When Ralph went Turbo

Felix's mind was a blend of hazy thoughts and overwhelming emotions while he zipped through the halls to get to his apartment. His feet seemed to get tangled up and he almost tripped and fell flat on his face.

Ralph kissed him.

His sworn enemy who aimed to kill him every single day as soon as a patron put in a quarter just locked their lips together in a passionate embrace.

The feeling of Ralph's warm lips were still lingering on Felix's.

Since tonight, Felix always assumed Ralph hated his guts. Ralph never said more than a "hi" and "bye" to him, and he was always scowling at the handyman, like he had some underlying grudge against Felix. For what, exactly, Felix wasn't sure.

But this - this - was the absolute last thing Felix could have expected from his rival colleague.

Jiminy Jaminy... He thought. Tonight really was a weird night.

"Felix!"

The handyman swiftly turned and saw Mary in her little 8-bit party dress, smiling gleefully at him.

"Where have you been? You promised to save me a dance!"

Felix backed up against the wall and stared wide-eyed at the lady, like she was a tiger prowling towards him. His face was on fire and his heart was thudding against his chest. He was trying desperately to control his rapid breathing. It felt like he'd just ran miles across the entire arcade, despite only traveling a few feet.

"I... I..." He seemed to forget how to speak words.

Mary frowned. "Are you alright, Felix? You look a little winded."

From beside Mary, Deanna peeked over Mary's shoulder.

"What happened to you, Felix? Your face is all red!"

What did happen to him? He was so overcome with a tidal wave of complicated feelings, that he could have sworn the little incident that took place was a dream. A result of one too many Cokes.

He stepped to the side and his hand reached out to find the doorknob to his apartment.

"I... I just remembered I don't feel well!" He claimed and struggled to turn the knob. There were no locks on these doors, but somehow, he couldn't seem to get it open. Felix's palms were sweating through his white gloves. His forehead probably looked like he'd just came out of the shower.

The door to the penthouse was thrown open and Gene stood beside the two women.

"Felix, where'd you run off to, pal?" He asked in a polite but firm tone.

"Uh..."

The doorknob was really giving him a hard time. And then he felt the ground shake a tiny bit and to his utter horror, the big man that had just given him the infamous honey-glows was standing a few feet from where he was.

The Nicelanders turned their heads and their eyes were staring daggers at Ralph.

"Why are you still here?!" Gene demanded, his arms folded over his chest.

Ralph turned his eyes away. "No reason, I just wanted to see how everyone was doing."

Felix finally managed to open the door and said in the fastest way possible, "Oh, we're fine! Nothing to see here! I mean, no one to see here! Hey, let's say we call it a night and all recuperate tomorrow? Wouldn't that be great? I think so, too! Goodnight, everybody!"

And slammed the door shut. He did not want to look at Ralph's face right now. And he sure as all heck didn't want Ralph to see his own flustered expression.

Felix pressed his back against the door, still taking in deep breaths and letting them out through his nostrils. The heated conversation between Ralph and the others was still happening on the other side.

"What did you do to him, Ralph?" Gene asked through gritted teeth.

"I..." Ralph sighed. "I did something I shouldn't have..."

Deanna spoke up. "You hurt him, didn't you?! Goodness gracious, Ralph, you already do enough damage to him and the rest of us every day. Why did you have to ruin our thirtieth anniversary party?!"

"He's the nicest guy in the whole universe!" Mary screamed. "He's the last person who deserves your horrible torment!"

Felix was about to open the door and defend the wrecker. It was just one kiss, after all; it wasn't as if Ralph murdered him outside of arcade hours. But the handyman's shaken palm only hovered over the doorknob and recoiled as he listened even further.

"It wasn't like that!" Ralph retorted. "We just... had a moment together. That's it! All I wanted to do was apologize to him."

"Ralph," Gene began. "How many times do we have to remind you until you get it through your thick skull that you will never be good? First, you make all of our lives miserable by smashing our beloved home every day. Then, you show up uninvited to a celebration in Felix's honor and violate our poor hero's space! You don't deserve Felix's hospitality, and yet he keeps giving it to you! You're just the bad guy that wrecks the building, and that's all you'll ever be!"

Ralph stomped his foot. "Gene, if I didn't smash up your stupid home, then Felix wouldn't have a reason to be the hero of this game! And because I'm such a big part of this game, I deserve to be apart of this celebration, too! I'm not just a bad guy because my code says so!"

"Yes, you are!" Gene insisted.

"No, I'm not!"

Ralph smashed his fists against the ground and the entire upper floor began to shake. A crack appeared on the ceiling and the lights flickered. There was the sound of glass shattering from one of the rooms. Felix squeezed his eyes shut and clasped his hands together, and for a moment, he thought the floor was about to fall underneath him.

But it didn't.

"Yes, you are." Gene said, quietly.

"Fine, then!" Ralph started back towards the hallway. "You know what? I'm getting out of this game and going out to prove that I can be as much of a hero as Felix. Oh, yeah, I'm going to show you just how much of a good guy I can be! Then you'll have to let me be apart of these flashy celebrations and live somewhere that isn't the dump! Just you wait, Gene. You're about to eat those words of yours!"

That was when Felix decided to step out of his home.

"Ralph, wait!"

When Ralph turned his head, he saw Felix trying to reach out to him with the same hand that gently touched him a moment ago. Ralph's eyes softened and the look on his face made Felix's heart drop. It was somber and apologetic. It was like Ralph was saying "I'm sorry, pal, but I don't have a choice".

And the big man made his ungraceful exit out of the penthouse and dropped down the tall apartment complex. When Ralph made it to the ground, the Nicelanders all heard it and Felix winced as the complex shook slightly.

"Let him go, Felix." Gene practically demanded.

The handyman turned and tried his best to be patient with the short landlord. "If we had just let him join the party..."

Gene scoffed. "You saw what he did to our floors. For crying out loud, he threw a tantrum! Just because we told him to face the facts."

"That's right!" Mary said, turning to the handyman. "Besides, he wrecked our party to celebrate you, Felix. A party that he had no business being in and we already made that clear from the beginning. Frankly, I think he brought this on himself."

Felix was starting to get fed up with this. "Why must we be so against him? He's only doing what he was programmed to do."

Gene was surprised. "But what he was programmed to do was wreck everything in his sight. And that's all that he does. It doesn't matter how we treat him, he's just so prone to committing violent acts. You heard his outburst, Felix. Why are you defending him?"

"Especially after he did what he did to you." Deanna followed up.

Felix shoved his hands in his pockets. "But he didn't do anything wrong..."

All the Nicelanders occupying the same space looked at him, like they were expecting him to say more. But Felix was not about to violate his colleague's privacy like that. He was being serious when he said he respected Ralph. He never held Ralph's Bad Guy code against him.

This minor blow-up of his was new, however. Felix had never once tried to contradict the Nicelanders. They were his companions. They were the ones he always turned to when he was in need of some advice, or a little cheering up.

And after tonight, he felt like all those connections he made with them were lost. All because he was choosing the game's enemy over them.

But why would he do that? Felix didn't owe Ralph anything for doing his job as the Good Guy. It was practically the law that enemies did not mingle together. At least, that's how it had been during Felix's time.

It seemed that the little handyman always felt that unity was far more important than tradition. And that meant including Ralph in this tight-knit circle that was his game.

Felix couldn't have imagined what it must have been like to be mistreated just because of something he couldn't have changed. Heck, everything was practically handed to him on a silver platter, and all Felix had to do was just exist.

Why couldn't they have treated Ralph even half as well as they did Felix? It wasn't Ralph's fault that he was programmed this way.

"What are you saying, Felix?" Gene asked.

"I'm saying..." Felix began. "... that we should treat him less like a criminal and more like a person!"

Mary stepped towards him. "But... even after what he did?"

"That wasn't his fault!"

Again, everyone was shocked. Whether they were shocked at his shriek or the fact that he was defending Ralph for once, he wasn't sure. Felix sighed and looked down at the floor.

"It was mine."

And with that, he rushed back into his apartment, slammed the door, and when he came out, he was buttoning up his work shirt and adjusting his worn jeans. He turned to the Nicelanders and said, "I'm going after him."

"Felix!" Mary shouted.

"He's not serious about leaving the game!" Gene insisted. "He's not going Turbo!"

For the first time in his digital life, Felix chose not to listen to them. Ralph was most likely about to put himself in danger just to prove himself to these people. Something he shouldn't have had to do. And instead of discouraging him, they just egged him on by saying there was no way in the world that Ralph could do it. That he was so incapable of being good, he shouldn't have even thought of it.

When Ralph kissed Felix, there were a lot of things Felix could have felt. He could have felt angry for the unwanted affection, worried about how this would have registered with Gene and the others, and bashful at his first romantic encounter.

But what Felix actually felt was completely perplexed. Not just because he hadn't realized that Ralph could ever have such feelings for the handyman.

But because Felix wasn't sure if that kiss from his colleague was entirely unwanted in the first place.