(A/N: Again, asshole!Turbo is waaaaaay more fun than he should be. And I delve into the pallet-swaps in Sugar Rush! They were fun too...
My headcanon about them is this:
Nougetsia: Timid and artistic. Doesn't like yelling or conflict, but manages to be in the middle of it anyways—usually as the mediator.
Sticky: Sarcastic and jaded. She doesn't HATE the constant racers for them not racing, she just wishes life would be more fair—and knows it isn't.
Torvald: Tomboy and touchy. She has a hair-trigger temper and the strength and skill to back it up. Doesn't like Citrusella at all.
Citrusella: Childish and girly. The exact opposite of Torvald, she has the tongue to put Taffyta to shame.
TL;DR if you want. :/)
Sour Bill had been assigned "Turbo Watch" while Vanellope was racing because "I said so and that's final!" It was annoying as crap; mostly because Turbo was blabbering incessantly like a madman, faint lisp tickling at his last (and only) nerve.
"Hey! Sour Bill! Heeeeeyyyy!" A rattling sound woke Sour Bill from his reverent period of silence, jolting him to immediate irritation—though it never showed on his face.
"What?" The presidential assistant groaned, the rattling getting louder. Blast him and the cart he rode in on.
"What would you do if someone knew something that could potentially harm Sugar Rush?" Turbo stopped dragging his claws against the bars of his door's window, peeking through the window and staring at Sour Bill, straining on his tip-toes.
"If it's you, nothing. No one trusts a liar, not twice anyways..." Sour Bill turned away from him, the sight of his face just made him sick.
"But, Sour Bill! Sour Bill! Hey!" Turbo shouted, catching the bars and clawing away at the outlying peanut brittle. When he finally got the assistant's (annoyed as crap) attention, he cracked a grin. "What if I told you the whole arcade was in danger?"
"Why?" His curiosity was piqued, why would the whole arcade be in danger?
Turbo's mouth opened for a minute, just hanging there ajar, until he started to laugh suddenly. "Ooh-hoo-hoo! From idiots like you who never learn! I mean, seriously; how many times are you going to think that I'm actually going to tell you anything worth your time until you realise I'mnot?! You are such a fucking idiot, Thour Bill!" Then, a cruel sneer set on his face, he glitched back to a sitting position on his cell floor and waited, listening smugly to Sour Bill call him anything but a child of Edison.
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Vanellope had been voted in this round, along with Rancis Flugenbutter, Crumbelina DiCarmello, Swizzle "The Swizz" Malarkey, Jubilena Bing-Bing, Gloyd Orangeboar, Snowanna Rainbeu, and Adorabeezle Winterpop. Taffyta Muttonfudge had ticked off enough people with yesterday's races, Minty Zaki was opting out, and Candlehead was voted out as well because of her affiliation with Taffyta. The rest of the racers were pallet-swaps and usually didn't want to race anyway. At least, that's what the other racers liked to think, so they "didn't matter".
Citrusella Flugpucker, Torvald Batterbutter, Nougetsia Brumblestain, and Sticky Wipplesnit thought otherwise.
"It's not fair!" Citrusella stomped a booted foot on the spun-sugar grass in Marshmallow Meadows, squishing a small Peep.
"Oh joy," Sticky rolled her eyes and groaned, "What's not fair Citrus?" She very well knew the answer, mind you, just knew that attempting to placate the blue Jubileena Bing-Bing pallet-swap would only escalate matters. The four of them had been in this very situation before.
"We're not in the Roster voting process! Even though we get no votes against us, they still won't let us race! They let the top nine, short of us, race anyway! It's just! Not! Fair!"
Torvald sighed and looked over to her pallet-sister with scorn, "Yeah, why don't they let us race, Sticky? You always have the answers."
Sticky bristled, "Hey! Just because I don't mope and whine about not getting to race doesn't mean I don't want to race! I want this as much as you guys do, so shut up!"
Their squabbling escalated as the first Player race started, the cars whizzing by on the top of Gumball Gorge. There was pulled hair and bit fingers, name calling and dirt eating, and even some degrading comments made about their colour pallet that stung a little too much for words.
"Hey, Citrusella, wanna' tell me why the Programmers decided to make you blue?! I don't know any citrus fruits that are blue!"
"Well why don't you tell me why your pallet is brown and orange when Minty Zaki's was green?! Are you a rotten apple Torvald?!"
"What kind of apple is teal anyway, Sticky? And what the Void is a Wipplesnit?! A disease?"
"Sure, like Batterbutter is any better?! Like that makes any sense!"
"At least my name is made of real words!"
"Oy! Flugpucker sounds just as unappetising as Wipplesnit, if not worse!"
"NOUGETSIA, WHAT DO YOU THINK?!"
Their sudden cry in unison startled the timid, pink Adorabeezle Winterpop pallet-swap. Her eyes squinted shut for a second, and then she shouted in the loudest voice she could muster. "I think that, instead of bickering among each other, we should bring it up with President Vanellope after-hours. Maybe she'll understand and we can move on with our lives."
Satisfied with this, Nougatsia went back to watching the race with her Bottle-Cap binoculars, tracking the motion of the ones in front. Then, a sudden movement caught her eyes and she gasped. A loud scream echoed from the stands over by the Jumbo-tron and the other three pallet-swaps stood up and rushed over to Nougetsia to see what was the matter. After the binoculars had been passed around, Sticky voiced what they all had been thinking.
"We need to go help."
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Molly Heartsfield, better known as "Moppet Girl" by the patrons of the arcade she frequented, finally managed to get her hands on the steering-wheel of Sugar Rush for the first time in five months since Vanellope had been unlocked.. Cracking her knuckles, she deposited her fifty cents into the slot and was brought to the character selection screen.
"Hmm," she murmured quietly to herself, "I haven't had a chance to try out Vanellope yet. I heard that she can teleport. That should be fun." When she selected the small pixie, Vanellope squealed and waved at her. "Hi to you too, friend." Then, realising that she would have to unlock harder courses, she begrudgingly picked Gumball Gorge, the hardest course that was available. Confidant in her abilities, she floored the accelerator as the announcer hit the number "2", and darted out of the finish line.
Thankfully, the controls didn't differ from Cruising the USA's, and weren't too much like Turbo Time's because she sucked royally at driving poor Turbo around in a circle, and admittedly was glad when Mr. Litwak had to put ol' Turbo down—though she would never admit it to her friends, who were mortified that the cabinet had broken down.
She popped the clutch back to first gear and slammed on the brake, drifting around a corner and grabbing a Sugar Cube. After she recovered from the turn, Molly clocked the car back up to fifth and threw back a large dollop of Ice Cream A La Mode at Crumbelina, who was right behind her in third. Then she focused her attention on beating Rancis, who was currently in first place.
She hit a boost and jumped a ramp to finally catch up to him, passing several carts who attempted to overrun her and got crushed by a gum ball. Looking gleefully at the screen, she noticed something off, Rancis' character model rippled with a streak of red for just an instant. Then, Vanellope teleported in front to make first at the finish line and the weird flicker was forgotten.
"Must've been an optical illusion...," Molly said quietly as Vanellope gloated with her trophy, the other racers seeming to take it good-naturedly.
"Hey Moppet Girl!" Another of the regular patrons, a thirteen year old asshole, jeered her. He laughed as he passed by her, "When're you gonna realise that old ladies like you don't belong here?!"
"When you realise that DDR just isn't your thing, hon." Molly's retort was quick and practised. Granted, she was fifteen—though she didn't look it—and probably should grow up and leave the arcade, but Litwak's Family Fun Center was an integral part of her childhood! She could never forget it!
Besides, she worked there now, and playing the games was a perk.
She ran a few more races, finally unlocking the Royal Raceway before Litwak called her back to her post. Throughout the entire run of her playing, never again did she see Rancis, let alone see him flicker.
It's almost as if he was removed from the race...
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Sour Bill had had it! All day long, on and off, that insane bastard had been alternating between sincere-sounding inquiries about the Game's well-being and mad cackling mixed with rude language and insults. He was on his last legs and the day had almost ended; if Vanellope didn't get here soon, she was going to have a very dead Virus on her hands.
"Darkness encroaches, the Light goes away as Edison's Prophecy quavers. Follow me Programs, I'll lead you astray. Back to your "master" and "saviour"." Turbo was singing the Void's Lullaby for the fifteenth time in a row, but the last four he had stopped to try and explain something and had broken off in a mad tangent. "Soon you will find, It's inside your mind: the Void that devours us all. Trojans, and Worms, Programs don't learn; Pride comes before the fall..."
He broke away the haunting tune for a minute, head cocking as heavy footsteps stomped down the dungeon stairs. Poking his head up to the barred window in his door, Turbo grinned widely. "Looks like she's ba~ack!"
Vanellope glitched through the door, snagging the four-two ex-racer by the collar of his jumpsuit and hoisted him into the air, much to Sour Bill's surprise. Her face was set in a grim snarl, hazel eyes glinting with mad intent. "What did you do?"
"What did I do, Glitch? You're the smart one here, not me obviously." He gestured around to his cell, pointing out that someone "smart" wouldn't be in a dungeon cell.
Vanellope was having none of his shit.
She glitched into the air and threw him down, catching him inches from a fatal demise, then glitched him half-into the wall. "Talk," she shrieked hysterically, "Tell me what you did to Rancis!"
Turbo wriggled in his prison-wall-stocks, oddly comfortable with being part of the décor. A smug smile overtook his features, his snub nose wrinkling up as yellow teeth flashed in the dim light. "Oh, Fluggenbutter, huh? Ooh-hoo-hoo! What a useless, primping, peacock. Always messing with his hair and trying to look 'perfect' when he knew very well he wouldn't ever look as good as he wanted to; that his goal was a futile waste of time. None of you girls would ever love him! Fuck him, yeah, but—"
He was suddenly cut off as a boot slammed into his throat, causing his trachea to constrict and cut off his rant. "Cut the shit, little man, or so help me I will fucking leave you to the Glitches in Kandy Kein forest by chaining you to a rock and letting them pick out your liver..." Vanellope was fury, she was righteous anger, and she was pissed. One of her racers was glitching right after a Virus-riddled Program came back from the dead; there was no way that was coincidence!
"Did one of your chi-chi-chicks get hhhhhhurt Mamamamamamamamahen?!" Turbo flickered and spasmed, red coursing through his body in waves. The grin on his face was even more disturbing to behold when it blurred because of graphics issues. "Never mind-nevermindthat I felt the felt the felt the same waaaay thatyoudoatthistime-that you do at this time: ov-v-v-v-v-ver protective." His audio pitched and he squeaked at 780dB, crackling static covered up half of the spectrum, reducing it to 24-bit in Mono.
"Bullshit," Vanellope kicked Turbo's head, causing him to smack against the wall with a loud 'CRACK', and yet it still made her mad to look at him. 'Failure' his existence whispered to her, 'You failed to protect them.'
"Sssssso-o-o-o-o-opathetic, you're so pathetic-tic-tic-tic! Can't even stoppppppp a VVVVVVVVVirrrrrrus like mememememememememe! Nowwhat-now what are you going to do? B-b-b-b-beat me to death—beatmetodeath?" Turbo was mostly red-Void glitches now, his graphics scrambling in a mad race between King Candy, Turbo, and the cybug-Turbo. "I did care-didcareatonepoint for those brats you call 'friends'. Pity it didn'tlasttoolong..."
Vanellope reared back to hit Turbo again when Sour Bill's stubby hand wrapped around her arm, halting its process. "Enough."
"You're picking his side?! After what he did?!" Her face twisted, contorting in on itself in fury. How dare he! How dare that insubordinate Warhead ignore her, his superior?!
"I'm not picking sides," Sour Bill was calm, collected, monotonous as usual, "if anyone should hate this jerk, it should be me; I suffered more at his hands than anyone did, even you. I still don't think beating him up would be a good idea. We still need an antivirus, even if only to cure Rancis."
Tears poured down her cheeks, pooling in the hollow of her throat and spilling over to soak her hoodie. She rubbed at her eyes furiously and sat down, wailing like the child she was.
"I'm just so scared!" Sour Bill sat next to her and soothingly rubbed her back—like he used to do for "King Candy" whenever he had nightmares. "They expect so much from me and-and sometimes I'm afraid that if I don't, they'll hate me again!"
Those are rational fears, thought Sour Bill as he comforted his president, and that's what scares me. No one her age, ten years older because of Game-lifespan or otherwise, should have to be afraid of those things. She should be more worried about what kind of taffy streamers she wanted at her birthday party, not whether or not her Game would be unplugged because of some asshole returning from the dead! It's just too much for her...
"Why don't you go ghost-race against Taffyta's time. I'll wait on Dr. Mario and the others right here." She nodded and stood up, wiping snot from her nose with a loud 'SNERK'. "But first," the presidential assistant added, "Get him out of the wall."
Vanellope reached over and a blue flicker rolled up her arm, dislodging Turbo from his prison-within-a-prison. The ex-dictator gave a loud'Oof!' as red-Void fizzled across his visage. He teleported—and neither Vanellope nor Sour Bill was able to tell if it was intentional or not—to the ceiling and hung there, gibbering and staticky. Vanellope, now getting more over her crying jag as time passed on, grinned flashily—like herself—at Sour Bill and, giving a jaunty salute, glitched out of the room to Time Trial against Taffyta's personal record.
Sour Bill dusted himself off and looked wearily at Turbo, a grim cloud placing itself over the assistant's head. "I didn't choose sides. I just think she should be able to act like she's nine. You ruined that...Fool Candy..." And the Warhead left the room, leaving behind Turbo and a lot of unanswered questions.
"Whhhhhooo izzzkchht 'Fool C-c-c-c-candy'?" Turbo asked the silence. "I ccccertainly am n-n-n-no fool."
