I know everyone has their theory on how Turbo got into Sugar Rush and how he became King Candy and all that...well, here is mine. It continues into the next chapter as well. It's probably not as creative as what other people have come up with, but I always figured he took over in a simple non-grand fashion.

Save Me from My Dark Side

Chapter Fourteen

Sugar Rush - 1997

Kids...this game has kids in it.

Turbo was beyond pissed. All these years of waiting for Litwak to install another racing game, and he had to go and pick one that had kid avatars in it? It was almost enough to drive him more insane than he already was.

For the last ten years, the disgraced ex-racing star had been scrounging off the bugs and worms that infested the Anteater game, using the fact that no one ever visited that world or that the Anteater himself never left the game to his advantage. He was able to hide there undetected ever since TurboTime was unplugged and spent the majority of his time practicing altering bits of code, using the Universal Code given to him by that bastard twin Teddy. Years of planning and figuring out exactly what he could do to the codes were all he had to do with his life, and all those years had made him angrier and bitter about how his life had spiraled into a pit of nothingness.

When he first went into exile, Turbo had thought that it would only take a few months for Litwak to bring in a new racing game to fill in the void. Months flew by and before he knew it, a whole year had passed. One year turned into two, two turned into three, and so forth. Time meant nothing anymore, the days merged together. Sometimes a week felt like a single day...sometimes a day felt like a month.

If he wasn't preoccupying himself with being inside the codes and fooling with them, Turbo's mind would dwell into the darkest part of itself. Nightmares plagued him if he so much as let a hint of a memory of his past life get past his guard. He woke up screaming sometimes, tearing the grass beneath him in a fit of both rage and sorrow. It crossed his mind on many occasions to kill himself, but he would think to himself that he had lasted this long and that unless he wanted it to all be in vain, he better keep himself alive.

While the arcade was open, he had to keep hidden from the gamers so he made do with sleeping during that time. Before and after opening hours though, he would make himself keep his ears peeled for any talk from Litwak about any new games coming in. None of them were for racing.

Eventually, ten years went by. By then, Turbo had almost forgotten what it was like to have a normal life with regular people around him. He could remember of course but it hurt him to do so. The Anteater game was located at the very end of Game Central Station; the portal across from it was empty for a long time so there was no foot traffic in that area. Sometimes, when he felt more lonely than usual, he would dare to go just a few yards away from the game's opening and look out at the Station, hoping to see at least one person go by, something to give him a semblance of reality. Anything to remind himself that he was still alive and not some ghost wandering about. Not many people came that way though so he was more often than not disappointed. It was still nice to see the ol' Station every now and then though.

Finally, one day he heard the words he'd been waiting to hear. Litwak was talking on the phone after he'd closed the arcade about a new game he'd just purchased that was due to arrive the next day. It was called Sugar Rush...a racing game. Turbo thought the title was odd but he didn't care so long as it had racing in it. When the game finally arrived, he could hardly contain his enthusiasm. But first, he had to get out of the Anteater game without people noticing him.

That proved to be easier than he thought. He made a skin out of some of the insects in the game to wear for himself as a disguise and latched himself to the side of the wooly Anteater then managed to make him uncharacteristically leave his game. The animal could not speak and how much he understand any spoken language was debatable, but the plan worked. The giant mammal traversed along the perimeter of the Station while his "bug" companion held onto his thick fur until finally passing by the Sugar Rush portal.

The racer had wasted no time hopping off the Anteater and dashing himself into the tunnel, ripping off his homemade costume when he felt he was far enough away from any prying eyes. This particular tunnel did not have a train system to transport visitors so it took him a while to finally reach the end of it. When he got there, he could hardly believe his eyes. The graphics in this game were unlike anything he had ever seen before, even surpassing the ones that belonged to RoadBlasters, which had been the last new game he'd been to. The colors were bright and cheerful and the general mood of the place screamed happiness.

Turbo took a deep breath of fresh air...and gagged. The smell was sickeningly sweet and it was quite the contrast from the dirt-and-grass smell he had grown accustomed to in Anteater. He looked up at the sky and noticed the clouds were...cotton candy? Apparently, the reason this game had the word "sugar" in it was because it was candy-themed. He traveled down the Rainbow Road that led to the rest of the world, being on the look out for any of the game's citizens. Upon reaching the end of the road, he bent down to the dirt and scooped some up in his hand, sniffing it cautiously. It smelled like...crushed graham crackers?

He felt stupid eating dirt but curiosity got the best of him and he shoveled it into his mouth. The sweetness overload in his mouth initially made him nauseous, since his diet for the last ten years had consisted of simply bugs, worms, some grass and water. He threw up a little to the side from the foreign substance but it was substantially better than what he had been eating, so he forced himself to eat some more just to get used to it.

He wiped his hands of the crumbs left behind and he decided to take a stroll to familiarize himself with this new territory. Everything was edible, he found quickly enough. He ended up in a Candy Cane Forest and he snatched a small twig off one of the lower branches and sucked on it for a spell. If he was going to live here, he better get used to sweets fast. He began to walk along a giant branch, one that was almost big enough to drive on. At first he thought he was seeing things when he saw it begin to glitch but he jumped out of the way right before it disappeared completely.

He scratched his head in confusion. The branches disappeared on contact? In an investigative mood, he touched some of the smaller branches above him. Nothing happened. Finally, his eyes landed on one that was slightly different than the others. It was double-striped. He grabbed a hold of that one and it blipped away in his very hand.

Ah, clever. Turbo had no idea why something like this would be in a racing game, but he had to commend the developers for coming up with some interesting environmental visuals on the side. Perhaps this was part of a mini-game? He had heard some talk from the gamers outside the Anteater screen about new games having mini-games in them, so maybe it was part of that?

He looked down at where the large branch had disappeared and he had to strain his eyes to read the small sign that read "Nesquik Sand". He didn't know what Nesquik was, but it appeared to be some form of chocolate powder. He shrugged and carried on with his self-guided tour.

He eventually wandered into a sticky chocolate bog, the sign of which read Molasses Swamp on it. His legs were getting sucked into the chocolate mud and, simply being curious, he grabbed some to try it out. Delicious! He absolutely adored chocolate, he used to grab milkshakes over at BurgerTime all the time when he and Rosie went out-

DON'T THINK ABOUT HER.

She might would've liked it here...

DAMN IT, STOP THAT.

He decided to bypass Molasses Swamp for the time being. He then ended up on what appeared to be fields of lollipop grass...if that made any sense. He plucked a cherry one and started sucking on that. He hoped he didn't get a sick stomach again from filling it up with so much junk.

Suddenly, the familiar sound of engines filled the air. Ah, that's what he wanted! To take a look at the cars and the track...or tracks, plural. He was almost positive in a world this large, there was more than one track to race on. He followed the sound and he hid behind a large jawbreaker that was halfway buried in the ground and he peeked around it. Below, he saw a winding track made of what looked to be taffy and a large group of karts were speeding down it. There were too many to count at the time but there were quite a lot. They all zoomed past where Turbo was hiding and he cautiously decided to go in the direction that they were headed.

At last, he reached where the finish line would be and he saw boxes of confectionery people cheering from candy boxes for their favorite racer. Turbo thought that was rather interesting, NPC's made up of candy, and he found himself actually smiling at the sound of the cheering, even if they were not for him...yet. He got close enough to see what the racers looked like and...

They were kids. Every single one of them were little kids, no more than the age of ten, he garnered. He felt his blood boil immediately. He hated kids, hated them. The idea that he had to share this new world with them was too much for him to handle at the time and he quickly turned away, clenching his fists at his sides and shaking with fury.

What cruel joke were the arcade gods playing on him? He had waited ten years for that old fool Litwak to bring in a new racing game and it had children as the racers? He forced himself to turn back around and he noticed that the children had circled around one particular child. Her kart was white with a crown-like shape in the back, looking slightly fancier than the others. She had raven hair with little candies stuck in it and she wore a tiny tiara.

A princess. This place had a princess? Was this some kind of royal monarchy? Was there a king and queen as well? Turbo did not know but he certainly intended to find out. If he was going to usurp this game as his own, he would need to know all the details, know what he was getting himself into. He watched as all the kids looked up at a giant screen and the winners of the race were highlighted, their names called out by a big booming automated voice. It seemed that out of all the racers, only nine would go on to be part of the next day's roster of avatars to be picked by gamers. Turbo had never seen a system like this before, but he understood that this must be how the avatars took turns getting to be part of the next day's game. They all had to race and the first nine to cross the finish line were to be available to the gamers.

Clever, very clever.

The little princess girl grew excited upon hearing her name called out and bounced around excitedly. Vanellope von Schweetz. That was the weirdest name Turbo had ever heard in his life. Actually, all the kids' names were goofy sounding. The only one that sounded normal was the one simply called Candlehead, which just sounded dumb if you asked him.

Turbo'd had enough of watching the racers and decided to go off exploring the rest of the world. Licorice Fields, Candy Corn Fields (where he had the misfortune to run into an angry fire-breathing uni-candy-corn that, because of some kind of glitch, was unable to leave the premises), a lemonade fountain, an ice cream mountain range, a volcanic structure called Diet Cola Mountain, a Gumball Alley, a stretch of racing track made entirely of cake, and other such strange destinations made up his travels over the course of the next two days. He took special care to not get seen by any of the citizens of the game.

The Code Room was what he was looking for. Where could it be? He found a few houses belonging to some of the avatars but they did not possess any locked rooms that he could enter.

Finally at the end of the second day, after climbing up a large hill next to the Licorice Fields, his eyes fell on the castle located in the center of the game. He slapped his forehead in frustration. Of course! It only made sense for the lifeblood of the game to be located in the royal domain. He should have thought of that the second he found out a princess lived here.

Idiot! You wasted precious time!

The arcade was open and the castle grounds were empty, like a ghost town. Turbo couldn't believe that there were no guards present even if the princess was not currently residing within the castle. The security here was extremely lax, which would be to his benefit later on. The doors weren't even locked! What kind of place was this kid running here? Ifhe...correction...when he was ruler of this place, he would have guards around the clock watching this place.

The long hallway leading to the throne room was pink...

Rosie used to wear pink...NO, DON'T THINK ABOUT HER.

The long hallway leading to the throne room was salmon. Fitting, as it served as the home to a little girl. There was good deal of white to balance it out and not seem so girly though, so it would be tolerable to live with later. Now, where would that Code Room be hidden...

He remembered that the one over in TurboTime was hidden behind a giant curtain that was in the car garage. He and the twins had found it during their first month of being plugged in but none of them had a clue what it was for at the time. The one at Anteater was hidden behind a waterfall, so it made sense for the one in Sugar Rush to be hidden in a similar fashion. Conveniently enough, the throne had a giant curtain behind it so that was the first place he checked.

Eureka! A long silver hallway greeted him after a few moments of wandering behind there and it wasn't too long that he saw the familiar locking mechanism that apparently all games possessed. Hands shaking, he took out his trusty Tapper's napkin with the Universal Code scribbled on it and tapped in the coordinates.

Swish!

Turbo's jaw dropped when he saw the all the boxes and groups of codes that made up the game. There was...quite a lot. Much more than that Anteater game had had for him to play with. He was positive he could figure it out though, after all he had ten years of code hacking experience behind him, even if it had been limited materials he'd been working with.

First thing he needed was a support line of some form, so while the castle was empty he went on a search. He actually managed to find a long piece of rope to tether to him to the side rail while he went floating inside cyberspace. He reckoned that as long as the arcade stayed open, the castle would be empty, but he didn't want to assume wrong and then get caught in here. That would be bad.

He floated about for a while and relief began to wash over him when he realized that the system wasn't as complicated as it looked. There was just a lot. He found each racer's personal codes which included their stats, the Random Race Roster system, codes for the karts (he was going to have get used to that word: kart), and even a cute mini-game that allowed the gamer to create their own kart if they did not want to use their chosen avatar's personal one.

Stats...each racer had different speeds, balance, etc. It made them all unique. Since that jerk Teddy had altered Turbo's code to make him slow down, he reckoned he would need to "borrow" some of the faster ones speed skills in order to make himself the fastest. If he'd had his original formatting within him, he was sure he could out-drive all these little kids.

Turbo then wondered how he would change his appearance to fit in with this game...it wasn't long before he had his answer. Off to the side, he found what appeared to be yet another mini-game, yet this one wasn't part of the finished game. The programmers must have made it and then decided at the last minute to cut it from the game. This one was an Avatar Creator. It was like the Go-Kart Bakery game, only the gamer could create their own avatar as well if they did not want to use one of the ones already available. Apparently, the programmers thought that if they let this game be available, then no one would use the pre-made avatars, so they cut it.

This was perfect! Turbo-tastic! It would solve his problem of fitting in with the other racers once he took over. He scratched his chin as he thought about how he should look. Looking like a child was out of the question...besides he stood at least two heads taller than them from what he could tell from a distance so that would look odd anyway. No, he needed to keep his adult status.

A king.

He needed to look like a king. There wasn't one (or a queen) when he'd searched through the characters earlier. He smiled at the thought of being treated like royalty after all these years. He thought about what he should look like. Handsome and dashing? Not that he didn't think of himself that way already, but he could make himself look more so.

No no no no no.

That was out of the question as well. He shook his head as the idea of women flocking to him ran through his mind. He wasn't about to deal with that, he couldn't deal with that. It wouldn't be right anyway, it'd be like he was...cheating somehow. In some weird way, it would be like he was cheating on her even though that would be impossible since she was...

Damn it, stop thinking about her!

Right, so he was going to age himself. Hopefully that would be possible. Women didn't (usually) go for old men so that would be perfect at keeping them at bay. Maybe no one would bother him at all, he didn't want anyone getting too close anyway, especially if he was going to be living a lie. He might accidentally let something slip out and his true identity would be revealed.

Turbo decided he had spent enough time in the Code Room and pulled himself back out, letting the door swish close behind him. He didn't want to chance anyone walking in on him, even though he was fairly sure that the castle was still empty.

He needed to think, needed to plan accordingly. He hid out near Diet Cola Mountain since no one seemed to go near there. Okay, so he far he knew he was going to become the king, since obviously this game didn't have any other ruler besides that princess... so all he had to do was butt her out somehow. He highly doubted she would accept him or buy some lame story that he had been in the game this whole time but just now decided to show up.

No, he was going to have to kill her, he was pretty sure of that. He already had experience locking up memories, having done it to the Anteater at times, so he could easily erase anyone's knowledge of there being a princess running around. It would be like she never existed.

He grinned widely to himself, relishing in the thought that he would soon have power and glory again...have a feeling of belonging somewhere, doing what he was supposed to be doing...racing. It would be like stealing candy from a baby.

Present Day

Turbo felt a wave of nostalgia hit him when he approached the castle, both Wynchell and Duncan flanking him. They had escorted him the entire way there since he stepped onto the Rainbow Road. Rosie had, much to his dismay, stayed behind, saying that this was something he had to do by himself. At least she was nice enough to pack him a duffel bag. The two pastry cops had been giving him suspicious looks, as if they couldn't figure him out. Granted, they were probably confused by seeing him in his original form. They had, after all, only ever seen him as "King Candy".

If they had ever liked their king in the slightest, it certainly didn't show now. They didn't even speak to him the entire journey to the castle. The Oreo guards were performing their usual chant as they pranced about in formation in front of the entry doors and they slowly parted and allowed the trio access. The doors creaked open and they entered the building, the doors closing again behind them. They walked down the long hall to the throne room where Sour Bill showed up, his usual dour expression plastered to his face. He looked up at Turbo through his always half-lowered eyes.

Turbo had never had anything against the little green guy, having been another adult to talk to during his reign. Besides, he followed instructions and didn't ask questions. He had been rather easy to sucker into talking him into doing his "king's" bidding.

"Sour Bill," the racer greeted simply with a short nod of his head.

The rotund candy-being widened his eyes in a rare moment of shock. "You...you said my name right."

Turbo stared at him in confusion.

"You...uh...I mean, you don't..." he seemed to be fumbling with how to say it. "You don't have...a lisp."

Oh, that.

Turbo blew his breath out and rubbed the back of his neck. "No, I don't. I only had one because the avatar I was using...King Candy...well...the teeth were much shorter than my regular ones so I ended up talking funny...you all have smaller sets of teeth here..."

Sour Bill processed that for a minute then simply said, "Oh."

Vanellope saved him from having to deal with the Sour Bill and the cops anymore. He never thought he'd actually be glad to see her, but putting up with her would be better than this awkwardness.

"Welcome back to the castle, Turd-o!" Vanellope greeted him with a skip in her step. She waved at the other three characters. "Okay, you're all free to go now."

"Are you ever going to quit calling me that?" Turbo asked her grumpily as the others left them alone in the throne room.

He saw that it had been redesigned slightly, since her actual kart was the one that he had used and it had been destroyed by that Cy-Bug. There was what appeared to be a giant marshmallow-shaped throne in the other one's place. He personally liked the first one better, seeing as how the kart had doubled as the throne. He always liked backing it up into the throne spot.

"Nope," she answered as she stood there twirling one of her fingers around her hoodie string and using her other hand to hold a lollipop she was steadily working on.

He rolled his eyes. "All right, what torture do you have planned for me?"

Vanellope laughed and ran to her throne to bounce on it a few times before plopping down. "You're so paranoid!"

"Cautious is a more appropriate word to describe it."

She crossed her eyes at him and stuck her tongue out. "Relax, dodo-brain, no one's gonna torture you. However, you do have to do what we say while you're here, so that means behaving."

He was getting parented by a group of children. Classic. Rosie had better appreciate what he was going through here.

"And before you ask, there's no way you're staying here in my castle."

Turbo did not fail to hear that she put emphasis on "MY castle". Not that he could blame her. It still hurt though that he still wasn't trusted to be around the palace.

"Hey, I meant it when I apologized," he informed her, an almost hurt look in his eyes.

"I know, but...it'd still be kinda weird having you hanging around," Vanellope related to him. "Know what I mean, jellybean?"

He stuck his hands in his pockets, his shoulders sagging slightly. "Sure."

"Now, before I allow you further entrance into Sugar Rush, you have to answer me one question."

He was a little frightened upon hearing that. What could she possibly want to ask him? It could be anything. Anything at all.

"Fire away," he told her, trying to act nonchalant about it.

Vanellope got a very solemn look on her face, which was unnatural for her. "Why didn't you kill me when you first came here?"