The NPCs immediately began to panic, gasping at the 'glitch' that had somehow gotten a gold coin and bought her way into the race.
Vanellope's brown eyes met Lorain's in an instant, a grin spreading across her face.
"The glitch!" Taffyta snapped as she ripped the tarp off of the object on the race track, revealing Vanellope's pedal powered kart.
That's when Vanellope noticed the fear and panic unravelling around her.
"Now, now, calm down. Everything is alright," King Candy tried to calm down his subjects, before turning to the track and yelling, "Security!"
Lorain looked over at King Candy in shock, "What are you doing? Vanellope's my friend!"
"Come here, kid!" One of the pudgy police officers said, stepping up to Vanellope.
"She can't race, Lori, you know that," King Candy said, turning to Lorain and seeing the distressed look on her face.
"We're not gonna hurt you, ya little freak!" Wynnchel snapped, running at Vanellope.
The young girl let out a yelp and turned, running off towards the other side of the track, glitching out of pure fright.
"Look what you did!" Lorain cried, shoving King Candy backwards in anger, "I'll talk to you about this later!" The licorice girl jumped off the bleachers and landed with a grunt before taking off after the police officers, "I'm coming, Vanellope!"
King Candy stumbled back into his throne and growled, staring after Lorain. Her feelings for the glitch were starting to annoy him. He began regretting returning Lorain's memories of the princess almost instantly.
Lorain dropped the pom-poms she was holding and ran after Duncan and Wynnchel as they chased Vanellope towards the lollypop trees.
"You!" The loud voice scared all of the citizens of Sugar Rush into silence. A large monster coated in green laffy taffy appeared from the lolly pop trees, "Give me back my metal right now!" The creature was easily over nine feet tall and was coated in candy.
"What is that?" King Candy squinted his eyes at the creature.
Everyone began screaming now, in shock and fright, taking off in different directions. Lorain stood in shock as the monster towered over her but just as he got close enough to crush her he ran right past her. Lorain was shocked for a moment and then turned, instantly realising that the monster was not after her, but Vanellope.
Lorain gasped and ran after both of them, "Vanellope, run!"
The small girl darted under one of the bleachers but it was instantly flipped over by the monster so she ran under another one and soon the majority of the bleachers were flipped onto their sides, the inhabitants of the bleachers were everywhere.
"Stop it! What-what are you doing!?" King Candy yelled in rage and fright, throwing his arms wildly in the direction of the monster as if it would make it stop.
Lorain reached the end of the bleachers just before the monster did and climbed up the cupcake tower that sat on the end. She bit her lip, "Maybe if I get to the top, I can push the cupcake on top of him…"
Her gloved hands pulled her up on top of the large chocolate cupcake and she was ready to push it over until the monster himself came plowing into the tower and sent the cupcake, and Lorain, flying into the air.
Lorain gripped into the vanilla frosting and screamed as she went soaring into the air and then back down, landing successfully on top of the monster. The licorice girl raised her arms in victory as she watched Vanellope take off into the lollypop forest, safe from harm's way.
The laffy taffy monster growled from underneath her and he thrashed around, "Can't move!"
"Now we got him," Duncan smiled, rushing over with Wynnchel at his side.
"Oh good, the cops," The monster sighed, "She went that way!"
Lorain blinked in surprise and hopped off the cupcake just as the police officers began beating him with their dark-chocolate batons.
"Ow! What are you doing!?" The monster snapped, trying to shield himself from their blows.
"Okay folks!" King Candy called out, getting Lorain's attention, "Calm down! Everything is alright. The monster has been caught. We will repair all the damage. Don't worry, we will have our race before the arcade opens!"
Lorain let out a sigh, rubbing her arm as she watched King Candy fume from his spot on hi private booth. What was she supposed to say to him?
"Sour Bill, that GLITCH cannot be allowed to race," King Candy snaps, looking over at the warhead before smashing the microphone down in anger onto the ground before pointing at the monster, "And bring that…that THING to my castle!"
I was faintly aware of the police electrocuting the monster and then rolling him off towards the castle.
Lorain stood awkwardly on the track as King Candy and Sour Bill walked down from the booth. When they reached the track King Candy noticed Lorain and waved Sour Bill on, "You go ahead. I'll meet you p at the castle in a moment."
Sour Bill gave a nod and shuffled off by himself.
Lorain rubbed her arm as King Candy approached her, regarding him with weary eyes, "I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just that Vanellope's my friend, Turbo. I don't want to see her get hurt."
King Candy nibbled his bottom lip and looked up at her, "But if she races today and manages to get into the racing roster she will get hurt. I'm only trying to protect her, Lorain. You know I only do what's best for my people. If the gamers pick Vanellope and see her glitching, and glitching, just being herself, our game will be put out of order and will get unplugged. All of my subjects will be homeless except for the one who can't leave…"
A memory flashed in Lorain's eyes.
Vanellope shrieked in surprise, falling backwards onto her butt.
"Vanellope!" Lorain says in shock, reaching out and helping her up as she kneeled down to Vanellope's level, "Are you alright?"
Then the tears spilled over and Vanellope raced over to Lorain, hugging her arms around Lorain's neck. She sobbed into the crook of Lorain's neck and Lorain hugged her tightly. Vanellope never really opened up to anyone the way she did with Lorain.
"Why c-can't I leave the g-game…?" Vanellope sobbed.
"Vanellope can't leave the game…" Lorain said quietly, looking over at King Candy.
"When the game goes out of order…so will she," King Candy says sullenly.
Lorain looked down, rubbing her arm, "I'm sorry…"
"It's fine. You were just worried about your friend," King Candy replied and looked up at her, "Now come on, we better get going back to the castle. I have to deal with that monster."
"Right," Lorain nods and follows behind King Candy silently as they hop into their cars and head off toward the candy castle.
Once Lorain neared the castle she notice the rows and rows of Oreo guards out front. Her brow furrowed and she looked over at King Candy as she parked her car, "What's with the security, Turbo?"
"I told Bill to heighten security. More eyes to keep a look out for the gli-Vanellope." King Candy caught himself. Not wanting to make the licorice girl blow her top again.
"Oh…" Lorain looked around and hopped onto the back of King Candy's kart as he speeded off inside the castle's throne room.
When the two parked the kart, Wynnchel and Duncan had already rolled the taffy monster into the throne room and the taffy muffled out its angry voice.
The kart backed up into its parking space as part of the throne before King Candy jumped out of the kart, removing his goggles and helmet.
"De-taffy-fy this monster so we can see what we're up against here," King Candy says, waving his hands in the direction of the creature.
Lorain slid down the front of the kart, sitting on the hood and watching how Turbo would do under pressure. Sour Bill hopped up onto the cupcake that encased the monster and muttered un uneasy 'okay' before ripping the taffy off of the monster's head like it was a mask.
The monster screamed at the harsh feeling and it revealed-
"Milk my Duds! It's Wreck-it Ralph?" King Candy gasped, looking at the big man in shock.
"Yeah, who are you? The guy that makes the doughnuts?" Ralph asks rather angrily.
Lorain blinked at him, had Ralph never been to their game before?
"Hahahahaha please," King Candy laughed before cutting off abruptly, "No. Haha, I'm King Candy!"
Lorain smirked slightly; he always oversold it when meeting new people. He looked too happy. It was unnerving sometimes.
"I see you're a fan of pink," Ralph says, surveying his surroundings for the first time.
"Salmon," King Candy corrected immediately, "Salmon, that's obviously sal-" Then he realised Ralph had got him off topic and narrowed his eyes at the big man, a little flustered, "What are you doing here?"
"Look, your candyness, this is just a big misunderstanding. Just get me out of this cupcake, I'll get my medal and I'll be out of your way," Ralph says, being surprising reasonable.
"Your medal?" King Candy asks, Turbo's cocky attitude seeping through, "Bad guys don't win medals."
"Well this one did. I earned it over in Hero's Duty," Ralph responds, staring at the short man.
"You game jumped?" The smug look was wiped off of King Candy's face, "Ralph? You're not going Turbo, are you?"
Lorain felt herself jolt. It was weird hearing him use his own name in anger.
"What? No, no, no…" Ralph repeated quickly.
"Because if you think you can come in here, Haha, to my kingdom and take over my game, you've got another thing coming!" He spouted angrily.
"Easy, your puffiness. It's not my fault one of your children-of-the-candy-corn stole my medal," Ralph says, eyes narrowing.
Lorain let out a giggle, "I love candy corn."
"Children-of-the-candy-corn? Who would…" King Candy trailed off as realization dawned on him.
Lorain had the same moment of clarity, "Vanellope's coin."
"The glitch," King Candy turns and looks at Lorain in shock, "The coin she used to buy her way into the race," He turned back to Ralph, "That was your medal?"
"She did what?" Ralph says in shock, "I need that back!"
"Well I'm afraid I can't help you. It's gone you know. It's- it's nothing but code now!" King Candy blurts out.
"And it'll stay that way until someone wins the cup at the end of the race," Lorain says, standing up from her seat on King Candy's car and walking up to King Candy's side.
"Well maybe I'll just have to have a talk with the winner then," Ralph says, eyes narrowing at her.
Lorain was taken aback, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not even in that race. Don't look at me!"
King Candy looked over at Lorain and saw the shock on her face before turning to Ralph in anger.
"Is that a threat I smell?" King Candy snaps, glaring at Ralph, getting up in his face before he backed away in a coughing fit, "Beyond the halitosis you obviously suffer from."
"Listen Vanilla-Wafer," Ralph growls, obviously offended, "I'm not leaving without my medal!"
"Yes," King Candy smirks, "You are. Wynnchel, Duncan, get him out of that cupcake and on the first train back home. And if I ever see you back here again Wreck-It Ralph…hehehe…I'll lock you in my Fungeon." King Candy's fingers locked with each other menacingly.
Horrible memories flashed before Lorain's eyes from her time spent there before she shook her head to clear her thoughts.
"Fungeon?" Ralph asks in confusion.
"Fun dungeon? You know? It's a play on words. It's a fu-Never mind!" King Candy says, fixing his coat, "Now if you don't mind, I have a glitch to deal with, thanks to you."
With that, King Candy ushered for Lorain to follow him as he marched away with the Oreo guards toward his kart.
Lorain sent Ralph an uneasy glance and followed King Candy immediately, hoping in his kart with him. King Candy sent Ralph a glare as he started his kart, "Goodbye Wreck-It Ralph. It hasn't been a pleasure." And with that, King Candy started his kart and drove away with Lorain right beside him.
A/N: Sorry about the long wait. I've been busy with exams and then I started work and it's just been blah! So yeah, sorry again for the wait again and I hope you enjoyed.