A/N: Hey guys! School's starting soon, so I thought I'd better get this done before everything crashes down. XD

This is, actually, one of the hardest chapters in Second Chance. Yup, I'm saying this even when I've only reached chapter 3. This is because in this very chapter, I will be introducing a game-changer. That is, so far, none of my readers have predicted what will happen in this chapter. But right after this, it'll be clearly obvious what my main objective is in this story, even the title Second Chance starts to make sense. So yeah, a lot of effort went into writing this.

This chapter turned out to be much, much longer than I expected, so I hope you guys will still enjoy it! Till then, IceWrecker out! :D

Chapter 3

RJ

My pod takes me up and away, and soon I am surrounded by a vast number of similar pods, all with a blocky-headed character seating inside it. I rush along the busy road, passing yet more shining buildings.

Now that I'm on ground level, I'm able to see the city and its citizens more clearly. As I continue to blaze down the track, I can see the words plastered on the outer walls of the buildings much more clearly, and I start to read them aloud.

"Yahoo…YouTube…Dance Diva Party…Slaughter Race…wait, Slaughter Race?!"

I whip my head back to get a closer look at the building: a towering site with fire columns that burned menacingly by its sides. The building has a glowing sign on it, and sure enough, the words 'Slaughter Race' scream out at me.

Wasn't that the game Vanellope chose to stay on the Internet?

Was her departure one of the reasons Ralph caused the Crash?

Was it?

"Oh Ralph, what did ya do?" I ask again, as if my brother is right next to me. "Why did ya break the Internet? Was it partly because of Vanny leavin' ya for Slaughter Race?"

I have to know, I have to know everything Ralph is hiding from me.

Suddenly, my pod changes lanes sharply, and I grip onto my seat tightly. The lane change is swiftly followed by a right turn, and then yet another right turn, detaching me from the main lane. I look behind me, seeing that only a handful of pods are going down the same way as I'm going. I wonder if they're also interested in finding out what happened in the Crash.

I feel my pod start to decrease in speed, and I turn my head back forward to see a tall modern building with huge floor-to-ceiling glass walls loom up in front of me. The words 'WeeklyNews' on one of the walls confirms that I've reached my destination. My pod glides to a stop just in front of the website and then vanishes, dumping me onto the floor.

I gotta get used to these disappearing vehicles soon on the Internet.

Around me, other pods are also slowing down, the blocky-headed characters all filing out and into the building. I quickly pick myself up and follow them into WeeklyNews.

As soon I got into the lobby, an Announcement Board, as tall as the building itself, greets us. I try to read what is on it, but it's not proving easy, since every now and then a new entry would appear on the bottom of the screen and push the rest of the entries upwards, shifting every so often. In front of the Board, I see several counters, each with a character of a certain color sitting behind it, assisting a blocky-headed character. After a few seconds, the blocky-headed character is guided on another, trackless, hovering vehicle further into the website. I tug on my hood and get into line, waiting patiently until it is my turn at the counter.

"So, based on your search," The character behind the counter inquires me "you wanted to know about the Wreck-it Ralph Virus Internet Crash, right sir?"

I nod.

She presses a button on her counter, and instantly a similar hovering vehicle appears right under my feet. "Whoa!" I yelp, flailing my arms to keep my balance. Just a moment later, my vehicle zooms away from the counters and keep into the website, turning several corners until a reach a rather large room with a huge board that reached the ceiling. The board contains a lot of words, neatly packed into paragraphs along with a few pictures. The headline on the top screams: Mysterious virus based on Wreck-it Ralph causes the biggest global Internet Crash ever.

There it is: I've found it.

Remembering what the vehicles on the Internet would do once they reached their destination, I immediately hop off it onto the ground. It was a good thing that I did so, as the vehicle really did vanish just a moment later.

I step closer to the board, and hungrily scan the article on it, desperately looking for answers.

On the 21st November, Internet users experienced what experts call 'The Biggest Internet Crash' ever, caused by a fast-moving and destructive virus. The virus, named after 80s video game Bad Guy Wreck-it Ralph, clogged up servers of various websites across the globe, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Spanning over 4 hours, users caught in the virus experienced a denial of access, locking their access out of the Internet completely. Computer experts specialized in viruses claim that this particular virus attack was not like any other, for it was not targeted at a specific website, nor was it used by hackers to retrieve any information. Rather, it was a coordinated attack on all the servers. However, up until the end of the Crash, WeeklyNews has not received information of any computer agencies worldwide locating the initial source of the virus, nor can they explain the sudden disappearance of the virus hours later after the inital attack.

There is a picture located next to the article, showing someone's computer screen, completely covered with a certain character's 8-bit face.

It takes me just a second to 'wreck-ognize' that familiar face.

The article ends here, there is no more for me to read. I look and see a couple of the same blocky-headed characters beside me, glancing up at the exact same article. "Hey, psst!" I call in a hushed voice "Ya have any idea what happened there, about the Crash?"

None of them respond.

"So…do ya know anythin' 'bout it?" I ask again.

Again, no response. Then to my dismay, some of them start to leave, as if they did not care a thing to what I am asking! Unbelievable! Are they deaf or super rude of what?!

"What? What 'tis wrong with ya guys?!" I yell, trying to get back their attention "Look, I know ya have yer thing to do, but that doesn't mean ya guys need to ignore me entirely! C'mon! What 'tis up with ya?!"

"Sir, no need to ask: they can't hear you. At least, not in the way you're expecting them to."

I turn my head back, only to see a blue, smartly-dressed man standing here, clutching some papers in his hand.

"What…do ya mean, they can't hear me?" I ask, confused.

The character steps forward to me "Those blocky-headed characters, they are called 'avatars', and they represent the human Internet users. You see, when the human users log onto the Internet, the avatars take care of all the business. But even if they're standing next to each other like you see here, they won't know that there are others also seeing the article on the Announcement Board here. They just see the article on the screen, but not the avatars or netizens standing next to them. You're nothing like an avatar, but I guess the same applies to you. You…get what I mean?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess." I mutter, suddenly feeling kinda lonely hearing this realization.

The character steps towards me, "It's your first time here, right?" He asks in a sympathetic voice.

Dejected, I nod, sighing.

"I kinda guessed it. Yeah, it's something you need to get used to. Oh, and by the way, I'm Newton." The character holds out his free hand, and I shake it. "What's yours?"

"I'm…" I start, but then I remember KnowsMore's instructions, that I should always maintain a low profile while I'm still on the Internet. "Um…Sorry." I stammer "But my name's classified."

"That's okay." Newton responds, his face unfazed. "Lots of users around here don't really like giving away their names: you're not the only one here."

I breathe out a sigh of relief, then I turn back to the board. "So, what happened?" I ask Newton. "What really happened in the Crash?"

The character sighs and glances down slightly at his papers. "Well…as you saw in the article, the Wreck-it Ralph Virus launched a huge service attack on the entire Internet, taking down almost every website, including ours." He waves his hand around for emphasis.

"But what really happened?" I butt in. "What happened here? How did that single virus manage to do such a feat?"

Newton doesn't respond. Instead, he swiftly jerks his head from side to side, as if trying to see that there's nobody watching us. He then turns to me in a lowered voice. "Follow me." He instructs, and walks away deeper into the website.

Quickly, I run to catch up to him. "Is…somethin' wrong?" I ask, slightly confused by the sudden change in tone of his voice and actions. "Did I ask for somethin' that I wasn't supposed to know?"

"Oh, no, no. You're not in trouble." Newton reassures me, patting my shoulder. "It's just that…what you're about to see is stuff that isn't allowed to be seen by the human users."

"Wait. So yer sayin' 'tis…those stuff I've just seen outside, the human users can also see. But now there are stuff that…they somehow cannot see?" I ask, getting more and more confused by the second.

"Precisely." Newton takes a card out of his pocket and slides it into a tiny slot. The door in front of us soundlessly opens, revealing more characters like Newton, and also some that somehow slightly resembled my more human-like build.

"I'm sorry. Ya've lost me there." I glitch and reappear in front of Newton, preventing him to moving forward. "I need an explanation. Why isn't the stuff yer that about to show me cannot be seen by the human users?"

Newton sighs deeply. "For a first-timer here, you sure are really curious about everything. Okay, I'll try and explain everything to you. So, basically, the world that we're in, the Internet, it doesn't look the same way to the human users. To us, we might see giant buildings, netizens like me working hard, avatars doing whatever their human users want them to do. But to the human users…well. They don't see our world the vibrant way it really is. They don't see the buildings, they don't see the pod-covered streets, they are not able to see some of us, even!"

"So, what do they see?" I pip, curious.

"Ah, something much simpler. A simple page, probably with lots of words, sometimes with a picture or two, and that's pretty much it. They don't see us; they probably don't even know how we look like!"

"Oh my God! That's…that's horrible!" I gasp.

Newton looks up at me "Well, it's better if they don't know about this world. The less they know about here, the better. Maybe it's because we're seeing it in this direction that we think they're missing much, but it might not be the case to the human users."

I think about that for a moment, then I nod my head "I guess…yeah, it suddenly makes sense when ya say it like that."

"Glad you thought of it that way. Oh, there it is!" Newton pauses to pull out a large digital pad. He presses it a few times, and then hands it out to me. "You say you want to know more the Crash, you ask?"

"Oh yes, yes!" I reply, relieved that I'm finally getting some more information regarding the incident.

The netizen passes the pad to me. "This is a video footage taken from one of our security cameras when the virus hit our website. Remember, the users only see a denial of access, but to us…well…" He beckons me to hit the 'start' button in the middle of the screen. "See for yourself."

Gently, I take the pad from his hands and press 'play'.

On the screen, I see the lobby where I entered in the first place. Only now everyone, both avatars and netizens, are running away from the glass wall and deeper into the website. "THEY'RE COMING!" Someone, I'm not sure whom, screams.

Who's 'they'? I wonder.

I get my answer two seconds later.

CRASH! An earsplitting sound echoes throughout the website as three figures smash through the wall into the lobby. The wall is broken much further as more and more similar figures rush into WeeklyNews. One of the figures lets out a low growl, and with its large bare hands, tears apart the Announcement Board in milliseconds. The others start to trash up the place, ripping up floorboards and tossing scraps of the broken counters and walls aside.

Wait a minute…

Those…figures…

Why do they all look so familiar?

Then it hits me: hard.

I am seeing dozens, and I mean dozens, of carbon-copies of my brother, Wreck-it Ralph.

Some of the clones start to come near the camera, and I realize that they are not exact copies of my brother. Sure, they have Ralph's build, his strength, his angry expression; yet they all seem a bit…off. Their dark, crazed, soulless eyes; their reddened skin, their constant moaning of the word 'Friend'… Like, this is not Ralph; this is a seriously crazy, messed up version of him that has somehow made copies of itself and started a wrecking rampage across the Internet.

But…where did those things come from? They named the virus after my brother, so Ralph must be involved somehow; but…how?

The screams continue in the distance as more and more Ralph clones pour into the website, wreaking more havoc on the already badly-damaged website. Strangely, they sometimes pause to pull up a board off the floor or look behind fallen objects, rummaging whatever happens to be hidden behind them…

As if they all seem to be looking for something, but what?

Suddenly, one of the Ralph clones sees the camera and lumbers quickly to it. It pops its head up in front of the lens, its soulless eyes glaring straight into the camera. It lets out a low, inhumanly growl before ripping the camera off, tearing the wires out and breaking the camera, ending the video.

"Yikes." I mutter, my code buzzing hard. I continue staring at the blank screen for a few seconds, stunned, before passing the pad back to Newton. "That…was scary."

"It was beyond scary, I tell you that." Newton says, accepting the pad. "The clones, they destroyed everything. They tore up every wall, smashed every obstacle, and threw everyone that happened to be in their path. There was nothing we could do to stop them. We had to go into hiding, but not all of us escaped without a scratch."

"What kind of virus would do such a terrible thing?" I ask. This is it, this might be the moment that I find out where my brother got into this mess.

"Well…Hey, Porter! You got any info of where the clones came from?" Newton calls to a green netizen just right across him.

"Um…yeah, I guess." The netizen, Porter replies. "This is a rumor, but it was said that an Insecurity Virus duplicated a certain Wreck-it Ralph's…uh…features and sent them all over the Internet. That's what I heard from anyway, I have no idea where the virus found that character from, though."

"That's what I heard from other sites too; glad to see we've got the same information. Anyway, happy to say they eventually retreated from our site, every last one of them. Good riddance." Newton says with a slight frown.

"Wait…so they just…left?!" I ask in disbelief "They just left? They didn't get destroyed or anythin'?"

"That, my dear friend, unfortunately we don't know." Newton says. "Many sites also received damage from the clones, but almost all of them report that they left moments later. Some of us got reports that somewhere else on Internet, the clones somehow managed to group together to form a massive form of itself and continue their destruction. But unfortunately, most of us had gone into hiding at that moment so none of us here saw such a thing; we don't know for certain if that…thing really existed."

I am breathing hard now. I cannot believe a word that I am hearing. My brother really did start the Internet Crash…and he did much more damage than I thought.

Maybe I really shouldn't have gone to the Internet after all.

"So…what happened then?" I ask.

Newton raises an eyebrow. "Hey man, why are you so interested in this Crash anyway? Is there anything you know that I don't?"

I let out a small gasp, but I suck it back quickly before he notices. Conceal, don't feel! Don't let him know! Don't let him know that I'm Wreck-it Ralph's younger brother! Don't let him know! Don't let him know! "Um, nothin', nothin' much. I'm just curious, that's all."

Luckily, Newton doesn't really seem to notice. "Well, unfortunately, that's all the information I can give you here. We don't know everything, to be honest. But listen, since the Crash happened almost everywhere on the Internet, why don't you head on over to other websites to see if there's some information that we don't have here?"

"So…yer sayin'…" I say slowly "that if I wanna know more 'bout how 'tis incident happened…then I should head to other sites to know more?"

"Yup." Newton nods back at me. "Seems a bit time-consuming, to be honest, but sometimes it's better to search up tons of different results and look at the event from the big picture. I mean, who knows? Maybe another site will show another point of view about the same Crash, but you'll find information that's different from what we've have here."

"Oh, I've got all the time in the world, I'll definitely be scurryin' 'round to know what happened!" I decide.

"That's the spirit, sir!" Newton beams up at me as he leads me back out into the lobby. "I really hope that you could find what you're looking for."

"Oh! And speakin' of which," I quickly jump in "'Tis there another useful search site that I could, ya know, find more information? I mean, there's no way I'm gettin' grilled by that purple egg again." I say, crossing my arms in slight disgust. I'll be clear here: KnowsMore was nice and helpful, but if he's one of the few characters that knew Ralph, and was able to link a connection between me and him…

"If you want, Google's down this way." Newton says, waving his hand "It's search webpage, and a pretty large one too. It's the tall building with colorful blocks floating around and a huge capital 'G' on it. Go straight down and you'll see it. It's kinda hard to miss."

"Great, thanks." I call as I run out of WeeklyNews, anxious to find more answers.

For the next couple of hours, I jumped from website to website, from search entry to search entry, from article to article. Although every time I searched up the Crash, a plethora of results would swarm out at me, I was able to narrow them down to the crucial bits of info that I really needed, the ones that really wanted to know.

The ones related to my brother in the incident.

I look up at the article board of the site I am currently in. It is not the one as big as the one in WeeklyNews, but still big nonetheless, showing me more information about the same Crash.

Most of the websites I'd been to are news websites, but I also went to some blog posts or some social media pages to find what I'm looking for. Every time I got to those websites and ask the netizens in charge for some insider information, they've raised eyebrows at me, but quickly gave me what I needed once they realized that I wasn't an avatar. I've even talked to some of the netizens who are not running the aforementioned websites themselves, but are witnesses of the Crash that are willing to tell me what happened to them.

This is my twelfth website already. So far, from what I've gathered, I'm able to have a slight image of what happened in the Crash. So, I believe, the Insecurity Virus originated in Slaughter Race, and somehow managed to copy my brother's flaws and insecurities, distributing them all over the Internet. My brother's insecurities came in the form of messed-up clones of himself, and they began to tear the Internet apart on a massive scale, crashing down almost every single one of the websites. But what's really interesting is that all of a sudden, without warning, all the clones went out of their respective websites almost at the same time, chasing a hovering car zooming across the Internet on a beeline to the Anti-Virus District. However, whatever intention the characters in the hovering car had in mind, it was clear that they had failed, for the clones had somehow managed to gather together to form an enormous and terrifying version of Ralph, towering over many of the city's skyscrapers. As a untied form, the clones continued their destruction, before suddenly heading up the Google site and sitting at the very top. No one could tell me what happened upon there afterwards, but after a moment, one by one the clones began to glow and vanish, disappearing from the Internet and ending the Crash for good.

After all the website-hopping, I am very tired, but still I think I don't have enough information, enough to find my answers to what Ralph did in the Crash. For example, I still don't know how the virus managed to find Ralph, who was in the hovering car at that crucial moment, what made the virus clones vanish all of a sudden.

I want more.

I glance up at the board again, and heave out a loud sigh.

"Oh, Ralph, what did ya do?" I ask under my breath once more, even though I know I won't get any answers from my question "Why did 'tis happen? What made ya produce all those clones? What made them destroy the Internet? What made them do that?"

I sigh again and look down at the floor. My stomach grumbles, and I realize that I have been so caught up in my pursuit for answers, that I haven't eaten anything in the last few hours. I carefully unzip my bag and pull out my sandwiches, considerably crushed from the rather violent swings from my pack when I ran from webpage to webpage. I take one out and bite into it hungrily, but that one sandwich isn't enough to fulfill my current hunger, both on a physical and mental level…

"I just wished ya would just tell me everythin'…" I mutter, my mouth full.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind rushes into the website, blowing my hood off and knocking my sandwich bag out of my hand. Instantaneously, I pull the hood back over my head, whipping around to see if that single motion was enough for anyone to see me, to recognize me, to land me in trouble…

The website is silent; all the avatars are still focused on their current actions, the website's netizens still helping the avatars if necessary. Good, no one has taken notice of me. I'm still safe…for now.

With that issue solved, I turn around and look for my bag, my remaining sandwiches still inside it. There! I see it, lying limply in the dark corner, just a few paces from where I'm at. I sprint over there, my hand outstretched, about to grab the bag back…

…when I see a hand quickly reach out and snatch the bag off the ground.

It all happened very suddenly, too sudden. So sudden that I just stand there, stunned, not knowing what I should do next.

Then I hear them:

Footsteps.

Faint but definite footsteps, slowly fading into the distance. I turn around, just in time to see a shadowy figure running away from the site, my sandwich bag in its clutched hand.

"HEY!" I yell, giving chase after the figure. "GIVE ME MY BAG BACK! THOSE ARE MY SANDWICHES, NOT YERS!"

The figure didn't stop, leaping nimbly over railings and speeding down alleys without a sound. Immediately, I place my hand on my stabilizer and loosen it, fully unlocking my Glitching powers. I continue to give chase, teleporting forward if necessary, but still it is no match for the shadowy figure.

The site has long gone behind me, and I turn down yet another dark alley around the corner when the road abruptly stops in front of me, a series of railings barring me from moving forward. Unable to stop, I crash into the railing, my arms breaking up into millions of pixels upon contact.

Panting hard, I rest upon the railing as my arms return to normal, then I peer closer at what it that prevented me from advancing is. Indeed, the pathway ends right beyond the railing, and there is nothing but darkness dark below. At least, I think there is nothing but darkness: the light from the surrounding buildings is not enough to light out the place for me to see clearly.

I look around, confused at where the figure might have gone. Unless it leapt from the railing like it did in the chase earlier, there's no way it can go. There's really no way to go, unless one counts the metallic rungs of a ladder hidden just below the sidewalk, hidden just out of sight of me…

Oh.

Slowly, I walk towards the ladder and make my way down, carefully making sure my prosthetic is on a step every time I descend. It is a long way down, way longer than I expected, but very soon, I feel both my feet reach solid ground again. I dust off my pants and look up.

It is much darker than what I imagined earlier.

As soon as my eyes got used to the darkness, I start to make sense of what I'm seeing down there. Everywhere, fallen objects littered all around me, dusty signs and cardboard-like objects propped upon the darkened walls. I am so deep down below, that the bright lights from the shining Internet city above had become so faint that they just barely manage to light up some of the darkness.

What is this place?!

My left foot gets caught on a stray piece of garbage, and I stumble. It is then I remember why I came down to this dark place.

I turn and look around, and look around again, trying to find where the figure had gone, where it had taken my stolen stuff to.

I walk further down into the darkness, guided by my senses and the faint lights. It is then I hear a rustling sound just to my right. I quickly glance in that direction.

There it is.

The shadowy figure, the one who stole my sandwiches without making a sound. It has now sat down in one of the corners, its body hunched over something.

"Hey!" I call, annoyed, trying to get the figure's attention.

The figure doesn't respond.

"HEY!" I yell again, waving my hands wildly "YA DEAF OR WHAT?!"

Still the figure doesn't respond. It might be my imagination, but I see the figure shrinking a bit at my call, slowly backing away from me, as if it's trying to escape…

Oh no, I'm not letting it get away so easily, oh no I'm not. "What? Ya chicken? Done somethin' ya know 'tis wrong?" I taunt, stepping forward. "Listen: I'm not lettin' ya go 'til ya answer my questions. Ya hear that, ya thief, ya hear that?"

I can see the figure's dark silhouette shrink back further, as if it's trying to avoid my questions. And I'm sure if I'm seeing right, but it appears that it's…trembling…with fear?!

Pfft, what a faker.

"Ha ha, very funny. Tryin' to play guilty, right?" I step forward again "Yer not foolin' me so easily. Now, let's be serious: I want answers. Why did ya steal those sandwiches from me?"

The silhouette shakes its head, refusing to utter a word.

"Why did ya do that?" I ask again.

No response.

"Yer just wastin' my time, I don't even know why I'm down here with ya." I mutter, tapping my real foot impatiently on the ground. I then look back up at the figure, as if waiting for it to respond.

It doesn't.

I let out a low growl. Who does the figure think it is? Someone important? If that is the case, then it wouldn't have to steal stuff from me in the first place!

I have been given the cold shoulder once already; I'm not accepting another individual's rude response to me. With that kind of attitude, it's practically begging me to use the nuclear option on it, and so I oblige.

I dig through my bag and pull out the emergency flashlight that I always had in my pack. I turn it on, a bright ray of light shining through the darkness. The figure's gonna greatly regret what I'm about to do to it, but what choice do I have? And plus, it is begging me to do that to it, right?

With one swift motion, I jerk my hand up, casting the beam at the figure, bathing it in light.

"ANSWER, YA IDIOT!" I scream. As my light hits the figure, it yelps and holds its enormous hands over its face, shielding my light entirely.

Wait a minute…

Those hands…

Those freakishly large hands…

I've seen them before…

"Okay…Alright…Get it together." I suck in my breath tightly before continuing "Slowly…lower…yer hands." I say slowly, trying to regain the sternness I had just a few seconds earlier.

Very, very slowly, the figure lowers its huge hands, revealing its face completely.

When I see the face, I gasp, my voice echoing around the dark place. All of a sudden, my head starts to spin and my vision blurs up, as if I am not believing at what I am seeing right now…

CLANG! The sound snaps me to my senses, and it is only at that moment that I realize my hands have been trembling, and that my flashlight is no longer in my grasp, clattering nosily to the ground. The light is no longer focused on the figure, but that one single glance was enough for me to realize that face and link it to a certain someone.

No…

No…no, this can't be true, it can't be!

Without warning, both of my legs give away, and I crumble onto the floor in a tangled heap. I glance up at the figure again, and start to crawl back rapidly, my voice raspy from gasping. I don't care, I don't care: I have to get away as far away from the figure as possible! I must!

I try to speak, but my voice changes to a high-pitched, terrified squawk as I recognize the character in front of me, who he is…

No!

You can't be him! You can't be him! You can't be…

"RALPH?!"