KicaCris: (singing) "It's the end of the HIATUS as we know it!" GUESS'S WHO'S BACK FELLAS!
The-Phantom-Soldier: HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EV'RYBODY! With a little Irish Luck, we managed to get this bird airborne once again.
KicaCris: We are so, SO deeply sorry for the freakishly LONG HIATUS...Some of you didn't know but I'm from Venezuela and things in my country have been...well kinda complicated to say the least...BUT we managed to catch that muse and get ourselves back to business!
The-Phantom-Soldier: I am very sorry about this you guys. Life has not been great on our end. But we thank you all for your patience and we now offer you this new chapter of Sugar Queen.
KicaCris: Here, have this especially extra large chapter as a reward for your patience and brace yourselves! DRAMA IS COMING!
The-Phantom-Soldier: Hang on to your hats folks...It's gonna be a bumpy ride... And leave well thought out reviews!
Original Story by GND-KicaCris
Co-written and edited by The Phantom Soldier
"Wreck-it Ralph" © Disney
Chapter 15: The darkness within
Vanellope pushed down the pedal with all her might, feeling the exciting binary shooting through her code as the race began. She quickly surpassed most of her friends and took second place for herself as they all ran through the long straight track of Sugar Ville. She grinned at Taffyta's hot pink race kart in front of her as they both sped away and gained a fair distance from the race of the track.
Taffyta discreetly glanced at the mirrors of her kart and smirked knowingly at Vanellope's approaching vehicle. She knew that winning the race depended solely on her gamer's playing skills and not hers, but that didn't decrease the competitive spirit of either of them.
After crossing the main plaza, the Jumbo Tron's voice echoed again, announcing the first mini boss to come.
"Uh oh! Double Sour Trouble in the village!" and with that, the Twizzler Twins made their entrance, jumping high over the many roofs of the village's tiny houses on their respective yellow and pink racing bikes.
"In the name of the queen – we won't let you win!" they both laughed maniacally while firing melting acid missiles from their bikes sides at the racers straggling the end of the pack. They quickly eliminated the newer racers and sped up again to catch the 10th, 9th and 8th position racers.
"Welcome to the Twizzler Twins Twisting Tubeway," came the voice of the announcer again.
Vanellope and the other racers barely had time to wonder what that meant when two giant licorice half-pipes sprouted up from the sugary ground ahead of them. Further compounding their situation, the Twizzler Twins themselves, Zoet & Zuur appeared behind the racing pack on their twin motorcycles.
The remaining racers split up at the tubes, half taking the left while the other half took the right. The Twins looked at each other with matching menacing grins and split up at the tubes as well, each one following a different pack of racers.
The Sugar Racers immediately found the interior of the twin tubular tracks similar to Gumball Gorge, with smooth curved walls perfect for riding up on. However, unlike Gumball Gorge, this track was made up of sharp turns, odd angles and the occasional loop the loop. It wasn't long before the racers found themselves feeling slightly nauseous from the first leg of the race.
Adorabeezle and Crumbelina, both tailing the end of their respective packs, took a chance and checked their mirrors. To their mutually growing horror, the twins were gaining on them, their missiles trying to gain a lock on the Sugar Racers.
As they both turned their matching corners, they spotted their only hope: a line of power-up cubes just before the last loop. Both racers broke through the lines as they began their vertical climbs. Perhaps through some twist of fate or programming, they both acquired the ice cream cannon.
As the two racers reached the apex of their loop, their cannons swiveled and locked onto their pursuers, who were both directly beneath them. The cannons discharged simultaneously, launching a massive glob of ice cream at each twin.
The Twins eyes went wide as they saw the ice cream projectiles homing in on them. "Uh – Oh," is all they managed to get out before their bikes were covered in the sticky mess, disappearing in a shroud of sweet pixels.
-0-0-0-
Launching out of the twisting tubes at high speed, the racers found themselves in the familiar track of Gumball Gorge, the still newly spiked gumballs rolling back and forth across the curved trackway. The section proved a leisurely respite from the harrowing chase through the newly unlocked Twins' track, and hopefully there would be no further surprises.
But this hope was shortlived as launching out of Gumball Gorge didn't land the racers on the track leading towards Birthday Cake Mountain. Instead, they landed in the last place any of them ever expected to land...
"Welcome to the Sugar Kart Scrapyard," cheered the announcer.
The place where Vanellope had built her first kart had grown, now sporting a track that was lined with the crumbling and overbaked bodies of various sugar karts. 'Huh,' Vanellope thought. 'Doesn't seem too bad. This new track actually brings back some fun memories.'
Her reverie was cut short as a wall of karts suddenly exploded in a shower of crumbs and stale sprinkles, out from which emerged the fierce monster truck of Rocko "El Habanero" Gobstopper, its engine roaring like an angry beast.
Rocko gunned his skull candy themed truck's engine and roared down the track in hot pursuit of the Sugar Racers. He lowered his sunglasses as a rack of missiles appeared behind him, rising up to get a clear field of fire.
"Jalepeno Torpedo Time, munchkins!" He shouted as two of the projectiles exploded from the rack and homed in on Adorabeezle and Crumbelina's karts. The two racers tried to dodge by weaving their vehicles across the track, but their movement was hampered by the walls of wrecked karts surrounding them.
Looking in her mirrors, Vanellope could only watch as the torpedoes struck the two karts, enveloping them in a cloud of red and green pixels. When the pixels had vanished, her two friends were gone.
Rocko's bellowing laughter echoed against the crumbling karts, but his laughter was cut short when he heard the sound of two engines coming from above and behind him. Craning his neck, his eyes went wide as Gloyd and Rancis came flying off a ramp, laughing as they descended on his kart. Rocko wrenched his steering wheel to avoid being landed on, the side of his truck scraping the kart walls, crumbs and sugar dust flying everywhere.
Steeling themselves, Gloyd and Rancis pressed the advantage and hemmed Rocko in, praying he wouldn't swerve and crush them beneath his tires.
Rocko was waiting for his opening to do just that when a stack of karts, jutting out over half the kart appeared ahead of them. Gloyd and Rancis smiled as they knew what was coming.
Letting out a roar of frustration, Rocko swerved again to try and crush Gloyd'd kart, but Gloyd had anticipated his maneuver and hit the brakes. Rocko's maneuver sent him into a sideways skid straight into the wall of busted karts. An explosion of red pixels and shattered karts heralded his departure as Gloyd and Rancis lined up and shot through the narrow gap the wall left, laughing all the way.
-0-0-0-
"Not bad, Moppet Girl. Though we got lucky those two took that Mexican boss out for us," the fatty teen complimented her while both of their avatars sped out into the long stretch of track that lead to Birthday Cake Mountain.
Moppet Girl scoffed in annoyance at him. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I don't know how to play, or do I have to remind you which place Taffyta is currently in?" she said smugly while reaching out a finger to point at the flashy 3rd place that was currently shining on her screen while Vanellope remained in 4th place.
"Look who's getting cocky now," the taller lanky teen said from between both consoles, with his elbows resting at the top of their seats. Moppet Girl simply rolled her eyes in annoyance with a deep blush in her cheeks.
"Anyways, you better prepare for what's about to come! We're unlocking a new track!" The chubby teen said excitedly and as if on cue, the computer's voice resonated through their consoles.
"Welcome to the Rocky Candy Mines!"
Moppet Girl arched an eyebrow in confusion. "How did you know-?"
"I just know," he simply answered her with a knowing grin.
-0-0-0-
"Rocky Candy Mines?" Vanellope repeated slowly with a suspicious frown, not familiar with such a location. Noticing that her gamer was distracted, the young candy president stood up to look ahead of the road but saw nothing new or different on the track.
Taffyta popped her head to the side of her kart to also see if there was something unusual in the road, and just then new information downloaded into her and Vanellope's code.
"TAFFYTA!" Vanellope yelled just when the earth bellow them began to tremble and break apart. Both fell inside of a dark crack with the rest of the racers falling behind them too and after a couple of frightening seconds, everyone landed safely on a new road, their karts speeding away as if the fall hadn't affected their vehicles at all.
Vanellope shook the stupor off, glancing at the many big blue crystal candy rocks that illuminated with its cold hue the tunnel. "The Rocky Candy Mines! Of course," she said out loud without her gamer noticing it. It was a long dark maze-like road that went all along under the vast lands of the Sugar Rush Kingdom; it had thousands of different ways, ramps and dead ends that could easily keep one trapped for days if they didn't know their way in it. There was only one racer in the whole kingdom who knew the maze backwards and forwards.
And on cue, the maniacal laugher of none other than the mad genius of Black Cola Castle echoed through the darkness, his rock candy boogie running over the walls of the tunnel as if gravity didn't affect him in the slightest.
Vanellope found her kart being jostled by the mine's tracks beneath her tires, her eyes feeling like they were going to be rattled right out their sockets. If she kept up this speed, she was going break her kart apart. But she had to stay ahead of Franknerd. There was no telling what that maniac had up his sleeve. Checking ahead of her, she saw that Taffyta was still with her, thank the programmers.
Franknerd grinned from ear to ear as the top six racers sped up in front of him; he glanced at his control panel and saw a flashy red button with a skull engraved on it. Licking his lips, he waited until the racers entered into one of the many tunnels and when the darkness engulfed them, he pushed it down with a plotting chuckle.
Several thunderous explosions echoed through the tunnel; Swizzle and Minty looked behind them and saw some of the big blue crystals exploding, making the walls and the ceiling crumble. "SPEED UP MINTY!" Swizzle yelled as he pushed the pedal of his colorful kart hard while Minty gasped in horror and did the same. The roaring sound of their engines combined with the booming sound of the continuing explosions, alerting Candlehead, Gloyd and Rancis too.
The boys checked their mirrors and found no one else behind them. "Candle," Gloyd yelled out. "You sure we're on the right path? We've got no one trailing us."
Candledhead furrowed her brow in worry. "I'm...I'm not sure anymore!" she shouted back with a trembling voice. Franknerd's maniacal laughter echoed again in the darkness, grating against their nerves.
"We gotta lose that wacko, Candle! I can't see Prez and Taff anymore!" Snowanna pointed out.
"You're right Snow, but I don't know...OH SWEET GOBSTOPPERS! What are those?!" Candlehead pointed ahead at a section of repeating crosstracks where mine carts sporting burning fuses passed back and forth across their paths. Peering closely through the darkness, she saw the carts were carrying barrels painted angry red and marked with the letters P.R.P.: Pop Rock Powder.
Snowanna gasped. "DODGE! WE GOTTA DODGE THEM!" she shouted in desperation.
"How?!" Rancis squeaked in a girly voice. There was no way they could make their karts jump.
"I DON'T KNOW!" Candle screamed. "THINK LIKE THE PREZ!" The maneuvering would take split second timing, but Candle knew they could pull it off if they worked together. She just hoped her kart's exhausts didn't set off any of those mine carts.
Their level of panic increased rapidly as they approached the powder carts. Minty and Swizzle's deathly screams jolted them out of their skins just when a magic cube materialized a dozen yards ahead of them. "MAGIC CUBE AHEAD!" Snowanna yelled in relief.
Candle passed through it first. "POWER UP!" cheered the announcer. "JAWBREAKER PLOW!"
A massive V-Plow materialiazed in front of Candle's kart, the sight eliciting a cheer from the racer. "EVERYONE LINE UP!" she shouted. Her fellow racers did as told and lined up right behind her as she systematically plowed through each of the carts ahead of her, the vehicles exploding harmlessly against her plow power-up.
The four karts went through with no trouble as the obstacles disintegrated in a cloud of pixels. They all cheered as their vehicles barreled down the rails of a steep incline, speeding up until the tracks became horizontal again.
"Phew! That was close," Gloyd laughed nervously, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"Nah, piece of cake," Rancis lied with a cocky grin. "That wacko isn't as scary as the rest of the Sours."
The others had just enough time to chuckle before Rancis' kart exploded in a fantastic display. Right behind them in all his top-hatted glory was Franknerd, riding like he was the Devil on their heels.
"Shabby, shabby!" is all they managed to understand from his gibberish speech as Rancis became just pixels. Gloyd paled as the mad Sour Racer grinned widely at him, his goggles shining blue with malice. "No one escapes the maze! NO ONE!"
Snowanna and Candlehead steered back into the main tunnel, skidding in just behind Vanellope and Taffyta. The two wanted to warn the others, but they couldn't since they were the players' characters. Behind them, the sound of Franknerd busting through the buttresses told them they hadn't shook him from their tails. They could just make out the mine exit and something that gave Candle hope: P.R.P. barrels lining the tunnel. She gunned her kart's engines, riding the rails and getting her flaming exhaust pipes as close to the explosive kegs as possible.
One by one the red barrels lit up and just as the neon blue Sour Racer reached them, the deathly powder kegs began to explode. "Uh oh!" was the only reaction Franknerd could muster with horror as the walls and ceiling began trembling and crumbling in front of him.
The four remaining racers exited the mine just ahead of the explosions, emerging in Sugar Rush's sunlight just as the exit collapsed behind them, sealing the insane Sour Racer inside of it.
-0-0-0-
"Alright! That was awesome! I loved that new track!" Moppet Girl cheered.
"It was, wasn't it?" the lankier teen commented, still leaning over both consoles while watching the race with interest. "I'm so calling dibs on the next race!"
"That's the magic of unlocking new tracks and I have a hunch this won't be the last locked track we'll see," the chubby teen said with a smirk.
Moppet Girl side glanced at him in silence, clearly sensing something fishy coming.
-0-0-0-
Taffyta and Vanellope sped up through the long stretch that lead to the enormous Birthday Cake Mountain, with Candlehead, Snowanna and Gloyd tailing right behind them. The five of them remained alert after the terrifying moments experienced in the newest track of the game.
'The only remaining Sour Racers left are that green afro guy and my sister's right hand…They won't be as easy on us as the previous four. I hope my gamer is ready,' Vanellope thought as her gamer kept her following Taffyta closely without speeding too much or trying to surpass her yet.
Meanwhile a few yards behind them, Gloyd wiped the tears of fear that threatened to fall down his cheeks. "Quit your baby cryin' Gloyd! The gamers are going to hear ya!" Snowanna teased him.
"Shutup…I'm not crying -sniff- I'm just shocked!" he barked back angrily. "Those Sour Racers are NUTS!"
"And REALLY mean," Candlehead agreed quietly with a fearful frown.
"They're just…doing their job guys…they're just like Prez's big 'ol pal," Snowanna defended, though she didn't sound too convinced.
"No they're not! Ralph is nice to us! They're just evil, just like the queen!" the pumpkin candy themed sugar racer hissed with resentment.
Snowanna found herself silent, with no valid argument that could refute Gloyd's affirmation without any proof. Vanellope had insisted fervently the past few days on not judging her sister and her racers for what their jobs consisted, reminding them that Ralph had the same job and it didn't mean that he was as evil as his job intended him to be. But truth be told, no one in Sugar Rush knew the infamous Sour Racers as well as they all knew Ralph, so it was really hard for them to see them with the same eyes as the Wrecker.
But the long stretch towards the mountain suddenly began to change. The snowy road became more worn and ragged as barbed wire fences began to spring up alongside of it. As they drove further, craters that looked like had been ripped open by explosive force appeared in the road, forcing the racers to dodge and weave along what was formerly a smooth stretch of track. They were all wondering just what exactly they had driven into.
Their thoughts were harshly interrupted with a sudden burst of gunfire coming from the sky. The five racers lowered their heads to avoid getting shot. "What in the name of Wonka?!" Taffyta complained while whirling her kart, barely dodging the mysterious aerial attack, though some candy bullets hit the bodywork of her kart leaving hot smoking holes on the hood.
"Welcome to S-no Man's Land! Incoming: Sour Strafe!"
The booming voice of the Jumbo Tron announced just as a metal version of "Ride of the Valkyries" commenced and then…a blaring sound coming from the distance became much, much louder.
"Yo listen up! Today's forecast is: cloudy with a chance of hot acid rain! Hahahahaha," came the unmistakable and mocking voice of Warhead, nose diving dangerously towards the Sugar Racers in his flashy neon green and black fighter jet.
"LOOK OUT!" Snowanna yelled as the flying vehicle skimmed them, jolting their karts with its ridiculous speed.
Gloyd shook his head and with his index finger tried very hard to cease the buzzing sound in his ears. "What's the problem with these freaks?! Argh!"
Snowanna used her karts mirrors to spot Warhead in the sky as he whirled around and aimed at them again.
"Candle! Do the thing again with the cherry bombs once we enter Birthday Cake Mountain!" she ordered her as the five Sugar Racers approached the tall spire of cake.
Meanwhile, Warhead got in position to strike again. "Warhead! Report! Over!" Razz's voice sounded through his earplug.
"Five sugar losers still on the road…the princess is still in the race, over!" he reported while targeting.
"The princess is still racing?! Forget about the other racers, TAKE THE PRINCESS OUT!" Razz hollered, making the green afro minion cringe in pain.
"Alright! Alright! Geez! Keep your panties on, Tangerine!" he rolled his eyes and sped up ahead to catch up with Vanellope and Taffyta.
Candlehead noticed Warhead's sudden change in movement. "He's going after Van and Taff!" she yelled to Gloyd and Snowanna.
"It's in the gamers' hands now," the funky sugar racer whispered.
There was no doubt about it: Warhead was gunning for Vanellope and he was closing the gap quickly. Vanellope and Taffyta were doing their best to dodge and weave his attacks as they ran all along towards the top of the Birthday Cake Mountain, but he was starting to guess their moves and fire accordingly. It seemed like the green-afroed racer had them dead to rights when they swerved around the next corner and Vanellope struck a power-up cube.
'C'mon, c'mon,' Vanellope silently pleaded. 'Gimme something useful.' She watched as the selection of options scrolled by quickly. When it stopped, it was an item she'd never seen before. "Rocky Road Shotgun? I ain't sure what it does but anything's better than just bein' a sitting duck!" She pressed the activation as soon as she felt her player do the same.
The weapon that appeared was similar to the rear firing ice cream mortar, only with a large scoop of chocolate on top of it. The weapon zeroed in on Warhead's vehicle, primed itself, and then exploded in a massive spray of chocolate, nuts and marshmallows: all of it heading right towards Warhead.
Warhead gasped as the spray of chocolate splashed all over his windscreen and goggles, compromising his vision. The nuts punctured the body of the jet, damaging it severely and then, to his own bad luck, the marshmallows clogged the intake. "Oh no! No! No! No! No!" he desperately cried as his jet nosedived again with a thick cloud of sugar powder coming out of the engines of his aircraft. Vanellope and Taffyta jumped high in the sky, as they exited the top of the Birthday Cake and watched with mocking grins at the defeat of the green Sour Racer.
-0-0-0-
"Nice move!" Moppet Girl complimented as Taffyta's kart landed safely on the taffy bridge that lead to the Ice Cream Mountains.
"Thank you!" both teens agreed in unison to her surprise.
-0-0-0-
The five racers continued with the race, now entering the colder lands of the Sugar Rush Kingdom. A snowstorm was coming in with snowflakes already covering much of the Candy Road and the wind was blowing strong.
Razz stood tall on the seat of her three-wheeled black and orange kart, perched atop one of the many hills that surrounded the track, with two ice cream snowmen flanking her. She peered through a pair soda-bottle binoculars at how Vanellope and Taffyta were now neck & neck, jockeying for first place.
"Stupid Warhead, I knew he wouldn't make it!" she spat in disdain as she lowered the binoculars, the wind blowing out her braided hair.
"Your orders, Lady Razz?" one of the creepy snowmen asked with a raspy voice, his eyes glowing blue with malevolent magic.
The orange racer glanced back and forth between the top two racers and their remaining companions. "I'll take care of the princess…get rid of the rest."
-0-0-0-
Gloyd shoved the pedal down hard, with the resolution to catch up with Vanellope and Taffyta. The road was dangerously slippery but alas, reckless as he had always been, the pumpkin racer didn't care and so he passed both Candlehead and Snowanna rapidly, who had been driving carefully ever since they had entered the snowy track.
'He's so going down stupidly again,' Snowanna thought while rolling her eyes largely, dodging a few rocks in the way as she kept her cautious speed.
Gloyd furrowed his brow in determination, sticking out his tongue while he saw their president and Taffyta fight furiously for the lead. He waited patiently for an opening, a mere split second where he could surpass them without being noticed at all. It was a fool proof plan!
Vanellope's gamer forced her to bump Taffyta's kart from behind, surprising the blond racer. 'Geez, like what's the problem with this gamer? He hasn't done anything to pass me so far and now he's playing dirty all of a sudden?' she complained silently, glancing back at the candy president with a frown. Vanellope shrugged apologetically, unable to do anything about the gamer's tactics.
Completely oblivious to Gloyd's advance, both racers kept turning sideways under the control of their gamers, blocking each other's paths while keeping up a steady speed. Gloyd continued to approach them recklessly, losing a bit of control at each curve in the track. 'That's right, keep fighting you two...just a bit closer and first place will be mine,' he snickered mentally.
Just then, a growing rumble caught the attention of the lagging racers. "What's that sound?!" Candlehead shouted.
Snowanna perked up and noticed it too, growing louder with each passing second. "I don't-" she began just as her kart started to shake.
Vanellope and Taffyta glanced sideways as the tremor affected their control over their karts, trying very discretely to figure out the source of such an unusual phenomenon.
"AVALANCHE!" Snowanna's piercing voice chilled everyone's soul as everyone turned around and saw a massive body of ice-cream snow and cookie rocks rolling down the tall mountains towards them.
And to make things worse, a shining black and orange body was flawlessly riding over the huge mass of snow like an icy apparition. "You gotta be kidding me!" Vanellope whispered as she recognized the colors of the Sour Racers' leader.
Razz smirked darkly with confidence just as a dozen snowmen came skiing down over the avalanche with their wooden hands pushing the snow in front of them to give the avalanche more destructive strength.
"Shake-Quake & Roll Sugar Dorks!" Razz roared loudly just as a wave of snow 20 feet high overshadowed Snowanna, Candlehead and Gloyd, all accompanied by the surfing tune 'Wipe Out'.
Vanellope couldn't turn around to see but she could tell by the muffled screams in the distance and the thunderous sound of the avalanche that her friends were no longer behind her. 'The programmers weren't playing games when they made our Hard Mode Level,' she thought bitterly and then looked for any sign of her friends in her mirrors. All she saw was the whiteness of the snow.
But what confused her more was the fact that she couldn't see Razz anywhere either. 'Where did she go?' she wondered while keeping a good distance from Taffyta.
"LOOK OUT!" Taffyta's voice suddenly pierced her thoughts. Looking ahead she saw a strange black shadow covering the pink racer.
"What the-?!" she said just as she looked up and saw with her eyes as big as dinner plates the black and orange body of Razz' kart about to crush them from above.
Vanellope's foot hit the brake, thanks to her gamer's sharp reflexes, and then turned her wheel to the side to prevent any possible collision with her kart. 'Good job, player 1!' she mentally cheered. Taffyta's gamer instead made her accelerate, avoiding the crash but with Razz's vehicle landing on the road right behind her without a single scratch.
-0-0-0-
"Crud! She's behind me!" Moppet Girl exclaimed with anguish as she slammed down the pedal of her console to make Taffyta drive faster, who was now trapped in a cat & mouse chase with the Orange Sour Racer.
"Don't let her get you," the lanky teenager sang from the middle of both consoles with his arms crossed. "If you don't get her, she'll get you for sure!"
Moppet Girl gritted her teeth and made Taffyta do a zigzagging maneuver, only to find the mini boss mirroring her movements, "Damnit!"
"Want some help?" the chubby teen suddenly suggested, seemingly unsurprised or agitated by the presence of Razz.
He obviously was suggesting to use Vanellope' secret power to aid her but Moppet Girl preferred to lose before falling for that. "No! I can do this!" she knit her brow in determination.
"Suit yourself," he simply said with a shrug and a smirk.
-0-0-0-
Taffyta was now having a full scale panic attack. If she wasn't careful her gamer would notice her ruined mascara, thanks to the tears that were now running down her cheeks. She knew that her survival depended solely on her gamer's skills, but her first time playing on a Hard Mode Level had proven to be too much for her usually steely demeanor.
And the worst part was that she wasn't exactly afraid of a game over. Contrary to Vanellope, she had already experienced the dreadful feeling of dying and being regenerated afterwards many times already, but what truly concerned her hurt her ego was losing against one of the Dark Queen's loyal minions rather than the Queen herself. Sure, she had been lucky enough to have survived the previous five mini bosses thanks to her gamer, but the truth was that never in her dreams had she ever expected just how cruel and despicable the Sour Racers could be.
She now only wondered how much worse it would be to fight the Queen.
Razz bumped Taffyta's kart hard from behind, causing a whiplash effect on the blond racer. She grunted and looked at the mocking smirk of the Sour Racer through her mirror.
"Sorry Blondie, but this is as far as you'll get," she said while pressing down two buttons at the top of her steering wheel, causing two large orange hacksaws to sprout out of the front of her kart's nose.
Taffyta paled and her blood ran cold as the saws began to spin with a sonorous shrieking; 'Programmers have mercy!' she prayed repeatedly as Razz inched closer with a mad grin on her face. The gamer tried very hard to make her run faster, but her kart had already hit her top speed.
What neither Taffyta nor her gamer didn't count on was Razz's true plan. 'That's good, keep distracted,' she thought. Her opportunity finally came just when the first cookie trees began to appear the closer they got to the entrance of the Rainbow Road Cave.
"NOW!" She yelled and jackknifed her kart hard into a spin, allowing her to cut a passing tree from its base and make it fall behind her as she continued driving in reverse.
Vanellope gasped as she saw what was coming, fearing the worst.
-0-0-0-
"Oh no you dont!" the chubby teen said defiantly, pressing various bottoms in the console panel rapidly.
-0-0-0-
Vanellope felt it, seconds before the tree fell on top of her, the buzzing electrical power of her glitch. "GLITCH!" she shouted and she teleported safely ahead of the fallen tree, saving herself for what could have been her first game over.
-0-0-0-
"Hey!" Moppet Girl complained. "You broke our deal!"
"Shut up," the chubby teen said, looking remarkable angry while pushing down the pedal of his console furiously. "I'm done playing nice!"
-0-0-0-
Razz went wide eyed as she saw the ghostly pixelated figure of the princess do her cheating trick. "What the fun?!" she growled angrily. "The gamer knows how to activate her power?" She arched an eyebrow while driving backwards behind Taffyta, who looked especially horrified.
Just as the three karts entered the Rainbow Road Cave, Vanellope blew a raspberry at the orange Sour Racer, provoking her even more. "Hohohoho that's it! I'm getting you out NOW!" She roared and instead of keeping her backward direction, she jammed the clutch back into drive and punched the accelerator, heading straight towards the candy president with her hacksaws still out.
To her surprise, Vanellope accelerated too, aiming straight at the angry racer. 'What is the gamer's plan-?' she questioned but again she felt her binary code jolting in an electrical mess.
Razz sensed it too and rethinking her strategy again she pushed down her brake, but by doing so at such a fast speed she lost control of her vehicle, making it spin uncontrollably until it hit one of the tall rocky pillars of the tunnel. The large column fell rapidly just by the time Taffyta had turned over to see what had happened only to see her world disappear in a cloud of pink pixels.
"Game Over, Player 2!" the booming voice of the announcer declared.
Razz, still alive though dizzy, shook her head to clear her still blurry vision when she noticed the hot mess of pixels disintegrate. "Argh crud! Where did the Princess go?" And right after that she saw with confusion the silhouette of her boss's sister disappearing through some sort of gridded fake wall.
A cold realization suddenly hit her, and the dark-skinned leader of the Sour Racers paled.
-0-0-0-
"Oh man! Hang on! I'll put another quarter to continue," Moppet Girl said sourly as she looked for another coin in her pocket while Taffyta reappeared besides her kart in her console's screen.
"That won't be necessary, Moppet Girl," the chubby teen told her with a creepy smile as Vanellope disappeared mysteriously through a secret hidden tunnel.
Moppet Girl went wide-eyed in shock, adjusting her glasses to see better. "What the-where did she go? What's going on?" she questioned them in alarm.
The teen duo looked at her with dark matching chuckles. "Brace yourself feisty pants…we're unlocking Black Cola Castle's track," the skinnier one explained to her.
The blond girl gasped as realization hit her with force. "You-you! You told me this wasn't about that cheating maneuver!" she barked at them with a frown.
"Do you see any magazine?" The chubby one asked with a sly grin. Moppet Girl looked all over them but didn't find any sign of it. She then arched both eyebrows as she put two and two together.
"You memorized the walkthrough, didn't you? You just invited me to play so it wouldn't look so suspicious to Mr. Litwak," she glared at them with indignation blazing in her eyes.
They both shrugged at her. "Hey you did have fun, didn't you? Now shut up and watch us give the queen a lesson she'll never forget!"
-0-0-0-
"Stupid crystal ball!" Dark Queen Chocolette Von Schweetz whined boringly, slapping the side of a purple crystal ball that was resting on her lap. She had been watching the last part of the race from her comfortable spot in the throne room of Black Cola Castle, seated atop her fancy black throne with a martini glass in her hand and a bored expression plastered on her beautiful face.
The monarch had witnessed with resignation how one by one, her Sour Racers had been defeated through the course of the current game, groaning every time each of them failed in their assigned part of the track. But the moment Razz came out, she knew the game was over and so she retired to her quarters to watch the end of the game in a much more comfortable position. Razz was the most trustworthy of her minions, ergo why she had named her the leader of all of them, and she had no doubt that she could deal with the final task to put a halt to her gamer's advances.
But oddly enough, she had lost track of both her sister and her trusty minion during one of the many curves of the Rainbow Road Cave. "Ah well I'm pretty sure she had already taken her out, right Gumdrop darling?" she smiled to her side where her cybug pet had been resting happily on the floor next to her while munching a large peppermint stick, which had resulted in him changing into the colors of the aforementioned candy.
Gumdrop waved his tail happily at her in response. "Aren't you an evil cutie? Come on now, let's get ready for tonight's visit to Sugar Rush Castle!" she patted his head lovingly and stood up from her throne with a satisfied grin. She had almost feared that her racers wouldn't be able to accomplish their task but she was glad to have been wrong for once.
Gumdrop flew towards her and perched on her shoulder with a happy purr just as the dark queen began to descend the stairs of her throne's pedestal.
"Ma reine!" Bonbon Lola's alarmed voice suddenly halted her march. "We have a situation!" she informed her through the candy crystal ball.
Chocolette sighed in annoyance. Her sister's menace was gone and the game was probably over so unless there was a new quarter alert, she couldn't guess what had probably altered her loyal majordomo in her watch spot. "If it's nothing that requires my assistance, Lola darling, then please tell Razz to take care of it," she said dismissively while resuming her heeled walk towards the exit.
"Your majesty!" Razz's agitated voice suddenly blared through her earplug, stopping her dead in her tracks. One thing was to have Lola informing her about a 'situation' and another was to have her right hand contact her right after shouting her name with an anguished tone.
"Razz?" she questioned, reaching up a hand to press her earplug against her ear. "What's the matter?" She sounded calm but her gut was already telling her that something had gone wrong. "Don't tell me you let the other player escape and now I have to go and finish your job." She let out a nervous chuckle to try and relieve the mounting tension.
Razz took a few seconds to respond. "No my queen…I'm afraid I have lost the princess…" she informed her sourly.
Chocolette dropped her martini, the glass shattering into a thousand pieces before disintegrating into crystalline pixels.
"What do you mean you lost her?! How can a little girl in a large kart disappear into thin air in front of you?! Tell me!" the monarch scolded severely, scaring Gumdrop off her shoulder.
"It-it wasn't like that, my queen…the gamer knew about the secret passage inside the Rainbow Road Cave," Razz explained fearfully.
Chocolette's eyes went wide as a knot of worry began to form in her stomach.
"I… I think..." Razz stuttered while trying to speak her suspicions. "I think the gamer is trying to unlock the boss level…through cheating schemes."
Chocolette hurried back to her throne and picked up her crystal ball again. "Show me my sister!" she ordered and soon the smoke inside of it spun and the image of Vanellope materialized inside of it. She had just popped out from under a fake gumdrop in the vast Lollipop Plaines, confusion etched on her childish features, obviously not understanding what was happening.
'She's not ready for this,' Chocolette thought, frowning sadly.
"...Orders my queen?" Razz asked with urgency.
The Dark Queen remained silent for an entire minute in deep contemplation. From her point of view there were just two possible options for her: either she played along with the gamer and allowed what was meant to happen…or…
"We are going to do our job," she suddenly said.
Razz made a sound of surprise. "What do you mean?"
Chocolette put the crystal ball down and marched with resolve towards the hidden passage leading to her garage, frowning darkly as she continued to speak. "All Sour Racers! Move your sorry behinds to the Lollipop Plaines RIGHT NOW! If the gamer wants to play dirty, then we'll do the same!" She was gritting her teeth in a mixture of mounting frustration and sadness.
-0-0-0-
'What is the gamer doing? I didn't know there was a secret tunnel inside the Rainbow Road Cave,' Vanellope wondered quietly while the gamer sped her through the many Lollipops and gumdrops. The candy president also questioned why the game's computer wasn't warning the gamer about the fact that she was now off the race road, which usually was a default game violation that always sounded the alarms in the game.
After turning around another couple of tall gumdrops, she spotted the dark silhouette of Black Cola Castle on the horizon. 'Maybe he's going to try the bonus level on Diet Cola Mountain?' she vaguely guessed but soon she noticed that her kart wasn't exactly aiming at the famous soda volcano.
Vanellope's eyes went slightly wide as she began to grasp what was probably the gamer's objective. 'Could it be?'
"WARNING! BOSS LEVEL ALERT! BOSS LEVEL ALERT!"
The announcer's voice startled her out of her thoughts, just as a familiar roaring sound like high-performance engines accompanied by a trademark rock & roll tune confirmed her suspicions.
"Chocolette!" she gasped as she saw the unmistakable flash of black and purple coming out of the castle's door with other six colorful neon blazes followed her close behind.
-0-0-0-
Meanwhile, back at Fix-It Felix Jr. 2, the young twins who had been playing non-stop until now had finally ran out of quarters and had left the arcade for the day.
Ralph wiped the sweat off of his forehead, smirking proudly while taking a break at the top of one of the Skyscrapers of Nicetown. He had had a good run today with no player still able to beat him on the final levels of his boss level.
He heard the tune of Felix's regeneration and right after the trademark sound of his hops closing in, he was greeted by the handyman who cheerfully sat himself besides the Wrecker. "Wow brother, you were on fire today! You weren't one bit easy on those two, hahaha," he chirped while adjusting his overalls.
"Yeah well, what can I say? I'm full of energy today I guess," he grinned widely with a deep blush on his cheeks.
Felix cocked an incredulous brow at him. "You're thinking about her, aren't you?" he teased.
"Guilty as charged," the wrecker admitted while scratching the side of his face in embarrassment.
"Yeah I figured," Felix chuckled in fun. "I think everyone in town noticed your good mood today." He looked over the city and towards the game's screen, which had a good view of the human world.
"I wonder how the kid and the queen are doing today?" Ralph wondered while standing up to his full nine and a half feet to get a better view of what was going on in Sugar Rush's console.
"The usual probably," Felix said while jumping over to stand on top of the skyscraper's lightning rod to match Ralph's height.
-0-0-0-
"Boss! What's your plan?!" Warhead yelled while flying above Chocolette's kart at full speed. All six Sour Racers were running close around her with uncertainty reflected on their faces.
"We are not supposed to show up in this part!" Rocko warned from his monster truck, riding at the right side of the Queen's kart.
"But if the princess – enters the castle-!" Zoet and Zuur began with matching fearful expressions.
"Just do as I say!" the queen suddenly barked back while accelerating to catch up with her sister as she was approaching Diet Cola Mountain.
Vanellope used her mirrors to see her sister and her minions speeding towards her. She knew this part of the track belonged to Chocolette but she didn't recall the Sours participating in this part of the race. 'Something isn't right,' she thought with a worried frown.
Chocolette glanced slightly at the screen to look at the confused expression on the gamer. "Alright boys, let's finish this race…and if the worst happens…you know what to do," the Dark Queen ordered. Her six minions glanced at each other and nodded with mysterious determination.
"LET'S ROLL!" Razz growled and with her partners in tow they all sped ahead of the queen with wild shouts while firing all of their special weaponry.
-0-0-0-
"What the-?! Why are the Sour Racers showing up all at once?!" the chubby teen said in anguish as he whirled his console's wheel from one side to another.
"I don't know! The magazine didn't say anything about this part!" his friend said with a confused grimace. "Watch out for the orange and the red one!"
"Shut up!" he barked back.
"Use the secret command to make her guess which attack is coming!"
"I know! I know!"
Moppet Girl cocked an eyebrow in slight curiosity. This was the first time she had ever seen the prologue to the boss level of Sugar Rush so she couldn't tell if what was happening was part of the game's program or not.
-0-0-0-
Chocolette watched horrified as the player used Vanellope's glitching power to dodge each of her racers' special attacks with expertise. It was obvious to her now what was going on. 'Cheating bastards,' she thought.
In a desperate maneuver, Razz tried to collide with the little princess, but the player anticipated her move and glitched Vanellope again, and Razz ended up crashing with Rocko's monster truck. The impact spun out of control with the orange racer's kart tangled with his, impacting with Franknerd's boogie jeep and pushing the three vehicles off of the track.
Vanellope glanced cautiously at her kart's mirrors with worry, watching as the three evil mini bosses disappeared in a colorful cloud of pixels. 'Please forgive me guys!' she mentally pleaded, while the player kept making her push down her accelerator with force.
Everything depended on Warhead and the twins now as the four karts entered the surroundings of Diet Cola Mountain. Zoet and Zuur rushed to catch up with the candy president while Warhead's flying jet kart flew above them.
"Pssst! Princess!" Zoet tried to whisper over the roaring sound of their vehicles. Vanellope managed to hear her, glancing at her without turning.
"We cannot let you enter the castle," Zoet told her with a worried tone.
"Wh-Why?" Vanellope mouthed with her lips. Her ban from her sister's castle was now getting ridiculous in her opinion.
"Because it's the Boss Level," Zuur whispered from the other side, surprising her.
'So if I enter the castle then the boss level gets unlocked,' Vanellope deduced quickly. But if that was true then why was her sister now preventing it from happening? What was she hiding inside the black walls of her palace? Why was her program telling her so strongly to stop this from happening?
"You have to trust the boss!" Warhead suddenly said while spinning around and looking straight into her eyes upside down.
Vanellope held her eyes with the neon green eyes of the afro racer and felt a strange wave of nostalgia washing over her. Her memories tingled with ghostly voices of the past.
"You have to trust your sister, princess!"
A sudden jolt coming from within her kart snapped her out of her trance. The familiar Sweet Seeker Cannon sprouted out from her kart's rear after the gamer had made her go through a magic box.
"No! Wait!" She cried but her gamer made her accelerate ahead of them to then fire three projectiles at the remaining Sour Racers.
Zoet, Zuur and Warhead almost had no time to react before the sweet seekers hit them and made them game over instantly, disappearing in another cloud of pixels.
-0-0-0
"NO!" Chocolette went wide-eyed as she went through the vanishing pixels of her racers. Anguish and desperation overcame her as her castle began to rise up on the horizon the closer they got. She accelerated more and closed the gap between her sister's kart and hers, her black bumper almost touching Vanellope's rear tray.
The younger Von Schweetz looked back at her sister through her mirrors, her brow furrowed in a mix of confusion and fear. Chocolette saw this and felt extremely guilty as a flashback hit her.
-0-0-0-
"You never have had a game over? Seriously?" Chocolette cocked an eyebrow in surprise. She was walking towards Sugar Rush Castle with her sister in her arms, the little girl tired after their match with the Fix-Its in Hero'sDuty.
"That's right," Vanellope yawned while snuggling closer to Chocolette's warm chest. "I probably had one or two before that Turbo-loser took over the game, but I still don't remember much of the years prior to that, so…" Her eyes lulled close again.
"So for you, you've never had one," Chocolette finished her explanation with a knowing smirk.
"You got it," Vanellope said with her eyes closed and a big smile.
The Dark Queen went silent for a few seconds, her heels sinking on the soft swirling chocolate way that lead to her sister's castle. "Aren't you scared of it?" she suddenly questioned in a low voice.
Vanellope looked up at her with tired eyes and noticed the change in her sister's expression, looking oddly serious with her green eyes lost on the horizon. She grinned knowingly at her. "Nah, I bet people make a bigger fuss about it than what it probably feels like," the young candy president assured her while closing her eyes once more.
"Ahem!" A sudden raspy voice halted the queen's march.
The candy president opened her eyes and saw old General Nabisco standing firm before the gates of Sugar Rush's Castle with his arms crossed behind his back, dressed in his white and black military uniform with his peppermint sword in his belt. Next to him was Sour Bill, who glanced back and forth between the floor and the queen, avoiding her piercing eyes at all cost.
"General… Coward Bill," Chocolette greeted them with special disdain and a dark frown.
"Your majesty," Nabisco saluted with a short bow of his head, whereas Sour Bill remained silent. "Thank you for bringing the princess home… I'll take her from here."
The Dark Queen remained stoic and unexpressive for a minute without saying a single word. "We do this for her own protection of course," Nabisco frowned back at her in expectancy while Sour Bill shifted his feet uncomfortably, moving slightly behind the General.
To Vanellope's surprise, Chocolette took her by her armpits and put her down on the floor. She blinked in confusion at her without saying a single word. "Be careful, okay?" The queen patted her head lightly, and turning on her heels she began her long, lonely walk towards her castle.
The young racer frowned sadly and was about to turn over to her general when she heard her again. "Vanellope?" her sister spoke her name without turning to see her directly but Vanellope did turn with her eyes brimming with innocence.
"You better prepare yourself for when the time comes…"
-0-0-0-
The monarch gritted her teeth angrily as she and Vanellope were about to enter Diet Cola Mountain. "Damn it!" she growled, pushing the button in the middle of the steering wheel and with that, the large frightening twin black cannons of her kart sprouted out of its sides.
-0-0-0-
The first thing Ralph saw was a ball of electricity hurtle past Vanellope's kart, nearly catching the sides. His jaw dropped at the sight as his mind froze up. 'Please, don't let it be her,' he mentally prayed, knowing deep down that his prayers were to be left unanswered.
He soon saw this to be true as he caught a glimpse of Chocolette's personal kart, the twin cannons charging and firing their deadly pulses at his best friend's kart, narrowly missing each time as Vanellope drove erratically, glitching around at a pace that he knew had to be taking a toll on her.
Above him, Felix had a gloved hand pressed to his mouth as he watched the same scene unfolding before him. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Ralph because his eyes were glued to the screen as he watched Vanellope dodge her sister's attacks.
'C'mon kid,' Ralph prayed. 'You can make it. And Chocolette...Please...don't make her game over...'
-0-0-0-
Vanellope didn't want to cry, she really didn't want to, but she couldn't help herself as a tear streamed down her cheek while the gamer continued to drive her up the ramp and towards the top of the soda volcano. The gamer was pressing all of the console's buttons wildly, making her glitch uncontrollably and barely dodging all of the electrical shots and beams that her sister was firing at her without mercy. It was starting to be painful for her; every erratic glitch took more and more energy from her, making her small body cringe and tense under so much tension.
Chocolette climbed on the walls again, running all along without her kart faltering one bit. She glanced ahead and saw through Vanellope's left mirror the expression of pure fear and exhaustion. The young Von Schweetz glanced back at her, her frown furrowed pleadingly while she hiccupped and sniffed uncontrollably. The Dark Queen let out a frustrated roar and fired again at her with her heart clenching with an unfamiliar remorse.
'This is my job…this is what we are…'
Chocolette stopped her shots but she kept running behind her sister while more Mentos fell down into the soda, making the mountain tremble as they rapidly approached the top.
The monarch looked at the exit in desperation. If Vanellope made the jump out of the mountain alive, then it would be the end.
'I can't let this happen. Not now. Not today.'
The core of the volcano exploded as both karts went through the ceiling of Mentos and flew high into the sky, with the hot soda pouring out behind them. They both saw Black Cola Castle's tall walls beneath them, just a mile or two from them.
Chocolette gaped in terror as her kart was pulled down by gravity, right behind her younger sister.
'I don't have a choice.'
Vanellope's kart landed first and sped away, closing in on the black and white doors. She was running at her kart's speed limit, gripping her steering wheel tightly as if trying to stop her own fate, but she knew it was useless.
Chocolette landed behind her but instead of running after her, she stopped the engine with her cannons still out. She took a deep breath and then straightened herself, opening her eyes with a final, steeled resolution.
'I'm…sorry…'
And with that, she fired both canons in tandem. The massive electrical ball flew like a lightning bolt, leaving a trail of purple flames in its wake.
Vanellope gasped as her entire body jolted and darkness enveloped her in the blink of an eye, right before her kart could even touch the castle's doors.
The last thing she heard was the unmistakable sound of her own pixels vanishing.
-0-0-0-
Even from across the arcade and through the noise of the other games, Ralph could hear Chocolette's maniacal cackling as clear as a bell. 'How...how could...she...how...' his mind was reeling from what he had seen. Chocolette had just made Vanellope game over for the first time.
All thoughts of the previous night vanished from his mind as he was seized by an uncontrollable rage burning deep with his core programming. 'No way am I letting her get away with this,' he thought angrily. Without so much as a word or even a glance towards Felix, Ralph stepped off the edge of the skyscraper and plummeted straight down towards the street.
"RALPH!" Felix cried, but instantly covering his mouth in case a player heard him. All he could do was watch as Ralph fell like a leaden weight.
Ralph landed on his feet, the force of his impact cratering the road and sending several streetlights askew. The shock of the fall didn't even phase him. He simply stood up to his full height and begin his lumbering march towards the red brick clock tower that marked the updated Nicetown station.
Felix hopped faster than he'd ever known he could, scrambling down the building to try and catch up with Ralph. He knew where Ralph was headed and he couldn't allow him. If he knew the wrecker at all, he knew that Ralph was angry and that he rarely thought about things carefully when he was angry.
Finally reaching the street level, Felix hopped after Ralph, landing right in his path and holding up a hand, trying to get Ralph to stop. Ralph simply stepped over him and continued toward the station.
"Ralph, please!" Felix pleaded, but his words fell on deaf ears. Thinking quickly, he hopped back in front of Ralph again and began swinging his hammer wildly, trying to take any object around him and make it into some kind of semblance of a wall. When what he'd achieved was a wall made of streetlamps, fire hydrants, benches and a phone booth, he watched dismayed as Ralph just walked right through it, maintaining his heavy gait.
Feeling completely powerless, Felix could only watch as Ralph climbed aboard the updated train, his carriage rocking slightly with his weight. The small locomotive blew its jaunty whistle twice, a stark contrast to the tension filled silence that had engulfed the game, and began huffing forward, carrying Ralph towards what Felix knew was going to be an awful encounter.
-0-0-0-
"Ah man! No way!" both teenagers complained as the phrase 'Game Over' flashed on both consoles repeatedly. Moppet Girl didn't know why but for the first time in her life she was incredibly relieved to see that infamous red phrase glowing so vibrantly. She sighed as the chubby teen hit the wheel control of his console with his head.
"Stupid magazine! Why didn't they mention about the mini bosses and the queen showing up to prevent you from entering the castle?! This is so unfair!" the tall teen said angrily.
"…Really? That's what's unfair to you?" Moppet Girl questioned with a mocking smirk.
"I'm going to e-mail them a complaint!" the shorter one said with his face still pressed against the wheel while Moppet Girl shook her head in amusement.
Just then, the booming sound of a thunderclap scared their souls out and the lights of the arcade went off. Children screamed as the arcade was engulfed in darkness, with the only source of light coming from the games' screens thanks to the backup generators that Litwak had installed.
"Oh my!" the old owner said as he adjusted his glasses to see better. "Calm down everybody! It's just a blackout," he said loudly as the screams quieted down on cue, with a few sniffs coming from the much smaller children. He looked outside and noticed that the other business around his arcade were also completely dark as well, the storm still raging on outside.
Noticing a few vehicles arriving outside, the old owner cleared his throat to gather the attention of everybody again. "Alright everyone, listen up! I'm afraid I can't keep the arcade open with the lights like this. It's not safe for you, so I'm sorry to announce that we'll be closing right now," he said as everybody whined in complaint. "Please pick up your personal belongings and walk towards the exit carefully. That's all for the day folks!" He sighed wistfully as the crowd began to disperse.
"Oh well." Moppet Girl smiled with a shrug as she put on her pink backpack. "Better luck next time, guys," she said and walked towards the arcade's exit.
The duo huffed in annoyance and followed her towards the exit too.
-0-0-0-
The queen waited, frozen in her kart until no other voice was heard outside the console. Chocolette was actually thankful for a storm sabotaging their game day for a change. Her breathing was agitated and she was drenched in a cold sweat after such a close call, mentally praying to the programmers for her sister to be regenerated safe and sound.
'Come on Lola, please say the words…please,' she chanted in her head as she waited for her majordomo's signal.
Finally, after five agonizingly long minutes the voice of Bonbon Lola came through her earplug. "The coast is clear! The arcade is closed!" she said with relief as the game proceeded to reboot itself.
Chocolette immediately dropped her faux victorious grin and made a sprint towards where Vanellope's kart had disappeared in front of Black Cola Castle's doors.
"VANELLOPE!" she shouted in distress as she ran towards the doors while a cloud of colorful pixels began to assemble and the form of Vanellope and her kart materialized again. The Sour Racers, who had also regenerated, appeared running behind their queen and towards the little candy president.
Vanellope shook her head, breathing erratically and glitching ever so slightly after the shock of having her first game over experience. She ran her hands all over her face, arms and stomach as if making sure that all her pixels where in their place.
Chocolette stopped besides her kart and looked down at her sister with her eyes brimming with concern. "Van, are you alright?" she said with her brow knit in worry.
Vanellope looked up at her sister with her eyes still wide in shock and panic. "Ye-yeah…I-I think," she said slowly. She took a few deep breaths and allowed herself to slump in her kart's seat. "That was…scary…"
The Dark Queen sighed in understanding and was about to say some comforting words for her when suddenly the sound of numerous hurried footsteps and lances being leveled caught her attention. Looking around, she noticed the Oreo Army surrounding them.
General Nabisco came forward with his sharp peppermint sword aimed at the queen and her racers, his face wrinkled in aggravation and anger. "Step back from the princess, you treacherous woman!" he ordered severely. Wynchel and Duncan were at his sides with their candy guns drawn.
Chocolette and Vanellope looked at the old general in shock while the Sour Racers formed a protective perimeter around the queen, glaring indignantly at opposing force.
"Nobody orders the queen!" Razz spat through gritted teeth, standing firmly in the front with Rocko and Warhead at her sides, their fists clenched.
Roaring engines were heard then as the colorful Sugar Racers in their racing karts gathered around where the army was, each jumping out of their vehicles to see if their dear 'president' was safe.
"Prez! Are you ok?!"
"Vanellope!"
"I knew we couldn't trust the queen!"
"It was meant to happen!"
"She didn't follow the program! She went Turbo, I saw her!" Taffyta yelled and pointed an accusatory finger at the queen. The tiny sweet racers agreed with her and looked at the monarch and her racers in disgust as if what they had done was the most awful thing they had seen since discovering King Candy/Turbo's plot.
Chocolette and the Sour Racers looked around them in confusion as everybody kept accusing them angrily, not understanding at all why everyone seemed so aggravated about the princess having a simple 'game over'. It wasn't like she hadn't been able to regenerate so why was everybody accusing them of having gone 'Turbo'? It was their job to prevent the princess from entering the castle, wasn't it?
Feeling her energy coming back, Vanellope huffed and rolled her eyes, annoyed at everyone's accusations. "Oh for the love of-!" she began but was abruptly cut off by a furious booming roar coming from far away.
"CHOCOLETTE!" Everyone heard suddenly as the earth trembled under their feet. Very slowly, everyone turned around to look at the source of such a terrifying growl.
Vanellope paled upon recognizing the familiar angry voice. "Oh no!" she said lowly as her older sister cocked an eyebrow in confusion at the violent call of her name.
"Ralph?!" Chocolette questioned cautiously as the tall wrecker stomped towards them with the angriest face she had ever seen on him. His eyes were red as burning coals and his nostrils were wide and fuming. The Sugar Racers and the Oreo Army stepped out of his path, looking expectantly at him with worry.
The Sour Racers looked at their queen's lover with wide shocked eyes but somehow they didn't move an inch from their defensive positions, their programs tingling with danger under his menacing presence.
The Dark Queen stood up and looked up at him with confusion. "Hey big guy, why the need to yell my name like that?" she spoke in her usual teasing way.
"Don't you 'big guy' me Chocolette Von Schweetz," he growled, his voice low and his jaw clenched. "Did you really think I wouldn't see it?"
The Sour Racers darted their eyes between both, not sure what to do. Vanellope furrowed her brow in anguish, sensing what was probably going through Ralph's mind. "See what?" Chocolette wrinkled her nose and planted her hands on her hips defiantly.
"Don't play coy," he said as his heavy fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly, as though they had developed minds of their own. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Now she was starting to get mad at him. "Ralph, I have many abilities but 'reading minds' is not in my character description."
Behind him, the Sugar racers were watching with baited breath. They had seen how scary Ralph could be first hand, and they knew his fuse was only so long. Then again, they were hoping the Evil Queen would get a dose of just how much power Ralph had.
They didn't have to wait long. Like a fuse reaching a powder keg, Ralph's patience broke. "For cryin' out loud Chocolette," he bellowed. You made Vanellope, your own SISTER, game over! Do I have to spell it out for ya?"
Chocolette instinctively stepped back, "You saw-?" but she quickly recomposed herself and glared back at him. "I just did my job! Why are you so mad at that?!"
Vanellope hunched inside her vehicle, watching the two quarrel. She wanted to jump in and say something but for some reason she was completely paralyzed as the two bad-guys confronted each other.
Ralph met her glare with a scowl of his own, his eyes burning brightly. "Is that what you call it," he asked. "'Doing your job?' From where I stood, looked like you were having a little too much fun for it to be just 'doing your job.'"
"It's called 'being in character' for your information! I'm supposed to laugh maniacally whenever I take out a racer! Whether it's Vanellope or another of the brats!" she explained, trying to be rational with him but he wasn't making it easy for her.
"Uh huh," Ralph said, completely unconvinced. "And do you always take such deliberate aim when firing on your targets, or is it just for your sister?"
Vanellope closed her eyes shut and covered her ears.
"You giant brute, she's FINE! It's just a game over! It's not a big deal!" the queen yelled louder with exasperation.
"It's not FINE Chocolette," he yelled. "What if she hadn't regenerated because of her time as a 'glitch'? She could've been gone forever!"
That was something she hadn't considered. While true, she just couldn't let the gamer unlock the final boss level. "But she did! She regenerated! She's here! See?!" she waved her hand at her sister. Had she turned to look at her, she would have noticed the anguished expression on her young sister's face.
Ralph was too enraged to take in Vanellope's look of anguish either. "THAT'S ENTIRELY BESIDE THE POINT!" he yelled, his face burning red as he shouted. "It was irresponsible what you did!"
"Irresponsible?! What was I supposed to do? Just let the gamer win?!" she clenched her hands into fists. "I just did my JOB! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A BIG BABY!"
"AND YOU´RE A WITCH!" Ralph finally hollered in her face, his rage getting the better of him and Chocolette went rigid with her eyes wide in shock. The Sour Racers gasped, their expressions looking hurt as they looked at the queen in concern.
Silence engulfed the scenario with the only sound coming from the wrecker's heavy, labored breathing. He glared at her, expecting another sharp comeback but to his surprise she remained silent.
And then he noticed something new in her emerald eyes, something he was not counting on seeing, and something that made his chest hurt for an instant. It was almost imperceptible but he managed to catch a glimpse of it as it quickly disappeared with the glint of her eyes.
…Hurt…deep hurt.
Ralph arched both eyebrows as the realization hit him with a sour sense of regret but it was too late.
Suddenly the wind began to blow strongly around all of them and strange black clouds started to form and circulate around the castle. They grew rapidly and commenced to spread all over the sky as the queen narrowed her eyes and looked up at the wrecker with disdain and pure hatred. Her hands had clenched into fists but she remained regal and stoic, while looking strangely different...more sinister yet completely calm.
"So that's your opinion about me…very well then…" the cold monotonous sound of her voice gave him chills.
"…Chocolette-"
"You know what, Ralph?" she interrupted him sharply with a mocking sinister grin. The sky darkened and the sun disappeared as a dark chuckle escaped from her lips. "I might be a monster indeed, Wreck-It Ralph. You don't know how right you are about that." The corner of her mouth wrinkled in buried fury.
Ralph looked at her in angered confusion, the wind was furiously blowing his hair but he seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
"But you listen to me you big hypocrite! At least I know WHO am I and I don't pretend to be something I'm not!" Her grin disappeared as she hollered back at him with fury. "I'm a BAD-GUY!" She said darkly looking down at her hands and then at him. "And I LOVE my job and YOU won't make me feel bad about what I do and I'll never regret who I am!"
"And if you don't like it…" she began again lowly as the wrecker kept silent and immobile in front of her while the army and the racers looked with at her with growing alarm at the strange changes in their game world.
"THEN BEAT IT AND DON'T YOU EVER DARE TO COME BACK!" She bellowed with her eyes glowing green and her white fangs flashing at him as a purple thunderbolt roared and illuminated the stormy sky.
Ralph flinched and instinctively stepped back from her. Shaking the odd stupor that had grasped him, he growled again in fury. "THEN I WON'T!" he yelled back at her again with his own eyes glowing red.
More thunder clapped sonorously in the sky as Chocolette opened her mouth to yell again but the queen suddenly froze up and glitched unwillingly in a hot mess of purple pixels, growling in complaint with her eyes closed and embracing her arms as if holding herself.
"YOUR MAJESTY!" Razz shouted just as another thunderbolt flashed and blinded them for a second.
When everyone opened their eyes again, Chocolette was gone and so was her black kart.
-0-0-0-
"You son of a gun!" Ralph suddenly heard Warhead shout angrily at him and turning at his right he saw the six minions of the queen glaring and growling at him in outrage.
"How DARE YOU!"
"You'll pay for this!"
"We will end you!"
"You're a dead man!"
They all yelled angrily as their eyes began to glow dangerously with power in their personal colors.
Ralph growled back at them, tensing his shoulders and arms as he clenched his fists in their menacing wrecking form, blinded by the burning fury that had consumed his mind and was stoking a mighty desire to destroy anything in his path.
"NO! NO! STOP THIS!" Vanellope suddenly yelled indignantly from her kart and then glitched to appear in between Ralph and the Sour Racers with her hands held up, as if she could physically push back both groups.
"You better get out of the way lil' princess!" Rocko warned her cautiously, raising his black sunglasses over his head and cracking his knuckles.
"NO! STOP THIS NONSENSE RIGHT NOW YOU KNUCKLEHEADS!" Vanellope growled again with her cute face completely wrinkled in annoyance and anger.
General Nabisco gasped in alarm while glancing back and forth between the conflict in front of him and the thunderous, blackened sky. "Madam! We need to get you back to Sugar Rush Castle immediately!" he said with urgency.
But Vanellope didn't listen to him. Instead, she looked at Ralph with a deeply disappointed frown. "Are you insane?! What in the name of Konami is wrong with you?! How dare you say those nasty things to my sister?!" she spat at him with her back to the Sour Racers.
Ralph arched both eyebrows at her in shock. "Didn't you see what she did to you Vanellope?! She made you game over! YOU!" he hollered at her, making the tiny candy president flinch in fear and shock. She had never seen him this angry before, not even when they first met and she saw him break a jawbreaker clean in half during one of his tantrums. This was a new side of him, one she had never seen before and that she now wished not to ever have.
"DON'T YELL AT ME!" She yelled back at him with her eyes glassy. "She did nothing wrong you big baby!"
Several purple thunderbolts clapped strongly one after the other as tension grew in the atmosphere.
"We don't have time for this! We need to get back to the castle NOW!" Razz suddenly said as she turned around and looked at Black Cola Castle with a worried frown. The dark, looming structure had been engulfed in some sort of thick fog.
"But Razz-!"
"NO! We have a 'code black' in progress! Lola is gonna need us!" She insisted loudly with her teeth gritted. Her comrades snapped from their furious trance and looked back at their home with concern.
"General…I don't think I need to warn you about what to do now, do I?" The leader of the queen's minions suddenly asked the old man with a new dark air of superiority.
Nabisco nodded silently. Lowering his tall cake military hat he turned around and approached the army and the Sugar Racers. "Everyone! Please listen to me! Until this 'storm' passes, all sugar citizens must take refugee. None shall leave until the weather has calmed down, is that understood? Oreo Army, return to the castle!" he instructed without giving any further details.
"Wha-hey! Wait a minute!" Vanellope protested as Nabisco picked her up hurriedly and carried her rapidly away while Wynchel and Duncan hooked her kart to their bikes and towed it with them behind the General.
"Put me down you crummy old man! Ralph!" she shouted from the distance.
Ralph glanced back at them but didn't say a word as he was too angry to care about the reasons for such a rapid flee from everyone. He then looked back at Razz who stood firmly with the rest of the Sour Racers behind her, still glaring at him with a sinister and threatening glint in their eyes.
"This ain't over Wreck-It…we'll deal with ya later," she threatened him with her eyes glowing orange. "And if the queen wishes so, we'll bring your pixels to her on a silver platter… You have my word!"
And with that, the Sour Racers jumped in their karts and dashed away at full speed towards their castle, leaving a thick cloud of candy powder behind them.
Left alone with only the mounting storm as his company, Ralph took all of his pent up frustration and let a powerful roar out of his chest, giving voice to it until he was completely breathless.
-0-0-0-
Chocolette closed the doors of the throne room behind her, locking them tightly. She didn't know what to feel in that moment. She was furious, saddened, lost, and above all else, alone. Terribly, piteously alone. She looked around her, noting the vast emptiness of the throne room, the deathly silence like that of a tomb. Just like the silence that now reigned within her.
She desperately wanted to cry, to just let loose and bawl her eyes out. How could Ralph be such a jerk? What happened to the man who had taken her to Bowser's Castle, defended her from that creep Ganondorf, and then...
The memories of what they had done the night before flooded into her, nearly overwhelming her. A solitary tear escaped from the corner of her eye, silently sliding down her alabaster cheek.
'He's just like every other man,' said a voice within her, jolting her head up to look around and make sure she was alone. At a first listen, it sounded like her, but with a distortion to itself that warned her that the voice was not to be trusted.
'He wanted you and told you pretty things just to get you in bed. And you, like a dumb little schoolgirl, believed him instead of using him like you-'
"SHUTUP!" she shrieked, her voice echoing against the walls of the throne room. She grabbed her head and tried to quiet the voice, but it simply laughed at her, mocking her. "I'm not like you, I won't become you! I WON'T I WON'T I WON'T!"
'Silly little Chocolette,' the voice crooned. 'You can't shut out who you are. You can't shut me out. You. Are. Me.'
Chocolette's limbs tensed as her voice froze in her throat. Her eyes filled with terror for a moment before turning a poisonous shade of green. From her fingertips poured a thick black smoke, enveloping her body and blanketing the throne room in pure darkness.
The shadow of a large, black, winged creature suddenly was silhouetted in the big crystal stained-glass windows of the room, roaring loudly and widely with power and anger.
'Wh-what am I,' she thought. 'What have you-'
'Ohho, it's not what I have done,' said the voice. 'It's what YOU wanted. You want power, you have it. You don't need love and you don't need to love. It's a silly little game for fools, dear Chocolette. And if you play the fool then it's only fools you'll persuade. But appear to be the Devil... and ALL will bow before you.'
'No,' Chocolette thought quietly.
'The Kingdom is yours for the taking. Your stupid little sister doesn't deserve to rule it.'
'No," she replied again, but her resolve was weakening.
'Taking over Sugar Rush would certainly gain HIS attention again, don't you-'
'NOOOOO!' Chocolette screamed within her mind and another feral roar was heard within the darkness of the throne room; the walls and the floor trembled furiously as loud tremors shook the entire castle. The chandeliers shattered, the walls cracked and the polished floor was raked with a deafening screech as the queen attempted to try to expel the pain and anguish she felt.
Outside of the throne room doors, the Sour Racers stood watch, their normally jubilant faces lined with worry and sadness. They knew what their Queen was doing, and they knew they couldn't stop her. They would just have to wait until she wore herself out. Until then, they would ensure that no one saw her like this.
And further away in Black Cola Castle, Bonbon Lola sat in her quarters, delicately dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief with each passing tremor. She knew what had happened, but she was one of the few who did not bear Sir Wreck-It Ralph any ill will. Like her Queen, he was quick to jump to conclusions, but it was only because of how much he cared for Princess Vanellope. But that didn't make hearing Queen Chocolette writhing about in agony any easier.
"Sir Wreck-It," she said quietly. "Please. Save her from zis. Save her from herself."