A New Order
There were no questions asked when Litwak received the shiny new steering wheel the following Tuesday morning. He just happily attached it to the game's cabinet and neglected to think anymore of it.
Since the beginning of time at Litwak's, he'd cherished each and every one of these game consoles like they were his own family. He would have hated to see Sugar Rush be put to rest after such a long time and after its unexpected peak in popularity.
However, later that afternoon, a frequent visitor of Litwak's and Sugar Rush enthusiast pointed out that the game might have still been busted, because Vanellope von Schweetz was no longer on the roster.
Late after closing, the fifteen racers, the two security guards, and the remainder of the Sugar Rush castle residents were all situated in the conference room of the castle, the second biggest room aside from the grand foyer.
Trying to subdue the racers when they were experiencing moments of hysteria was one thing. Trying to settle an entire civilization full of the same energy was near impossible.
They were all exchanging brief moments of dread, indignation, and overall uncertainty. They asked questions such as "how could she leave us?" and "what are we to do now", all while looking for someone, or something, to place blame on.
Most of them were looking at Ralph standing towards the back of the room with his hands clasped together over his front, rocking back and forth on his heels nervously.
"Wreck-It Ralph!" Duncan spoke blaringly at the tall man. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Who's going to lead us now?" One of the nondescript candy dwellers said.
"This is your doing, now you have to be the one to answer for it!"
Ralph held his monstrous hands up as he received more harsh criticisms from the crowd. Felix, who had been silent almost the entire time and was still steaming on the inside over Ralph's contentious decision, stepped forward.
"Let's not start this decision by pointing fingers at Ralph," he said, sympathetically. "We're all here to come up with a solution, right?"
They all turned their glaring eyes to the handyman.
"Who asked you to speak for us?!"
"Easy for you to say, Fix-It Felix. Your game's not in danger of shutting down forever!"
Felix pulled at the collar of his shirt and took a step back against the wall. Tamora didn't make any motion of trying to speak in support of Ralph. She was just as vexed at him as she was the other night.
Before all of the events that just took place, the racers never thought it was their place to speak on behalf of the entire kingdom of Sugar Rush; it was Vanellope's job to make policies and enact them.
But they could see that the rest of the NPCs were looking up to them for answers right now. Crumbelina, ever so shy and quiet, stood up on timid legs and cleared her throat as loudly as she could over the audience. "Excuse me!"
Her voice barely carried out in the room and only half of the population looked at her.
"I think we should start by choosing a new leader." She began. "Someone who can carry on our president's legacy!"
The NPCs all backed away in the corner of the room, including the pastry police. Not a single one of them spoke up to assume the responsibility. Crumbelina gazed at each of the other racers who were still seated in their chairs, some of them listening with open ears and the others looking as if they would rather have been anywhere else.
"Don't look at me!" Gloyd said as he noticed her eyes falling over him. "I know nothing about leading people! I drive go-karts for a living!"
Crumbelina looked over at Snowanna, who hadn't broke eye contact with her since the start of this meeting. "I just want to race and enjoy being played with! I don't want to be in charge!"
"It's not like your job's that hard!" Crumbelina insisted. "All you have to do is announce the race, the winners, and hold meetings every once in a while!"
Torvald peered at Crumbelina. "Then why don't you do it?"
"Well, um..." She looked down at the floor. "... I don't feel like I'm right to be the next president."
The children all shared looks with each other, with several of them shaking their heads at the thought of accepting the position of leadership. Then finally, all of them turned towards the one lone racer, who had been standing in front of the window, overlooking the entirety of the sugar kingdom. Normally, Taffyta was much more talkative in these situations when her input was necessary.
But she took off for her spot in the semi-dark corner near the window as soon as the arguing between the citizens started. She was unusually dispirited, and although the rest of the racers shared the same sentiment, they still weren't sure why she didn't voice her opinion in this discussion.
The news about Vanellope must have hit her harder than any of them expected.
Finally, Taffyta turned when she realized the entire room had gone silent. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"We need a new president." Rancis declared to her.
"Okay." Taffyta took a seat in the middle of the table and placed her gloved hands on the table, putting on her professional face. "So, how does exactly are we going to do that?"
"I say we take a vote." Adorabeezle said. "We're a democracy and we get to choose who will lead us next."
"Vote on who, exactly?" Taffyta asked.
The rest of the racers were quiet.
"Why do we need a leader?" Jubileena asked, resting her elbows on the pink and yellow table surface. "We didn't really need King Candy or Vanellope to do anything but commence our races. When was the last time we actually went to a town meeting?"
"Pardon me, children," Wynchel said as he moved forward. "But we can't have an entire kingdom without any sense of direction or guidance. We should have someone to show us the way."
The children went quiet and lowered their heads in thought.
"We could put our names on pieces of papers and put them in a pile." Citrusella suggested. "And then count the number of times our names shows up."
All of them murmured in agreement. It seemed like the only logical way.
Nougetsia took some blank pieces of paper from her notepad and tore them into smaller pieces. She passed them around to each of the racers and then proceeded to make more slips for the others.
"Alright, everyone, give your honest opinion about who you think should be the next leader." Taffyta said and wrote down a name on her slip.
Crumbelina turned towards the three adults stationed at the back of the room. "Don't you guys want in on this?"
"Nope, it's not our place to decide who gets to rule this game." Tamora replied.
"That's right." Felix agreed.
...
All of the papers were piled directly in the center of the room and some of the children began sorting them out in order. To everyone's disappointment - and surprise - each of the racers' names appeared just once, with a few of them appearing twice and others not appearing once at all. This rushed election seemed to be tied for the most well-known racers, which included Rancis, Candlehead, and Taffyta.
The last paper remained in the center of the table and everyone was quite literally on the edge of their seat to see who had the last say. Taffyta took initiative and grasped the paper in her gloved hand and turned it over.
And the look of complete shock appeared on her face.
"What is it, Taffyta?" Crumbelina said.
Without answering, she scrunched the paper in hand and threw it back on the table. "Are you guys out of your minds?"
They looked at each other, bewildered at her reaction. Then Rancis stood up. "If it was you, it makes the most sense!"
"Next to Vanellope, you're the most popular racer in existence!" Sticky said.
Candlehead nodded. "Yeah, no one can boss me around the way that you could, Taffyta!"
"You're the most tenacious and strong-willed girl I know!" Jubileena said. "And that's coming from me!"
Taffyta turned away. "That doesn't mean I can successfully lead this place."
Crumbelina appeared right behind her. "Come on, Taffyta, it can't be that hard. Plus, you've got the support from every single one of us, so it's not like you're going to do it alone-"
Taffyta spun around, furiously waving her hands. "No way! I'm not doing it! How can any of you think I'm worthy of actually being a leader? You all know me! The only reason you did what I said way back when is because you all were afraid of me."
None of them jumped up and said otherwise.
Taffyta sighed. "Right. That's what I thought." She turned back to her corner near the window. "Choose someone else. I've got no interest."
Crumbelina turned back to the rest of the crowd. "Well, I guess we should take it from the top. Again."
...
Tamora didn't want to include her own biased ideas about how things should be carried out in this game, but she and the others could see that the people have spoken. And the new leader they've chosen was refusing her own responsibilities.
That was something Tamora took personally.
She walked over to the pink racer. "Taffyta, I know it seems like a scary thing to lead an entire civilization, but all those people are now relying on you to guide them. You can't turn your back on them now. You've got to be their new sense of hope."
"I don't know jack about being a leader." Taffyta spat. "Do I look like I could actually replace Vanellope? I've got no glitching powers, I'm not the most played character anymore, and the only reason the others followed me around was because I bullied them. Does that sound like a respectable leader to you?"
"No, it doesn't." Tamora said, firmly. "But you've changed since then, haven't you?"
"Hardly," Taffyta admitted. "And... even if I did follow through with being the new president, it's not like I can save our game from going down under. Just this morning, almost every player whined about not seeing Vanellope on the screen. It made them quit playing."
Tamora sat down. "So, you don't have a special code that allows you to glitch your way through the race tracks. You've got something else about you that catches people's attention. You were the number one pick before Vanellope, weren't you?"
"Yeah, and now they're all expecting Vanellope to be there. They'll be expecting much more out of me now, too."
Tamora looked back at the others while they talked away about the new crisis this game was faced with.
"It's like Crumbelina said," the lady soldier began. "You've got all of those youngsters out there to help you out. You're not going at this alone, you know."
"It might be too much for me to handle."
Tamora gestured to the two men standing silently by each other's side.
"Then you've got myself and those two goons over there to give you a few pointers. They may not run the place they hail from, but I sure as heck know that they know a thing or two about being a leader."
Taffyta shifted her eyes to the pink and white checkered floor in thought. Then she straightened her back and nodded to the marine. "Alright, but if this goes down in flames, I reserve the right to resign."
"As you wish." Tamora said.
Taffyta returned to the table and the rest of the racers all looked up at her with hopeful eyes. The pink racer stood on the chair that was positioned at the end of the long table and placed her hands on her hips. "Alright, guys, if you're serious about me being president, then my first order of business is to declare Candlehead as my vice president. If anything were to happen to me, then she get's my position."
Candlehead nodded, but her face was scrunched up in concern.
"Second," Taffyta gazed up at the tall ceiling. "Since we don't really have an established monarchy anymore, we should probably think about doing something about this castle."
"We could all just live in it." Gloyd suggested.
"Or we could turn it into a pavilion." Snowanna said.
Minty Zaki looked thoughtful. "Hey, maybe we could turn it into an apartment complex for those people that have had their games unplugged."
Taffyta turned to Nougetsia. "Take down some notes. These are all good suggestions."
...
Tamora returned to her spot in the back with the others, smiling in complete satisfaction over her inspirational talk.
Felix nudged her leg with a huge grin on his face. "Looks like I'm not the only one who can win over those loveable scamps."
Tamora turned her head, trying to hid a blush. "Oh, it was nothing. I just hate to see some untapped potential go to waste."
Ralph just seemed relieved that all of the blame was taken off of his shoulders. "I say we go out and celebrate the fixing of Sugar Rush and the indoctrination of a new leader." He looked down at Felix. "What say we go to Tapper's? On me, of course."
"Oh, wish I could, brother, but I got to make sure these little rugrats get home safely. It's our last night watching over them."
He sounded like he was trying his best to keep a straight face despite feeling completely torn up about it inside.
"Oh, no problem," Ralph said. "Um, what about you, Calhoun?"
Felix turned up at his wife. Tamora's lips were twisted in anger and her head was facing the opposite direction. She'd been giving Ralph the cold shoulder all day, and the only words she said were, "I ain't too keen on forgiving you just yet, Wreck-It."
Ralph hung his head and his arms dropped to his sides. "Alright, I understand."