Small Price to Pay

Taffyta wrung her hands nervously as she stood in front of the closed curtain. It was the day of the Random Roster Race, and it was her time to shine. Felix and Tamora stood behind her, sending words of encouragement her way.

"You can do it, soldier." Tamora said.

But Taffyta was feeling anything but confident. Even after everything went smoothly since the ordeal with the code, she still choked before giving this speech. She had no troubles performing in front of the candy crowd before. Why was she having such a hard time now?

She turned towards the two adults and Sour Bill, shaking slightly in her racing attire.

"I can't do it." She said.

Felix gazed at her with his supportive eyes and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Yes you can. You are a lot stronger than you think, Taffyta."

The girl shook her head. "No, I'm not. I'm just faking it 'til I make it."

Tamora walked up and knelt beside her. "Then you can try doing that right now. Those people are looking up to you, but they are here to help you. Just like we are."

Taffyta made eye contact with the taller woman for a brief second and nodded her head. It was just one little speech commencing the race. How hard could it have been?

Sour Bill went ahead and tapped the microphone. "Citizens of Sugar Rush. It is my pleasure to announce our newest leader, President Taffyta Muttonfudge."

There was no turning back now. Taffyta walked through the curtain much more gracefully than Vanellope would have with her head held high and her chest puffed out.

But her chest tightened and her legs almost gave out as she saw just how many people were actually in Sugar Rush. There were the stands dedicated to her specifically, and the rest for the other racers. There had to be at least one million of them there.

And now their attention was on her.

Sour Bill motioned for her to speak into the mic. Just as he did, everyone quieted down below her and she wished she could have just disappeared into the air. Or for everyone to keep up the loud commotion so they couldn't hear her crash and burn if she did.

"Uh..." Taffyta cleared her throat. "... hello, everyone. So..." She bit her lower lip. "You already know how this is supposed to go, but I guess I'll tell you anyways. The first seven racers to cross the finish line get to be in tomorrow's roster..."

Sour Bill tapped on her leg and whispered in her ear.

"I mean, nine..." Taffyta tried to hide her reddened face behind her platinum hair. "Now... everyone toss your coins into the Winner's Cup, and let the Random Roster Race get started."

The candy people all cheered, anyways, but the new president, after throwing her gold coin into the cup, fled the scene. She brushed past Felix and Tamora and down the steps from the podium.

What was that? She asked herself. Since when do you get nervous in front of a crowd?

If she were being honest with herself, it wasn't just because it was her first day as the officially elected leader. But she decided the actual reason wasn't worth her time or her attention.

She jumped when the adults appeared by her side.

"What?!" She shrieked. "Oh, it's just you guys."

"Hey, you did great out there," Tamora said. "Don't let that one slip-up rain on your parade, Ms. President."

"Yeah, Taffyta," Felix said, smiling wide. "I think you did a bang-up job up there. The whole crowd adores you and they'll still adore you even if you don't win this race."

Taffyta kicked at a small candy pebble in front of her. "Yeah, but to keep those gamers happy, I have to win."

"Hey," Tamora said. "Winning isn't everything, little lady. You aren't any less of a person if you don't come out first."

Taffyta nodded to the taller lady, but didn't say anything more. As a competitive person by nature, she fought tooth and nail to come out on top, and for the past six years, it had been near impossible to do with Vanellope around.

At least there was some silver lining to her being gone. Now Taffyta had a chance to be the leading character, again. Deep within her mind, she still relied on that trusty artificial glitch she might have given herself after yanking out one of her code's chords.

Still, she nodded to them and felt grateful at least for their support. It was nice to know that their love for her was unconditional. Taffyta may not have known how to respond to it initially, but she mustered up the courage to thrust her arms around the two adults.

One arm around Felix's neck and the other around Tamora's as she was kneeling down to be at the girl's height.

"Thanks, guys." She said, feeling like she was bidding them farewell as she went off to an unknown fate. With her code possibly malfunctioning while she skirted her way towards the race, anything was bound to happen.

The narrator voice called in the distance, "START YOUR ENGINES!"

Taffyta hopped into Pink Lightning and powered it up. As she did, the vibrations from the running engines rattled her pixels even more than usual. She could feel her arms going numb for a second and she flexed her hand to get the circulation flowing through them again.

It was probably nothing. These things just happened.

"... three... two... one... GO!"

The kart was much harder to drive than usual. The steering wheel felt much heavier and she had to put in more effort to keep it on track. It was like the power steering that the kart naturally came with was suddenly gone.

"Come on, don't fail me now!" She pleaded with whoever was listening to her.

She sped through the canyon, where giant-sized gumballs rolled their way downwards. For some reason, she was afraid that she would glitch through the solid walls of the canyon and she could feel her palms become damp with sweat at the prospect. She had to take in several deep breaths to keep her mind steady and her driving straight.

Jubileena sped by, blowing Taffyta a raspberry and saying, "slowpoke!".

Taffyta stepped on the pedal as hard as she could. At least the speed of her kart wasn't faltering. So far, the tingling in her arms hadn't happened again. But she started to notice her pixels floating much more prominently over her arms.

How does a glitch even work again?

Her momentary distraction was lifted by a power-up heading her way. It was a cherry bomb lit up by Candlehead's cruiser. And it was already close enough that Taffyta didn't have time to dodge it.

She placed her hands in front of her face, and the glitching had become worse as well as the loss of circulation in her limbs. It was a combination of tiny sparks flowing through her arms similar to when she plucked the chord out of her code, and tiny needles.

It was a bit of a painful experience. If this is what glitching felt like throughout her whole body, then Taffyta didn't want anything to do with it. And once the cherry bomb had collided with her phasing hands, it disappeared.

Completely baffled, Taffyta looked from one side to the next while trying to concentrate on steering the kart. Then she heard the sound of it detonating right behind her. When she turned briefly to look, she noticed that a few racers that had been trailing her several feet behind were now knocked over, with their karts busted and their astonished faces gazing at her.

"What...?"

She was just as confused. Had she been the one to transport it? It didn't matter right now because she was about to drive off the edge of a tall cliff.

"Holy gumdrops!"

Pink Lightning swerved back onto the road. She was thankful the gamers weren't playing with her today. Otherwise, they would have noticed several strange things happening.

Her glitching was still intact but there weren't any incidences of incoming objects she needed to dodge. Past Birthday Cake mountain, she could see the entrance to Rock Candy Caverns. This enclosed space was already difficult to drive through. She hoped she wouldn't run into any more complications.

And Rancis had the gall to throw a Sweet Seeker back towards her way.

When it reached her, she tried her best to keep the glitching under control and told herself to dodge it. But then her entire kart was affected by it and she glitched directly in front of the bomb, and did send it in a different direction, but instead of being several feet behind her, it ricocheted upwards.

"Uh-oh..."

The rock candy crystals above started raining down on the players.

"AH!" Rancis yelped. "What's going on?!"

Taffyta counted herself lucky he didn't see what she'd just done. The crystals were falling one by one and even though it was harder to control her vehicle, she swung and bolted away from every falling piece.

How does Vanellope do this?

The glitch was out of control, and if she wasn't careful, she might have glitched into something she couldn't have gotten out of. Every time she saw her hands begin to pixelate, it was like seeing a part of her body moving away from her. Technically, that's exactly what was happening.

By the time she drove over to Soft Serve Summit, the kart began to malfunction. The roads were always more slippering on this ice cream path, but this time it was almost impossible to keep going straight.

"Woah!" She screeched as she was now driving backwards.

...

Back on the bleachers, Felix and Tamora were watching this ordeal unfold.

"Something's not right." Tamora said.

"What's going on with her kart?" Felix asked. "Is it supposed to do that?"

They both watched with keen eyes, not even realizing that they'd both stopped breathing for a split second, watching Taffyta struggle. And contemplating whether or not they should help her.

...

Taffyta yanked the steering wheel back in position and the kart spun around. For once, she started to feel dizzy when her kart was circling. Something else was happening to her aside from glitching out. It wasn't clear what it was, but she felt as though she was far less resilient of the kart and the situation around her.

The kart plummeted down the path, still moving backwards. Taffyta couldn't see, she couldn't move her kart, and she didn't know where she was going, or if she would get there safely. And then she looked behind her and saw the darkest solid wall inching closer to her.

"Oh, no..."

She only had a few seconds to react before her kart slammed right into the surface. Pink Lightning turned over its side and the little racer was thrown out of her seat. She'd seen darkness for a split second and heard loud ringing in her ears before her eyelids closed and her body decided it was a fine time to take a nap.

AN: I know, I took a break from the action, but I can't help myself. I like when things are intense and crazy.

Anyways, I'm having a bit of trouble because I'm experiencing the treacherous burnout. I'm thinking I might take a few days to recuperate and if any of my dear readers have a suggestion for how to drive the story forward, I'd love to hear it. I've still got my own ideas for it, but I'd take some suggestions too.

Also, if any of you are interested, I'd love to collaborate with people for story ideas and art. I'm thinking if I'm going to expand my horizons on my fanfics, it's important to build connections with others. I'm looking to create stories centered around the core four, but mainly Felix and Calhoun (they just give me the honey-glows). I also like stories about Felix and Ralph. I'm thinking of a secondary story to this one about Felix and Ralph.

Thanks again for reviewing and commenting on my work. It keeps me motivated. I might change a few things in this chapter if I think of any (I know it's kind of short, but I figured not all chapters need to be long).