusting off her skirt and walking closer to Tapper to say, "Hey, let me ask you something."

She placed her arms inside her sweater pocket as she asked, "How did you know my name when you first saw me outside the Fungeon?"

"Hah, well let's just say that when I first saw you, I thought you were someone I knew a long time ago," Tapper knew himself that he was technically telling the truth – technically, but not honestly. "She went by the name Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz."

"Oh yeah? What a coincidence..." Vanellope didn't like the sound of that name when 'princess' was stuck in front of it. "Was she a glitch too?"

Tapper had to think for a while before answering that question.

"...She is now."


Hiya,

If any of you find Tapper's comment about the napkin to be associated with Dixie Darlin's fanfic Benefactor, that's because I READ IT (Due credit goes out to Dixie Darlin alone for the idea). Check it out if you haven't seen it, it's a good, sensible explanation as to how Turbo got the Konami Code at Tapper's.

Oh and yes, Vanellope really does have a doll in the movie.

Nightmaster000: ...I kinda wrote the story so that King Candy wouldn't regenerate, so yea, he's really dead. SORRY

XXPay4XtraShippingsXX: Y-you almost got me there, :p

Dixie Darlin: I wasn't expecting that either...Till I wrote chapter 11 lol.

Samtastic V2.0: (I'm from the states) So uh, long story short, I am very bad at making titles for chapters, so I just use Latin words (i.e. Neco, Fortuna, Fefello) that I believe sum up the chapter. Yeah I'm lame X)

Eazer5615: Yeah uh, sorry. I've already had an idea about what I was going to write for this chapter before I read your comment. I appreciate your suggestion though!

Which reminds me, comments and suggestions are always welcomed here, thanks (and if I don't respond to your comment, it's nothing personal - I just don't know how to respond to it, but they are always appreciated!).