DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any of the Disney/Square Enix characters that appear in this work. Please support the original releases.


Chapter 18: A Hero's Duty


The arcade was still in full swing when Ralph and the trio made it to Game Central Station. The empty terminals didn't stop the surge protector from stopping Ralph when he walked out of Fix-it-Felix Jr, and then again in front of the other terminal that led into a game labeled Hero's Duty.

After a round of annoying questions, Ralph, Sora, Donald and Goofy boarded a bullet train that led them into a military base. Big, beefy soldiers ran around the base in a panic. Their thick, metal and cybernetic armor didn't seem to slow them down. The soldiers ran into a smokey room where a red alert was flashing. A voice boomed throughout the base.

"QUARTER ALERT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. QUARTER ALERT."

One of the soldiers ran by the bullet train and then skit to a stop, aiming his lazer rifle at Ralph.

"What are you doing here? You know Sergeant Calhoun's orders: no more game jumping during work hours."

Ralph put up his hands. "I'm not here to game jump or take over the game, I just want to talk to Calhoun."

There was another alarm. The automated doors of the smoky room had begun to close.

"Oh no! The player has started round two! I have to go." The soldier pointed at the train. "Go back to your own game! You can talk to the sergeant after the arcade closes."

Sora watched the soldiers rush into the room, desperately preparing their rifles for battle.

"Is this place always in such a panic?"

"This is one of the more violent and scary games in the arcade." Ralph put his hands in his pockets. "Guess we just have to wait until the player gets a 'game over' before we can talk to Calhoun."

Donald paced about the room, looking at the old, scratched machinery and the big, red buttons and levers along the wall that had the words, "warning," and, "pull in case of emergency" written above them. Thick wires were built into the walls of the base. The bolted doors that led into the game were reinforced with steel clamps on each side to lock them shut.

Donald couldn't help going up to one of the doors and knocking on the metal. Something knocked back from the other side. Donald took a step back. The knock turned into a bang. The door burst apart.

A giant, four-eyed, beetle monster with metal armor, neon-green wings and a glowing tail buzzed into the room. It pounced on Donald, the pincers around its mouth opening wide.

Ralph was the first to react. He darted forward, punching the creature off Donald. The giant bug slammed against the metal door, but it recovered quickly and flew toward the bullet train. Ralph tried to jump on the bug, but despite its size, the bug was fast. It neared the tunnel that led back to Game Central Station.

"Sora, don't let that thing leave this game!"

Climbing on top of the bullet train, Sora managed to grab the bug's glowing tail. It didn't take long for Sora to realize that he was no match for the bug's strength. His feet slid along the roof of the train and he would have been pulled off his feet it Goofy hadn't grabbed his waist and pulled him back.

While Sora and Goofy played tug of war with the bug, Ralph grabbed Donald, put the duck on his shoulders, and jumped up into the air above the train. From above, Donald sent a fire spell that slammed into the bug's wings, pushing it down. Sora and Goofy jumped out of the way. Ralph came down on the bug with his fists, crushing the bug into the roof of the train.

The bug burst into mist and the number 100 appeared in the air for a second. The mist cleared, and all that was left of the bug was the dent on the bullet train.

Ralph shook his fists. "That was close!"

Donald jumped off Ralph's shoulders and nudged the dent with his foot. "What was that?"

"A cy-bug. And they're bad news. If even one of those monsters gets out into another game, the entire arcade could be in jeopardy. They're like a virus. They don't know they're in a game. All they know is to multiply and destroy. Sugar Rush was almost unplugged because of these things." Ralph stared at the door the bug had burst through with wide eyes. "Wait a minute? How did one of these things escape?"

"Gee, do you think the soldiers might be in trouble?"

Sora jumped off the train. "Let's go check."

Ralph broke down the door that led deeper into the game. As the party rushed inside, the soldiers shouted.

"Beacon up! Beacon up!"

They ran out of the military base and onto a bleak, harsh, war torn landscape. The dark sky could barely be seen through the mist in the atmosphere. Sharp spearheads of rock rose up from the ground. The world was unfit for life to grow, and in the distance, a single, cold, steel tower looked down over the battlefield.

Light shot up into the sky from the top of the tower. Swarms of cy-bugs flew toward the light, where they were vaporized the instant they touched it. The soldiers didn't pay any attention to the beacon. They raced passed Sora, Donald, Goofy and Ralph back into the military base.

A tall, slender woman stomped toward the party. Her blond, bob-cut hair stuck out in the dark blues and shades of grey in the surrounding area. She tilted her head to the side, moving the long bangs out of her eyes, allowing her to glare daggers at Ralph.

"Wreck-it, what the H-E-double hockey sticks are you doing here?"

Ralph stammered, "Well, we needed to..."

The woman bumped Ralph's shoulder as she passed him. "I don't have time for your blubbering, princess. A cy-bug broke out of the containment area."

"Don't worry about that," Sora said, "we already took care of it."

When the woman turned around to pin Sora with a tough, no-nonsense look, he wished he hadn't opened his big mouth. Her athletic build and the red and black cybernetic armor she wore made Sora feel like she could beat him with nothing but her pinky finger.

"Who are you?"

"We're Sora, Donald and Goofy, um, ma'am."

"That's Sergeant Calhoun to you, small-fry." The woman narrowed her eyes at Ralph. "What, you're a tour guide now? I thought we agreed that there would be no more game jumping during the arcade's open hours and here you are bringing these rookies in? You know how dangerous this game is!"

"But I have something important to ask you!"

"I don't have time for this. Another player could start a new game any minute and now I have some weird creatures to worry about."

Sora jumped in Calhoun's way. "Wait. These creatures, do they have these red, heart-shaped emblems on their bodies?"

"Yes. And it's thanks to those things that one of the cy-bugs got away. Now I have to spare the manpower to keep an eye out for those creatures before either the gamer realizes something is wrong or the cy-bugs get loose and destroy everything they touch. You three," she snapped, making Sora, Donald and Goofy stand stiff, "explain your objective. How do you know about those creatures?"

"They're from, uh, our game. Let us help you fight them."

"Negative. If the players see you, they could think our game is broken. The four of you stick out like vegetables on a chocolate cake."

"But we can help you! Let us keep those heartless out of your way so that your game can run smoothly!"

Ralph put up his hands. "He's right. You don't want another cy-bug escaping because of those things do you?"

Calhoun pinned each one of them with a searing glare. Finally she sighed. "Fine! Just stay out of sight of the first person shooter. If the players see you, we're as good as unplugged."

Another quarter alert shook the base. Calhoun reached up behind her back and pulled out a lazer rifle. She checked her weapon and then called out to her soldiers.

"All right ladies, back to start positions!"

Ralph and the trio followed the soldiers back into the deployment room. The automated doors closed up behind them. The room glowed with a red alert.

A robot with a screen for a head drove by. Words and numbers flashed on the robot's screen: game start in ten...nine...

"First person shooter coming through," the soldiers shouted, moving out of the way of the robot.

Calhoun tilted her head toward Ralph and the others.

"Keep those creatures under control. You have your orders!"

"Yes ma'am!"

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Ralph made sure to stay behind the robot as they stood in the tight space of the deployment room.

"We are humanity's last hope," Calhoun spoke to the first person shooter. "Our mission: destroy all cy-bugs. Are you ready rookie? Let's find out."

The automated doors behind Calhoun opened up. Cy-bugs filled the war zone behind her. Calhoun ran out into the swarm. The first person shooter followed her. The soldiers charged, shooting at the cy-bugs in the air.

Ralph ran in, punching and stomping down on any cy-bug that was on the ground. Sora, Donald and Goofy followed his lead, ripping through the bugs with no mercy while keeping an eye out for heartless.

A shadow moved on the floor where it wasn't supposed to be. Sora spotted it moving toward one of the soldiers. The man was too busy busting up cy-bugs with his lazer-gun to notice the heartless sneak up between his legs. Hands shot out from the ground, and in the next second, the mole heartless had made the soldier lose his balance.

A cy-bug flew down at the soldier. Its mouth opened, the razors in the bug's stomach rotating like a blender, ready to shred the man into pieces. Sora threw a blizzard spell at the bug's head and it knocked the beetle back, giving him enough time to slide by the man's legs and slash the heartless.

The guard took his chance and shot the cy-bug while it was still confused. The bug blew up into a hundred points.

"Thanks," the soldier said to Sora.

There was no time to talk. More mole heartless appeared in front of the door that led back into the base. The monkey heartless that had spawned in Fix-it-Felix Jr. also appeared by the door.

"Don't worry about the cy-bugs," the soldier said, "we can handle them. Make sure none of those creatures weakens the door." He roared back into battle, toward Calhoun and the first person shooter.

"Sora, let's split up," Goofy said. "Donald and I will protect the doors! You and Ralph make sure none of the heartless appear in front of the first person shooter."

"Got it! Ralph, let's go."

Never before had Sora wished that the player would hurry up and lose the game. He and Ralph punched and sliced through heartless and cy-bugs alike, ducking and jumping around the first person shooter's vision. The soldiers doubled down, helping Sora and Ralph fight. Even Calhoun took shots at the heartless when the first person shooter wasn't looking. The swarm was getting worse, the gamer had almost made it to the tower to get to the next level of the game.

A heartless appeared right behind the first person shooter and clawed at the machine. Calhoun jumped over the robot and shot the heartless before it could be seen by the player, but that left the first person shooter wide open from the front. A mole heartless was already on the attack.

Ralph spotted the heartless moving in the dirt and did the first thing he could think of. He picked up Sora by the scruff of the boy's neck and said, "I hope you can make this shot kid."

"I got it, just throw me!"

Ralph hurled Sora through the air. He flew toward the first person shooter and pushed it down, blocking out the screen for a second in order to slice the heartless on the ground. The robot got up and moved toward the tower just as Sora was out of sight.

Almost there. The first person shooter's line of sight was smaller. There was more space to maneuver. The soldiers, Sora and Ralph all ran forward, taking down heartless and cy-bugs. The player entered the building.

The level was over. A light shot out from the top of the tower.

"Beacon up!"

All the cy-bugs' eyes widened and filled with a blue glow. They moved toward the light as though they were tranced, but there were still heartless on the ground to deal with. Calhoun worked with Sora, Ralph and the soldiers to take care of them. When the battle was finally one, Calhoun rested her lazer-gun against her shoulder and smiled for the first time.

"Nice work, rookie."

Sora straightened. "Thanks, ma'am."

"At ease, soldier. And Ralph, I've got to hand it to you, that was some fighting."

"Thanks. Do you think you have time to talk now?"

"Sure thing. Let me get my men in position in case the gamer loses and then we'll talk. Head back toward the base."

When Ralph and Sora met back up with Donald and Goofy, they were relieved to know that none of the cy-bugs had breached the base. By the time Calhoun came back, the gamer had won the final level and the game had reset. The soldiers all went back to their starting positions. Some of them even gave Sora and Ralph a fist bump as they passed by.

Then the party was alone with Calhoun outside the base.

"You said you needed to talk about something important?"

"Fix-it-Felix Jr. was attacked by those monsters earlier," Ralph explained.

A flicker of worry crossed Calhoun's face. "I see. What's the status of the game?"

"Don't worry. Felix is fine."

"Good."

Ralph explained about Hades and how he suspected that the Lord of the Dead may be coming to Hero's Duty.

"I haven't seen anyone matching your description, but I will keep my men informed. We'll find that son of a gun and beat him senseless."

"Aw, aren't I popular."

Hades popped out of a cloud of smoke behind Calhoun. The sergeant didn't miss a beat. Immediately she turned and aimed her rifle at him. Without hesitating, she fired. Hades snapped his fingers at the same time. He vanished into smoke and then reappeared in front of the base door.

"I gotta say, that was quite a show back there, but did any of you lamebrains think to check inside the tower?"

Calhoun growled. "What?"

Hades brought something out from behind his back. It was a glowing, neon-green egg.

"No!"

The egg hatched, and a tiny cy-bug popped out. Calhoun shot at Hades' hand, but he raised his arm. The lazer missed.

"Is it true," Hades said, "that these monsters become what they eat?"

A mole heartless appeared in Hades' other hand. The cy-bug jumped at it and swallowed it whole. It began to mutate, turning from a metal beetle into a smoky bug with six yellow eyes. The pincers around its mouth elongated, thorns grew out of its exoskeleton.

"Now there's a good cy-heartless," Hades cooed. "I know just the sweet treats to get you growing big and strong. Smell ya later, zeroes."

Hades and the cy-bug vanished.


Ralph raced ahead of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Calhoun and Felix into the archway that led into Sugar Rush. Sora was one step into the game before a concussive blast nearly blew out his ear drums. He fell backward into Donald and Goofy, knocking his friends over like a bowling pins. Behind them, Calhoun held Felix's hand, keeping him steady.

Chunks of rock sugar, candy dust, and smoking cookie crumbs burned and itched on his skin. Sora had to cover his eyes when he wobbled to stand behind Ralph. The big man's back shielded him from the debris, but the aftershock of the explosion still made Sora's knees buckle.

Ralph's voice trembled. "Oh no."

"What is it?"

Ralph pointed.

Sora moved around him to stare out into the horizon of Sugar Rush. In the distance, what looked like a giant soda bottle mountain was burning. Green smoke and melted sugar blasted out of the sides of the bottle, sending boiling, hot soda over the cake and ice cream environment. Hot coals rained down from the sky, leaving steaming craters all over the world.

The bottom of the coke bottle blew open. This time, the resulting shockwave nearly threw everyone off the bridge. Sora swallowed hard at the sight of millions of cy-bug heartless flying up from the wreckage at the base of the cola bottle.

Calhoun growled. "Doomsday and Armageddon just had a baby and it is ugly."

Felix took off his hat to wipe the sweat from his brow. "How did the cy-bugs multiply this quickly!"

"It must be the effect of the heartless," Sora said.

Ralph turned around sharply, his face ashen. "That was diet cola mountain. If that's destroyed then-" Ralph ran down the rainbow bridge. "We have to evacuate the game!"

"Way ahead of ya! Felix, hop on!"

Felix jumped onto Calhoun's hoverboard and the two of them flew down into the race track. With Calhoun controlling the hoverboard, Felix shot gren lazer blasts up in the air, blowing up the comets that were raining from the diet cola mountain's eruption.

Sora, Donald and Goofy sprinted to the race track.

The denizens of Sugar Rush were in a state of total panic. Several candy people ran by the trio, and they were the lucky ones. In seconds, the cy-bug heartless crashed down from the sky and began picking off racers and candy people alike. One of the donut cops flew over Sora's head. He flailed widely in the air and shot the bug-heartless with one of his taffy guns.

Bad idea.

The taffy weighed the bug and then both it and the police officer were plummeting to the ground. Sora jumped, and managed to wrap his arms around the cop. They landed in Donald and Goofy's arms.

"Thanks kid," the éclair cop panted when Sora put him down.

"You can thank me by helping us evacuate!"

"On it! Move it, people, let's go!"

Calhoun and Felix flew overhead. "Get to the track," they shouted.

Ralph was down by the finish line, flipping over the carts and rescuing the trapped racers. The kids ran the moment they were free, but Vanellope was no where in sight. Ralph grabbed a racer with a candle on her head.

"Vanellope, have you seen her?"

"Her cart got blasted in the direction of the taffy swamp when the explosion happened. That's all I know, I swear!"

"What? I'm not going to hurt-you know what, forget it. Get out of here!"

The racer joined the other evacuees while Sora, Donald and Goofy chased after Ralph.

"We're going with you!"

But Ralph was already running off and a dozen bug-heartless hovered by the trio. They began to terrorize the citizens. Ralph disappeared into the chaos while Sora, Donald and Goofy had no choice but to fight.

Ralph's lungs felt as though they would burst. But he would not stop. He raced into the candy cane forest.

Vanellope.

He had to find Vanellope.

They had to escape the game.

He dodged chocolate meteors that rained down from the sky. He pummeled any cy-bug heartless that was stupid enough to get in his way.

Keep running.

Don't stop.

Find her!

The sugar particles burned his dry throat like acid. Just ahead, green lakes of taffy bubbled under the trunks of the candy cane trees. Something purple was sticking up from the swamp water.

Ralph skid to a stop, grabbed the purple thing and pulled it out. It was Vanellope's kart. He jumped into the swamp, searching, begging, wading through the thick syrup of the taffy. When he came up for air, he heard a voice that twisted his guts.

"Now this is what I call a party! If this were my place, my Underworld would be so full, there would be no standing room."

Ralph wiped off the taffy from his face so he could bare his teeth at Hades.

"You, turbo fire-headed piece of dirt! Where's Vanellope?"

Ralph charged, and threw a punch at Hades, but the slippery villain vanished into a cloud of black smoke.

"For a bad guy, you really do care about that annoying ankle bitter."

Ralph followed the voice and spotted Hades lounging on one of the candy-cane branches above.

"Do you really think she could be a friends with a bad guy like you? I mean, you almost destroyed her game once, right?"

Ralph roared.

He jumped and couldn't wait for his fist to smash in Hade's smug face.

"Whoa, now hold yer horses there."

Hades snapped his fingers, and Vanellope appeared between him and Ralph's fist.

Ralph's fury evaporated, his fist stopped millimeters away from Vanellope's nose. He fell down into the swamp.

"Ralph!" Vanellope called. She kicked the air in front of Hades' face.

"Put me down, fart-head, before I blow out that flame like a sad birthday cake candle!"

"Ugh, see this is why I don't like kids."

Down below Ralph sputtered out of the taffy.

"Please," he begged, "let her go."

Hades shrugged. "Okay."

Vanellope fell.

A cy-bug heartless plucked her out of the air.

"NO!"

The bug rose up into the sky.

Ralph jumped from tree branch to tree branch, trying to reach Vanellope. She glitched out of the heartless' hold, only to be grabbed by another one.

Just a little higher.

Just one more jump and Ralph would be close enough to help her.

Hades appeared in his way.

"Let's see you dodge this one."

Hades snapped his hands. Balls of fire appeared all around Vanellope.

Hades reached out, and flicked Ralph on the nose.

As Ralph plummeted, he saw the fireballs, and the heartless converge on Vanellope.

There was an explosion.


Sora, Donald and Goofy watched as something fiery burst above the forest straight ahead. Seconds after the blast, something green flashed in the sky for a moment. Then Vanellope appeared out of thin air. Then she landed in a heap on the ground, out cold.

Sora, Donald and Goofy caught up to her. Vanellope wobbled, but was able to stand. Panting, she grabbed Sora's wrist to steady herself.

"I don't I've ever glitched like that before!"

"What happened?"

Vanellope's face turned red. "That stupid fart-head is still bullying Ralph! We've got to back and save him!"

They found Ralph standing in front of the taffy swamp. His back was turned, and he was holding completely still. Vanellope moved toward him, but Sora grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

Darkness wafted out of Ralph's shoulders. The plaid on his red shirt blackened like ink stains on a painting. When he turned around, his arms hung limply in front of him, his eyes glowed yellow, and his skin darkened to a dusty grey.

Someone clapped.

"I got to hand it to ya kid. Thought for sure that last attack would ice a little squirt like you. Doesn't matter though."

Hades appeared next to Ralph.

Vanellope shook. "You! What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything. In fact, you did, kid."

"What are you talking about?"

"Poor Wreck-it Ralph. All he ever wanted was a friend. And when he thought that his best friend was lost, well, it was just the perfect condition for darkness to seep in."

Vanellope glitched forward, appearing in front of Ralph.

"I'm fine? See? It'll take more then some lame fireballs and bugs to stop me."

She reached out and tried to hold Ralph's hand.

Ralph's fist flashed forward, pounding the dirt.

Sora's heart wrenched. "Vanellope!"

She glitched and appeared on the ground in front of him.

"Nice try kid."

Black smoke obscured Ralph and Hades. As they vanished, Hades' laugher hung heavy in the air.

Not wasting any time, Vanellope ran toward her kart, which was still laying on its side next to the taffy swamp. She pushed the kart over got into the driver's seat.

"Get on! I'm going to pound that blue moron, if it's the last thing I do! No one messes with my friends!"

As soon as the trio piled onto her kart, Vanellope was speeding through the pandemonium. She glitched through obstructions and ran over any heartless in her way, while Sora and Donald provided cover from the cy-bugs above.

Driving by the track, Vanellope veered off from the road that led out of the game. Before Sora could even ask what she was doing, he saw Ralph standing under the finish line, attacking Felix and Calhoun.

Vanellope stood up on her kart while it was still moving. She jumped, and glitched onto Ralph's back. Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped off the kart just in time to watch it crash into Vanellope and Ralph.

The attack wasn't slowing down Ralph's frenzy. He lunged and tried to throttle Calhoun and Felix, while Vanellope hung on, begging him to snap out of it.

Felix barely ducked a boulder that was thrown at his head. "Ralph, what's gotten into you?"

Calhoun rushed Ralph and managed to knock him over. Sora, Donald and Goofy grabbed the big man's arms and legs, trying to hold him down. It was like trying to stop an incoming train with pure will alone. Ralph thrashed and before long Sora was out of breathe with the effort of restraining him.

Felix climbed onto Ralph's chest and tapped him with his golden hammer. For a split second, Ralph stopped moving. Then he bucked, throwing Felix off. Calhoun tried to help wrestle Ralph down, but it was no use. Ralph was seconds away from throwing them all off. Worse, they were sitting ducks. All it would take was one cy-heartless to come crashing down and it was game over.

Hades appeared and Sora would have roared with frustration if he wasn't using all his strength to hold Ralph still.

"You know, I hate to say it, but I'm kind of getting bored. I mean this kind of destruction is great and all, but I really wish I was dishing it out back home at Herc-the-jerk."

"Hey, Lord of the Underpants! No one asked for your garbage opinion," Vanellope snapped.

Hades flicked something out of his ear. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"Are you so stupid that you went deaf for a second there?"

Hades' blue flaming hair, burned red for a second. "You little." He sighed, his flame cooling down. "You know what, kid-"

"You know what kid," Vanellope repeated in an annoying voice.

"Are you mimicking me?"

"No genius, I'm complimented your mom."

"Hey Hades," Donald snapped, "why don't go back to the hole you came from?"

"Yeah, if you haven't noticed," Sora grunted, "we're kind of busy here. Go annoy someone else."

Hades burst into red flames.

"How about I solve your problem by burning all of you at once!"

A pillar of fire burst out from the ground. It moved toward Ralph, leaving Sora and the others no choice but to let him go and dodge. The flames threw Ralph back and he crashed into the audience stands.

"Felix, Calhoun, Vanellope. Take care of Ralph. We'll handle Hades."

For all the adrenaline rushing through Sora's veins, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to fight Hades with the swarm flying overhead. He didn't have too much time to think about it because Hades started chucking flaming balls of magma at them. Sora and Donald dodged while Goofy blocked with his shield. Goofy raced toward Hades while Sora and Donald flanked him, shooting out blizzard spells.

Hades grinned, disappearing just at the right moment. The two blizzard spells hit each other and the blast sent Sora, Donald and Goofy, flying. Hades appeared in the air above them, and readied another fireball.

Something green flashed, and in the next second, Vanellope glitched behind Hades and dropped her kart right on his head. Hades fell forward, the kart bouncing off him and crashing on the ground. He was wide open. Sora smacked his keyblade across his face. Goofy threw Donald in the air and the duck slammed three blizzard spells down on Hades' back.

Hades burst into flames, the fire pushing back the trio. He spread his arms wide, and pillars of fire burst out from his fingers. A giant scoop of ice cream came plummeting down from the sky. It squished Hades, leaving a steaming pile of cream where the fiery god had been moments before.

"Why don't you cool off," Vanellope said as she glitched back down on the ground.

Hades burst out of the ice cream. His eyes, his hair, and even his shoulders burned red with flames. Then he simply laughed.

"Cool off? Think I will." He snapped his fingers.

Thousands of the cy-bug heartless flew down from the swarm above.

"You know what, I'm get tired of this show. Think I'll just let the swarm take care of the rest. Ta-ta!"

Hades vanished into the swarm.

Sora ducked as cy-heartless rained down from the sky. He sliced through one wave of heartless before something slammed into him from behind. In the next second, Sora was on the ground with a cy-heartless hovering over him. He tried to attack with his keyblade, but the heartless clamped down on the weapon with its pincered mouth.

Donald and Goofy were busy, each fighting their own dozen heartless. Vanellope could only glitch and escape, and Sora looked into the mouth of the heartless as it tried to swallow him whole.

Something black and grey bulldozed into the heartless, knocking it off Sora. Standing back up, Sora watched Ralph stomp the heartless into the ground. His target defeated, he turned and charged at Sora.

Sora raised his keyblade, preparing to defend. Vanellope glitched onto Ralph's back.

Ralph stopped and tried to buck Vanellope off.

"You're not a villain, Ralph," Vanellope cried, "don't let that fart-head turn you into one!"

Ralph stilled.

Sora raised his keyblade.

"I hate to do this Ralph!"

He shot out a blast of light that threw Ralph back toward the stands on the other side of the race track. Vanellope glitched back to stand next to Sora.

"Do you think that did it?"

Her question wasn't answered, because in the next moment another cy-heartless came hissing down at their heads. A lazer blast shot through the air, making the heartless explode. Calhoun and Felix ran toward Ralph.

"Come on," Felix said, "I think I know of a way to fix him!"

Donald and Goofy joined the group.

"Sora, remember what Alice did," Donald said.

Supply the light.

It was Ralph's only chance.

Sora ran into the stands where Ralph crashed. The big man lay there, his yellow eyes, glowing and wide, staring up into the sky. He twitched as though he were regaining his strength.

Vanellope jumped in, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Come on, stink-brain, I know you're in there!"

"Wake up, soldier," Calhoun demanded.

Felix tapped Ralph with his golden hammer.

"Come on, brother, it can't end here!"

The hammer's hits send ripples of golden light through Ralph, pushing away the ashen grey tone from his skin for a few seconds. But the darkness ran deep and soon Ralph was steaming in it.

Sora gathered light in his keyblade.

"Don't stop talking to him, don't stop hitting him."

Felix bonked Ralph on top of the head.

Vanellope reached into Ralph's shirt and pulled out a heart-shaped, cookie necklace. "You're my hero, remember?"

Ralph stilled.

Sora pressed his keyblade above Ralph's heart. With one more gentle tap from Felix's hammer, light spread across Ralph's body. The ashy grey color peeled away from his skin. His shirt and pants lit up with the color red, and with one blink of his eyes, he was back to normal.

Vanellope threw her fist in the air. "Yeah!"

Ralph's eyes filled up. "Kid! You're okay!"

Calhoun's rough voice interrupted them. "Move it, people! Save the reunion for later!"

Grabbing Vanellope, Ralph rolled out of the way of an the incoming heartless. Then he jumped and slammed the heartless into the dirt, obliterating it. The entire party was thrown back into battle. Yet, even with Ralph's help, there was no way they could take down the whole swarm. It ended with all seven of them in a circle, back to back, panting.

Donald looked at Sora with dull, exhausted eyes.

"Sora! We can't possibly take down millions of these things!"

"We have to leave the game and blow up the exit," Calhoun said. "It our only choice."

"But what about the game," Sora said.

"Diet cola mountain was destroyed," Ralph said. "There's no beacon to draw the cy-bugs."

Sora remembered the pillar of light that appeared above the tower in Hero's Duty.

"I won't leave this game behind to be destroyed."

"Like fun you are, rookie! Cy-bugs were already bad enough without the extra darkness. We have to destroy the game to save the rest of the arcade."

"I can make a beacon of light."

"There's no way you can make one big enough."

"Not alone, I can't."

Sora looked at Donald and Goofy. "We've faced worse, right?"

Goody winked. "Sure have."

"Wait! Sora, do you still have that piece of glass that Merida's mom gave you?"

Sora dug into his pocket and pulled out the stained glass piece. Donald braced Sora's leg, Goofy put his hands on Sora's shoulders.

Vanellope raised an eyebrow. "You guys are going to save my game with that tiny thing?"

"All I need you guys to do is to is give me your strength."

Ralph bent and picked up Sora, Donald and Goofy, balancing the trio on his broad shoulders.

"You heard the man, let's do this!"

Vanellope jumped up onto Sora's shoulder.

Felix and Calhoun held hands and then stood back to back with Ralph.

The heartless must have sensed a threat coming because they came down on them like a million comets. Calhoun shot in the air, Donald protected them with a aero spell.

"Sora," Felix called, "whatever you're doing, do it now!"

Sora concentrated. Gathering light from Donald and Goofy was easy, it was freely given. Vanellope's spunkiness hit him like the sour bite after a sweet rush of candy. Next came Felix's kindness. Calhoun's intensity was like a punch in the gut, and Ralph's hope was the final piece, connecting all the light together.

Sora reached up and held the stained glass in front of the keyblade.

The resulting blast of light was so electrifying that all seven of them had to fight to stay standing. The light shot up high, through the swarms, the clouds, maybe even through the code of Sugar Rush itself.

The heartless and cy-bugs flew toward the white beam to be vaporized one by one.

The keyblade shook in Sora's hand. The stain glass slipping from between his sweaty fingers. The power was so strong that he felt the light creep into his veins, burning the space behind his eyes, whipping out everything but the moment.

The glass slipped.

But the light did not stop.

Vanellope caught the glass and held it up on top of the keyblade.

Donald chanted healing spells to push away Sora's pain.

Goofy tightened his arms around Sora's waist, steadying him.

Ralph fell to his knees but would not drop the people he was holding.

Felix raised his hammer to give Sora more strength.

Calhoun held Felix up to help channel his power.

The last heartless melted into the light.

The stained glass piece shattered into dust.

The group collapsed.

Lying on the floor, they gasped and listened to a crescendo of cheers. The sky above was a perfect mint green and one of the cotton candy clouds parted to reveal a keyhole. Sora raised his key, and locked the world without leaving his spot on the floor. His arm fell against his side. He didn't have any energy left to stand, but it didn't matter. In mere moments the denizens of Sugar Rush had come back and lifted all of them in the air.


Jiminy's Journal

Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun (First Appeared in Wreck-It Ralph, 2012): Fix-it Felix's wife. She is the strict, intense commander of the troops in her game, Hero's Duty. Calhoun expects nothing less then two hundred percent from her men and it's a good thing too, considering part of her role is to fight deadly cy-bugs everyday. Calhoun has an strong sense of duty and will do everything she can to keep the arcade safe.