CHAPTER 3

Taffyta couldn't pretend to be anything other than overjoyed to be on the roster the next day. There was nothing, nothing in the arcade like being behind the wheel of your kart, holding your foot down on the pedal and shifting through the gears. As Pink Lightning hugged tight mountain corners and slippery ice roads like they'd been built for her, Taffyta felt each revolution of the engine thrum through her, like it was powering her. Or maybe the other way around, because being out on the track was when she really felt alive.

The players still chose Vanellope most of the time. The novelty hadn't worn off, Taffyta guessed. But getting selected more took the sting out of it a little, and she'd even heard some of the gamers exclaiming that she was their favorite. Even if it was a shadow of her old popularity, it still felt good.

This race was an easy one. An unusual choice for so late in the day, actually. The arcade was only open for another hour, and normally it was intermediate and difficult tracks from the afternoon on. Chocolate Town Square was a piece of cake, and as she rolled up to the starting line, she shot Vanellope a thumbs up. Royal Raceway and Chocolate Town Square shared the same starting line, and she remembered with a twinge the days of the Random Roster Race. No randomizer selecting the next day's racers. Just cold, hard skill. She missed it. Even if, she reminded herself, it was more fair this way. Because this way everyone got a chance to race.

Right.

Though she had to admit, it did seem more fair these days, because she was getting selected a lot more. She didn't want to say anything out loud to anyone, in case someone else noticed that the algorithm (King Candy had taught her that word, explaining that that was how the randomizer worked. Not that it made her understand any better, but she felt proud of herself for knowing a coding word) was choosing her slightly more than maybe pure chance would call for. She didn't want anyone going in the code vault and investigating the part of her code that made her more appealing to the randomizer.

The sound of karts revving filled the air as a floating marshmallow drifted into view, holding the traffic signal. Taffyta flexed her fingers and wrapped them around Pink Lightning's steering wheel. Vanellope had been selected by the young boy playing, and Taffyta had no doubt that she was going to smoke everyone and claim another gold for the day.

She tapped her foot on the accelerator, feeling the hum of the engine, and put her hand on the gear stick as the traffic signal turned from red to yellow.

Then the breathless eternity between yellow and green. She never breathed in those endless moments, only inhaling a full lungful of air as the light turned green and she jammed her foot down on the gas as she shifted into gear.

She shot out into the lead, hearing someone peel out behind her from an inexpert start. Glancing in the mirror, she saw it was Vanellope, who didn't look happy at all.

With a grin, Taffyta turned her attention to the race. Jubileena and Rancis both zoomed by her as they screamed through the town square that the track was named for, past the fountain spouting rainbow water and the cheering NPCs. The track curved, taking a different route than the Royal Raceway, and chocolate brick buildings flashed by on either side of the road before they emerged on the other side of the town.

She hit the boost pad just before the bridge over Hot Cocoa Creek and got airborne, her tires biting into the paved track again just in front of Rancis. Second place. Jubileena was only a few kart lengths in front of her, and the three of them burst through the power-ups at the entrance to Lollipop Meadow at almost the same time, Taffyta nudging her wheel just enough so that she'd grab her own power-up, rather than missing it in the second that it took to regenerate after Jubileena got it.

They neared the starting line for the second lap, still bunched together. Rancis was close enough behind her that she could see him punch his power-up button. Sprinkle Spikes spewed out behind his kart. Lucky—for her, not so much for Rancis.

Taffyta, on the other hand, had gotten a Sugar Rush, and she was going to wait for the opportune time to use it.

A Sticky Slick spat out from Jubileena's kart and Taffyta swerved around it, afraid for a second that she'd caught her front tire in it. She needed some distance!

There was a yell behind her as Rancis's attempt to dodge the Sticky Slick failed, and his kart got mired in it. With a smirk, Taffyta turned hard into the track's sharpest curve, staying as close to the inside as possible. So did Jubileena.

Taffyta managed to sneak a quick glance at the progress board as she sped by it. Everyone else, Vanellope included, were way behind. It was just her, Jubileena, and Rancis out in front. She wished she hadn't gotten that Sugar Rush on the first lap, but she needed it to pull off what she wanted to. She'd just have to rely on pure skill to keep herself in the race long enough to use it.

Lap two didn't change anything. Rancis got an A La Mode power-up and Jubileena got another Sticky Slick—which made her shout something definitely not E-Rated—but all of them avoided getting taken out by each other's weapons. That was fine. Taffyta would take status quo for now.

Lollipop Meadow was treacherous on the second lap, littered with Sticky Slicks and Sprinkle Spikes, and two melting mounds of ice cream from A La Modes. One of them had definitely been plowed into by another hapless racer. Rancis miscalculated as he went around one of the shapeless scoops, taking the turn too wide and putting more distance between himself and Taffyta in second place.

She allowed a satisfied smile to creep onto her face, but there was no way she was going to get complacent. The third lap began and Jubileena and Taffyta, practically neck and neck, raced through the town square. Taffyta cut so close to the fountain that droplets of rainbow water splattered her visor, which she reached up and swiped away.

She shifted as she took a corner hard, hoping that the drift would give her an edge over Jubileena. No such luck, though. Gooey gumdrops, Jubileena was really driving well tonight.

The other girl shot a cocky grin over her shoulder and yelled, "You're not going to catch me, Taff!"

"Oh yeah?" Taffyta shouted back, as they emerged from the town into Lollipop Meadow. The bridge was fast approaching and Taffyta nudged the wheel until she was in line with the boost pad. Two hundred feet, one hundred feet, fifty—

When she was a kart-length from the pad, she punched her power-up button. The super speed of the Sugar Rush rocketed through her kart at the same time she hit the boost pad, and Taffyta wrenched the steering wheel hard to the left as she crossed the bridge. At its highest point, her kart went airborne, already in the flight trajectory that would take her through the air, across Lollipop Meadow, and to the final stretch of the track.

Taffyta glanced down at Jubileena, hunched low over the wheel of her kart as she tore around the meadow. She'd never catch up. This jump cut out way too much of the track.

With a grin, Taffyta braced herself for landing, revving her engine and shifting as the kart bounced back down on the ground. She shot off, holding her foot down on the pedal and urging as much speed out of Pink Lightning as she could get. It was a great shortcut, but it meant she missed the power-ups. And Jubileena hadn't.

The stands were so close and the electronic banner of the finish line was flashing. Taffyta concentrated on it, pressing herself back into her seat. There was a flash of movement in her side mirror, and she shrieked, "Pixie sticks!" A sweet seeker cannon had just popped up from the front of Jubileena's kart. No way, she had not been in striking distance for most of this race only to get taken out on the final stretch.

She heard the muffled whump of the Sweet Seeker firing, and she was so close—

"C'mon c'mon c'mon," she muttered, her teeth clenched, her fingers tight around the steering wheel, and her foot aching from holding it down on the gas.

Inches from the finish line, the Sweet Seeker slammed into her.

But it didn't matter. She crossed the finish line, her kart careening end-over-end. Taffyta laughed as her stomach did somersaults, and in another half second, Pink Lightning slammed into the stands, crumpling instantly around her.

There was a sharp smell of burning sugar from her kart, and Taffyta realized she couldn't move. Something wet was running down the side of her face and into her mouth. Blood. So much that her head was probably cut wide open. Her right leg was twisted at a horrible angle, and when she saw it, the pain hit her, knife blades slicing her open from the inside out. Pure agony, and she almost opened her mouth to scream.

But it only lasted for a moment before regeneration kicked in. Taffyta almost liked the bumps and bruises of crashing better. Well, no, okay, so she didn't like massive head trauma and compound-fracture femur breaks, but regeneration was the worst. The familiar, unsettling feeling of her bits and bytes being taken apart tore through her, and even if it was only the tiniest fraction of a second, that moment of nonexistence made her want to scream.

Then she was standing by her pristine kart again, the only indication that she'd been dead the lingering pins and needles pricking at every part of her body on the underside of her skin.

Jubileena was hopping out of her kart, looking disgusted. "Nice wipeout," she said grudgingly.

"Yeah," Taffyta said, pushing down the weird jumping feeling in her throat that she always got after regenerating. "Thanks a lot. I haven't had one that bad in a long time."

Sticking her tongue out, Jubileena said, "You got first place, so sorry, not sorry."

Rancis had finished only moments behind Jubileena, and he was already waiting at the winners' stand, waiting to be awarded his bronze trophy. He wouldn't meet Taffyta's eyes as she approached with Jubileena, and Taffyta felt something clench in her. So he was still mad about yesterday's encounter with King Candy. Whatever. He could be a sour patch kid if he wanted to, but she wasn't going to let it take away from her win.

She'd done pretty well today. Seventy-six golds, nineteen silvers, three bronze, and then the races that she'd been player controlled, which—well, none of which had been very good, actually. In one of them, she'd actually come in dead last. It was mortifying, and she felt her face grow hot at the memory.

In fact, now that she thought about it, she hadn't placed in any of those races. Something niggled at her, something vaguely discomfiting about that, but she shrugged and went to accept her gold trophy, smiling smugly. The gamers wouldn't see the trophies get awarded, since Vanellope had placed outside the top three.

She glanced up into the stands as the trophy floated into her hands, and for a second, her smile faltered. King Candy was sitting there—alone, of course—watching her. Plastering the smile back on her face, she wondered why he'd come. Hadn't he said he wasn't going to watch today? His expression made something in her crack open a little.

Her friend looked completely and utterly miserable, and it took all the joy out of her win. She wanted to go straight into the stands to talk to him, but the arcade closed soon, and she knew gamers would be lined up to race. There wouldn't be time before the next quarter alert.

The three of them hopped down, Taffyta and Jubileena talking about the day's races while Rancis stalked off to his kart. Vanellope strolled over, glancing over her shoulder at Rancis. "What was that all about?" she asked.

Taffyta tried to look casual and like she totally didn't care. "I don't know," she said, waving a hand breezily. "He's probably just a sore loser."

With a glance into the stands, Vanellope said, "If you say so, Taff."

This time, it was a real struggle to keep her smile on her face. Had Rancis said something to Vanellope about what had happened yesterday? Even though nothing really had happened, it had just been an uncomfortable moment. One of the long series of uncomfortable moments that her life had become.

Luckily, the conversation stopped at that, and as the other racers wandered up, it turned to what they were going to do when the arcade closed. Jubileena wanted to try to get an invite to Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man's anniversary party, which Swizzle scoffed at and said, "No way, they never have anything good to eat at any of their parties, just fruit."

"And pretzels," Torvald pointed out, at which Swizz just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, unless they're covered in chocolate, big deal," Crumbelina said with a sniff. "I want to go to DDR, they just got upgraded with some new songs."

"Upgraded?" Citrusella asked. "I didn't know games could get upgraded."

"Maybe Sugar Rush will get upgraded and make you a better racer," Jubileena laughed.

"Hey!" Vanellope said sharply.

Jubileena laughed again. "Just kidding." But Citrusella still looked hurt, and Taffyta felt bad that she'd started to snicker too. It probably wasn't very nice, but Citrusella definitely wasn't in the same tier as…well, her. Of course, Jubileena wasn't really either, so it was kind of the licorice calling the jelly bean black, as far as Taffyta was concerned. But the randomizer had chosen three re-colors today—Sticky, along with Citrusella and Torvald—and that was a high proportion of racers who, if you were going to be really, totally honest, just weren't much of a challenge to race against.

Rancis, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up. "Hey, shouldn't we have had another quarter alert by now?"

The racers' chatter abruptly halted as all of them realized it had been at least ten minutes since the last race ended. Taffyta glanced up at the screen, seeing the back of the Start screen, scrolling through tracks and demos. Forgetting that she was mad at Rancis, she said, "Yeah, the arcade closes soon. We never have to wait to race at this time."

No one said a word, and Taffyta couldn't help but glance back at King Candy. Turbo, now. He'd glitched to his other form at some point, and he was leaning back against the bleacher behind him, his arms spread on either side of him. She couldn't see the look on his face but something told her it wasn't surprised.

"Maybe the arcade closed early tonight?" Jubileena said, not really sounding like she believed it.

"Maybe," Rancis said. Then, in a surer tone, he repeated, "Yeah, maybe. That has to be it. Private event, or something. Right, Vanellope?"

"Psh." Vanellope laughed. "I don't know what all you guys are worried about!"

Gloyd pulled his helmet off. "We're not worried. It's just weird."

Doing the same, Crumbelina said, "I wish we knew for sure. Then I could just go to DDR now."

Taffyta glanced back towards Turbo again, then at her fellow racers. They were deep in conversation about what the best thing to do was, with Vanellope insisting that they couldn't just leave, not when they didn't know for sure if the arcade was closed. There'd been a time when she would have been right in the middle of it too, but now she took the opportunity to slip away.

Clambering up on the stands, she said to Turbo, "I used your shortcut."

The miserable look on his face brightened somewhat, happiness flashing through his yellow eyes. "Did you? That's a tricky shortcut for an easy track, you have to go into the turn just right before you get that air, but then you always were good on jumps."

"Thanks," she said, feeling a glow radiate out from her center at the praise. Then, she sat down next to him, listening for a quarter alert with one ear, even while she somehow knew that another one wasn't going to come. "I didn't think you'd come today."

Turbo shrugged, his eyes dimming back down to a sour simmer. "There's nothing else to do."

He had a point. The conversation she'd had with him the previous day came back to her with crystal clear focus, about asking Vanellope if he'd ever be allowed to race again. She'd been too wrapped up in her own joy in racing to think about it. The realization made her squirm with guilt.

"The NPCs didn't scream as much today," he said, staring out at the track. "At least, I don't think they did. It was kind of hard to tell, since most of them ran away."

"Um," Taffyta said in response. All of her good mood from winning the previous race was shriveling up, between the weird lull in the game and Turbo's misery. She should have said something to Vanellope today. Well, no, there wasn't any time during arcade hours. She should have been planning what to say to Vanellope, then, once the arcade closed. But she hadn't thought about it at all today, had she? "I'm still going to talk to Vanellope about you racing."

Binary flickered from the crown of his helmet down to his red sneakers. "Don't bother."

"Hey!" She punched her fist lightly against his shoulder, and the contact surprised him enough that he glitched. The binary traveled through him to her hand and through the rest of her body, and she let out a squeak and jumped back.

"Sthorry," King Candy said, looking contrite. "That's like a serious invasion of privacy, I guess. Or it should be, if it isn't."

"What, seeing my code?" she asked, holding her hand out and staring at it, as though it was going to dissolve into ones and zeroes in front of her. It didn't. It never did, but it was hard to get used to the feeling of glitching on contact. "You've already seen it in the code vault, anyway. I wouldn't be here if not for you."

After staring at her for a second, he looked away with a shrug. "Hoohoo, I owed you. You know, all that business of trying to delete your princess and lying to you." He raised an eyebrow at her. "The glitch isn't going to let me race, Taffyta. She just let me out of the fungeon. I know you're ambitious—one of your best qualities, don't get me wrong—but that request's probably a little too ambitious."

"Yeah, well—" But then she stopped and looked up at the screen far above them. A conversation was audible, and she strained to make out what was being said.

"—playing that one anymore, it's not the same."

"What are you talking about? It's literally the same as it's always been. That's the problem, it's boring."

"Nah, look at the racers for today! Their stats suck. Only like half of them are any good, it's like something…"

But she never found out what it was like, because the voices faded into the muffled background noise of the arcade, and no matter how hard she tried, Taffyta couldn't hear the rest of it. She glanced at King Candy, who just raised an eyebrow at her. "Interesthting," he said.

Taffyta didn't think it was interesting. Not at all. She thought it was really, really…well, scary. Gamers had walked by the cabinet talking about—about—well, it sure had seemed like what they were saying was that Sugar Rush wasn't worth playing. "They said the racers today had bad stats," she said in a small voice.

"I'm quite certain they weren't talking about you."

With a pout, Taffyta said, "Obviously. I know who they were talking about, I've just never heard any of the gamers say anything like that."

King Candy looked out over the track for a long time, watching the eight racers milling around the starting line, waiting for the next quarter alert. There was a sharp, considering glint in his eyes. Several of the racers glanced their way, but only Rancis's gaze lingered. It was too far for Taffyta to see his expression. Vanellope's glance was quick—enough to show she was watching, but not long enough to act like it bothered her.

For the first time, Taffyta wondered if it did bother Vanellope that King Candy was her best friend. Could it? She had always just assumed…well, that Vanellope was busy enough being president, and one of the best racers in the game, and with her friends from Fix-It Felix Jr, especially Wreck-It Ralph.

She shook the thought away, not wanting to think too much about another reason for Vanellope to dislike King Candy, when she already had a bucketload of really good ones.

The clock in the town square struck nine o'clock, and that meant the arcade was officially closed. They'd gone a full forty-five minutes with no quarter alert, and Taffyta literally couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

"You know it's because of the randomizer, right?" King Candy asked her nonchalantly. "President von Glitch's great democratic plan just means that racers who don't deserve their roster spot are taking one up. Would you want to race as Sticky or Torvald?"

Taffyta plonked her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her hands. "Vanellope," she corrected half-heartedly. And then, "No," she admitted forlornly. She had a feeling he was right. Great. That made two unpleasant conversations with Vanellope that Taffyta really, really wasn't looking forward to. And while the first one only concerned King Candy's well-being, the second's scope was quite a bit wider. Game-wide wider.

With a sigh, Taffyta resigned herself to talking Vanellope into reinstituting the Random Roster Race.