Chapter Six: Accepting Fate
"Are you sure you're ready?" Vanellope asked her friend while standing in front of the game portal to Sonic's world.
"I guess. If it helps, then why not?" Changelina countered.
"Right." Vanellope smiled and the two walked onto the tram. The president was amazed that her friend was able to stay awake after another day of racing. She did look exhausted but hopefully this was a step in the right direction.
Inside, they found Robotnik holding a gun of some kind with a rather large needle on the end. He had been waiting for them. The girls both gulped loudly.
"Now then, are you ready?" Robotnik held up the needle but did not point it at the girl until she was good and ready.
Changelina turned to Vanellope, who gave an encouraging nod and a smile. Changelina shrugged and nodded herself.
"Wonderful!" Without much warning, he lunged forward and the needle was shoved into Changelina's right arm. The needle made a whooshing noise and they saw code inject into her. He then removed it and smirked.
"That… didn't hurt."
"Of course not. But what would be the fun in telling you it wouldn't?" He laughed maniacally and put the needle away.
Changelina scowled and looked down at her arm. She rubbed it a few times and sighed. It was done.
"Do you feel any different?" Vanellope asked.
"No, should I?" Changelina glanced over at Robotnik.
"On the track, yes, but anytime else it shouldn't change a thing."
The two shrugged, thanked him and left the game. It was morning and the arcade would start soon, it was time to put the code alteration to the test.
Walking to the starting line from Game Central Station felt like nothing. Changelina's only thought was will it work? Over and over, the same thought bounced around. A few moments later, she was nervously gripping her steering wheel. A quarter had just been inserted. As luck would have it, or some other feeling in her case, she was chosen as the first racer of the morning.
She didn't feel different at first; she was used to the beginning of a race. The start of each race she felt no emotions other than the thrill of the engine roaring to life. This time, there was no thrill or excitement, just curiosity. She almost felt out of her own body while she waited for the child player to switch costumes on her. It happened almost immediately. She switched to Calhoun. She felt anger swelling within her, and then she felt nothing. The feeling had still been there, but it stopped almost immediately.
This isn't so bad, it could definitely be worse, she thought.
That's how her day played out. Emotions still came, but were dealt with very swiftly. She was thankful for having such good friends to watch her back. She was thankful for just being alive and given the chance to race. She was thankful for a lot of things, but not her changing ability. If it wasn't for that, then the entire mess would not exist in the first place. She would feel free. But that was part of her code, part of who she was as a game character.
I just have to accept it, it is me…
She should have been proud of being unique and overall different, yet the same from everyone else. She wasn't. Changelina wanted her emotions to be under her control and not some code that could never be deleted. She sighed as her car turned at a bank, her mind finally in the race instead of elsewhere. Luckily, the person who was racing her had decided that her current costume, Vanellope, was enough and did not change her once throughout the rest of the race.
Vanellope… she's such a good friend…
It felt like she was home. She could race forever at that very moment. It felt like when she first started racing, when she had a friend on her side to see her through with anything. She was thankful for Vanellope most of all. No amount of forced emotions could make her feel weird or out of place when the president of the game was nearby. Changelina grinned and, had she been in control of her car, she would have sped up and won.
She got second place with the player in charge of her. The rest of the day was still exhausting, but certainly not as bad as before. She was panting by the time the arcade closed for the night, but a few deep breaths made her feel right as rain. She looked up and smiled softly as Vanellope walked up to her.
"Well?" Vanellope asked in a hopeful tone.
Changelina held up her smile. Inside, she still felt turmoil, but she had no reason to trouble her friend any more than she had. She's helped enough… She shook her thoughts away and began to speak. "It worked! I feel much better."
"Great! Want to hang at Tappers then?"
"Yeah…" Changelina exhaled and smiled. She still felt like something was wrong, but Vanellope being there made anything at all seem like a distant memory. As long as she had friends, she could get through anything.
"Well, are you sure you can handle the payments? I'm asking for a fair amount for each machine…" Mr. Litwak said into the phone. "These machines may be old, but they are stable and quite profitable still." The owner of the arcade nodded. "Are you sure I can't talk you into buying Sugar Rush too? ...Well, there probably are other buyers, but the entire place needs to be gutted. I guess it doesn't really matter where they all go to in the long run, but a clean sell would be nice. No… I understand, I guess I should be glad that you're even willing to buy even half these machines. Yeah, alright. Bye."
He hung up his phone and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna miss this place…" He stood up and reentered the arcade. He wasn't even paying attention to the screens; he was simply admiring the art on the side of each arcade cabinet. "Yeah," he said, his voice sounding louder than before. "I'm certainly gonna miss this place, but I guess all good things must come to an end one day." He breathed in and walked over to the front doors. The man took one last look at this arcade.
"It's just time to move on. Farewell, my arcade." The door shut closed, the man not bothering to even turn off the electricity out of habit.
One of the machines closest to Litwak's door, Mario Bros., had heard it all. The plumbers ran off in a hurry to warn the others of impending doom.
Calhoun was sitting across from Ralph and the three girls. Vanellope, Changelina and Citrusella were giggling together at a few jokes they just cracked at the Sergeant's expense. The woman rolled her eyes and turned to meet her husband's gaze, who was sitting at the other end of the bar with Ralph. Nothing could ruin these types of moments, Calhoun knew. Not even a Cybug infestation.
"Calhoun!" Mario, panting and drenched in sweat, ran up to her table and slammed his hands down, causing the others to flinch.
"What's the meaning of this?!" Calhoun barked.
"Itsa Litwak, he's selling our machines!" he screamed.
Almost anything couldn't ruin that moment.
The bar fell silent. No one looked at any specific thing, pupils darting left and right. Some looked to Mario to see if it was some sick joke, but he wasn't laughing. Slowly, for each and every game character, the realization and understanding set in.
Characters started screaming and panicking all around. The bar had been full that night, packed to the brim. Some of the characters practically looked like they were running around in circles, while others, the bigger ones from more violent games, started looking stressed out and ready to try something desperate. The three girls cowered at their table, unable to do anything, glitch or otherwise. Calhoun, after waiting one minute, snapped.
"ENOUGH!" Calhoun screeched. She fired her gun into the center of the bar. Everyone stopped moving, any crying had ceased. Felix had once described to Ralph that his wife's battle cry could be heard two games over.
Calhoun commanded, "Everyone listen to me, and listen good! I've prepared for this! I can't say I was expecting it to happen so soon, but according to Mario, it has. Get to your games and gather every character that lives there. Meet back at Game Central Station and await further orders. No one is going to die or get separated if I can help it!"
They all nodded and left the bar, slowly at first. Eventually, they broke into a full sprint, leaving behind three racers who were petrified at the notion of leaving their own game.
Getting unplugged was uncertain; it might as well mean death. You would wake up when you were plugged back in, but what happened after that was unknown. A different arcade, different friends and family and possibly...different memories.
"President, snap out of it!" Vanellope looked up. The girl's eyes widened in horror. "Get to your game, gather the racers and characters and meet back in Game Central Station, now!" Calhoun barked. The three little girls could not leave fast enough.
Felix and Ralph looked at her, the former stepping forward. "Honey, how can we be certain that he's going to do it?"
Calhoun looked into his eyes and sighed. "I never mentioned this because it wasn't really relevant until now, but since my game has the largest screen, I get the biggest view of the arcade. I've seen things and heard things that Mr. Litwak mutters from day to day. This doesn't surprise me. He's through with this place, so we must move on."
Ralph was speechless, as was Felix.
"Felix, get the Nicelanders. Ralph, your job is to make sure that no one gets left behind in this panic. Check every game and, if need be, use your strength to help others. Got it?" she ordered both. They offered her a comical salute and ran out.
Changelina had rarely seen her best friend like this, like a panicked little girl. Vanellope barked orders at the non-racers to stick together and meet at the gate just outside. She ran all over the kingdom with Changelina in tow. It took them all of two hours to gather all of the racers.
"Is this really happening?!" a few screamed. The president sighed and nodded.
"Is everyone here?!" Vanellope screamed back. She knew they had plenty of time and the arcade was not going to be "ended" tonight, but she was still panicking on the inside. The president did not wait for a reply and started doing a head count.
She counted sixteen racers and Sour Bill, who had confirmed with her that the candied children had left the arcade. "Good! Now, listen, everyone! I..."
Vanellope hadn't realized it, but she was breathing in and out at an alarming rate. "This has never happened before, but we all knew that someday it would. Mr. Litwak is selling our machines and splitting all of them up. This means getting unplugged and most likely a hardware reset."
The air was tense. All the racers froze in fear at the mention of this.
Vanellope continued, "It won't mean any different if we abandon our machines or not to the users. Calhoun, my friend, has a plan for all of us to escape. It's not perfect, but it's better than losing all of our memories or, worse...dying."
Changelina was in a different state of shock. She had barely just been "born" and now she would have to abandon what she knew. She hadn't even fully explored all the games. She had just overcome her emotions problem, or as close as she was going to get, and now it didn't matter. She wished it wasn't happening, but a firm grip of her friend's hand on her arm proved that it was.
She was hauled off in a hurry as the racers all ran for the exit of the game, not bothering to look back. The tram ride sped by pure silence. If the president had nothing to say, then why would any of them as a collective whole? The funny thing was that, of all of them, it affected Changelina the least, considering she had only been part of their game for around a week.
When the tram pulled back in, Changelina was shocked to see everyone inside Game Central losing their minds. An angry Calhoun was trying to maintain order. Game characters were screaming for attention, or hitting themselves or crying. No one would simply sit still and listen to Calhoun's plan.
Changelina's fist had started twitch in annoyance. She desperately wanted to hear Calhoun speak, to at least feel some form of comfort from the chaotic nature of the Game Central Station's crowd. Vanellope gasped when her friend started to glow, her code glitching a few times before she screamed.
Changelina felt hatred for losing what was supposed to be hers. She felt fury for the unfairness of her life. She felt sorrow for all the characters and her friends for having to abandon their homes. She had enough of her emotions losing control or taking over or even making her feel worse. Instead of trying to manage them this time, she let loose.
A second later, the entire crowd, which was everyone plugged into Game Central Station, was gawking at the scene before them. Changelina had switched costumes to Ralph and let go of her vented feelings onto the digitized floor, which was completely destroyed. Her massive fist was wedged into said floor while she was panting and wheezing, her anger slowly evaporating into fear.
Calhoun saw her fear and decided to take command. "Alright, maggots! Listen up!" she roared, causing most of them to flinch and finally pay attention.
Changelina glitched back into herself and simply looked to Vanellope, who gave her a sad smile. They listened.
"In about an hour, we will all be leaving through that port." Calhoun pointed to a wall which had always gone unnoticed by most. It was the port which lead directly to the wall. "Anybody is welcome to stay of course, but to the users, it won't make a difference. A reset is a reset, which means your game avatars will be there waiting for them whether we leave or not! Our goal is to find a new home, but of course it's not gonna be handed to us on a silver platter or through a way point. We will be looking for a plug that is accepting as much power as our arcade or even more. That is our best bet. Be ready in that time, or we leave without you." She didn't wait for any questions, because frankly she had no real answers. She simply walked back to Vanellope's group.
"Got that kingdom of yours ready?"
"Yes," she squeaked. Vanellope hated feeling nervous-to her, it was a sign of weakness.
"Good. Be thankful that we don't need food to survive, or we'd be screwed. I'll see you all at that port in one hour." Calhoun then walked away.
Changelina wasn't sure how she felt about her blunt nature this time, but let it slide. She literally slumped down onto the floor next to Vanellope and sighed.
Vanellope smirked and smacked her hand into Changelina's, forcing her up. "We have to stick together girl. No lagging behind and no lollygagging!" she exclaimed playfully, mimicking the two adults in her life that had changed it for the better.
"Right…" Changelina forced a smile. Vanellope seemed to have bought it for once. She felt good for being able to control her emotions like that, but bad for lying. She wasn't okay and she knew it, but she figured that mopping about it would only make it worse.
The remaining hour was spent in silence. Well, silence for the racers and candy kingdom, that is. The rest of the arcade was still loud and obnoxious, but the girls did not feel okay to speak. They were still children, even if it was just programming and even if they were technically older than fifteen (Changelina being the one exception). To a game character, programming was everything. Thus, they were the youngest group at the arcade. Eventually, Ralph, Calhoun and Felix walked up to join the group.
"Alright, Ralph informs me that were not missing anyone," Calhoun confirmed. A single nervous nod from the president was all she got in return. She said, "Well, we're all going in. Your group is last. Just stick with Ralph. I mean it. Do not leave his side! Got it?"
Vanellope nodded again, looking up at Ralph, who had the same nervous expression on his face. "Hey kid?" he asked.
Vanellope looked back up. "Yeah?"
"It's going to be fine. We'll figure something out. We got Robotnik with us, after all. I'm sure he can think of something."
"Yeah…" Vanellope muttered. Slowly, time started to speed up as more and more game characters started to disappear into the void of the wall. Until it was just Changelina, Vanellope, her racers, Ralph, and Robotnik left. The doctor had his arms crossed, looking stoic. Then, he spoke.
"To the great void, huh? I'll miss my lab…" he muttered, and soon joined the wall.
"C'mon kids, it's going to be fine," Ralph declared confidently.
Soon Ralph and the racers entered. Changelina and Vanellope were trailing behind. The last thing Changelina saw before the void took them in was a smiling Vanellope looking towards her.
Author's Notes: So phew, this took a while. Sorry for the delay readers. After this chapter hings are going to get a tad weird. And it will start to become a crossover. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to switch it to crossover this late in the story though but we shall see. Regardless of what Fanfiction let's me do, this is and has always been one.