A/N: Now we reach the part of the story that coincides with WiR 2, starting with this very familiar scene. Enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Part 2 – Unplugged!

21 years later:

What seemed to be an ordinary Saturday morning turned into something else entirely as Game Central Station fell into full-scale panic mode.

"GANGWAY!"

"EVERYBODY OUT!"

"BREAK FOR IT!"

"RUN! RUN!"

Surge Protector was knocked off his feet as dozens of Sugar Rush characters stampeded straight into him, quickly crowding the power strip station in their frantic rush to get out in time. "What are you people doing out of your game for Peter's sake?!" he shouted, his voice drowned out by the screams and cries as the terrified citizens flooded out of the Sugar Rush entrance. "The arcade is open!"

Wreck-It Ralph suddenly appeared before him with half a dozen candy people in his arms. "Sugar Rush is getting unplugged!" was all Ralph had time to say before they all heard the dreaded sounds of a plug being slowly dragged out of its outlet, shaking the entire strip. The chaos stopped abruptly and everyone watched in horror as the plug connecting the station to their entire candy universe was pulled out completely. The words SUGAR RUSH on the screen above the entrance fizzed and disappeared in a flash.

"We're homeless!" Wynnchel howled, and panic instantly broke out once more, filling the station with a painful noise.

"Oh, what are we going to do?!" cried Candlehead in fear.

Taffyta immediately started bawling.

As Surge tried to restore order, Swizzle stared up in disbelief at the once occupied, but now empty outlet, his heart pounding against his chest as the reality of what had just happened struck him harder than a runaway gumball in Gumball Gorge. Sugar Rush was gone. His home was gone. There was nothing left of the world he knew and loved. "Not cool, man," he groaned in defeat. He sunk to his knees, still shivering from the mad sprint he had made no less than a minute ago to evacuate before the unplugging could wipe him away from existence. He loved adrenaline rushes, but this was definitely not the kind that he relished in. His jangled state was not unlike those all around him, for every single one of the game's characters had made the same dash for the exit to get out…

Suddenly, his candy heart, still thumping rapidly, skipped a beat as he was struck with an alarming thought. Minty! Where's Minty?! his brain screamed at him. Cursing at himself for not making sure his good friend had made it out with him, the boy jumped back to his feet and frantically scanned the area, searching through the crowd of fearful faces for the girl. To his immense relief, he finally spotted a head of green hair with a familiar bow on top, just behind Surge. She was panicking like all the rest, but at least she had gotten out.

At last, the candy characters managed to calm down, but they were all still agitated and rightfully so. They had lost their game. For once, Sour Bill's miserable expression was completely appropriate.

Surge hung his head; he was not happy. "Ugh, an unplugging," he groaned. "Good Lord, I haven't seen this many gameless characters since Space Invaders went down…"

Vanellope stepped forward. "Um, where are we going to live?" she asked the surge with deepest worry in her voice.

Surge sighed. "Well, you can stay here until the arcade closes, I guess, and then we'll figure out where the heck we're going to put you all."

The damage was done, but the recovery was nowhere near in sight. Jubileena and Adorabeezle clung onto each other and cried fresh tears. Crumbelina covered her face in her hands. A family of Jolly Ranchers looked anything but jolly. The sight and sounds of over three hundred sobbing candy citizens made Swizzle's heart sink. This was not good.

Not good at all.

A little later, the now homeless characters of the game formally known as Sugar Rush had settled down in the station's lobby to wait for the day to end. But everyone was thoroughly miserable. A few tried to bring what positive light they could find to the situation with limited success; Candlehead, the ditzy one, attempted to cheer up the younger candy citizens with a little campfire-like gathering. But even a go-lucky, carefree girl like herself was struggling to smile for long. Gloyd tried to deliver some jokes, but that didn't last long, for even he had lost a lot of spirit. Taffyta was sitting a chair, looking like she was ready to pass out while Jubileena and a few of her loyal candy-heart fans were doing their best to calm her down.

Swizzle stood off to the side by himself, near the dark lonely entrance to their old home. Unsure of what to do while waiting for the arcade to close and receive further instructions from Surge, he watched from a distance as Vanellope talked and made announcements to many of the characters. He knew the president was doing her best to keep everyone calm despite the position they were in. He felt sorry for poor Vanellope, having a large responsibility to keep her people happy. But there was someone whom he felt even more sorry for.

He could not stop himself from glancing over at Minty.

Ever since their first direct encounter in Sour Patch Gulch just over two decades ago, he and Minty had developed a solid friendship, arguably one of the closest among the racers at the time, for the relationships between the kids mainly stood as bitter rivalry during the King Candy era. Somehow, Swizzle and Minty, who had always been pretty chill with bending the rules, had managed to build up their little connection that they had founded that day, and it had only grown stronger once their memories had been restored and Vanellope became their rightful leader again. With friendships brought back to the sugary universe once more, Swizzle and Minty began to slowly but surely draw closer to one another. They met regularly after work to hang out, most often exploring uncharted territories and scouting out new isolated areas to race their karts, testing their skills and showing off cool tricks. Other times, they met at each other's homes to make modifications and improvements to their karts in hopes of enhancing their performance on the track. Swizzle taught Minty a lot of his own invented stunts as well as letting her in on a few of his secrets to success. In return, Minty taught the boy how to actually perform some of her signature acrobatic moves. To Swizzle, she was just amazing.

And it wasn't just her skills that he had learned more about. Their frequent time spent together had allowed him to get to know her a lot better as a person. She was extremely clever and resourceful, always coming up with bright ideas. She was a free spirit with lots of energy and had her own training gym in the backyard of her candied apple condominium. Plus, she loved climbing the tallest trees in the Candy Tree Forest, enjoyed long walks along Sandy Candy Beach, and hated yellow jelly beans with heated passion. Overall, the pair worked very well as a team. Minty wasn't quite at the same extreme level of daring as he liked to think he was, but was a thrill seeker all the same. She never hesitated to embark on a quest for adventure. And more often than not, she tended to keep him in line from doing something too crazy that could potentially hurt himself. Swizzle didn't say it out loud, but he had the feeling that she liked taking care of him in that way. He kind of liked it too. At least he knew someone was always there to break his falls, of which there were many.

With all this on his mind, Swizzle felt his heart sink even lower as he looked across the station towards Minty's slumped form. Unlike the other female racers who had clustered together for comfort during this crisis, Minty was sitting on one of the lonely benches at the farthest end of the power strip, all alone. Though he could not see her face from his standing point, he knew she wasn't doing well. It was all in the way she was hanging her head low and sagging her shoulders.

Carl the marshmallow tech floated over to him, disbanding from the small congregation of other pit techs to meet his racer friend. Wordlessly, he followed Swizzle's gaze to the green speck in the distance. "You're worried about her, huh?" he said even though he already knew the answer. "Well, you should go and talk to her."

This thought had been on the top of Swizzle's mind all this time, draining all his power of thinking, but it also made him feel dreadfully nervous. That was rare for him. He was used to being the confident one, so sure of life and of himself. But right now, he felt none of these things. "I dunno, dude. What if I try to say something, but I just make her feel worse?"

"You won't, Swizzle," Carl assured him. "She enjoys your company. But more importantly, she trusts you. You guys have been friends for over 20 years now, and I've seen it in the way she looks at you when you play together or even just talk. I'd dare say that she trusts you with certain things even more than her gal pals."

Swizzle thought about this carefully before looking up at Carl and smiling a little. "Maybe you're right," he said, but he still felt hesitant.

Carl must have read his mind because he then crossed his floating hands. "Or, you know…you could just leave her there all sad and alone. I'm sure Gloyd could cheer her up with one of his lame jokes…"

Swizzle rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay, I get your point. I'll do it. Thanks buddy," he said, partly annoyed, but mostly grateful.

"Anytime," the race track employee answered as he watched Swizzle starting to make his way to the lonely girl. "You're gonna be just fine," he added to himself once the boy was out of earshot. "She should be considering herself lucky."

Even as Swizzle walked towards Minty in that cold station lobby, with his footsteps echoing against the shiny tiled floor, he could tell that she was clean out of bright ideas.

Minty was sitting at the farthest possible bench from the rest of the Sugar Rush population such that by the time Swizzle reached her, the noise coming from the other characters was reduced to a mere muffled jumble of echoes. It was now just him and her. No one would hear them and thus no one would bother them. Upon approaching the green candied apple-themed racer, he found her looking thoroughly devasted. Her cheeks were stained with tears and she was hugging herself like a wilting flower. Such a sad sight made it impossible for Swizzle to not feel sorry for her, or at least more than he had already been. "Minty?" he said tentatively.

The girl looked up and locked her reddened eyes with his. She seemed to perk up at the sight of the beanie-wearing boy, but only a little.

He sat down next to her. "I know this is a really stupid question…but are you okay?" he asked her, not breaking eye contact.

Minty sniffled and then lunged herself into him, hugging and holding him like a lifeline and sobbing into his blue racing jacket. Though he was a little shaken from her abrupt grip on him, Swizzle collected himself and returned the hug, rubbing her back in a way that he hoped was soothing. She had hugged him before on occasion, but not like this. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

Only when she pulled back slowly did Minty finally speak in a voice that was so sad and so pitiful. "Oh, Swizzle, we-we lost everything! We lost our game! Our home! My kart and my house…now I'll never be able to race again!"

Fresh tears were trickling down her face and Swizzle was struggling to think of something to say that would make her feel better. "I…I know, Mints. This is a total mess, and definitely not how I was planning my day to go. But…but it'll be okay."

She lifted her hanging head and stared up at him in sadness and pained confusion. "How can you say that at a time like this? Our game is unplugged for good."

Swizzle rubbed his arm, trying to list off positives amidst this tragedy. Thankfully, a few came to mind. "Well…at least we all got out. Vanellope did a roll call and we're all here. So at least we still have each other.

The girl sniffled and wiped her eyes, staring at the floor again. "I…I guess so…"

Swizzle nodded encouragingly. "You still have Adorabeezle and Snowanna and Jubileena. All our friends, we all got out. And…you still have me. I'm still here."

He blushed lightly when he listed that last item. But by observing Minty's sad face closely, it seemed to have done the trick. Minty slowly lifted her head all the way to meet his gaze. After a moment's silence during which they just looked at each other, she straightened herself out in her sitting position.

"You're-you're right," she whispered, her voice sounding a little less cracked. "I do have my friends. I have you. That's pretty awesome." She smiled a little at him, which in turn made him produce an equally tiny smile. This was a start.

Her smile suddenly vanished quicker than it had appeared. "I'm being a real jerk, aren't I?"

Swizzle was surprised and alarmed by her statement. "What? Why?"

The girl sighed deeply and looked down at her feet. "All this time since we escaped the game…I've been sitting here and sulking…thinking of all the things I lost today…" She looked up at him again. "…but I forgot that you've lost everything too. It wasn't just my kart and my home taken away…now you're kartless and homeless too."

Swizzle felt a twinge of sadness at the thought of all his favourite possessions gone from existence forever, but he knew that he had to make something clear to Minty. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, but Mints…I don't…I don't care about that."

Minty blinked and faced him again, feeling confused. "Huh? Why not?"

Swizzle tugged at his shirt collar, his hands getting rather clammy. He had never felt this way before.

"Well dude, I…I've never told you this before but…"

He hesitated, but only for a brief moment. Minty was waiting for an answer, and he decided to stop holding back. Enough was enough.

"You know what? Screw it, Minty, you are way more important to me than any of those things," he blurted out a little too quickly. "Sure, I'm bummed out that I lost all my stuff and my home, but knowing that you and all our friends got out in time makes me more relieved than if I managed to save the Tongue Twister."

He looked away, feeling his own tears starting to well up, which was really unusual. The Swizz had never cried before. So uncool. But right now, all he could think about what a close call Minty had been at risk of suffering. The pangs of deepest hurting he was feeling right this instant over the painful thoughts of what could have happened to her…if she had stumbled or tripped on her way out…and failed to escape in time.

"If…if you hadn't made it out…you would have died with the game, and I don't know what I'd do anymore…knowing that you were gone. I'd be left with a broken candy heart forever knowing you're not by my side to pal around with anymore."

Minty's eyes widened as she heard him say these things and she began blushing like mad. Her hand levitated to her heart, as if it had a mind of its own. There was absolutely no subtleness to Swizzle's out of the blue declaration of devoted care and affection for her. "You…you really mean that, Swizzle?" she squeaked.

He looked at her in the eye, seeing that her remorseful look had been replaced by hope and amazement. "You bet I do," he said strongly, his own blush creeping upon his dark cheeks. "There's no way I can go on without my daredevil buddy."

The smile on Minty's face could not be held back even if she had tried, and she wordlessly hugged him again, albeit much more gently than her previous tackle on him. More tears were spilling from her eyes, but they were not stemming from sadness. They were joyful tears. Tears of gratitude. Tears for a good friend. And that friend was here, in her arms as she buried her face into his shoulder. "Swizzy, I…oh, I feel the same way about you," she choked out in a muffled voice. "I'm so glad you're safe…and with me."

Swizzle said nothing as he embraced her back, wanting nothing more than to hold her as closely and as tightly as he could without squeezing her too painfully, hoping to Nintendo that his immense fondness for Minty, which had been growing steadily over the years, and somehow stronger ever since Vanellope had reclaimed her rightful place as ruler, would somehow pass through his hold on her and tap into her code, letting her know just how much he wanted to protect her and keep her out of harm's way.

A part of him was glad they were sitting so far away from the others. Gloyd and Rancis would never let him live it down if they saw him being all soft like this. Though the majority of his entire coded being just wanted to be here for Minty, there was still a mild shimmer of his cool-dude reputation to uphold that he could never shake off. Very tiny, but still present inside him. But as they sat here, sharing this special moment, that tiny shimmer may have very well faded a teensy inch further back.

They finally separated and Swizzle got a good look at Minty's face. She was looking better, distinctly relieved that he was here beside her, but he thought she might still be a bit sad inside. Taking a chance, he lightly pushed a few strands of her bright green hair that were partly concealing her sparkly brown eyes, making her blush a little at his gentle touch. In return, she reached a thumb up to wipe the few tears from his own face. They smiled sweetly as they sat in silence, lightly caressing each other's faces. It gave Swizzle some time to plan out his next move. His quick-calculating mind, very clever for a kid his age, deduced that Minty needed to think about something else for a while, just to clear her mind of things. Honestly, they both had to do something other than sitting around all day, mourning their losses and waiting for a solution to this disaster. His eyes wandered over her shoulder towards the nearest outlet to their bench, leading to one of the arcade's many games. This gave him an idea.

"Let's go," he said curtly, hopping to his feet. She looked up at him curiously.

"Go? Where are we going?"

Swizzle shrugged. "I dunno. But we can't stay here. C'mon, let's take a break. Let's do something fun to take things off our minds for a while. Time to do some exploring! Just like you and I always do."

Though she felt a little hesitant, Minty slid off the bench anyways, at which Swizzle noted that she did not perform one of her signature somersaults to do so, but he reasoned that she wasn't in the mood for that. It didn't seem quite right, though, for her not to be performing some kind of cool acrobatic trick with every move she made.

"But…the glowing blue guy said to stay here until the arcade closes," she said nervously. "Aren't you afraid we'll get caught?"

At this, Swizzle scoffed and struck a proud 'Swizz' pose. "Do I look afraid?" he sneered with a roguish grin. "And besides, since when do I follow the rules? The world is my oyster! And…since I just lost most of it this morning, that just means I need to expand my world some more!"

Minty couldn't resist giggling at his statement. She always liked that about Swizzle; for all of the 20 years she had known him, he never failed to be so confident and set in his ways, yet his heart was almost always in the right place and most of his intentions were good. He tended to be very full of himself, but he was also kind and friendly with anyone he came across, and she was certainly no exception to this treatment. Most of all, she loved his fearless attitude, even during the occasional times when she had to step forward and keep him out of trouble that could potentially hurt himself. She liked taking care of him. But overall, his fearlessness made her feel safe whenever she was with him. Especially now, when she was feeling more vulnerable than she had ever felt in all her coded life.

"Well, okay," she said at last, mustering up some of her own confidence, which made Swizzle beam.

"'Atta girl," he said with smooth suave embedding his voice. He pointed towards the dark tunnel he had been eyeing. "There's adventure down this outlet, Minty. I can feel in my code. All we have to do now is find it!"

So together, they left the busy station of saddened candy citizens and entered the dark tunnel of the outlet, side by side. Neither of them bothered to read the digital output screen above their heads that designated exactly which game they were walking into. They were both feeling the strong urge to leave this cramped station and find some new scenery to ease their mind for a while, so they didn't care where they were going.

But if they had stopped to read the screen, they would have seen three words spelled out in big red letters: Dance Dance Revolution.

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think is going to happen to them in there? Leave your guess in the comment section. Don't forget to leave a fave! Thx.