No Soldier Left Behind

When Vanellope blinked her eyes opened, the first thing she noticed was that the room had become eerily cold. It was a stark contrast to the searing hot core of her mountain. Her entire body shivered and a cold sweat covered her forehead.

The second thing she noticed was that she was now tied up. Thick Twizzler rope was wrapped around her and held her against a chair. She blinked away her grogginess until her vision became clear and looked around her.

A pale light shone through a window placed at a very tall height. The walls were a hideous shade of yellow and the floor was checkered. Shackles and chains hung from the walls. As soon as she came to terms with where she was, she began to panic.

The Fungeon.

The place where prisoners were brought at the mercy of King Candy. The place where she hoped she would only visit in her nightmares. Vanellope desperately kicked and tried to yank herself out of her hold, but the chair was bolted down to the ground.

And the Twizzlers were stale and hard.

"No need to make such a fuss, my dear." A seemingly nonthreatening voice called out to her. She could see a pair of eyes peering at her from the darkness. "I already know my humble abode is breathtaking."

The young girl did her best to hide her innermost fears as she scowled at the king.

"If this is about that stupid engine, I've hidden it and I can tell you where it is."

King Candy snickered. "Oh, my dear Vanellope, trust me, this is far greater than a mere engine."

He began to pace around her, hands behind his back.

"What do you want, then?" Vanellope asked. "I'm telling you, I ain't got much to offer. No real racing skills, no kart, and no friends. I don't know how I can be useful to you, your Stinginess."

The king laughed once again at her attempts to insult him.

"Oh, but you do, little glitch." He stopped right in front of her and leaned closer. Vanellope tilted her head back away from him. His hands were on her knees. "If not in material possessions..." He pressed a finger to her forehead. "... then in here."

She jerked her head and legs out of his touch. "Well, I don't have any brains for you, either. Look, you've caught me, now I've gotta go hide so you can do it again. And we can keep playing this game of hide and seek as long as you want."

King Candy walked over to the wall and flipped a light switch. An extremely bright incandescent bulb flicked on above her head, making her shut her eyes. As she slowly opened them, she could see a small table with a tray atop of it. On the tray were several tools, similar to a dentist's inventory.

When her vision became more focused, she could clearly see trails of frosting and some pastry parts that were left from previous citizens scattered around. And at this realization, Vanellope's heart beat faster.

"This is no game, Vanellope." Candy said to her. "This is the most realistic thing you have ever experienced." He picked up one of the instruments and inspected it. "Because of you, two foreigners have breached into my kingdom and caused a major ruckus. Now all you have to do is tell me where they are, and you'll be free as a bird."

Vanellope breathed in, mustering all of her courage, and breathed out. "I don't know where they are. We split up before your bug minions caught me."

Candy frowned. "You would choose to protect two outsiders who you've just met over guaranteed safety and security from your own ruler?"

The little girl barked a laugh. "Safety and security? Like sending Taffyta and the others to kidnap me? Or those overgrown monster bugs? You wouldn't know safety if it sat on your face."

The king was starting to run out of patience.

"That short-tempered gorilla only came to you for the medal. And his little sidekick just happened to be with him to keep him from going Turbo."

Vanellope looked up. "Going Turbo? What are you talking about?"

He had said too much. He went for the instrument on the far end of the tray and brought it closer to her.

Vanellope couldn't identify it, but a small fraction of her memory recalled that it was something to be feared greatly. It was something far more dangerous than all of the torture elements combined.

King Candy was a monster in multiple ways. A conniving cheat, a brute against his own people, and a manipulator. But he had to be something even worse to use this small, insignificant device on his prisoners.

The king grabbed her by her ponytail and yanked it back.

"I don't know what your secret is," He hissed at her. "But somehow, you keep undermining all of my hard work. Every effort I put into this game can be gone in a split second because of an outcast! All of my attempts to keep you under my control are always wasted! How humiliating is that?"

Vanellope winced at her hair being pulled back so hard. "Don't... Please..."

King Candy smirked. "Relax, my dear Vanellope. Soon this will have all seemed like nothing but a bad dream."

The device was really close to her eye which was opened as wide as it possibly could have been, and Vanellope braced herself. But by some miracle, there was a loud knock on the door that distracted him.

"Your Highness?" A light voice called to him.

King Candy growled. "What?! What is it this time?! I'm busy!"

"Apologies for interrupting you, but three outsiders were seen heading towards the castle. One of them is heavily armed."

The king debated his priorities. Then he dropped the small device against the tray and stomped off towards the door.

He threw the door open and peered down at the servant who delayed his actions. But there was no one there. King Candy would have dismissed it, but he seemed more worried about defending his property than taking care of his prisoner.

Calhoun was walking with her rifle in hand, keeping her eyes pointed forward at their destination. She did not look down at the two who were accompanying her even once.

Since the escape, Ralph and Felix's hands had stayed intertwined. It was like both of them were afraid if they stopped holding hands, then one of them would disappear. Well, it sure felt like that would happen, with the army from Hero's Duty after them and the king most likely keeping a close eye on them.

Felix did notice, however, that Calhoun was keeping ahead of them right after she saw his hand in his lover's. He wondered if it made her uncomfortable to see them displaying minor affection.

Just for the time being, he decided to let Ralph's hand go.

"Thanks for giving us a hand, ma'am." He said to her.

Ralph shot him a confused look and Felix only cleared his throat and turned his head away.

"Just because I bailed you two out, doesn't mean we have to talk." She snapped.

"Oh, okay."

Ralph didn't like how she responded to him. Here Felix was, being polite, and she stepped on him without a care. She may have needed to put on a no-nonsense attitude for her men, but not these two who were set to help her against this abominable species.

When he looked down at Felix, the handyman gave him a look that told him to let it go.

But when Ralph glared back at Calhoun, he saw that she was doing the same. It felt like she was judging him with her eyes. And though Ralph knew he deserved it, he hated that she was keeping her opinions about him to herself.

"Look, lady, if you're going to shun me with your words, then do it already. I know you want to."

Calhoun stopped and pointed towards Felix. "If you actually gave a rat's tail about this little number, here, then you wouldn't have been such a selfish man-child in the first place."

Felix laughed nervously. "Heh, no need to worry so much about me, ma'am. I'm perfectly fine on my own."

But Ralph didn't appreciate Calhoun making assumptions about the two of them like that.

"Okay, I've made mistakes, but I'm paying the price for them. Isn't that supposed to be enough?"

Calhoun stepped closer to him. "You have an obligation to your game regardless of what happens outside of it. It's your duty as the game's villain to endure all of the shade thrown at you by the others. You put both of your lives on the line just because those little tenants got under your skin. It was your job and you wasted it."

"Oh yeah?" Ralph crossed his arms. "Well, your job is to keep track of your game's environment and those disgusting critters. And what about just now when you went against your own protocol and your own men? I know I shouldn't have gone Turbo, but at least I'm trying to fix it. And I'm not acting all high and mighty about it, lady."

Felix could see the steam coming out of their ears and stepped in the middle of the talk before it became more heated. "Listen, I know we all got off on the wrong foot here, and Ralph and I have done some things we can't undo, but for now, we gotta get our heads together to keep other lives from being ruined, too. I promise you, ma'am, we will do anything you say. But please, let's just get along as best as we can."

Calhoun squinted her eyes at Ralph and turned away from him.

Why is it that the people Ralph has met along this journey had an immediate distaste towards him? It seemed other people couldn't have stopped treating him like a Bad Guy even if they hadn't known him for long.

Maybe he should just burrow himself into a hole with the rest of the bugs. That way no one would judge him again. He was so annoyed from that brief talk that he didn't notice when Felix gently touched his hand.

"Where are we going?" Calhoun demanded, looking down at her tracker. "There are no signs of cy-bugs in this direction."

"We have to check on our friend." Felix said, moving forward a little faster. He wasn't sure how long they were gone, but anything could have happened in that amount of time.

...

Once they made it back to Diet Cola Mountain, they noticed that their little friend was nowhere to be seen. Ralph called out to her, telling her to cut it out with the jokes, but she didn't show up.

And just as both men had grown very worried, Calhoun turned her head down and looked at the tracks that were made in the peanut brittle ground. Then her eyes grew wide with concern.

"They were here." She said. "Those vermin had wandered into this mountain."

Felix gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth. He turned to Ralph. "You don't think that they... that she...?"

Ralph's jaw dropped slightly at the implication. "No... no, they couldn't have."

"Then..." Felix dropped to his knees. "The king... Oh, great balls of fire, Ralph, we broke our promise to her!"

Ralph was breathing heavily through his nostrils, trying to keep himself serene under these circumstances. The image of how frightened Vanellope looked at the thought of her being taken away came to his mind.

And the fact that he failed to prevent it made him feel even less of a hero.

He puffed out his chest and marched towards the exit.

"Wait, Ralph, where are you going?" Felix said.

"I'm going to go get her." He stared down at the handyman. "It's going to be too dangerous for you, Felix. You're better off staying here."

Felix frowned. "Ralph." He hopped over to the wrecker's side. "I've already told you I'm not helpless! Wherever you go, I go. End of story."

Ralph didn't argue with him, but he did make a note to protect him at all costs. He turned to Calhoun.

"Lady, I know we said we were going to look for those cy-bugs, but there's a little girl in need of rescuing. Her captor is a madman who runs this place like a prison. I'm not going to ask you to come with, but we've made it our goal to keep her safe from everything in this sugar-infested game."

Calhoun looked down at her tracker, where she was having trouble detecting a single bug nearby. Then thought about how much trouble she was going to face if she returned to her game after failing her most important mission.

But she knew that if it had been her friend in danger, she would have dropped everything for them. If she actually had dropped everything, then maybe she wouldn't have experienced...

"Good lord, what kind of circus have I just roped myself into?" She muttered to herself and walked ahead of them. "Come on, boys. You're going to need backup for when things get ugly."