My Knight in Raggedy Overalls

Ralph went through all the possible locations in his head. Felix was small enough that someone could have stuffed him in a dark corner under a rock. King Candy might have gotten to him. But Ralph couldn't think of a reason the king would have wanted the little handyman.

He cupped his hands over his mouth and was about to shout Felix's name at the top of his lungs. But he couldn't have done it without drawing attention to himself.

He was staring into the distance where the white castle was standing and casting a shadow over the entire kingdom. King Candy's defenses were a joke, Ralph told himself. He could barge in through there easily and pluck the little handyman out from the king's clutches. But he had to remind himself that he was still on the run from the monarch and his minions.

His children of the candy corn.

There was a chance - as slim as it may have been - that Felix might have hitchhiked back to their game without a word to Ralph. As much as he didn't want to choose that over being kidnapped, it seemed to click.

Maybe the heat had finally gotten to poor Felix after years of living comfortably as a charitable hero.

No, Ralph thought. Felix was not that kind of man. He was no coward. He was just afraid. And he had good reason to be. Without brute strength, the little man was vulnerable and in need of protection. Constant protection.

The arcade was a dangerous place outside of their games. Especially now.

Something had been watching Ralph while he was trudging through the Twizzler grass fields. Ralph could see another tiny figure hurrying behind a gumdrop boulder behind him.

"Hey!"

The creature scurried away. Ralph ran after it, jumped in front of it, and picked it up. It was one of the rotten little racers. The green-haired girl with the candle attached to her hat.

"No! Let me go!"

Ralph tightened his hold on the back of her shirt.

"Not until you tell me what those little eyeballs of yours saw in the past thirty minutes while you were out here being a peeping Tom!"

The girl opened her tear-stained eyes. "I wasn't!"

Ralph didn't buy it. Not for a bit.

She clasped her tiny hands together. "Okay, okay! I-I saw someone from another game come through here! A really tall lady! And she had one of your friends on her shoulder!"

"What did she look like?"

"She was wearing this really dark outfit. I think it was armor, or something! She left like she was in a hurry! T-that's all I know!"

A tall lady wearing dark armor. Ralph had to think about where a person with this description would have come from. Then it occurred to him that other characters from another game he'd invaded were wearing black, heavyset armor.

Hero's Duty. The soldiers had sought them out and arrested Felix. That had to be the only explanation for this.

The green-haired girl whimpered and cried and asked him not to hurt her. He lowered her down to the ground, gently. He may have still been seething over what she and the others had done to Vanellope, but she was just a child.

She was only carrying out the tasks.

"Get out of here. Go home to your candy parents, or something."

He hoped that those soldiers hadn't punished Felix too harshly for his actions. If it was Ralph they wanted, then that was what they were about to get.

...

"Somebody, please, let me out!" Felix wailed as his hands searched for an escape route. There was a small crack in the back wall and he grasped his hammer. "This has to work..." He tapped it against the crack as hard as he possibly could. But the crack disappeared and the wall repositioned itself to look more maintained and clean. "Oh, sweet sarsaparilla, why do I fix everything I touch?!"

His back laid against the wall and slid down to the floor, his cuffed hands resting in between his thighs. Never before in his life had he done something that was worth incarceration. He made it his goal in life to help as many people as he could. Ralph included.

And now that he's done that, he was facing the consequences. Paying the pied piper. All because of his undying love for Ralph. All because for once in the past three decades, he wanted to put a smile on Ralph's face.

He hated seeing such a misunderstood man so somber. Maybe if he'd been more honest with the wrecker about his feelings, they wouldn't have been in this mess.

Now wasn't the time for remorse. Felix needed to find a way out. If those cy-bugs had overtaken the harmless game of Sugar Rush, then that meant his man and their little friend were about to get a nasty surprise.

Felix would never forgive himself if he let anything happen to them. But what could he do? He was just one man. He was a fixer and a healer. He couldn't fight. He couldn't kill. He wouldn't. It was against his nature to cause harm to anything. That cy-bug couldn't even be destroyed by his hammer.

After the exchange of comforting words between himself and Ralph, he realized that he had only been good for emotional support. And though it was an important aspect to him, it wouldn't be useful against a swarm of viral monsters.

If there was even a hint of a fighter within Felix, he probably could have gotten himself out of jail by now. Maybe the best thing he could have done now was behave himself, and they would discharge him for being good.

They wouldn't have kept him here during regular arcade hours, would they? They wouldn't have risked an unplugging of his own game. The more Felix thought about it, the more fearful he became.

"Ralph..." He mumbled into his knees. "I wish I told you the truth before all of this..."

And he sat in the tiny, dark cell, waiting for someone - anyone - to come for him.

...

Ralph sped through Game Central Station, trying not to cause too much of a scene. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the sunrise peering through the empty outlet where Space Invaders used to be.

It was already the next day. That meant that they had twenty-four hours left to help Vanellope.

Ralph sped through the tunnel of Hero's Duty and took cover. The searchlights from what he assumed was the penitentiary were pointed up towards the sky. Outside of it was crawling with armed guards. It wasn't going to be easy. Especially with someone as big and obvious as Ralph.

But he had to try.

He took advantage of the darkness and the smoke, as well as a few explosives that caught the soldiers' attention. He had to punch a few bugs here and there before they gave away his position.

He carried a big piece of debris with him, stopping whenever he heard the sound of combat boots stomping against the ground. One he was close to the wall, he had to think of a way to hop over it. There was barbed wire at the top and a few guards stationed in tall towers.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again." He muttered. "This wouldn't be a problem if I was a tiny shrimp."

If he punched the wall, he could have ran towards Felix's cell, rescued him, and sprinted towards the exit. But that required a distraction. And a very big one at that.

And then it hit him once he looked down at the floor and saw two tiny eggs that looked ready to hatch. Those soldiers were hellbent on exterminating these monsters, and that's exactly what they were about to do.

Once he saw those babies crawling out of the hexagonal-lined eggs, he grabbed them in his hands and hurled them towards the center of the arena. Once the two were in the soldiers' line of sight, they began shooting. Ralph took the opportunity to punch a massive hole in the side of the prison wall.

"Felix!" He called out into the curved hallways.

"Over here!" A voice said. Ralph ran down to the cell numbered "ten". It was a tall man with a shaved head and medium build.

"You're not Felix!" Ralph growled.

"Yes I am!" The man's intentionally high voice broke as he spoke.

"Ah! I don't have time for this!"

Sirens were going off in the prison. Ralph ran as fast as his already-sore legs could carry him down and he realized that the direction he was going was counting down from the last number he saw. He turned around and went the other direction.

He could hear shouting voices down the hall and he picked up the pace.

...

Felix knew his rescuer was nearby because he could feel the ground shaking slightly beneath him. Even more so that it did when those guards were rushing through the halls.

He'd know those heavy steps anywhere.

"Ralph- Ah!" He screamed as he hopped up to grab onto the bars. When he did, an electric shock ran through his body. It hurt almost as bad as being clocked in the head. "I'm over here!"

...

The big man could hear him and followed the sound of his voice. He sped past all the prisoners, who began shouting and overpowering the sound of Felix. Ralph looked in every direction, every corner, at every single prisoner. It was impossible to think with the volume. And the guards were coming closer. His hands grabbed his hair and his teeth clenched.

"Everybody, shut up!" He bellowed and slammed his fists against the ground. A massive crack appeared in the stone floor and everyone obeyed his command. In the silence, he could hear the little "blip" of Felix's 8-bit hopping. The sound could carry out for miles.

Ralph followed it until he appeared at the correct cell and he looked down to see poor Felix all roughed up and his hands chained.

"Felix! Are you okay?"

"Don't come any closer, Ralph! The door electrocuted me!"

Ralph wasn't all that concerned. He didn't refer to himself as a big wall for nothing.

"Stand back, Felix." He said. He readied his fist and slammed it through the iron cell door. There was a small hole in it, but it was still intact. He ignored the ache in his limbs and did it again. And again, until there was a big enough opening for him to step through.

The little man leapt into his arms.

"Oh, Ralph, I'm sorry I didn't invite you to any of our other anniversary parties! Or that I didn't speak more than a few words to you until now! Or that I'm probably the worst friend in the world for letting you live in the dump! Or... or..."

Ralph cut off his long spiel with another passionate kiss. Felix's bound hands rested comfortably on the big man's chest and he moaned softly against his lips. It was a short embrace because the rumble of the guards' steps were coming closer.

"Let's worry about that later." Ralph said.

"Right."

...

Felix tried to keep up with the wrecker, but somehow, it was harder to run fast with his hands cuffed.

"Here," Ralph said. "Let me help you with those."

He held the chain in between his fingers and squeezed. The chain broke and the cuffs were weakened enough that Felix could slip his wrists out. Felix rubbed his sore wrists and looked up at Ralph in amazement.

"Gee whiz, Ralph, is there anything you can't do?"

Ralph savored the proud moment for himself.

"There they are!" The guards shouted.

Ralph grabbed Felix's hand and used his shoulder to bust down the thin walls. He shielded Felix as much as he could, but the little handyman was still hit with small bits and pieces of concrete.

"Be careful!" He shrieked.

"Sorry! I can't really see what I'm doing!"

The guards were chasing them down a hall with a dead end. Ralph had been smashing through walls the whole time, but this one looked much more solid and tougher than the others. Ralph punched it, but it was no use. There seemed to be a protective layer around it.

"Oh, no!" Felix clasped his hands over his face. "What do we do now?!"

Then they were accompanied by armed men with plastic face shields, bulletproof vests, and powerful arsenal pointed towards them. Ralph looked on his left and right sides, seeing walls made of the same tough metal. It looked like a stick of dynamite could break it. But nothing less.

"We have you surrounded!" The guards yelled.

Ralph and Felix both had their hands up in the air. But the big man wasn't about to give up that easily. He looked up at the ceiling, which looked like it was made of a thin layer of drywall. Exactly what the halls of the apartment complex were made of.

He didn't have time to think of a better idea. He scooped up Felix, held him close, and leapt upwards, punching a hole through the roof. Felix winced and covered his head with his arms.

Knowing that they were already being followed, Ralph jumped off the wall and headed towards the tunnel. A shrill alarm pierced through the air. Beams of light were points towards them. Shouting between the soldiers could be heard.

Hand-in-hand, the two men ran for their lives.

"We're going to make it!" Ralph said.

"It's going to be close!"

Just then, a grenade landed in front of them and Ralph slid to a stop as it went off. Instead of exploding the entire area around them, however, a cloud of smoke filled the atmosphere. The cloud burned their eyeballs and caused a coughing fit in them.

The sound of a gun cocking could be heard, and when the smoke cleared, two enraged high definition eyes beneath a tuft of blonde hair were staring down at them, with the long barrel of a space-like rifle aimed at them.

"Not so fast, ladies."

AN: Ooooh shit, things about to get real! I'm going to be looking through my chapters and doing a little cleanup/spell check/grammar check and all. It'll take time, but I'll get it done.