Tamora's confident, albeit stealthy strides eventually led her to where the destructive giant currently was, smashing away at a stray pile of bricks. She didn't have to see his face to know what kind of expression Ralph wore: Blank, distant, with orange aggression painted across his eyes. He was a shell. A mindless shell of a character that was filled with nothing but hate.
The smoky haze made it hard for her to aim properly, but with careful adjusting and an exhaled breath to seal the deal, she took her first shot.
The ray of light struck Ralph in his back and had the wrecker howling in pain. He sunk down to his knees as electric sparks seized him, rendering him immobile. But Tamora knew it would take more than one single hit to knock the big guy unconscious; she needed at least six more solid strikes to finish the job.
As her huge target recovered, he turned to look at her with his glowing, angry eyes. The sergeant stood her ground and even had the nerve to taunt him.
"That's right, Wreck-It. I'm taking you down," she shouted, pointing her gun at him again. "We can do this the easy or the hard way." She doubted that she would be able to reason with him, but she figured it was worth a try.
Sadly, Ralph didn't think it was worth anything. He roared in anger and abandoned his wrecking in favor of eliminating the blonde threat in front of him.
Tamora put her long legs to use and ran off, yet she never once ceased in her task of firing. Powerful beams escaped her weapon, though now that Ralph was aware of the attack he dodged them. Either that or he lifted up one of his hands and absorbed the shock in his palms, which both surprised and unnerved her. She would obviously need to hit him somewhere that wasn't his hands for the stunning to successfully work.
But first, she needed to distract him somehow.
In the nearby distance, the Nicelanders were relieved to see Felix returning to them; the tight block of trembling bodies came apart as they absorbed the fixer into their space, surrounding him protectively. Their normally neat and tidy clothes were ripped and dusty; dirt from the debris were smudged across their plump cheeks, making them appear all kinds of disheveled. In fact, they looked more like miniature hobos than a functioning community of people.
"Oh, it's just terrible, Felix! Ralph's nearly destroyed everything!" Mary exclaimed, her voice thick with grief.
"We can't stay here," Gene added, cringing when the loud sound of something collapsing echoed throughout the area. "He's eventually going to run out of things to break and come after us!"
"Just hold on, everyone. Sergeant Calhoun is taking care of it," Felix addressed the uneasy group, casting a furtive glance over at the ensuing battle. An uncertain restlessness tugged at the pit of his stomach, yet he tried to keep that part to himself. "I'll bet she gets Ralph to stop any minute now."
On the other side of the once quaint world, a flash of blue suddenly captured both Felix and the Nicelanders' attention. It zipped from one spot to the next in a flurry of erratic lights and code, but eventually materialized into a disoriented-looking Vanellope. Her now solid feet made contact with the 8-bit grass, and she instantly scrunched up her face and covered her nose with her arm to shield it from all the dust.
"Wh-what the?" The girl coughed as another glitch rippled through her, wide eyes flicking from place to place in a growing sense of terror at the scene. "Ralph?!"
The larger man had left without so much as a word that morning, and she had been left distracted for the entirety of the day. So much so that Taffyta and even Rancis had been able to beat her a couple times in the day's races. She had been so frustrated that she had taken it upon herself to forego their little 'agreement' about her remaining in Sugar Rush in order to get an explanation. All those concerns fell away, however, at the sight of Fix-It Felix Jr.
The flashes of light that made up her glitch warped over the destruction as she headed off, and she was surprised (she didn't know why) to find that Ralph himself was the cause of it all.
"RALPH!" She called out, louder this time, and touched down on the ground a little ways behind the wrecker, his back facing her. Holding her head and squeezing her eyes shut momentarily, she shook herself of her dizziness and looked up again in panic. "What do'ya think you're DOING?!" She shouted, raising her arms in exclamation. What would possess him to destroy his own home? "First you ditch me this morning, then I come here to find you tearin' up your own turf! Have you completely LOST IT?!" Her anger was beginning to return again, and the annoying static in her ears was not helping. "You better tell me what's going on right now, mister!"
On the opposite side of Ralph, Tamora could have sworn that she heard a familiar voice. She didn't focus on that, though, just because she was trying to take the huge man down, but when the voice came back, along with a trademark glitchy effect, that's when she knew that Vanellope von Schweetz had found her way into the game.
Apparently, she was not only the president of Sugar Rush, but also the president of Bad Timingas well.
Much to Tamora's horror, Ralph had heard Vanellope's voice as well and turned his head to regard the tiny girl. This would have been the perfect time to shoot him, since he was officially distracted, but Tamora couldn't do that. Not when someone else's safety was on the line. It was why she tried to steal his attention back.
"Hey! Eyes on me!" she demanded, firing a warning shot into the air.
Ralph looked at Tamora again and snarled before lashing out with his arm. Tamora barely managed to dodge the attack, but as soon as she'd regained her balance she was struck with a powerful backhand. The impact caused her to crash into the ground, and while she was down Ralph's sight fell upon Vanellope once more. He turned around in full and loomed over her, glaring through his coded, orange eyes.
"R-Ralph? What're you doing?" Vanellope asked, her voice cracking with the beginnings of fear.
The wrecker raised his colossal fists high up over her head; it was obvious what he was going to do, but the girl refused to budge. She was frozen on the spot, staring up at her friend with fearful, disbelieving eyes. Before his fists could flatten her like a flounder, she was swiftly swept off the ground by another pair of strong arms and high-tailing it away from the rampaging wrecker.
"Wreck-It's lost it, Schweetz, and there's no reasoning with him!" Tamora explained, keeping the youngster in her arms as she hurried away from their enormous opponent. "You need to get out of here while you can!"
Vanellope scrambled in the hold, desperately wriggling herself around so that she could get a clear view of Ralph over Tamora's shoulder. "Whadaya mean 'lost it'?!" She demanded to know, her mind racing a mile a minute. "What's wrong with him?!" She hated being left out of the loop, and she was more confused now than she had been earlier that morning. "And I'm not goin' anywhere, so put me down!" She twisted and turned in Tamora's strong grip as they raced away from Ralph, but all the while her eyes were locked onto him.
Tamora hadn't expected for Vanellope to understand the situation, and it wasn't even because she was a child. It was because Schweetz was downright confused as to why Ralph would suddenly, and unexplainably, turn on her. Though the kid squirmed like a worm in her arms, the older female didn't let go as she continued bolting from the wrecker, who was actively pursuing them like a cat pursued mice.
"The virus! It took over his mind!" she finally elaborated, taking them towards a high pile of collected rubble. She quickly jumped on top and then shot at Ralph, who yet again absorbed the blow in his palm. "He doesn't know who he is, let alone who you are!" Tamora continued, firing another beam. "There's no getting through to him now that he's done for!"
"'Done for'?!" Vanellope repeated, the words obviously doing little to quell her growing sense of panic.
Her nervous eyes trailed over the destroyed scenery and once again locked onto the rampaging figure, who was running full-force in their direction with a look of pure, unfiltered rage etched across his contorted features.
That wasn't Ralph. That was not her best friend.
"I'm not trying to speak for Wreck-It, but I know he wouldn't want you around him in his condition," Tamora added, looking at the bad guy that had nearly reached them.
It was time to start running again. Springing off of the pile, she headed for a separate area and tried to think of a new strategy. Obviously getting away from Ralph and firing whenever she could wasn't working. She needed a clear shot, but that required both of her arms, and setting Vanellope down just wasn't going to happen.
Unsurprisingly, that didn't settle well with the girl. "Put. Me. Down!" Vanellope ordered yet again. "Maybe I can talk to him, and—"
Her words died when another shot from Tamora's gun rang out, her gaze snapping over to Ralph to see him easily deflect the shot with his palm – like a hockey goalie with unfairly oversized mitts. Much to her relief. She didn't want her friend, rampaging or not, getting shot at.
"And quit shooting that thing!" Vanellope fussed while reaching out with her tiny hands to desperately make a grab for the gun and get Sarge's aim away from Ralph.
It irritated Tamora to no end that the brat couldn't seem to get it through her candy-coated head: There was NO reasoning with Ralph. He wouldn't listen to either of them. Vanellope might as well have offered herself up as a willing pancake, because that's exactly what she would be if she tried to snap the wrecker out of it.
"If I don't shoot him he's going to catch up to us, and I don't know if you're thick or what, but if we end up getting squashed there's no regenerating for us!" Tamora shouted, continuing to head away from Ralph. The large man was gaining on them pretty fast; he was nearly fifteen feet away and catching up quick with his huge, bulldozing steps.
They didn't have much time. She needed to take another shot.
Struggling, Tamora ripped her gun away from Vanellope's prying little hands and released another beam; it zipped forward and struck Ralph directly in the chest, causing him to stop and sink down on his knees, just as he'd done before. Pleased that she'd hit him, Tamora fired again, andagain, so that only two good shots remained before her target went down; he was already looking worse for wear, since his limbs were growing numb and useless under the powerful stunning strikes.
"NO!" Vanellope screamed, twisting her body around in an awkward position to try and grab at the gun again. Tamora was quicker though, and soon another shot was ringing out. "STOP IT!"
By now Ralph had lost pretty much all momentum, and was left practically crawling towards them. His features were still twisted in a blind fury, and his large and trembling hand was reached out in a last-ditch attempt to destroy them both. It was a pretty pathetic sight since they all knew Ralph, but pity wasn't something Tamora would give him.
Not when he would sooner pummel them into gravel than spare their lives.
"I hate to be the one to break it to you, Schweetz, but it has to be this way. At least until we can figure out how to get rid of this filthy virus once and for all," Tamora stated, aiming at Ralph's head for her final shot.
"Sarge, PLEASE!" Vanellope cried, tears now present in her voice. "Don't do this!"
The desperate plea might have been enough to stop a weaker and more emotionally-driven being, but Sergeant Tamora Calhoun remained firm with her objective in mind. In the end she was doing what was best for everyone, even if that upset someone along the way.
It was why she fired the last shot without a single beat of remorse.