Something Wicked

Vanellope didn't expect to have a companion within the castle, or anywhere else in this game for that matter. When she looked up after calming herself down from her anxiety, she winced at the sudden bright light that came through the doorway and saw a little person walking through.

It was a Butterscotch servant. A little girl with blonde candy wrapper hair and a raggedy old dress made with patches of faded fabric.

"Who... who are you?" Vanellope murmured, suddenly drowsy.

The Butterscotch girl looked behind her and walked forward. She took a pair of sharp hedge clippers from the wall rack and came over. Vanellope's panic rekindled and she tried her best to kick her way out of her binds. "Get away from me!"

"Hush, my lady." The little girl replied in a soft voice laced with a European accent. "I am a friend."

The girl cut Vanellope free and helped her out of the chair. Vanellope almost lost control of her legs when she stood. Her limbs had become numb while she'd been strapped to that chair and the tingling that surged through them when she stood was almost unbearable.

"Why are you helping me-?"

The servant covered Vanellope's mouth and took her hand. "Follow me."

And led her into the eerily quiet halls.

Ralph made an ungraceful entrance into the castle by punching a hole into the very far back after Calhoun was trying to strategize their way in. He dusted off his hands and stepped inside with Felix trailing behind, while Calhoun scoffed at him.

"For code's sake, Wreck-It, could you be any louder?" she snipped.

Ralph grinned in satisfaction. "Listen, lady, we can either do it your way and spend half the day working our way in, or do it my way and take no time at all."

Felix smiled awkwardly up at Calhoun. "Uh... I do think that we should be listening to Sergeant Calhoun from here on out, Ralph."

Ralph grumbled to himself, but didn't argue. He knew that Felix was only looking out for each of them.

"Thank you, Fix-It. It's nice to know that someone has some sense around here." Calhoun remarked.

Throughout the walk, Ralph was listening to Felix openly express how impressive the sergeant was. He was asking about her armor, telling her that she had such high definition features that he'd never seen before, and complimenting her on her strength for taking on those creatures every day.

Big deal, Ralph thought. He had to endure different kinds of monstrosities each working day. Such as when he had a monster migraine one summer weekend and got thrown off the building at least fifty times that day.

A pang of jealousy filled his chest at how intrigued Felix was with Calhoun. She wasn't all that great. So what she was a lady with muscles that could expertly wield a heavy space rifle? So what she was more agile and probably less destructive than himself?

It didn't matter because Felix still fancied him above everyone else. But man, did it hurt that they were engaged in a one-on-one conversation while he was keeping to himself on the side like a third wheel.

When they came to a stopping point where the path diverged into two, Ralph said, "Well, we can cover more ground if you go one way and me and Felix go another." He motioned for the handyman to come forward without waiting for an answer. "Come on, Felix."

"Wait a minute, Ralph." The handyman said. "We probably shouldn't split up in a place like this."

"Oh, fine." Ralph growled and crossed his arms.

Felix looked at him in confusion, not sure why Ralph was suddenly in a sour mood. They did just escape prison and there was some clear tension between him and Calhoun. But Felix knew Ralph - more so now than ever before - and he assumed there was more to his aggression than that.

"Hold on a minute, boys." Calhoun said as she looked down at her device. "Something's screwy around here..."

Ralph turned around. "What, is your armor screwed on too tightly?"

Calhoun didn't retort back. Her vision was focused intently on the small contraption. "Wait a minute... but... where...?"

She was pointing it in several directions, like a person looking for a cell signal. The expression on her face was concerning. She shoved the device into her storage bag and headed forward. "We have to move fast, or..."

But she didn't even have a chance to finish what she was saying before the ground started shaking violently.

"What's happening?!" Felix shrieked. And the ground opened up right underneath their feet and they plummeted a good couple of meters below the surface.

"This way!" The Butterscotch girl yelled as she yanked Vanellope forward. They bolted down the halls and in the middle of the road, Vanellope stopped, shifting her head towards the opposite direction than where the girl was trying to go.

"My lady?" The girl asked.

It was coming back to her in bits and pieces. Very slowly but clearly. She didn't realize it until she was out of the Fungeon. Looking at the checkered floors, the curved arches of the hallways, the marshmallow torches.

She'd been here before. Well, she'd been here before when King Candy captured her the first time, she told herself.

No, this was a different kind of familiarity.

"What is it?" The Butterscotch girl asked.

"I know another way out." Vanellope told her and this time, grasped her hand firmly and fled.

Ralph's heavy body made the biggest impact when they landed. Felix had to jump out of the way before he could crush him with his weight. Ralph blinked his eyes and saw pitch blackness.

"Ow..." He groaned as pain shot up his spine.

Calhoun was already on her feet before the others. She pulled out a lighter and flicked it on. She kicked Ralph in his shoulder.

"On your feet, cadet, this is no time for lollygagging."

Ralph scowled at her and struggled to get up. "Felix, are you okay?"

"I'm good, Ralph..." Felix moaned as he stood up and balanced himself on his own shoes. He felt his way over to where Ralph was and helped him up as much as he could. "Where are we now?"

Calhoun shone the light on the walls. The floor and the walls looked just the same as above, except without the torches and the warmth. An uncomfortable cold moisture filled the air and an eerie wind was howling.

There were no windows or openings in the walls that could have let air in.

"We're underground and there's no way to go but forward." Grabbing her pistol, she went ahead. "Let's get a move on."

Ralph stretched his backside and circled his head around, and murmured, "Geez, there's no stopping that lady, is there?"

"We don't know what's around here, Ralph." Felix said. "She probably knows best how to navigate these areas."

Ralph looked down at him, wondering why Felix was leaving it all in Calhoun's hands. She must have intimidated him, or done something to strike fear into him. Because it wasn't as if Felix would trust Ralph to bring them to safety, even if it was Ralph who got them into this death trap in the first place.

And Ralph who broke Felix out of prison.

He was annoyed the same way he was towards the Nicelanders, and he was so deep into his own thoughts that he didn't react when Felix clutched onto his arm while they walked. Ralph almost shook him off.

"Is something wrong?" Felix asked him quietly.

"No." Ralph answered abruptly. Calhoun was too busy staring into the tracker in her hand to pay any attention to them. "Nothing at all."

"Are you sure?" Felix stepped in front of him, worrying more about whether or not Ralph was angry at him than the danger in the shadows. "Something's up with you, Ralph, I know it."

Ralph gripped the strap on his overalls and turned his head to hide his expression. "I don't want to talk about it."

Felix lowered his head. "Okay."

But what Ralph really wanted to do was to steal Felix away from Calhoun, this castle, Sugar Rush, and the Nicelanders and take him to a place where they would both be left alone. Without the harsh criticisms of the arcade.

But he wasn't going to be that selfish. He'd already done enough of that by dragging Felix into this mess in the first place. And he noticed that Felix wasn't blaming him for it. Not out loud, anyways.

In all honestly, all Ralph wanted to know was what Felix really thought of him after everything they'd been through. Did Felix think less of Ralph now that they were both officially pronounced criminals? No, of course not.

Felix couldn't think less of anybody unless they'd wronged him. And even then, he was always "forgive and forget".

But why is it that Felix kept expecting Ralph to think so highly of everyone around him? People talked down to him wherever he went. Calhoun seemed to react more aggressively towards him than Felix, even if both men were wanted for the same crime.

No matter where he went, Felix was fortunate and honored. And though Ralph was grateful about how much closer and affectionate they've become since this whole ordeal started, the envy was still there. It never went away.

Felix gently rested his head on Ralph's arm and held his hand. "I'm glad you're here with me, Ralph."

And it was small comments like those that made Ralph feel even worse about himself. He felt like a massive burden on Felix's tiny shoulders. It was the little handyman that put out the fires Ralph started.

Felix was just trying to keep the peace. And the least Ralph could have done was make it a little easier for him.

He could start by apologizing to this soldier lady that had openly defied her own team to be here.

Ralph cleared his throat. "Listen, Calhoun, I-"

"Shh!" Calhoun hissed and stopped. "Hear that?"

Off in the distance, there was a child quietly sobbing.

"That's gotta be her." Ralph said and stomped past all of them.

"Hold your horses, Wreck-It." Calhoun said as she went after him.

It wasn't Vanellope they found, but another tiny racer with a unique-looking style. When they reached the source of the sound, Calhoun shone her lighter around the place and found a room right before them. A room separated from them by thick prison bars.

It was the pink little girl with platinum blonde hair and big, blue eyes on the other side of the bars. The one that bullied Vanellope and tried to turn her in. She stopped crying and her head lifted slowly.

Blinking her eyes open, she spoke in a solemn voice, "It's you..."

Ralph could see that her clothing was torn, her face was dirty, and she was holding her stomach like she hadn't eaten in a while as she sat on the stone floor. The image of this child socking Vanellope still burned in his head, but he knelt on one knee and asked calmly, "Why are you here?"

The girl, Taffyta, wiped away her tears and sniffled. "I didn't do as I was told."

Calhoun was still following the sensor and walked down the hall as they exchanged words, passing several empty prison cells. The cy-bug she was looking for was close. She watched herself approaching it on the tiny screen, and didn't slow down her steps a second.

But she couldn't hear it, nor could she see it. If it was down here, then she had to assume it had been put there on purpose. Cy-bugs like to burrow their way into the ground like fire ants down an anthill, and as far as Calhoun could see, there were no random tunnels dug into the sides.

This castle wasn't one they could have just dug their way into with its stone walls and floors. Someone brought them here.

And then a low, raspy growl startled her enough to drop her lighter, and the darkness blanketed around her. She bent down and her hand searched for it while she held her breath and kept quiet.

She brought it up to her eye level while still crouched on the ground, flicked it on, and a face appeared before her. With those deadly, hexagonal-patterned eyes that she faced every single morning until late evening reflecting the flame of her lighter. It's wings began to glow and flutter, and its six legs charged towards her.

Calhoun shouted and fell back on her bottom. There was a metallic clang in the air and the cy-bug was halted only a few inches in front of her. Confused, she glanced at the wall right behind it and its wings luminated the area enough to show that it was restrained with some heavily-rusted chains.

Her intuition had been right.

Its body was just like any other cy-bug, but its head is what sparked the terror in her. It was one of those anthropomorphic candy people, with its own eyes replaced with bug lenses. Its body was covered in the same dark yellow skin tone as the head. A fusion between species. Her worst nightmare.

"It can't be..."

On the brink of losing her nerve, Calhoun scooted herself away from it and another monstrous snarl brought her attention to an identical hybrid right behind her. She scrambled to her feet, grabbed her rifle, and the next thing she saw were the sparks of the rounds firing off in the darkness.

The monsters squealed out in pain like pigs in a slaughterhouse. But she could see that her aim was off because of her shaking arms. It would take a lot more than bullets to kill those things. As a last-ditch effort, she grabbed a grenade, pulled its pin, and tossed it before hustling back towards the crew.