What Would Vanellope Do?

"I got a bad feeling about this, Taffyta." Rancis said. He was trembling in his shoes while he, Gloyd, and the overly-determined girl marched through the castle.

Taffyta hadn't stopped marching forward since she arrived before the massive chocolate doors of the castle. She didn't know exactly where, or what she was looking for while she stepped through the echoing hallways. She only knew that it was located deep within this abandoned structure in a place that was intentionally difficult to reach.

"We shouldn't be here." Gloyd replied.

Taffyta rolled her eyes and turned around. "If you two crybabies can't quit whining about it, then feel free to see yourselves out."

"But you said you needed us in case something was lurking in these corners." Rancis protested.

"Well it would be nice to have you two dips as backup if I run into any trouble," Taffyta said without turning around. "But a well-established leader doesn't need 'em."

Gloyd scoffed. "That's a really nice way to treat your friends."

"Yeah, Taffyta, we're only trying to help you out here. What if something bad happened and we couldn't be any help to you?"

Taffyta paused and instantly thought about Felix and Tamora. For some unknown reason, those two had been on her mind a lot more lately. They said they wouldn't be too far from her if she ever had anything to ask of them. And they actually might of been able to help.

But she also knew that they would never have approved.

Taffyta shook herself out of her daze. "We can't worry about that right now."

"Do you even know where we're going?" Gloyd snapped.

"Uh, yeah," Taffyta responded, weakly. "Kind of."

Rancis groaned loudly. "Great, another hairbrained plan about to go wrong." He turned around. "Come on, guys let's get out of here before our wonderful leader gets us deleted, or something worse."

Taffyta spun around, her face red. "Do you want our game to be saved or not?!"

The two boys just gaped at her, without a word or a motion. Taffyta asked herself how it didn't occur to those two that their game could possibly be unplugged with Vanellope's leave. They seemed to take her departure with a grain of salt, and they were just nonchalantly wandering through the streets without so much as a single mumble of disapproval.

Taffyta figured she was now the last person in this world to care about the fate of Sugar Rush.

Gloyd sighed and dropped his pumpkin-hatted head. "Lead the way, General."

"That's 'President', Gloyd." Rancis corrected.

"Yeah, sure."

...

Taffyta and the others frequently visited the palace, whenever Vanellope decided she wanted some company during the few times she was here all hours of the night; usually, she was with Ralph and the other's from Fix-It's game. It wasn't enough times where Taffyta could have easily sensed her way through, but she had a vague idea of where everything was.

But there was one thing that she found at the end of this hallway that didn't look like it belonged to the castle, or the game for that matter. It was a long door-looking thing that was painted silver. With a few buttons on the side of it. It looked like it came right out of a newer game, or a science-fiction movie.

Taffyta was mesmerized by the chrome surface and walked towards it.

"Wait," Rancis spoke, holding a hand out towards her. "Think about what you're doing first."

Taffyta looked at him. "We've come pretty far from where we started." She walked up, stood on tiptoe, and stretched her arm up to press the button. "I'm seeing this whole thing through."

There was a loud whirring noise and the two chrome doors opened. The three racers stood before the entrance to uncharted territory. It was a small square space with a white fluorescent light bulb shining above. It was possibly the most simple and harmless design a game could have, but it generated this instinctual fear and vulnerability within the three racers.

"Well," Taffyta stepped into the small square of potential hazard. "It's now or never."

The boys reluctantly followed.

...

It traveled down for quite some time and while riding this strange transportation chamber, Taffyta was mentally chastising herself for going against her own moral about fiddling with the game's code. She wasn't sure if that's exactly what she would do once she reached her destination, but she had a hunch that it was the right thing to do for the game.

The whole entire reasoning behind keeping Vanellope from racing was because they didn't have a clue what Vanellope's glitch would do to Sugar Rush. If Taffyta willingly changed her code to generate these glitching superpowers, how would it have affected her relationship with the other racers?

They wouldn't have turned on her because of this little escapade, would they? She was doing what she thought was best. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Vanellope crossing the finish line usurped all of King Candy's claims about her, and the effect of her glitching on Sugar Rush. Maybe King Candy was wrong about more than they previously thought.

Taffyta asked herself what their beloved former leader would do in this situation.

Something incredibly stupid, she answered herself.

After what felt like forever, the transportation room came to an abrupt stop and all three of them flopped backwards on their rear ends. The chrome doors sped open to another space that looked as if it came out of another planet.

Tubes of various sizes stretched out horizontally from the transportation chamber down the twisting hall. There were what appeared to be glowing lights of green energy flowing through the tubes. Pure energy, or electricity.

Gloyd took a step back. "I don't like this."

"What is this place?" Rancis asked.

Taffyta said nothing and continued on.

"What are you going to do once you find what you're looking for?" Gloyd asked while they wandered.

It wasn't like her to create a last-minute plan, but Taffyta answered, "I'll think of something once I get there."

Rancis stopped. "What's gotten into you, Taffyta? This isn't like you at all."

"You're pulling a major 'Ralph' right now."

Taffyta paused again to consider their words. Was she being too impulsive? Maybe so, but it was true what they said about her when they claimed she was extremely strong-willed.

"Look, guys," She tightened her fist at her side. "I don't know if you've noticed, but the star player of our game is gone, now. Didn't you pay a second of attention when those game geeks sat in front of that steering wheel and whined about not having Vanellope as an avatar? They lost interest." She opened her palm and looked down at the white of her gloved hand. "How long will it be before they stop playing our game completely?"

The others stared at the floors. Taffyta couldn't even believe her own words. Never in the entirety of her existence in this game has she sounded so desperate. So afraid of things that weren't happening now and possibly wouldn't. She had been terrified about something she didn't know about before, with Vanellope and her strange condition. But this was another situation entirely. Now there was a real reason to be scared.

"Taffyta," Rancis started. "I get where you're coming from, I really do, but there's nothing that can be done about it now. We can make the game more interesting ourselves."

"Yeah, without exposing it to danger." Gloyd confirmed.

"Isn't that what you said would happen before we left the meeting?"

Taffyta looked up at the tubes that started from the ceiling to the floor, watching the energy flow through them faster than any racer could. "I don't know if that's even possible. Follow me if you want, or don't, but I'm not giving up. Not just yet."

Down the corridors, there was a rectangular controller-looking device lodged into the wall.

"Woah," Taffyta smoothed her hands over it. "Never seen one of these in here before."

Gloyd stood beside her. "What are we supposed to do with this?"

Taffyta smirked. "Obviously, we're supposed to push a few buttons. Whatever's behind here has the key to our problems."

"That's great," Rancis said. "But how are we supposed to get through?"

Taffyta placed her hands on her hips. "That's where you two come in. Now scout around the place and see if you can find a code, or something to get us through."

They both glared at her but did what she'd asked while she started punching in different codes she'd picked up from different characters throughout her time. None of them worked.

After a while, they came back with what they thought she was looking for. A napkin with the Tappers logo printed on it and a few pen scribbles.

"Where'd you get this junk?" Taffyta asked.

"It was laying on the floor in the throne room." Gloyd said.

She spun around with it in hand and followed the markings.

"... up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A..."

That seemed to do the trick and the controller slid away to reveal a room that was pitch black that seemed to have no ending. In the distance, Taffyta could see multiple purple shapes with a million blue sparks traveling.

Taffyta stepped on the edge of the void and looked down. If she fell, she would be falling forever.

She grew dizzy and would have fallen in had those two not been with her.

"Careful!" Rancis said.

"We should definitely not do this." Gloyd grasped her upper arm and yanked her back. "Taffyta, this has got to be the worst idea that's ever crossed your empty head."

Taffyta shook them off. "We have to try. Go find me a rope or something."

Rancis went off.

"Taffyta," Gloyd began.

"King Candy had access to all of our memories and our data right behind our backs." She muttered, stomping her foot against the ground. "That sneaky slimeball."

He continued, carefully. "You don't know what you're walking into."

She crossed her arms. "It's called taking a leap of faith."

"No," He shook his head. "It's called being an airhead. Let's go back and we'll figure something out tomorrow morning."

Rancis returned with a long strip of a Twizzler and Taffyta snatched it and tied it around her waist. She turned to her two helpers and said, "I'll yank if I need you to bring me in."

"Taffyta-!"

She didn't listen to them and plunged into the vast ocean of blackness. Her body was floating in thin air, as if she was submerged in water but she could move her arms and legs freely like she was on the surface. Gloyd and Rancis held onto the rope for dear life.

Taffyta had only heard rumors about a place like this. A place where everything that had ever existed in Sugar Rush was located in one space. She wasn't sure if what she was seeing was actually real. She was swimming through multiple squares with different titles on them. Some of them were connected to different physical features of the game. The jumbotron, the map, the NPC characters.

In the middle of it all was an ID tag much bigger than the others with Vanellope von Schweetz printed in yellow lettering. The wires ran through it similarly to the rest but the sparks that flew down them were sparking with a few electric bolts firing out of it. It looked unstable.

"Woah," Taffyta's jaw dropped. "Guys, you should see everything that exists behind closed doors!"

"Just do what you need to so we can get out of here!" Gloyd said.

Taffyta searched through all of the codes for her own. It was a bit of a surprise that Vanellope's code was still here even if she was now officially apart of a new game, now. Well, the characters of the game never really disappear. Even if King Candy had tried to delete Vanellope's code, she was still there.

Which was why Taffyta wasn't too worried about doing this. There wasn't any way she could disappear from the game if she did a little tweaking.

She hoped.

"Hurry up, Taffyta!" Rancis said.

"Did you drown in there?"

It wasn't until Taffyta stopped in front of the solid object that defined the entirety of her being that she began to second-guess her actions. This was possibly the biggest risk she would ever take and her heart was thudding fast and hard against her chest. It wasn't just a bit of anxiety that washed over her. But also excitement.

Stepping outside of her comfort zone. Doing something she wouldn't have been caught dead doing. How much damage could one little blip do to this game?

Besides, it wasn't as if she was deleting her whole code. Just one tiny strip. Altering herself rather than the codes for the rest of the game. That way no one else had to get hurt.

She reached up and felt a tiny buzz of electricity flowing through her hand. "Ow!"

"Everything okay there?"

She didn't respond. She pushed passed the pain, squeezed her eyes shut, and yanked out a chord.

There was a rush that touched each of her digital nerves. It was like the electricity washed over her body even after she let go of the wire. It was almost invigorating. After a few days of uncertainty and stress overwhelming her, she felt she could finally breathe. She didn't even realize how much the unplugging had actually affected her until this moment.

And then nothing else happened. Maybe it was a matter of hours before things would change more drastically.

"Huh." She tugged on the rope. "We're done here."

"Finally!"

They began to pull her back in and as she was only a few feet away from the door, the blaring sound of an alarm went off. The room started blinking with red lights and a sign popped up right above Taffyta's head that read:

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IN DATABASE.

And the three of them only had seconds to react before the door in between them shut and severed off the Twizzler rope. The boys were thrown back and were now staring at the controller again. Gloyd and Rancis hurried over to it and pressed their ears to the surface.

"Taffyta?! Can you still hear us?!" Gloyd said.

"Are you okay?!"

Taffyta pressed her hands against the steel surface and started banging her fists against it.

"Guys! I don't know what just happened! I can't get out!"

On the other side, Rancis started pacing back and forth. His hands almost tearing out his hair.

"Oh, man, this is bad. This is very, very bad!"

Gloyd picked up the Tappers napkin. "I'll try the code again!"

He pressed a shaking hand to the buttons, but it didn't work. It wasn't like the door had any other buttons to open it up. The door was now locked shut and would require some special actions to open it up.

"I'll go get Fix-It and Calhoun!" Gloyd said as he started to take off.

"No!" Taffyta shouted as loud as she could through the solid layer of metal. "I don't want them to know we were here."

Gloyd stomped his foot. "Then what do you suggest we do?!"

Taffyta thought for a second, pushing out all the negativity she felt for putting herself in this situation. The door could have required a different code to open it up, which might have taken much longer time than she actually had. There were no creases in the door she could have hooked her fingers in to pry it open. Even with all three of them combined, they didn't have enough strength for that.

The door would have to be blasted open. Or smashed.

And that's when it hit her. "Gloyd! Go get Ralph! He can wreck his way through anything!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Gloyd yelled back.

"Just do it!"

Gloyd nodded and turned around. "Rancis, stay here and make sure she's still okay. I'll be back."

"O-okay..."

Taffyta turned around and pressed her back against the door, trying best as she could to hold on and prevent herself from floating away into oblivion. The cloud of codes and wires seemed like such a fascinating creation and it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime event to finally see the game in its raw form. But right now, it appeared as a monster, or a giant jellyfish about to capture her in its electric tendons and keep her there for the rest of her digital life.

"Hurry back..." She mumbled quietly and wrapped her arms around her chest.

O.O

AN: I find it funny that the racers have such a big following in Fanfiction. More people write about them than I expected. I like Candlehead because she'd got a cute little design and my favorite is Jubileena because my favorite color is red. Little Cherry Bomb :3

Also, this weekend I'm running away to go camping so I might not post a chapter for a few days.