Van resisted the urge to scratch her bloodied face. Occasionally she would try by rubbing the towel all around but stopped with the onslaught of raw pain. Wincing a bit, she leaned her head down to check her PipBoy. Where the head icon was located, under status, it showed a giant frowny face clearly labeled on the Vault Boy avatar icon, indicating that she had been badly hurt. The girl took a few steps onto the road and stumbled to maintain her balance. Her vision even doubled several times.
Her body glitched in various places and she let out a rather muffled scream behind the soaked towel. More and more the prospect of using a Stimpak was becoming rather enticing. Her little fingers reached around in her backpack and started to feel around. Eventually, she brushed alongside some glass vials with razor-sharp needles on one end.
"C- c'mof, j- jus a n-n- neefle," she lisped, still wheezing from the pain. Her fingers trembled, her body shook and the vivid memories of using such horribly painful medicine flashed through her mind. They could heal you on the brink of death, for sure, but they were rather unpleasant to use. A very vivid memory of her using one, just one, flashed through her mind over and over. Wretched glitching code and excruciating pain; Van had never screamed so much in all of her life.
Finally, she came to a decision and put the needles away. Will just make me pass out… she thought, remembering the results on the rare occasions where they were necessary. It was just too dangerous to risk it out in the open.
The ex-racer took a few deep breathes through her mouth and already felt exhausted, but she had to carry on.
"S- s- sheep…" she mumbled and started walking again.
"Attention Citizens. NUCLEAR STRIKE IMMINENT! Please exit the area at your earliest convenience! Thank you for your cooperation." An ominous sounding voice announced from her PipBoy as sirens all around her started to blaze from every which direction.
Van groaned in annoyance.
"G- great… s-s- dumb pw- pwayers…" she lisped.
Moaning again, she quickly checked the map in the game and was thankful to find the nuke far away from her. Good, won't have to waste any Stealth Boys… she thought. Players were always attracted to the dumb nuclear sites. That suited her just fine. Though, as usual, she wasn't taking any chances.
Clutched tightly in her free hand was the strange device itself, a Stealth Boy. A strange looking rectangular device stored neatly inside a leather pouch. They were fairly simple to use, only requiring the press of a button, but in her opinion, they were exceedingly rare. Makes ya invisible, ah-doy they're rare! she thought. Thankfully it wasn't needed for the time, but she kept it at the ready.
Walking had started to become a huge chore, the exhaustion of it all getting to her. Desperately, she checked the map on her pipboy and groaned in pain, even whimpering. She was close to her home, that much was certain, but the journey to reach it required a bit of a trek uphill. As she walked, her mind couldn't help but wander freely, to a much better time from so long ago.
"Okay maggots! Listen up! The racers over from Hydro Thunder think they got what it takes to go toe to toe with Sugar Rush's finest! They think they got us scared, that we're all nothing but big diaper babies ready to cry home to our mommies!"
The other racers looked on in awe as their princess marched back and forth in front of them, pacing as she spoke.
"Are we gonna let them just think that? So they can walk all over us?!"
A few of the racers mumbled something while the rest nervously twitched their fingers.
"I can't hear you!"
But instead of a unified response, one of the racers simply stepped forward while speaking rather casually. "No mam?" Taffyta said uncertainly.
"You got that right! Aww, c'mon, guys, you're supposed to band together and all go "Mam, no mam! Ready to fight to the death, mam!" Or something cool like that! What is this?!"
Vanellope pointed over toward Jubileena who was nervously clutching the back of her head. "Uh, it's just we don't think it's quite that serious. They just challenged us to a race, Vanellope. That's all."
The sucker that Vanellope had been suckling was quickly bit in two. "That's all? JUST A RACE?!"
"W- well, yeah," she stuttered nervously.
"What are we? All of you, what are we?!"
More mumbled responses while Taffyta gave their leader an understanding smile. With a wink, she spoke, "Racers, we're racers."
Smirking, Vanellope pointed over at her. "That's right! We're racers at our core! And when we're challenged we don't just play a little game, we race! We race with all of our hearts and minds as one. Because this isn't just some silly race, team. Sugar Rush Racers have to show this arcade that we mean business and we're not just gonna take second place lying down! Now, are you all with me?!"
Taffyta giggled and jumped into the air while animating her signature pose. "Mam, yes mam!"
The others gave out some half-hearted replies of confirmation, some smiling and others shrugging.
Vanellope giggled. "Good enough!" she exclaimed and broke out into a fit of giggles, much to their confusion. "Aw, c'mon, gang. I'm just teasing. Let's go out there and win, the Sugar Rush way!"
Van almost smiled, almost. All she had left were memories, bitter and sweet, but sometimes more the latter rather than the former. Sometimes.
She was close to her target, very close. She kept pushing her body, panting for air and trying to stay upright. The world kept spinning while pain continued to course around her nose over and over. After a few more steps she suddenly tripped, falling over onto her side. The towel dropped and fresh blood pooled around her injury.
"S- sh- sh- so s- s- she- sheepy…" she mumbled. She was vaguely aware of her hands searching for the bloodied towel as her mind continued to swim. It took her a full minute, but she had the object back though she lacked the full strength to stop the bleeding.
Whimpering and trying not to cry too hard, she started to crawl uphill at a rather slow pace. It took her roughly five minutes before something came into view, something other than the road.
Her head tilted up and she spotted a familiar guard building with a very peculiar looking guard, another robot.
"H- h- hey, S- S- Sp- Sparky," she said with great difficulty.
The same robot design from the trader was Sparky's design, only lacking a fake mustache or any fancy trimmings. The humanoid machine tilted its head down and seemed to gasp.
"Van, you require immediate medical attention."
"N-n- nah… f-f- fwink I- I'll jus… lie… h- here n she- sheep," she stuttered and before she knew it, her head had slumped onto the pavement below while the world blacked out.
Pain. That was the first thing Van felt upon waking. Raw, unbridled pain. And then she felt a very cold and incredibly prickly feeling around the base of her nose. A cold feeling liquid shot straight through her face and that's when she started to scream. Her body began to glitch in the most excruciatingly painful ways all over. She wanted to run and hide, to make a break for it and run. To open her blasted eyes and see what was going on, but all she did was continue to scream and cry in pain as the needle continued to pour the unknown concoction into her system.
Van was vaguely aware of someone screaming for her to do something, but words and phrases blended together and she couldn't hear past her own voice. Sweat poured off her body at unfathomable rates. At that point, she was well beyond trying not to cry and scream in agony and she didn't care who heard.
Just make it stop! she thought, over and over the same thing going through her mind.
The agony didn't stop, even when the cold prickly feeling went away. She shook and trembled and cried and glitched for what felt like an eternity. Until, eventually, her vision seemed to return while she could finally calm down enough to hear something. A blurry figure came into view and hesitantly patted her back.
"Sleep… sleep, child. Just sleep."
The voice was familiar, but all Van could think to do was nod her head in response. Sleep sounded good.
She awoke sometime later. The pain had ceased and she couldn't feel any wetness on her face any longer.
"Hmm…" she mumbled. "What happen?"
Slowly, very slowly, her eyes fluttered open and she glanced around. There was no one around and no familiar voices from earlier. Quickly, she felt around her face and didn't seem to find any injuries. She sat up slightly and tried to piece together what she knew.
"I was walking… here," she stated confidently. Looking around, she confirmed she was in her 'home', but didn't bother to take in the surroundings by much more than an actual glance. "And I… I…" she trailed off and closed her eyes. For some odd reason, her memory seemed very fuzzy.
Her PipBoy, however, had the answer. Checking her status it was revealed she was suffering from an over addiction of stimpaks of the super variety. She blinked as her mind tried to process this and then it hit her.
"What the hell! I don't use those stupid things! I would never."
She groaned and tried to think back, but it was like swimming through molasses and her mind just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. Figuring she was getting nowhere, the girl shook her head and glanced around.
"Least my head isn't spinning anymore…"
Blinking, her surroundings slowly came into focus and there she able to smile. If only just. The strangely built underground bunker was her little slice of post-apocalyptic heaven. While it was technically not allowed to build your own structures in certain areas of the game (least of all underground), Van had found a way and, so far, there weren't any negative consequences.
Taking a very deep breath, she slowly stood up and tried to walk only to fall flat on her face in utter exhaustion. The entire world started to spin and her whole form felt dizzy. Her stomach wrenched in a few places and she moaned in pain.
"Stay sweet, Van!"
Her body froze, her mind screeched to a halt and a creeping chill ran up the back of her spine. Then she chuckled a bit and rolled over onto her side. "Just hearing things," she mumbled.
"Hearing what? I'm the only one here, you big silly!"
Van screamed and backed up, scrambling on the floor before hitting the back of her head on something hard. The world around her continued to spin while pain glitched over her form several times. She could see something which resembled Taffyta Muttonfudge, smiling at her in a sickening way. She saw it, but she didn't believe it.
She started hyperventilating though because the strange taffy girl wasn't vanishing. On the verge of tears, Van started pounding her fists over her head. Not caring how much force she used. Not real. She's not real!
"Hello! You in there, princess?!"
Taffyta was screaming in her face. Nevermind the impossibility of it all, the fact that her best friend was yelling at her made the situation so much worse. She had a sickening glare etched on her face the likes of which Van had never seen.
GO away! she thought. Oddly enough, the strange vision started to chuckle at this.
"Go? Go where? Or did ya forget you lame brain princess! Our game is gone! We have nowhere to go!"
"Y- y- you're n- n-"
"What was that?! Speak up you pathetic excuse for a driver!"
Her eyes slowly closed, hoping that was the last of the strange hallucination. Not real… you're not real. You died years ago and you're never coming back. This isn't real.
She felt an immense pressure squeeze her head from both sides as her head was raised up by what she presumed to be Taffyta's hands.
"Look at me! Look! Don't ignore me you, evil little witch! You ignored us!" she screamed and actually physically shoved Van's head back onto the floor, hard.
Just how she was able to do this was beyond her understanding as Van seemed terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.
"You failed us!" the illusion screamed and bashed the back of her skull again.
Van was kicked backward into a locker compartment, the door to it swung open while her head radiated pain the likes of which she had never felt.
"You let us die!"
"N- no… I didn't… I," she mumbled while the irate racer stomped over toward her.
Panicking, her glitching hand reached into the locker, haphazardly tossing things aside. "Where is it!"
"Knock knock, princess!" Taffyta screamed. When Van looked back she was on the verge of tears with what she saw.
The once pristine looking racer who would ordinarily be decked out in pink colored candy cane style tights and a sparkling jacket was instead the picture perfect mascot of a raider denizen. Clothes torn in various places, blast marks on her face with bleeding, puss filled wounds. A maddening, angry looking smile while her once beautiful looking baby blue eyes burned with crimson fire and blood.
Taffyta grabbed for Van's leg but screamed when a massive green blast of energy was shot directly into Taffyta's face. The ex-princesses hand trembled while doing her best to clutch onto her Laser Rifle. She fired and then fired again, each time the air was punctured with a massive energy blast which shone in a sickly green color.
Taffyta clutched her face as it started to disintegrate before Van's eyes.
"No! You can't do this, Van! You can't! You left us to die! You must d-"
Whatever the monster was about to say was quickly silenced by the final killing blow of Van's rifle. The sickeningly realistic image of her long-dead friend glitched in several places before slowly melting into a warm looking pile of radioactive goo.
Van dropped the rifle in shock. She started to cry which soon turned to full on tears. She was vaguely aware of her PIpBoy attempting to warn her about something, but she ignored it and continued to scream and whine and sniffle.
She's gone… she's gone!
She pounded the back of her head into the dented locker over and over. Just wanting to end it all as the world continued to spin in all directions.
"S- s- she's gone."
The hallucinating girl laid there for ten minutes, just breathing and panting for air. She no longer felt like sleeping or doing much of anything. But time had a funny way of going against one's wishes.
Suddenly a radio which hung on one of her walls buzzed to life. Van turned to it and shut her eyes. To say that she was trembling in fear was a massive understatement.
"...Van? Are you in, little one?"
Lacking the strength to yell, she slowly got onto her hands and knees and very carefully crawled over to the voice.
"Y- yes. I'm here," she said and couldn't help but sniffle a few times.
"...Are you alright? You sound stressed."
"I- I just. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," she lied and laid back against the wall.
"You know you're a terrible liar, young one. What happened?"
A warm, comforting feeling radiated throughout her mind. For the first time in a long while, she smiled. "I- it's a long story. The mission's done though. It's over."
"I am delighted to hear of your success. Though, I take it Rose didn't treat you very kindly?"
"..."
"Right, my apologies. Fairly obvious. If it seems prudent for you to share, I want to hear about your mission and how you got to be in this state. You should also note that a care package is on its way, your payment."
Reluctantly, she glanced over to the internet based radio and smiled. The man on the other end did not do the same, but his face was covered by an ominous looking black mask so she assumed he had. A bright red flashing light hovered above her head in the shape of a flat looking three dimension envelope.
Sniffling some, she reached out and touched the thing. It exploded open, dumping out a tiny looking crate with a strange looking coded seal on the front. Her prize, or her payment, as it were.
"T- thanks, boss," she replied and slowly opened it up. Her eyes sparkled with delight. It held four massive canisters of a strange looking liquid which made her mouth water. Along with several other goodies, including a bundle of money that she could use throughout the internet.
"No, thank you, Van. You've earned your payment."
Van glanced down at her PipBoy, the status tab continued to warn her of the rather unpleasant side effects that were flooding her code.
"It would appear that something has gone wrong with your inner code, young one. Care to explain?"
She scowled and shut the crate. "I don't remember. I…" she sighed and wiped away her tears before delving into a full-on explanation.
Her boss was quiet for a good while before speaking. "That is very difficult to believe, Van. You're saying a coded apparition harmed you, brought on by Stimpak overdose?"
"I know what I felt." She tilted the camera on the radio over to the pile of goo. "I… she-"
"She is no more, Van. You must come to terms with this," he stated. She closed her eyes and started to whimper. "It is very unlikely what you state is-"
"I know what I saw! You don't wanna believe me! Fine!" she screamed and huffed.
"Van, I never said I didn't believe you. Only that it is hard to believe. Still, if Fallout is messing with your coding that much, you must be very careful. Do you have a way to cure the addiction?"
Grumbling, she slowly stood up, though it took her a minute to blink away the dizziness. She started rummaging through one of her lockers, before coming upon a strange looking breathalyzer like item.
"I got one Addictol left, boss."
"Use it now. I'll compensate you later. We cannot risk such strange coding with you, of all people."
"...I'm not a virus!" She screamed, her body defying her words by glitching in several places.
"Perish the thought, but if you recall, I have never once claimed that you were. Despite what some of my… less than savory clients may think of you, my dear."
She continued to pant and breath before slowly calming down. "...You think I'm n- normal?" she asked, twirling the drug cure in her hands.
"You already know my belief on the matter. That has not changed. But, for what it's worth, I think you are extraordinary for such a young child. Now, please, cure that awful disease."
She didn't have to be told twice. Her mouth opened and she popped the apparatus inside before pressing the button and breathing in as deep as she could. There didn't appear to be much change or even much of an immediate effect, but her PipBoy did, at least, stop complaining about mental ailments on her part.
"Good," he said and she suddenly felt a nice euphoric feeling shoot into her mind. Like a fluffy and warm blanket that protected everything. It felt almost as nice as her favorite canisters, almost.
"Now then, I have business to attend to. Are you sure you will be alright if left to your own devices?"
The same pleasant feeling continued to flow through her system. She gave a shy nod and a little smile.
"Good," he repeated and the same feeling washed over again. She swayed from side to side and rested her head against the cold metal of her locker. "Stay safe, Van," her boss said and the radio slowly quieted down.
Time flowed much slower for her and, for a while, she was content to simply lay on the ground, staring off into space. But the strange pleasant feelings slowly waned away and Van was left feeling cold and alone.
Ignoring the puddle, she hopped over to her bed, bringing the crate with her. Her little hands brushed over the box like it was an old friend.
Her eyes drifted over to something that hung out of the side of another locker. It was a pair of white sparkling gloves.
"Uh, well, it's certainly… different," Taffyta said.
The duo were standing in one of Vanellope's many rooms in the castle, though she often used this particular one when she needed to sleep. It wasn't exactly a bedroom, but it was close enough.
The princess was standing in a pair of mint themed tights with candy cane stripes going along the edge, along with a plain looking mint green jacket. An ordinary looking jacket. To top the outfit off, and upon insistence by Taffyta, she had a peanut butter ruffle style skirt so she would look "presentable".
She twirled around a few times and shrugged. "Doesn't look that bad, right?"
"Um… no. It's just, erm, different. I guess I'm not used to seeing you like this," she replied. "Where'd you find that thing, anyway?"
She shrugged. "Back of my closet. Probably part of the game or somethin'."
Taffyta tapped her fingers on her dress a few times while walking around Vanellope and examining her in various places. She noted that Van's hair hung loosely at her sides. "I think I know what's wrong," she stated.
"Hmm?"
A few moments later and her hair was tied into a neat bun using a red licorice style rope. Taffyta combed her hair out a few times and soon they were ready to hit the power socket!
"Perfect," Taffyta said.
"Taffyta…" she mumbled while curling up on her mattress. Just the name brought warm, pleasant feelings bubbling up through the dark crevices of her mind. But to see her in such an angry state, even if it had just been something Fallout had conjured up, was still quite disturbing.
Her hands were trembling by the time she reached out for the first drug canister. The itch returned while she tried to fight back the tears. She couldn't stop thinking about the past and about what she lost.
"Taffy, what happened to all of you?"
She is no more, Van…
She refused to believe it, even to this day, but what other explanation could there be? What was more likely? Her best friend up and ran away, along with her other friends. Or that they all perished through the dark recesses of the internet, never to be heard from again.
"S- stop thinking about it," she mumbled while gently pounding her head over and over with her fists. her eyes glanced over to the canister, her mouth begging her to give in. "Stop…"
All it would take was one swig to forget. To be free of the burden of her dark past. Just one swig.
Fresh tears spilled onto her pillow. This was it. She had to use one. It was either drug up and go to happy town for the night, or spend the rest of her night in utter misery.
"I'm so glad you're my best friend!"
Whimpering in utter defeat, her tiny hands slid the canister open, the fumes from inside wafted up toward her nose.
"I'm sorry, Taffyta. I need this."
She was about to go through with it when a massive explosion outside interrupted her thoughts. It was so loud that her underground bunker actually shook. The ex-racer glanced down at her fizzling drink and then back to the door. A few more blasts from outside and her decision was made.
Mustering up all of her strength, she set the canister aside, stood up and wiped away her tears.
Players…
Ralph and Vanellope continued onward into the wastes. As they got further away from the game entrance, they noted that things were getting quite a bit darker. A hint that both parties took to mean things were going to be far more dangerous from there on out.
"Uh, you know there's something I didn't think about, kid."
"What's that?"
"Shank, what's she gonna do when she finds that you're not in bed…"
Vanellope's whole body glitched a few times and she chuckled nervously. "Erm, probably ground me to my room for a month then kill me and when I regenerate, do it all over again. Why do you ask?"
"Uh…" he started and felt something vibrate in his backpack. "N- no reason."
Ralph certainly wasn't gonna pick it up and Vanellope seemed to be cowering in fear, each time it rang. So they waited and waited until the thing went to voicemail. What they heard on the other line was nothing short of frightening.
"VANELLOPE VON SCHWEETZ! IF YOU DO NOT COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT! I WILL FIND OUT HOW TO PERMANENTLY ALTER YOUR CODE AND YOU'LL BE STUCK IN YOUR PRINCESS DRESS FOR LIFE! AND RALPH, IF SHE'S WITH YOU AND YOU DON'T SEND HER BACK, I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL HURT YOU!"
The phone clicked and the message finished.
"...Hey Ralph?"
"What?"
"Sh- she can't actually do that, r- right?" she questioned with a nervous chuckle.
Ralph took a deep breath and then gestured behind her. "You're still welcome to go back, kid. No one would blame ya."
She pouted and glitched back to his shoulder. "I'd blame me if something happened to you. Stupid."
The wrecker chuckled and swung his massive Super Sledge over his back, only narrowly missing Vanellope's tiny head.
"Whelp, I guess you're gonna have to risk it, princess," he said with a snort.
As they walked, Ralph could swear he heard her mumble something about saving the girl being worth it. Though, secretly, Ralph hoped so too.
I would like to thank everyone for the kind comments and replies and for reading my tale. It's only been a little while since I've been back in this "fading" fandom and I've already made some new friends and read so many wonderful stories. Hopefully, we can all keep WiR going strong. If anyone is interested, I've started a small Discord server which is Text Only for WiR authors, PM me for an invite!