Boss Battle

Ralph took in air through his teeth and gripped his side, where his wound started acting up, again. Vanellope was focused on glitching her way through every trap and every bug that came her way, and all was going according to plan, but something felt off.

Ralph knew Candy wouldn't stay down for long, but the scenario that was about to play before his eyes was the absolute last thing he'd expected.

"Kid…?" He murmured, glancing around him, nervously.

"Ugh, w-what is it now?!" Vanellope groaned, knowing from his tone that something was up. And the fact that she was now glitching without control, again. "I just w-want to race, for Peach sake!"

And the all too familiar sensation of the ground shaking below them swept underneath the kart, nearly throwing Vanellope off the track. For a split second, Ralph could only hear the hard thudding of his own heart in his ears and nothing else.

And out from the corner of his eye, he witnessed an enormous burst of nauseating green light. There was a terrible roar that he'd never heard from any villain he'd encountered, and a giant, claw-like hand popped out of the ground.

Several times today, Ralph nearly soiled himself after all he'd faced.

But it was nothing compared to what he was feeling right now as he watched the newest hybrid join the swarm. It had to be about as tall as the entirety of Niceland Apartments. Its claws could easily envelop a Ralph-sized creature and hold it in its grasp. It looked like a cross-combination of a crustacean and an insect, sprouting six enormous wings, and four arms.

Candy's head completed the look, where it continued to glitch between both his identities. Sharp rows of teeth reared themselves as his cackle resonated throughout the entire map.

Yes, Ralph was definitely feeling like doing more than soiling himself.

Vanellope growled in frustration. "This d-day was going so well u-until h-he showed up!"

Ralph's brows furrowed as he tried to think of a solution. They weren't close enough to the finish line to finish in a speedy manner. And now, Tur-bug, was going to make it ten times harder.

Another risky idea popped in his head, but there wasn't any other option here. It was him or Vanellope.

He hopped off the kart.

"Ralph!" Vanellope looked behind her shoulder. She slammed on the brakes. "Where are you going?!"

"I'm going to distract it!" He called out to her. "You just cross the finish line!"

Vanellope looked back towards the road in front of her, then back at Ralph again. She wasn't about to let him surrender himself like that, yet she knew that moving forward could have been his only chance of survival.

"Just go! I'll meet you at the finish line!"

Vanellope's brows drew a straight line across her face, and she nodded her head firmly. "Y-you better!"

Ralph grinned at her. "Remember, you are a real racer!"

She breathed in deeply, started the kart up again, and drove off yelling, "If I die, nobody gets my kart!"

The wrecker couldn't help but laugh softly at her comment, surprised he had the ability to laugh at all in this moment. He cracked his knuckles.

Alright, Candy. You want a show? You're about to get one.

He popped his thumb and index finger into his mouth and whistled loudly. Tur-bug turned its head to the now tiny man, snarling wildly as it did.

"Hey, Nelly-wafer!" He called through his cupped hands. "I believe you and I have some unfinished business!"

Tur-bug laughed, its voice now mechanical as its body twitched and glitched at the same time. "Wreck-It Ralph…" It dug all six of its legs into the ground and lowered its body, as if preparing to charge. "I'm s-sorry t-to say that the p-position of 'Bad Guy' is fulfilled! Y-your services a-are no longer necessary."

"Oh, yeah?" Ralph got down on one knee and placed his palms to the ground as he, too, prepared to sprint. "We'll just see about that, now, won't we?"

Both Bad Guys were off, approaching each other at full speed.

…

It was a miracle that Felix's makeshift hammer was doing as well as it had. He saw Calhoun being pushed down to the ground, grumbling about "being rusty", and covered her as best as he could.

The day had been full of surprises, but none quite as much as seeing Fix-It Felix, Jr., the man who was as tall as her leg, physically vulnerable, and fixed windows for a living, defending her against the enemy.

When they saw Tur-bug emerge from the ground, both of them were stunned and their faces were white. Calhoun's expression didn't last very long, however.

"Alright, you slithery snake," She spoke, digging through her inventory. "Time to bring out the big gun."

"Wait a minute!" Felix said, glancing down at her rifle the size and length of twenty of him. "That wasn't the big gun?"

She gave him a half-smile. "You bet your pixelated little behind, shortstack."

At first, he was confused because she seemed to have pulled out a massive cylindrical pipe, like the ones he had to fix underneath the Niceland complex on occasion. But then she loaded it with a weapon that looked like a spear with a grenade attached to it. It had taken him a second to realize it was a rocket.

She had just pulled out a rocket launcher as easily as Felix pulling out his hammer. Calhoun hoisted it onto her shoulder without staggering under its weight.

"I'm about to get up close and personal with this bad boy." She murmured, taking cover behind a large gumdrop. "Wait for my signal, then we bolt."

Good gravy, Felix thought. She really is intense.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, considering how powerful the enemy was.

In his brief distraction, he didn't hear Calhoun say the word and she was already running out into the chaos.

"Wait for me!" He yelled, waving his weapon erratically in front of him.

…

Ralph hopped, dodged, and slid under the swiping claws of Tur-bug. He was incredibly lucky to have only been scratched a few times. Tur-bug caused a massive amount of damage on the surface, clearing away lollipop forests, and hurling big gumdrops towards his way.

"Is that all you got?!" He teased, drawing Tur-bug further away from the track. But there was something that caught his attention just for one second as he saw his lover, whom he'd just told to get to safety, hurrying towards him with Calhoun by his side.

That one second nearly cost him his life.

Tur-bug swatted at him like a fly, sending him soaring above ground. He slammed against the side of Diet Cola Mountain, blinking open his eyes until his vision cleared.

"Ralph!" He heard Felix yell.

The little man looked like he was about to rush towards the towering monster, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he was several feet away.

He was fairly sure his heart stopped. He held his weapon in front of him with hands violently shaking. "Hehe… let's just take a solid moment to think about our actions!"

Tur-bug screeched. "Y-your game did not deserve m-more years than m-mine!"

He had one claw curled into a fist and was about to slam it down. Calhoun had been caught in the middle of a smaller-scaled swarm.

And Ralph wasn't close enough to get to him.

But Felix snapped out of his daze and leapt out of the way before he could suffer the consequences. He landed ungracefully onto his feet and stumbled and fell back against his rear end. His hands searched the ground, after having lost his weapon, and when he turned his eyes up, he saw that Tur-bug sent another claw in his direction.

He winced and waited for the impact, but it didn't happen. Felix opened and eye and saw that Ralph had jumped in its way and stopped it.

"Ralph…?" Felix mumbled.

The big man had his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched hard. One of Tur-bug's talons had punctured him in the side. The exact same place as his other wound.

With his unnatural strength, he shoved Tur-bug's hand away, making the creature lose its footing and almost fall on its side.

Felix hopped over in front of him. "Are you hurt?"

Ralph dropped to his knee. "I thought I told you to get out of here!"

Felix picked up his weapon as soon as his eyes found it. "You did! But I wasn't about to let you have this fight all to yourself!"

Calhoun arrived at their sides, keeping the rocket launcher on her shoulder. "Quit lollygagging, soldiers! It's go time!"

They fought as best as they could, but Tur-bug was stronger, faster, and tougher. They kept having more and more close calls. Calhoun positioned her launcher towards its face, but it took a swing at her with one of its legs before she could fire.

"Felix!" Ralph called as he ducked from another attack. "I'm sorry I'm such a Bad Guy!"

"What!" The little man squealed. "You're not-!"

They both jumped out of the way as a claw came down on them.

"What I mean is-!" Ralph continued, gripping his wounded side. "I'm sorry I got us in this mess in the first place! I didn't even get that stupid medal. And now we're probably not going to make it out of this with our codes intact!"

"Ralph!" Felix hopped away from a bug. "Don't you let those icy-cold thoughts cloud your noggin now! We will get out of this! We-"

They were too distracted and didn't see the giant claw that scooped them up.

Calhoun was reloading her launcher with trembling hands, but she, too, didn't see the incoming hand. All three of them were now in the monster's grasp.

…

Vanellope had kept her focus on racing and trying her best to keep her glitch under her control, but she looked in the side-view mirror and saw that her three friends had been caught by the monster.

"Oh, no!" She squealed.

She was several meters away from the finish line. She could make it before Tur-bug got to her.

But not before saving them.

She knew she had zero chance of surviving if she went against Tur-bug, and seeing that it now, quite literally, had the three adults in its grasp, she could see that they couldn't have defeated it, either.

If she stepped on the wheel hard enough, she could make it.

But the monster was about to crush them.

"O-oh, man, what d-do I do?"

She fished through her head for a clue. She thought back to what she saw in the castle. The painting of her and King Candy came to mind. There were memories that flooded through her cranium that she never even knew existed. Images and replays that had been taken from her but couldn't be kept for long. A variety of emotions came with them, and if she had more time, she would have allowed herself to sort through them all.

And then it hit her.

She slammed on the brakes just a few feet before the finish line and hopped out of her kart.

…

Ralph and Felix tried wriggling out of Tur-bug's grasp, but it was tight around their bodies. Tur-bug's laugh was dark enough to send shivers down both of their spines.

"Uh… Ralph?" Felix mumbled, his lower lip quivering.

"Yeah…?" The big man's eyes were so wide, they almost fell from his skull.

"Uh… if we're about to… perish…" His body was pressed against his lover's, and he rested his head against Ralph's back. "I just wanted you to know that… I love you, too. I've always loved you."

Ralph turned his head over his shoulder to him, mouth hanging open.

"I was just too much of a coward to say it."

A small, soft laugh escaped Ralph's lips. His lips were smiling wide, disregarding the circumstances. If they were about to die right now, he would die a happy man.

But Tur-bug had stopped. Its body had frozen and the air around it was still. The cy-bugs had stopped as well, waiting for their master's commands.

Both men turned to look down at the thing that had stopped it.

Vanellope was jumping up and down, waving her hands wildly.

"Hey, Pillow-pants! You win, okay?" She stopped jumping. "You win."

Tur-bug had ceased his actions, but he didn't let the adults go.

"W-what kind of t-trickery is this, girl?!" Its mechanical voice rang through the air.

"It's not a trickery." Vanellope said, panting. "You can have everything. My memories, my code, my castle. All of it. I won't get anywhere close to that finish line ever again. I will never come out of your Fungeon, I'll never speak with any of the racers." She took a deep breath. "Just let them go, okay? They had nothing to do with this."

Tur-bug looked as if it was considering her proposal but didn't let go of the three adults. He kept a firm grip on them.

"No…" Ralph choked out, feeling the monster's claws tighten around his body. "Vanellope… don't do it!"

The little girl, the would-be racer who had been waiting a very long time to have her moment, looked at him straight in the eye. "Trust me, Ralph. I know what I'm doing."

Tur-bug growled. "H-how do I know t-this isn't a ploy?"

"J-just hear me out." Vanellope kept her voice steady and calm. "D-do you remember when you first taught me how to race?"

Tur-bug's insect-like eyes softened.

"A-and the time when I tried to drive your kart and crashed it, but instead of getting mad, y-you told me I would get better with time."

The monster's arms lowered, and its grip loosened.

Vanellope stepped closer towards it, hands in her sweater pocket.

"Before all of this, before the fall…" She began, her tone shaky. "Y-you always told me that I had a chance to become as honorable of a leader as you, someday. B-but it was going to take a long time. And when the racers told me I couldn't drive, you told me not to listen to them."

She walked even closer, and the monster had dropped the others. They fell to the ground, scrambled to reconvene, and watched.

"What's she doing…?" Felix whispered.

"What she has to." Ralph whispered back.

Tur-bug lowered its claws to Vanellope's level, and she stepped into them, not at all afraid of the creature. "I know that honorable leader is still in there."

Tur-bug had brought the small racer to its face, its blue, hexagonal eyes peering into hers as they shared a moment of recognition.

"You're different, now." Vanellope said, quietly with a somber realization. "You won't go back to the way you were."

Tur-bug leaned its ginormous head in closer. "W-we could conquer this arcade together. W-with this power, w-we can be u-unstoppable."

No one had ever offered her such a position in her entire life, and it had almost broken her firm resolve. But she thought about the years of neglect. The abuse he had put her through, the torment, the constant brain-cleansing routines, her isolation.

Being stripped from her status.

Having her entire kingdom turned against her.

Being reduced to a homeless nobody sleeping in a dump.

Never being able to see the light of day except on rare occasions.

Never having a place in her own game. Never being able to leave through the game tunnel.

And knowing that if she had accepted, the arcade would become nothing but an empty grave of dreams and hope.

No honorable leader could have let that happen.

No hero would do such a thing.

Her real family was waiting for her, and she didn't want to keep them.

Her brows were furrowed in anger. "No. We can't."

And in one swift move, she pulled the small dagger from her pocket and stuck it right in Tur-bug's eye, then hopped off and ran. The monster's screech was deafening. It stumbled side-to-side like it was losing its balance, clutching its wound, and its entire body glitching in and out.

The cy-bugs all responded in sync, every single one of them glitching along with it.

Calhoun didn't take a second to think before she finally launched the biggest, most explosive rocket she ever had; it was the kind she'd reserved for emergencies.

"Fire in the hole!" She yelled at the top of their lungs.

Ralph grabbed the two smallest members of his clan and ran for cover.

When the rocket hit against the monster, it caused a sonic boom.

One that could be heard outside of the game tunnel, making Surge Protector look up from his clipboard and adjust his crooked glasses.

One that made Gene and the rest of the Nicelanders turn their heads in wonder.

One that shook some sense into Calhoun's platoon, like she'd attempted each passing day.

The four of them were all knocked over, ears ringing, and vision blurred.

The cy-bugs all vanished at the same time Tur-bug did.

Suddenly, the skies were clear again, and the atmosphere was at peace.

In the distance, they could hear the citizens of Sugar Rush cheering as they headed towards their beloved homes.

Vanellope lifted her head up, first, coughing out the sugary dirt. "Woah… that was crazy! I've never seen an explosion like that!" She looked over at the others. "Are you guys still alive?"

Calhoun was next, sputtering the disgusting, diabetic dirt from her mouth and lifting her tired body up. "You know what, kid? I've been around people playing hero my whole short life, and I've never seen anyone pull off such a precarious act."

Vanellope raised her brow. "Uh… thank you?"

Calhoun turned towards the others. "Fix-It? Wreck-It? You guys good?"

Felix groaned, grasping his head. "Jiminy Sprinkles… I've never felt such a rush before." He looked over at his lover, who was laying on his back, eyes closed. "Ralph?"

He didn't receive an answer.

He came over to the wrecker and called his name again, holding his face in hands, with a dismayed expression. "Are you okay?"

Then Ralph blinked his eyes open and grinned up at the tiny man. "Never better, Felix."

Vanellope breathed a sigh of relief. "You had me going there, Stinkbrain!"

Felix was not smiling as he wrapped his little arms tightly around Ralph's neck. "I don't know whether to kiss you senseless or scold you for throwing yourself into the lion's den like that."

Ralph chuckled as he hugged him back. "Well, we've got all the time in the world for you to do both."

That answer made Felix happy as a lark.

Calhoun approached and helped Felix get Ralph onto his feet. "Don't be too hard on him, Fix-It. All four of us have done at least one hairbrained thing today."

"Yeah, me included." Vanellope said.

Ralph looked down at her with a newfound respect at all she'd done. His heart lifted upon seeing the smile she'd given him. "Doesn't somebody still have a race to win?"

AN: I like being kind of a lone wolf when it comes to my Sledge fics, but sometimes, it can get a little frustrating, not having people to gush about it with. I'm just glad that I like my fics and art, regardless of popularity.

Also, I will say that the hardest part about writing is that your story can go in so many directions, and it's hard to pick just one.

I'm definitely writing a sequel for this. I've been inspired by both my anger towards RBTI, and elements of other fics. And the fact that I've now grown a deep fondness for the boys together.