Original story by GND-KicaCris.
Revised and edited by The Phantom Soldier.
"Wreck-it Ralph" © Disney
Chapter 9: A Bad Guy has to do, what a bad guy has to do!
"And then I told him, 'Listen Mario, I don't care how much she likes those damn flowers, it's not wise to have those things in the castle', but do you think she listened to my advice? Of course not! Some garden problem they have now!" Bowser laughed as he and Clyde strolled through Game Central Station, while chatting and joking about the newest misadventure of the Koopa King's nemesis.
Reaching the center of the station, they noticed a large crowd of game characters gathered at the entrance of Hero's Duty, looking up at the game's security flat screen. "I wonder what all the hubbubs about now?" The tall turtle dragon asked his old friend as he tried to focus his vision on the far away image on the screen.
"Looks like someone has game jumped into Hero's Duty," Clyde shrugged monotonously.
"Bowser! Clyde!" They both heard their names shouted and noticed Zangief emerge from the crowd, running towards them with a frightened look carved into his rough fighter features. He stopped in front of them panting heavily. "Y-you have to come quick! Something incredible happening!"
Bowser and Clyde both cocked an eyebrow as both looked at their bad-guy comrade in confusion. "What's going on, Zangief?" The orange ghost of Pacman asked him with concern.
"It's Ralph and the Queen! They are fighting against the Fix-Its and the Candy President! Good-Guys versus Bad-Guys! In Hero's Duty!" Zangief exclaimed worriedly at them and both old bad-guys gaped in shock.
"THEY'RE WHAT?!" Bowser hollered as he marched towards the crowd urgently, with Clyde and the Russian tailing quickly after him. The crowd instantly allowed them to cross as it was the natural reaction of fear towards a bad-guy coming. The three stopped inches away from the entrance where all of the Bad Anon members were also looking intensely at the screen while the rest of the 'neutral' and 'good' characters stood behind them.
The group quickly admitted the arrival or their leaders. "Bowser! Clyde! Did either of you know about this?" Dr. Robotnik asked them as a countdown started to flash on the screen with the tune of Hero's Duty main theme getting louder.
Bowser frowned deeply while looking at the screen. "Is Surge informed of this?" He asked without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Yes I am," said the aforementioned blue man as he materialized next to him. Bowser looked down at him in surprise. "General Hologram has explained the situation to me. It's a friendly competition apparently and the Hero's Duty command team will constantly supervise them. Everything is under control." He assured them smugly while adjusting his glasses.
Clyde exchanged a worried frown with Bowser but no one said another thing. Just then, after the countdown finished, a female computer voice boomed out of the screen speakers.
"Initiating Hero'sDuty team battle mode. Introducing the Blue team: Sergeant Tamora Calhoun, Fix-It Felix Jr. and Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz"
The voice announced as the image of the three appeared on the screen, sporting their armor while striking their trademark "hero stance". The crowd went wild as the majority cheered and applauded the blue team.
"They're gonna kick so much butt!"
"Come on, this is too easy!"
"I bet 10 golden coins to the good-guys!"
Collective laughs were heard and the bad-guys exchanged stern looks as they felt a sudden surge of support towards their comrades. Just then the screen turned red and the voice spoke again.
"Representing the Red Team: Wreck-It Ralph and Dark Queen Chocolette Von Schweetz."
The booming voice finished as both bad-guys appeared in full armor, smirking and striking their own stances. The crowd booed loudly with more laughs coming this time.
"I raise that bet! 100 golden coins to the good-guys!"
"Bad-Guys will never win!"
"This better be a joke!"
Surge rolled his eyes as he chuckled at the crowd's enthusiasm, silently agreeing with them with a mocking smile.
But then, a louder, much deeper voice broke through the laughs. "10,000 golden coins to the bad-guys!" Everyone went silent as all eyes looked to Bowser in shock. Clyde looked at his friend quizzically as a smirk appeared on the dragon's face as he eyed the crowd with confidence. Then the members of Bad Anon started to smirk too as their pride took over, and so they cheered for their friends' victory.
Surge looked at them in disapproval as Clyde whispered to Bowser. "Are you sure of what you're doing, my friend?" The orange ghost asked him, worried about the outcome of the competition since it was obvious that both Ralph and Chocolette had the clear disadvantage.
But Bowser's smile just widened as he kept his eyes on the screen. "I have a good hunch about this," he confessed as the screen was divided in two, showing each team's scores at 0 and the timer starting to run.
-0-0-0-
Ralph and Chocolette appeared in a vast deserted region of the Hero's Duty planet, fuming at Markowski's last remark before he teleported them without warning. They noticed their surroundings in confusion and Ralph grunted while pinching the bridge of his nose.
"What's that guy's deal?! ARGH! I want to turn him into a cockroach and smash him repeatedly with my heels until he is reduced into nothing but pixel dust!" Chocolette barked with her arms in the air, venting her accumulated anger finally.
Ralph chuckled at her infuriated state. "I guess he hasn't gotten over the fact that I left him locked in Tapper's Lost and Found room with nothing else but Zangief's dirty fighting trunks. What a cry baby!" The wrecker joked as he took a couple of deep breaths to calm down his own temper.
'I heard that!' They both suddenly heard Markowski's voice coming from their helmets. They exchanged quizzical looks before hearing him again.
'Put on the damn helmets already!' he ordered them harshly and both bad-guys growled in annoyance.
Reluctantly, they picked up their helmets and put them on their heads; Chocolette adjusted her long ponytail inside of it just as Ralph closed his red visor, only to be greeted by a tiny image of Markowski's scarred face glaring angrily at him from the corner of the visor.
"Watch it Markowski, or you'll have more than a black eye once this is over!" Ralph threatened him, half-joking, half-serious, as he smirked at the frowning soldier.
Markowski rolled his eyes un-amused. "Whatever, would you just start walking already?! I'll be alerting you whenever the radar detects any cy-bugs in your proximiy. Good luck I guess…you'll need it!" He sniggered and his image disappeared again.
Ralph grunted as he opened his backpack to retrieve his weapon. Clicking a button on the side, he un-bended a large rifle-like bazooka that was as long as his arm and as thick as one of his fists. He marveled at it with wonder and then gasped as Calhoun's words struck him as hard as a pile of falling bricks: 'Bigger cy-bugs, bigger weapons'.
He looked over to Chocolette who was checking on her own rifle, which was considerably much smaller and lighter than his, almost as large as half of her arm. He frowned worryingly as he put his backpack on again.
"We should better get moving. Stay behind me and don't do anything stupid with that," he warned her and helped her with putting on her own backpack.
The queen frowned at him, slightly annoyed. "Don't tell me what to do! I can defend myself pretty well." She chuckled and Ralph snorted with a half smile as he tightened the straps firmly without hurting her.
"How hard can it be to shoot one silly bug anyways?"
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time 00:10:25
Current Score: Blue Team 1,800; Red Team 500)
"YOU JUST HAD TO SHOOT THEM FIRST, DIDN'T YOU?!" Chocolette shouted angrily as she and Ralph sprinted at through the rocky landscape, while a group of five elephant sized cy-bugs were chasing after them furiously.
"WHAT ELSE DID YOU WANT ME TO DO?!" Ralph barked back at her, slightly looking back to see the cy-bugs rapidly catching up. Why was Calhoun always right about everything?! Not only were the new cy-bugs much bigger and meaner, they now came in a vast variety of forms and insect types. These ones in particular looked like giant bees.
"Oh, I don't know, how about if you TRY TO NOT SHOOT THEM WHILE THEY ARE NOT ATTACKING US?!" Chocolette scolded and Ralph grunted, feeling more and more guilt with each hurried step.
He then spotted one giant green crystal boulder in the distance and he gasped with relief at its sight.
"THERE!" he signaled with his index finger and Chocolette quickly understood his signal. They both started to run faster, earning more distance from the creatures as they approached the large rock.
Chocolette quickly dashed behind it first and Ralph came after her immediately. He reloaded his riffle and fired five shots at the cy-bugs, killing three while the other two flew high to avoid the attack. Ralph shot again and was relieved to see the creatures escaping away, up into the sky and between the dark green clouds of the planet.
The wrecker panted in relief as he lowered his weapon. He looked down at the queen who had collapsed onto the ground, trying to catch her breath after having been running for 10 minutes straight. She was sweating and gripping tightly at her own rifle, which she kept pressed against her chest as if her life depended on it. His brow furrowed in concern and he kneeled down besides her.
"Are you ok? Did they hurt you?" he asked her softly, looking for any signs of damage to her armor.
Chocolette let her head rest against the cold rock as she looked at him with her eyes half closed, a reassuring smile forming on the corner of her lips. "I'm fine… don't worry. I'm just… catching my breath, y'know? Give me a minute." She spoke softly to him as she closed her eyes again with a frown.
Ralph let his massive form sit on the ground as he waited for her to recover her strength. He looked at the sky and frowned when he noticed their current score: Blue Team: 1800, Red Team: 500. He wrinkled his nose in annoyance, imagining both Calhoun and Vanellope mercilessly killing all the cy-bugs that were in their path. The Sergeant was probably leading them flawlessly as she was in her element and surely knew the direction the Tower was located in. He felt his pride burn, feeling helpless at their disadvantage.
"I don't understand why we have to shoot them, really. They weren't aware of our presence 'till you started firing at them!" he heard Chocolette complain and he quickly glanced at her in disbelief.
"Again with that? Why are you so sensitive about them, Chocolette?! We ARE supposed to kill them! That's the whole deal of this game, besides wining the medal at the top of that building." Ralph argued with her as he remembered her distraught reaction when he started firing at the big creatures 10 minutes ago. Sure enough, they weren't attacking them before he had started shooting; the big pack of cy-bugs was merely flying above them without paying much attention to the Bad-Guy team, but that was besides the point. Of course, he had regretted the impulsive action greatly, right after he had noticed their enormous size and how fast they were flying at them after he had killed half of them in a few shots.
Chocolette frowned with a pout and evaded his eyes. "I-I just…it doesn't feel right, ok?! They're this game's bad-guys! They are like us!" she suddenly admitted and Ralph's eyes went wide in realization.
"Chocolette listen to me," he started tenderly. "They are NOT like us, AT ALL!" Ralph scolded her, using one of his index fingers to lift her chin to make her look at him in the eyes. "You heard Calhoun; they're like viruses! They don't speak, think, or feel anything! They're just killing programs, ok? So don't feel pity for them." The wrecker chuckled in amusement, not believing the queen to be so caring of these mindless creatures just because they acted as the 'villains' of this game.
Chocolette's light green eyes widened slightly but then they softened as she looked away in stubborn embarrassment; she suddenly felt vulnerable and giddy. "I-I know but…I just have this nagging feeling that we shouldn't been killing them for some reason," she told him, frowning as her cheeks turned a rosy color.
Ralph cocked an eyebrow with a half knowing smile. So, you're not as cold hearted as you brag to be, huh? He mentally sniggered, finding the queen's stubbornness bizarrely adorable. "Don't think too hard about it, sugar queen. Don't ya wanna win? We need to kill A LOT of them if we're planning on defeating the others," he told her as he stood up tall once again, offering a helping hand for her.
Chocolette looked at his hand and then back at him; her trademark smirk returning. "Or we could find that Tower and snatch that medal before them" she said as she grabbed his hand and let him rise her to her feet effortlessly.
"I don't want to be pessimist, but I highly doubt we'll find the Tower before Calhoun does. Our best chance to win is to kill more cy-bugs than them before the time runs out." Ralph admitted sourly.
Just then, Markowski's voice alerted them. 'Large Cy-bug swarm approaching from the west!'
Chocolette frowned but nodded as she and Ralph reloaded their weapons. "Fine! Let's do this then."
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:00:05.
Current Score: Blue Team 110,300 ; Red Team 10,800)
"Argh! This is ridiculous! Calhoun's team has too much of an advantage over us!" Ralph complained furiously while opening his helmet to breath better. They were currently down in the score with 100,000 points of difference, and Chocolette had just lost her rifle making their numbers and current situation much worse.
Chocolette laid on the floor ground, breathing in and out rapidly with her eyebrows knit in rage. "We are never gonna win this!" she admitted drily. "I gotta be honest with you big guy, this hasn't been as fun as I expected." She kicked a rock in frustration.
If there was one thing that Chocolette couldn't stand it was losing a challenge. And they weren't only losing, they were being humiliated epically by none other than her sister and Ralph's good-guy friends.
"I hate to lose as much as you do Chocolette. Argh!" Ralph growled, smashing his helmet against the rock they were currently hiding behind, turning it into pixellated dust as his frustration started to overwhelm him.
Chocolette looked at him wide eyed, mesmerized by his current furious state. 'He looks hot when he's angry!' She mentally admitted with a soft tired chuckle. Turning her head towards the green sky of the Hero's Duty planet, she let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding back. "I'm not quitting Ralph," she said angrily.
"Like HELL we are!" The wrecker hissed in agreement.
Suddenly both heard the screeching sound of a small group of the infamous insects approaching. Slightly glancing over the rock without being discovered, Ralph noticed three cy-bugs of the round type just as tall as him, a few miles away from the other side of the giant rock they were currently hiding behind.
"Great, this is just great!" Ralph complained in a low voice; he took his rifle and tossed it to Chocolette. She barely caught it thanks to her racer reflexes, looking at the wrecker with a confused and surprised facial expression.
"What are you doing?!" She asked him as she saw him stand up at his full height while clenching his fits in wrecking form.
"I can destroy them with these," he explained to her as he held up his personal demolishing weapons to her. "But you can't, so you'll use the riffle to shoot them if they fly at me while I take them on at ground level." He glanced back at the cy-bugs who seemed to still be unaware of their hidden position.
Chocolette frowned at him in disapproval. "Have you lost your mind?! They're as big as you! I'm coming with you this time; you take the two from the left and I'll take the one on the right. Got it?" she said sternly with no hesitation as she stood up again, lifting Ralph's oversized rifle as if it was a cannon.
Ralph grunted in protest but decided to go with her plan as it was certainly better for him to physically take on two large cy-bugs instead of three. He looked up at his and Chocolette's health bars and noticed that both still had half of their bars full, with Chocolette's slightly lower than his.
His eyes shifted back at her. "Alright but be careful, okay? And try this time not to let them eat the rifle!" he joked and she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
They both narrowed their eyes, scrunched their shoulders and slightly bended their knees as they prepared to sprint. Ralph raised his palm with his five fingers stretched as he made a slow five-second count down.
5…4…3…2…1!
They both growled and snarled as they started running towards the cy-bugs. The creatures looked at them with surprise but didn't move; Chocolette reached them first as she was a faster runner, and just as she was planting both feet firmly to aim with the heavy rifle…she heard a surprising cracking sound under her.
Looking at her feet, she noticed with alarm that cracks were growing rapidly over the floor surface and her eyes widened in fear.
"RALPH!" She screamed as she felt the trembling footsteps of her partner increasing the number of cracks.
The wrecker halted at her sudden outburst, his fists poised above his head; he noticed the cy-bugs screeching in confusion as the cracks got louder and deeper under them. He glanced back at Chocolette and his eyes went wide as he saw her losing her balance as the ground became unstable.
"What the-?" he couldn't say more as the ground under them collapsed and Chocolette and the cy-bugs fell into the darkness.
"CHOCOLETTE!" He shouted in fright and without giving a second thought, he jumped down the dark hole at full speed.
"RALPH!" she screamed in fear as gravity pulled her down rapidly. She saw Ralph coming after her in mid air fall and tried desperately to reach for him with a stretched hand.
Everything happened so fast and yet she saw everything in slow motion, as Ralph quickly grabbed her by the hand and pulled her towards him, embracing her body tightly against his chest with his arms covering most of her, and then whirling his body over his back to protect them from the incoming impact.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:05:05.
Current Score: Blue Team 110,300; Red Team 10,800)
TTTZZZZZZZKRACK!
Markowski yanked his earpiece away as the loud booming electrical sound almost left him deaf. He whined in complaint while grabbing his head in pain, cursing under his breath.
He had been monitoring the Bad-Guys' team from Hero's Duty Red Base for about an hour, bored with the failing attempts of his assigned team into winning the challenge, when a strange interference came into his ears. The few marines and scientists that were with him in the base looked at him with confusion.
"What's the matter Markowski? Did Wreck-It mess it up again?" a dark skinned soldier chuckled beside him, earning a few laughs from the rest of the squad.
Markowski then looked at the spherical holographic radar that was floating above his console and his eyes went wide in alarm, standing up frantically. "CALL THE GENERAL!" he bellowed urgently
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:10:05.
Current Score: Blue Team 124,000 ; Red Team 10,800)
"Tamora?! Do you copy? Over!" Calhoun suddenly heard the familiar urgent voice of General Hologram through her helmet, and Felix and Vanellope turned over to look at her quizzically as it was usually Kohut that spoke to them.
"This is Calhoun speaking, Over!" she replied with a frown, lowering her gun slowly.
"Calhoun… Markowski just informed me that they've lost Red Team's signal, over!" the general informed them in concern, and the three heroes gasped in shock. "Fortunately their health bars seem to still be activated as you can see, over!" The three saw with relief that indeed their friends' health bars were still visible at the top of the sky, alongside Red Team's current score.
Tamora then shifted her eyes towards the Tower that was in their view and grunted in annoyance.
"Sarge! We have to look for my sister and Ralph! They could be in danger!" Vanellope pleaded with her big shining hazel eyes as the Sergeant struggled with her competitive nature.
"Tammy… please," her husband softly insisted too with a worried glint in his eyes. Oh how she hated how much power these two had over her.
"FINE! Send their last coordinates General, we'll look for them, over!" she barked in resignation.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:10:05.
Current Score: Blue Team 124,000; Red Team 10,800)
Chocolette's eyes flickered open as she tried to focus her vision, not recognizing her surroundings. She looked around and noticed deep darkness, with the only source of light coming directly above her head. She tried to stand up but felt something heavy pressed against her back, stopping her from raising herself.
Her vision finally focused and she soon realized that it were Ralph's arms preventing her from standing up, as they were clasped tightly over her body protectively with him lying under her.
He had used his strong back to cushion their fall.
Chocolette gasped in fear, her hands quickly reaching his face as she tried to shake him awake. "Ralph…Ralph! RALPH! Please open your eyes, please!" she urged him, her voice cracking and her eyes becoming glassy, fearing the worst.
She let a relieved breath escape as he started to shift slightly under her, grunting in pain. "…Chocolette?" he said hoarsely while trying to open his eyes.
He must have hurt his head, because when his vision finally focused what he saw almost knocked him out again. The Dark Queen Von Schweetz was lying on top of him, smiling down at him with relief as her glassy green eyes shown warmly and lovingly; the light coming from atop the ceiling outlined her head majestically, giving her an almost angelic aura.
Ralph stared silently at her eyes as he felt his own heart skip a bit; he had never seen such a beautiful smile ever on her, so sincere and lovely. It was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life, feeling completely lost in her impossible beauty. He then took notice of her eyes brimming with concern and felt a sudden surge of instinctive protectiveness towards her.
"Ch-Chocolette are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked her softly, his own voice cracking in worry.
The queen sighed without removing her hands from his face. "Y-yeah I'm okay, I think…not a single scratch or bruise…thanks to you," she replied softly as she very slowly stroked one of his cheeks with her thumb.
Ralph let out a sigh he didn't know he had been holding back as he gripped his hand softly around her waist, feeling his body relax under her tenderness.
A whole minute passed without any of them saying another word, as both were lost in each others' eyes.
Chocolette was the first to break free from the trance as she spoke softly. "Ralph…as much as I enjoy this…I think… we should probably stand up and look for a way to get out of here," she told him as she outlined his jaw with her index finger playfully.
Ralph went wide-eyed as he realized the compromising position they were currently in, and his face turned deep red. "Ye-yes you-you're right!" he cleared his throat and proceeded to unglue his big hands from her waist and back.
The queen pulled away from him very slowly, slipping her form next to him. Ralph felt her warmth leave his body painfully and found himself strangely yearning for it. He raised himself into a sitting position, looking straight into her eyes again.
"How are you feeling? Does your back hurt?" she asked him softly, looking concerned, as she checked over his shoulders and back for any bruises or wounds, only to find nothing. She silently thanked Calhoun for having lent them the armor.
Ralph said nothing as he kept himself fixated on her; he then heard a mysterious ruffling sound coming behind him and he rose to his feet quickly, startling the queen.
"Chocolette…stay behind me," he ordered her softly, clenching his fist and gritting his teeth.
Chocolette glanced over to where he was currently growling at, and noticed millions of green spots glowing menacingly at them with a screeching sound starting to get louder by the second.
She stood up slowly and stayed close behind him, her eyes wandering in fear at the many cy-bugs that started to surround them dangerously. She heard Ralph growling deep from his chest as the enormous creatures came closer.
Just then, a loud, piercing screech echoed through the darkness, and the cy-bugs went silent.
Ralph and Chocolette went still as they sensed something really big approaching from the darkness.
"Chocolette, where is the hover board?!" Ralph urgently asked her, the cy-bugs dispersed to open a wide path towards the pair.
Chocolette trembled, grasping tightly at Ralph's back as she saw six pair of glowing green dots floating high above them, and approaching slowly. She stretched her arm over her back and found with horror that her backpack was gone just like his.
She stuttered to say the words, "Ralph…we lost the backpacks and…" she glanced around with her eyes wide as plates.
"I don't see your rifle or my helmet anywhere," she said as the creature came into the light.
Both bad guys held their breath at the sight of the monstrous cy-bug that was screeching at them. It had a really long body, half of it hidden in the darkness, resembling some sort of worm, with three pairs of claws in its upper blue greenish body and long sharp fangs coming from its mouth. Its head was big and prominent, sharper on the edges and adorned with random spikes all over its crown.
"It's the Cy-bug Queen!" Chocolette stuttered as the creature roared louder at them.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:20:00.
Current Score: Blue Team 160,580; Red Team 10,800)
Bowser furrowed his brow in worry while looking at the half of the screen that belonged to the Read Team, deep in contemplation with no image showing on it. Not a few seconds after the transmission got interrupted the Surge Protector had also disappeared to investigate the situation. The watching crowd had gone silent, barely whispering not very encouraging theories of what could have happened to them.
The members of Bad Anon didn't dare take their eyes from the screen, praying silently for their comrades to be safe and to return soon to the screen.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:30:24.
Current Score: Blue Team 130,580; Red Team 10,800)
"Jeepers! Where did all the cy-bugs go? It's oddly quiet," Felix commented, grasping his golden gun tightly.
Calhoun kept walking while glancing back and forth between the landscape and her wrist map, following the last signal sent by Ralph and Chocolette before they disappeared. Vanellope and Felix kept a close to her as they both looked around for any cy-bugs. Strangely, they hadn't seen one single bug since they started looking for their friends.
"It is really quiet," Calhoun stressed, as she looked around with suspicion and noticed that even the familiar game tune was gone.
"I just hope Ralph and my sister are safe somewhere," Vanellope said softly with a worried frown, dashing softly in her roller blades.
Just then a bleeping sound echoed through the game, and the Blue Team looked up at the sky in shock.
"…No!…" Calhoun barely said as Vanellope and Felix gasped.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:34:59.
Current Score: Blue Team 130,580; Red Team 0)
The crowd gasped in unison too, as they saw the health bars of the Red Team disappear alongside their score. No one said another word as silence engulfed Game Central Station.
The bad-guys froze in horror, refusing to believe what they were seeing.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:36:05.
Current Score: Blue Team 130,580; Red Team 0)
"GENERAL?! DO YOU COPY ME?! ANSWER ME! OVER!" Tamora yelled for the third time through her helmet as Vanellope and Felix stood frozen in their spots, staring hopelessly at the empty score of Red Team.
Tears started to stream down Vanellope's cheeks as she entered state of shock, and Felix rushed to hug her around her shoulders, refusing to believe whatever this meant. Vanellope sobbed, as she struggled to ask what was screaming inside of her.
"Are they…are they...?" she started but Calhoun quickly cut her off.
"NO! Don't even dare say it!" she barked at her, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "They're FINE! THEY MUST BE…!" She tried to reassure her but words failed coming out of her mouth. She took off her helmet and threw it to the ground in anger and frustration as a pang of guilt washed over her. "What was I thinking?!...this is all my fault." The tough Sergeant sobbed with her bangs covering her face.
Felix looked up at her with his own glassy eyes when suddenly, the mechanical female voice of Hero's Duty game computer boomed across the planet.
'Warning! Boss Level Alert! Boss Level Alert!'
The three heroes looked up to the sky in shock and Felix heard the General speak through his helmet.
"BLUE TEAM, STAND BY-!"
He heard him order as giant cy-bugs started to land heavily in front of them, screeching and snarling loudly.
Calhoun backed off slowly with Felix and Vanellope close behind her, as more cy-bugs from different sizes and types started to line in front of them. They seemed to be coming from everywhere! Vanellope yelped as she felt the ground shake furiously as new cy-bugs started to emerge from beneath the planet's crust, rising tall and fearsome.
The three raised their riffles at the creatures without firing, moving in circles with their backs pressed against each other, mesmerized by the incredible number which they figured to be in the hundreds.
There was no way of escape.
But for some reason the cy-bugs didn't attack them immediately; they just stood still around them, snarling and screeching in anger as if they were waiting for something to happen.
'Warning! Boss Level Alert! Boss Level Alert!'
The computer repeated again and a new automatic beeping sound echoed through the sky as the game's music got more hyped.
Blue Team looked up to the sky to see two larger green health bars appear and be filled fully, as two very familiar names shown above each one of them.
'Wreck-It Ralph'
'Queen Chocolette Von Schweetz'
"What the fun?!" Calhoun barked with an eyebrow cocked in puzzlement as they saw two figures engulfed in a thick green smoke fall from the sky and land atop a big crystal boulder that stood tall and high above the cy-bugs army and far away from Blue Team.
The smoke started to clear slowly as the moon of the planet illuminated the two forms atop the rock.
"Oh my land!" Felix managed to say as the three frowned in confusion at the view.
There, snickering darkly down at them and sporting strange new armor were Ralph and Chocolette, standing proud and fearless.
"Sis! Ralph!" Vanellope screamed in pure happiness as she looked at them with big eyes and was about to sprint towards them when Calhoun stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Don't move a muscle, pipsqueak… Look at their armor," the Sergeant warned her through gritted teeth and Vanellope's grin dropped immediately.
Both Felix and Vanellope narrowed their eyes as they took in the new details their bad-guy friends had picked up.
Chocolette's black suit was scuffed in a few places, exposing her pale skin and some parts of her flat stomach, arms and long legs, as if some clawed animal had scratched her in a fight. Her armor was now purple and sharp on its edges, with random spikes sprouting from its surface while a couple of tiny light spots and light lines remained glowing red. Her gauntlets were bigger and deformed, with its original holographic claws now green and longer, and sharpened to a razor's edge. She also had a long green holographic scarf that sprung from her back, resembling the cy-bugs' wings, with cuts and holes on each of its two ends that flowed softly but sinisterly in the wind.
Ralph's armor had also changed into a cy-bug design, no longer black but copper colored instead, broken and scratched at random points, pointier in its edges with long aqua spikes sprouting from his back and shoulders. His gauntlets were vibrantly red and much more massive in size, with sharp silver spikes sprouting from each of his knuckles and thick sharp claws instead of fingers. His black suit was ripped on his arms, exposing his lean muscles slightly, and his body lights still glowed an angry red.
The wrecker was standing tall and proud, with his arms crossed over his massive chest, while the Queen leaned over one of his arms, with a hand planted on her wide hip and the other resting loosely over Ralph' shoulder. The green clouds of the sky dispersed, allowing the moonlight to shine over then fully, revealing their wide smug smirks and cy-bug facial markings.
"T-they got corrupted!" Felix exclaimed horrified with a hand covering his mouth.
Vanellope frowned sadly as she whispered her sister and the wrecker's names softly, refusing to believe what her eyes were looking at. Both wondered what to do, praying to the programmers that what their eyes were contemplating wasn't real. Calhoun growled in frustration but couldn't avoid the sensation that something seemed off, for both bad guys' body structures looked unaltered instead of the usual deformation that most corrupted characters suffered when being eaten and fused with a cy-bug. Her eyes went wide as a realization hit her suddenly.
"What are we going to do?! Is there some cure for the malware here?! Can you fix it with your hammer?!" The little president started to babble in concern while the handyman kept gaping in shock.
Calhoun grunted and aimed her riffle at Ralph and Chocolette, earning screeches of protest from the cy-bugs around them.
Felix yelped and frowned at his wife in outrage. "Tammy, please don't! They're our friends! They're only corrupt-", but before he could finish his scold, Calhoun cut him off with a knowing smirk.
"They're not corrupted, sweetie pie," she said softly between gritted teeth and both short heroes widened their eyes in confusion. "The sons of guns sided with the cy-bugs willingly!" She shouted at them with a chuckle.
"WHAT?!" Vanellope and Felix exclaimed in unison as Chocolette and Ralph sniggered knowingly.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:40:34.
Current Score: Blue Team 130,580; Red Team 0)
"ALRIGHT! NOW IS WHEN THE GAME TRULY STARTS!" Bowser roared with a wide grin as he and the members of Bad Anon cheered and whistled loudly at Ralph and Chocolette's epic return to the game. The Hero's Duty monitoring screen showed the two perspectives of the fight showing on each side of its divided screen, and the moment they heard Calhoun's last word, the many video game villains exploded with excitement and eager anticipation at their team's move.
The neutral and good characters gaped silently in confusion, as none expected the Red Team to turn the tables. The Surge Protector frowned deeply in annoyance as Zangief nudged him teasingly and Clyde couldn't help himself as he too smirked proudly.
-0-0-0-
(Gameplay time: 01:42:23.
Current Score: Blue Team 130,580; Red Team 0)
"What's the matter, Tamora? I thought you wanted some Good-Guys vs. Bad-Guys friendly competition!" Ralph chuckled cockily as he looked down at Blue Team smugly.
Calhoun glared daggers at him, "You have 10 seconds to explain this or I swear to Nintendo that Felix will have to collect every single remaining pixels of you, 'cause there won't be anything else left for him to fix!" she barked furiously at them with a vein pulsing on her forehead.
Both bad guys rolled their eyes with a snort. "Aw come on, Sarge! Didn't you want us to play our roles? Well here we are doing what we do best: not playing nice or by the rules!" Chocolette sniggered playfully with a waving move of her clawed hand that was lying on Ralph's shoulder, grinning darkly and enjoying the distressed and confused expressions on Calhoun, Felix and Vanellope faces.
"How about you defeat us first and then we explain things? I think there's a medal with our names engraved on it waiting for us to pick up, right sugar queen?" Ralph asked with a dark knowing smile as he glanced down at Chocolette, his eyes glowing red with excitement.
Chocolette let a girly giggle escape, not being able to hide her own enjoyment either. "May I have the honor?!" She asked him with a wild glint in her eyes and Ralph bowed gentlemanly to her, as if he wouldn't have it any other way. Her eyes glowed green as she raised the hand that had been on her hip high above her head. "WELCOME TO THE BOSS LEVEL! Hahahahahaha!" She laughed maniacally and with a snap of her fingers, the many cy-bugs that surrounded Blue Team screeched and roared, launching themselves at the good-guys in a mass attack.
-0-0-0-
Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuun! Bad guys have gone BAD! XD Get ready for some excitement in the next chapter!
Again, don't forget to visit my DA account (GND-KicaCris) and my Tumblr page (KicaCris) for new art related to this story. Also, I'm taking drawing requests related to "Sugar Queen" as drawing practice since my illustration finals are taking away most of my drawing energies and I need some WIR inspirational ideas to keep me from entering into the dreadful artist block of doom. So if you guys would like to see any specific scene or character (s), don't hesitate on asking me to draw it! I won't promise that I'll draw every single request, but I'll give my best into pleasing you.
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