Opposite Sides of the Track

Chapter 4

Part That's Holding On

Pay attention? Pay attention? What the hell did that mean? This, this was why Vanellope was a villain. Cryptic freaking sentences mixed with a tragic backstory and the habit of being the biggest troublemaker.

With no one paying attention.

Hiro growled and hit his head on the desk, hand in his hair. He was so tired of blaming himself for all this. No matter what happened, this had all been Vanellope's choice. He had to realize that. And find out more about her family. This was getting twisted. So far Vanellope, the villain, had villainous parents, was taken away from her family because of it, just to have an even more screw-up life. Right now, Hiro wanted to keep feeding Vanellope information about her uncles, but a voice in his head couldn't help but continue asking about what had happened to Vanellope's parents. Yeah, what they did killed them. But what exactly happened? And what twisted court case had Vanellope's foster father made in order to take her away form her family?

Hiro jumped as the face cam on his computer informed him that there was a called. He clicked accept and Gogo and Penny's faces came up on screen.

"Please tell me you have any news?" he asked.

Gogo shifted, irritated, "Normally I'd tell you that we don't have to do these things, but we found out something weird…"

It seemed as though Penny couldn't hold it in, as she spurted out whatever Gogo had been leading up to.

"Vanellope's uncles have no idea she exists!" she exclaimed breathlessly.

Hiro blinked.

"Uh… What?"

Gogo went into it further. "We talked to them, and Vanellope is forgein to them. Yeah, they knew their sister had-had a kid, but they didn't even know Vanellope had gone into the foster system."

Penny nodded, "Whatever 'intentions' Travis King had, he didn't express them to the living relatives."

Hiro leaned back, "I knew there was something wrong with that guy!"

Gogo shook her head. "Whatever blame your going to put on Travis isn't going to fix anything. Face it Hiro, the Vanellope you know is dead."

Hiro could see Penny's surprise and Gogo's anger as she hung up. Hiro clenched his teeth. Great. Another fun puzzle to add to the mix. Well, two, if you wanted to count the non-emotional one. Hiro looked up at the ceiling.

"Hey, space cadet, pay attention to the screen; I want to win fair and square!" Vanellope taunted.

Hiro looked back towards the screen and smirked, "It's the only way you can win." he retorted.

"We'll see about tha—"

Vanellope couldn't finish her sentence before her phone rang. Hiro could remember how horrified he was when he realized it was a flip phone. But that was done, and now he was just trying to fix it (although Vanellope would never let him near it). She picked it up and began tentatively saying 'Uh-huh.' every once in a while. Vanellope finally closed the phone and sat back down to continue the game.

"Uh… are you going to tell me what that's about?" Hiro asked.

Vanellope looked over after a couple of seconds, "You lose, and it was nothing. It was just my family saying that I uh- had family over and probably should let the adults settle down before going back."

Hiro nodded and mentally put a pin in it. As well as chastising himself for losing. Vanellope got up

"I'm gonna use the bathroom. Be right back."

Hiro sat there and blew at his hair. Then Vanellope's phone caught his eye. No, that was her stuff, but… Hiro was beginning to feel like the jealous girlfriend… because reasons. Nothing actually like why the girlfriends would and… never mind. He flipped open the phone and looked through the recent text messages. He looked at the content labeled 'King Debby (Downer)'. Vanellope always got creative with the names. Underneath was a strange conversation.

KDD: Another family.

V: Wanna bet they reject me with flying colors?

KDD: Don't be bitter; it's your own fault.

Hiro heard the water turn on and quickly put back the phone. Whoever King Debby (Downer) was, was a total jerk.

Hiro blinked out of the flashback. Now he realized it was probably a family looking into adopting her but… what if Travis had been sabotaging her? Hiro growled. Another visit would seem suspicious, but Travis said he was a police officer. Maybe he could see about the whole situation in the records.

:~:~:~:~:~:~:

"So, uh, why are you taking me with you again?" Wasabi asked Hiro as they went into the police station.

"Because you have a squeaky-clean record and I, uh, don't." Hiro replied sheepishly.

Wasabi shook his head and walked up to the desk. While he talked, er, distracted the officer. Not that he realized it of course. But Wasabi would never do if Hiro told him. Hiro snuck into the file room. Was it illegal? Very. Was anything he did legal? Nope. He held people captive underneath a mansion. Actually, that sounded really bad when he thought about it. Whatever. Hiro continued to look through the files until the clearing of a voice was heard. Hiro jumped.

"I, uhh.., uhh.." Hiro stuttered.

"What're you doing here, punk?" The blonde, short-haired, female officer demanded.

"Well, uh, you see, I uh…" Hiro voice drifted off as he looked at the woman's name tag. Callaghuan-Carpenter. Couldn't be… One of Vanellope's uncles. Which one was the married one? Uh, quick..."Do you happen to be married to, uh, Fe…lix?" Hiro hesitated.

The officer lifted her head, "You're violating a major law, and you decide it's a good idea to ask me about my married life."

Hiro shrugged sheepishly. Callaghaun-Carpenter inhaled deeply.

"Yeah, I am. What's it to you?" she finally responded.

Hiro nodded, "I was actually looking for… Vanellope's file. I was told you didn't know about her, but she was your—"

"You're the old 'friends' of hers aren't you?" Callaghuan-Carpenter said. Hiro nodded. "You were looking for her file, huh?" Another nod. "Listen, in all my life here, I would have noticed my own nieces file. It ain't here. Listen kid; I'm going to let you off. Not because I like you, or I have a soft spot for this unknown niece, but because whatever you're looking into is going to bite you in your underpants."

Hiro looked up at her and nodded, before she threw him out of the room. He had to talk to Vanellope. But first, he had to calm down Wasabi.

:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Hiro wasn't able to talk to Vanellope as soon as he'd like, mostly because Wasabi was mad at him. Really. Mad. But he was able to do it, after he'd convinced Wasabi of its importance. There was a story around Vanellope that not even she knew. Maybe.

Vanellope crossed her arms as Hiro entered the room.

"What, no proper interrogation setting?" she asked.

Hiro shrugged, "Nope. No need when we have a mutual goal."

Vanellope raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Go on."

Hiro suddenly felt a surge of anger. How dare she. How dare she pretend that she has control when she couldn't even stop herself from becoming the enemy.

Vanellope looked at him, then to the ground. "I said go on. You don't have to tell me. Geez."

Hiro calmed himself and began. "Gogo and Penny went to talk to your Uncles. They weren't even told about the court case. It's probably why yo— Travis King won the court case. Then I went to the police station and ran into your aunt. She said that, through all her years, she'd never seen your file. Do you think Travis King could have been sabotaging you? To get you to, you know, become—"

"You're telling me that my shitty-ass foster father specifically made me go over the edge JUST to make me join Sugar Rush?" Vanellope spat. "No. And you wanna know why? Because I had a better life working for your bad guys than being good. King? He just wanted to make my life a living hell. Whatever messed up things he did, had a different motive."

Hiro looked down. Why was she so angry? If anything he— never mind. He had to make his point.

"I… figured, actually. But you realize that means whatever's behind his motives could be huge. And disastrous. And before you get all smart aleck-y with me, yeah, it could also be nothing. But he's done some scary and illegal things to get you away from your family. And to find that out, you have to work with us."

Vanellope shuffle her feet. "I'm not going to give you information just to because you have a new job to do."

"I didn't mean that kind of 'with us'."

Vanellope looked up and narrowed her eyes.

"Then what kind of 'with us'?" she asked suspiciously.

Hiro smirked, "I have my ideas."

Another fall, through the dark

Of the shadows

I reached for you, only you

There's still a part

A part that's holding on

~ Red

A/N: I'm tired. And I'm depressed. And I have school. :( What song should I base it off next: Viva La Vida, Bulletproof, Thnks Fr The Mrmrs, That's What You Get, or I Wish. Depending on what's chosen (may have to chose myself because I guess I'm just a really bad author or support a really bad ship) Next chapter will either have Rancis, a lot of flashbacks, or a lot of angst.

R&R

~Sam

P.S. I had no idea what song I was going to put in until 10 seconds ago. I just remembered and MEP part and put it in. Hiro's songs are so much harder. though I knew my next 3 for him now. Just not this one .