Chapter One:

The last thing she remembered was going to sleep in the alleyway behind the Ichiba, where the street vents made the ground warmer to sleep on.

But when Vanellope woke up, her body felt numb and thick, and she wasn't staring at the sky, but instead a low roof. When she stirred, someone yelled and something sharp was poked into her arm before she passed out again.

The cycle continued - the waking, the dizziness and nausea, the yelling and rush of pain before falling asleep - until Vanellope had no clue where she was. It wasn't Tokyo anymore, that was for sure.

Figures dressed in light gray jumpsuits and wearing masks dragged her from the van and up onto a table. Her arms and legs were too heavy for her to even try and fight back.

And then the experiments started.

Faceless scientists poked her body and shocked her with machines. Vanellope screamed herself hoarse, feeling like her body was ripping itself apart before slamming back together again.

And it went dark again.

When she woke up again, she was locked in a glass cell. The room the cells were in was dark, only a few emergency lights that let her see the other four crumpled people in the other cells.

"Hello?" She asked, her voice scratchy and weak. Vanellope was surprised she even heard it. "Hello?"

"Who are you?" Another voice asked. "Where are we?!"

This girl was tall and thin, and also a few years older than Vanellope was. If she was thirteen, that would make this girl close to fifteen or sixteen. Her red hair was very thick, and it clumped over her shoulder and face in a matted ponytail. The girl was wearing a thin dress, and shivered constantly in the chill of the lab cells.

"My name's Vanellope,"

"I'm Audrey,"

"I don't know where we are,"

"Underground," Audrey said, very sure about that assessment. "Where's my brother?!"

"Over here!" A new figure - the boy - answered. He wore thin clothes like his sister, and looked like he was the same age. His hair was dark though, and he was even taller than she was.

"Oncie!" Audrey cried, scrambling to her feet where their cells shared a wall. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"W-what happened to us?" A fourth voice asked, and the others turned to see another dark haired girl, this one short, sitting curled up with her knees against her chest.

"I was train hopping in Tokyo, heading to the outskirts," Vanellope said. "I don't know what happened,"

"Train hopping?"

"Best way to find a good hideout," Vanellope shrugged. "My dad stopped coming home a few years ago, so it's just me left,"

"Our dad's gone too," Audrey said, and Onceler looked at her in shock. "We just moved back in with our mom in Florida, we're from Italy first,"

"Auds," Oncie warned. "Be careful,"

"Our mom was putting us into foster care though, she didn't want us,"

"I was in Florida too!" Mavis - the last girl - chimed in. "Dad and I were there on vacation,"

"So what do they want us for?" Onceler asked again. "It doesn't make any sense,"

It didn't. The four of them were so different there couldn't have been any link. The cell system was too fancy and technical to be a trafficking ring, unless someone really important was in on it. But even that didn't make sense with the constant experimenting their kidnappers kept performing.

Eventually the scientists started to come for one of them at a time, usually when they thought they would be asleep. No one was actually asleep, just lying quietly and hoping for a chance to get out. Everytime that happened, the four heard whispers about the first successful 'subject' and if the lesser trials could compete in the long run.

"I think we're the lesser trials," Vanellope said one day, and Oncie just nodded. He usually shut down when his twin was taken away, and today was no different. In fact, they'd all kind of lost their fight as the days wore on.

Then stuff started to happen.

It started with Audrey, who kept finding tiny little plants in her cell, peeping through previously missing cracks.

Then both twins, who started to get lethargic and more exhausted the longer they went without sunlight. Vanellope could understand that, but to those two it was harsh.

Vanellope herself felt jittery and shaky every time she was awake, the close walls of her cell closing in when she forced herself to sit still.

And Mavis topped them all by accidentally poking herself in the mouth with newly grown fangs, which then turned into being able to see in the dark halls.

The scientists were thrilled, and the four realized what was happening. They'd been kidnapped to become super powered lab rats.

They didn't know how much time had passed, but one day - everything changed.

Vanellope's powers went into overdrive, and she phased through the thick glass wall of her cell onto the other side. The others gasped, and then the alarms around them started to blare.

Vanellope ran to Audrey's cell, looking for a lever or button to open it, but the redhead slammed her fist on the glass to stop her.

"GO!"

"N-no!" Vanellope yelped. "I can't!"

"You have to!" Mavis added. "If they catch you they'll up your security!"

Vanellope didn't have time to answer as the prison doors slammed open and guards started to rush in. Fight or flight took over, and Vanellope closed her eyes and became pure energy, phasing in and out of existence as she stumbled outside and through a wall to the street.

She tripped over her own feet, but kept scrambling and pushing herself up and away, the large building still looming over her. Vanellope glanced back - memorizing everything she could.

O'Hare Air.

It was a large building by the river.

She was in a city.

"I'll come back for you," Vanellope whispered as she kept running. "I promise!"

It was a week of stumbling around the streets of Sugarus blind before Ralph found her.

Wrecker was a superhero with a bad reputation, but that didn't mean he didn't have a heart of gold. The man found Vanellope shaking and buzzing with electricity, then took her to his house to feed and heal her.

A few more weeks of training and she was debuting as his sidekick, Shockwave.

A slip up involving a thunderstorm and a power outage meant the neighbor boy Ted Wiggins found out her secret and immediately became her best friend and unlikely backup.

Then there were supers her age - a bunch of kids in California.

Then they came out to help her and Ralph, which led to a minor breaking and entering adventure that led to a battle with a group of actual supervillains. That had been her fault, but luckily they hadn't held it against her.

But they'd promised to help her find her friends, and Vanellope was glad for that.

And that was pretty much everything.

A few weeks after the whole Omnidroid event, Shockwave was out on one of her weekly patrols. She was moving from building to building, just checking in and looking for muggers or gang bangers to bust.

The San Fransokyo team had helped wipe out the robots, but Shockwave wasn't convinced they were gone. She wouldn't have been surprised if O'Hare got his hands on parts and tried to do it himself.

Even though it hadn't even been a month, Wilbur Robinson - or Dimension to the public - had held up his end of the deal. He sent her encrypted files about crime in her area, as well as the missing person files for people who fit the same criteria she had. It was a lot, but maybe it would help if she could find the time to actually look through it.

A smashing sound caught her ear, and Shockwave looked over the edge of her building and into the alleyway below. Someone had just slammed into a pile of trash cans, knocking them over as they sprinted down the sidewalk. Behind them - a group of large men laughed and followed.

"Hey honey-cakes, what's the matter?" The leader laughed, flicking open his pocket knife.

"Hell no," Vanellope muttered. "Not on my watch,"

The teen tapped her wrists to power up her suit, then phased down through the building until she was level with the ground, then through the wall so she was behind the muggers and victim.

"Hey, is there a problem here?" She asked smugly. The muggers jumped, then turned to face the young hero. "Are they bothering you?"

"It's that sidekick!" One of the muggers growled. The girl Vanellope had been addressing slipped into the shadows, but the heroine didn't notice. She smirked and cracked her knuckles, egging the thugs on.

They rushed her all at once, pulling out switchblades and tasers - whatever gangbangers could get off the streets.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Shockwave laughed, phasing through the first attack and shooting one guy down with her electric fist. "Give a girl some time to think it over!

"AHHH!" Another thug screamed, and Vanellope's head whipped over to see the mystery girl land on his back and sink her teeth - wait, fangs - into his neck.

"Freaking psycho bitch!" A third man shrieked, hauling the guy Vanellope had taken out to his feet and running out of the alleyway, leaving a stunned superhero and girl with blood on her face.

"W-who are you?!" Shockwave demanded. The girl looked up, shaggy black hair with choppy bangs almost covering her eyes. She wore a tattered grey uniform, almost like a hospital gown.

"Vanellope, don't you remember me?"

"Mavis?!"

Authors note: To me, this reads like the worse movie sequel. I really wanted to get into it, I did. its just that these are not my preferred characters and I feel like I could not write the ending a good way. But, I felt that this story was far enough along that it deserved to be finished.