As everyone but Felix began to clamber into their karts, the handyman realized that he would have to join someone. After all, he still couldn't drive properly. He glanced at each kart before taking the obvious choice and beginning to scramble into his wife's kart.
"Fix-it," Calhoun barked, causing Felix to start, resulting in him sliding off the hood of the kart. "Why don't you go sit in someone else's kart?" Upon noticing the downtrodden look that crossed her husband's face, she quickly added, "My kart's too small for both of us to fit."
Felix was still hurt, though. It was clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, likely due to his current appearance. And although he understood her attitude towards him (after all, who would want to be married to someone who looked like a little girl?), it didn't ease the pain of her negligence any less.
His second choice had been Ralph, but the big guy already took up his entire kart anyway. And so, Felix was left with his last option: riding with Vanellope.
It's not as if Felix didn't like Vanellope. He certainly got on well with her, and the two tended to bond over being perpetually short. It really wasn't that he didn't like her at all.
It was more that he was petrified of being in a kart with her.
He'd seen her race, and even though she was the best racer in the game, he would still worry for her. She always went a little too fast for his liking. Still, she was his only option, and he had to remind himself that she was an expert.
Felix hopped into the back of her kart, feeling weird sitting behind what looked to be a clone of himself. "Uh, Vanellope?" he began quietly.
"Mmhm?" she hummed in response, her attention currently on the staring contest she and Ralph were in the middle of.
"I was—" Felix was cut off by the sudden rev of the engine, which startled him and caused him to emit an embarrassingly high-pitched squeak of surprise.
"Sorry," Vanellope called back to him, though she didn't sound apologetic in the least. "You were saying?"
"Uh, it's fine, but, I was wondering," Felix tried again, "if you could, maybe, not go too fast?"
A smirk lit Vanellope's face, which was odd seeing upon Felix's actual face. "Can't promise anything, small fry," she said almost mockingly.
"Well could you at least try?" Felix pleaded.
"I don't kn—" Vanellope stopped mid-sentence, gasping. "Ralph did not just start without me! Oh, I am so going to make him eat more dust than he eats for breakfast!"
Before Felix could beg her once more to take it slow, Vanellope slammed on the gas. The kart sprang to life, leaping forward at an alarming rate. Felix yelped, instinctively reaching a hand upward to clutch his hat against his head. However, his hand simply patted his hair, and he felt a few sticky bumps brush against his palm. He pulled his hand back, instead taking to crossing his arms across his chest and curling up into a little ball.
"Little miss, p-please slow down," he cried out, nausea beginning to churn within his stomach.
"In case you haven't noticed, you're the little miss," she called back in response, laughing aloud as she somehow managed to speed the kart up even further.
As she accelerated, something soft whacked Felix in the face. He clawed at it desperately, attempting to pry it off of him. When he finally managed to get a firm grip on it, he pulled it back to reveal that it was his hat. It had fallen off of Vanellope's head. Feeling a tad relieved at having something to hold on to, he pressed the hat against his chest for dear life, curling into it, looking similar to a little kid snuggling a teddy bear. And technically, he was a little kid, which made the resemblance that much clearer.
"You alright back there, cry baby?" Vanellope queried, though no hint of concern was held within her voice.
"I-I would be m-much better i-if you would j-just please slow down," Felix stuttered out in response.
"No way, Dippin Dot! If anything, I'm gonna speed up!"
"Please, no!" But it was too late. The kart must have been going 100 mph at this point. It careened forward, just as they were approaching a hill. The kart effortlessly climbed the hill within a matter of seconds. From the peak of the hill, the castle could be seen, dead ahead. However, the kart was definitely going too fast to just stop in front of the castle. Especially since it was now flying through the air.
As the castle came closer and closer into view, it became more and more evident that they weren't going to make it. They were going to smash straight into the castle wall.
"Vanellope, I told you to stop, and now look, we're going to die! We're going to die!" screeched Felix, latching on to Vanellope's shoulders, practically sobbing into the back of her head.
"I've got it," Vanellope grumbled, seeming irritated by Felix's (very appropriate) panic. All of a sudden, the entire kart flickered, as did Vanellope and Felix. They disappeared from existence for a moment before reappearing on the other side of the wall. The kart made unsteady contact with the ground. It jostled about a bit for a moment as it tried to balance all four of its wheels upon the floor. When it finally steadied itself, Vanellope hopped out, pride shining on her Felix face. "We're the first ones here!"
"We're alive?" Felix whimpered, looking around in disbelief. "Oh my land, thank goodness. I thought we were goners!"
"I told you, I've got it. We weren't in trouble in the first place! With my glitching powers, nothing stands in my way!" she announced triumphantly. Suddenly, the wall behind them bust open, candy bricks crumbling to the ground as Ralph's kart sped into the room. He came to a quick and sudden halt beside Vanellope.
"Sorry about the mess, kid," he mumbled as he stepped out of his kart ungracefully.
"Don't worry about it! Fixo over here can take care of it," Vanellope pointed out, gesturing toward Felix, who had busied himself with forcing his hat onto his head. The ponytail was making it rather difficult, seeing as it would cause the hat to levitate above his head, before shoving the hat to the ground altogether.
Felix stopped what he was doing, the hat halfway upon his head, his gaze traveling toward Vanellope and Ralph. "Oh! Uh, yeah, I can fix it," he said, attempting to mimic his trademark line, though he could tell it sounded weird coming from a voice so unlike his own.
He removed his hat, deciding to give up on it for the moment. He stored the cap between his armpit and chest before slipping the hammer out of his belt loop. At least he still had his belt loop and hammer on his person at all times. That much was good. He started toward the hole, hammer in hand, ready to fix Ralph's mess once more.
Before he could start, however, something crashed through the wall right beside him, sending him stumbling backwards. The hole widened due to the fresh hole that connected with the previous one. Calhoun's kart emerged from the new hole, already slowing down before coming to a smooth stop.
Felix sighed before getting to work. He tapped at the air where the bricks had been, which would gather the sugar particles off of the ground, causing them to reform into bricks. The damage was surprisingly easy to fix, and the castle looked unscathed by the time he had finished with it.
Once Felix had gotten that in order, the group made their way down the long palace halls. Vanellope led the way, speeding along in front of them. She tended to get too far ahead, and a few times the others weren't sure which way she'd gone until she backtracked for them, laughing at them each time it happened for being too slow.
When they finally reached the room Sour Bill was in, they found him sitting around doing nothing. When the little green sphere noticed them come in, however, he hopped to attentiveness.
"Yes, miss President?" Sour Bill said in that monotone voice of his. He looked at Felix expectantly. Felix was confused for a moment, until he remembered that he was in Vanellope's body.
"We need to talk to you," Ralph said, covering for Felix's hesitation. "It's an emergency. Sort of."
Vanellope glitched over to Sour Bill, who gave a startled jump. For all the world it looked like Felix had acquired Vanellope's ability to glitch. "Yeah, it's definitely an emergency if you're callin' Felix the President. That's me, doi."
Sour Bill looked at the other three, his huge eyes full of confusion. "Why's he glitchin'?"
"They switched bodies," Calhoun stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What…?" Sour Bill stared at Calhoun as if she had three heads.
Calhoun rolled her eyes. It really wasn't that hard to understand. "These two got into some kind of god awful car crash, glitched themselves up something fierce, and now Vanellope is Felix and Felix is Vanellope." Obviously.
"M'not sure that's possible…" Sour Bill murmured.
"If Turbo was able to change his appearance to look like King Basket-Case, it should also be possible for something like this to happen," Calhoun said with a slight shrug.
Sour Bill nodded slowly, still looking confused. "Oh…well…what do I have to do with it…?"
"You're the only one we could think of who might know enough about code to know what went wrong," Ralph explained further. "You were the closest one to King Candy."
"Oh…he never really told me nothin',"Sour Bill said flatly.
"Nothin' at all?" Felix asked.
"Mmm…well…" Sour Bill thought. "I do remember how to get into the code room, but I've never actually gone in there…I'd be afraid to mess somethin' up." He blinked slowly at them. It was a chore having to listen to his droning voice after a while. "But…I could show you the code room…? If you really wanna see…s'the least I can do, I guess…"
"Thanks, Bill," Ralph said.
Felix nodded in thanks. He would've tipped his hat, if it fit it on his head.
"Lead the way, Sour Drop," Vanellope said, giving him a mock salute with Felix's gloved hand. Sour Bill still looked unsettled by all this, but he led the way regardless.
It took a good bit of time for them to reach the code room. At times it was almost as if they were walking through a maze; it was a well hidden-away room. They crossed a suspended walkway and Sour Bill finally came to a halt in front of a large door.
The little green candy punched in the code, and the group watched as the door slid open.
"King Candy never went in without a rope I could pull him back out with," Sour Bill said slowly.
Peeking into the large dark room, they saw that floating amidst the vast blackness was the glowing tangle of strings and boxes that made up Sugar Rush.
"Hey, Gumball, are there any ropes around here?" Calhoun asked, turning to face Sour Bill.
Seeming unfazed by the nickname, Sour Bill responded evenly, "Uh-huh. There should be a long Twizzler around here somewhere."
It didn't take much searching before Felix discovered the long Twizzler, which had been curled around a part of the railing that surrounded them.
"Right, so who wants to take a shot at going in there?" Calhoun asked, looking each of the three over.
"I wanna go, I wanna go," volunteered Vanellope, waving her hands around ecstatically.
"Oh, no, you aren't," Ralph protested, scooping her up and placing her on his shoulder. "Sorry, Sarge, it's too dangerous for her in there. And plus, I can't go, 'cuz I would break that wimpy little rope."
"You make very good points..." Calhoun mused, scratching at her chin. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if she was concentrating on something within her mind. After a few seconds, her eyes opened once more, and she decided, "I'll go."
"W-wait," Felix piped up. "I-I can—"
"No, Fix-it," growled Calhoun, finally looking at him in what felt like ages. "You're... not in the right condition to go."
Felix was tempted to argue, but his wife looked as if she wasn't going to take "no" for an answer.
"Think you could hang on to the rope, Wreck-it?" Calhoun asked as she began tying the Twizzler around her waist.
"Aye-aye, Sarge," responded Ralph in a joking matter, performing a mock salute before snatching the end of the Twizzler that hung from the Sergeant's body.
"Wish me luck," were her parting words before she dove into the dark abyss. The three gathered at the entrance, watching as Calhoun swam towards the mess of boxes and strings. She waded through the boxes, glancing about at them, as if she were trying to find something specific.
Finally, she paused at a box, and appeared to lean towards it in curiosity. She poked at it a few times, and when nothing happened, she grasped it tightly and began to shake it violently. Still nothing. Seeming irate, she continued weaving through the boxes, seeming to inspect each and every one. After a few minutes, she made her way back over to them. Ralph tugged hard on the rope, helping her resurface from the abyss.
She clambered out of the darkness, crawling into the room and hastily getting to her feet, presumably to not seem weak.
"Are you okay, honey?" Felix quipped in concern, which caused Calhoun to cringe slightly.
"I'm fine," she grunted.
"What happened? Did you find anything?" Felix pressed, trying with all his might to forget the fact that Calhoun had been so noticeably disgusted at his term of endearment due to his current state.
"Well, I happened upon some sort of box that was unlike the others. It was coated in red rather than blue, and instead of having words on it, it just had a bunch of strange symbols. There was a wire on it, but it didn't appear to connect to anything," Calhoun explained.
"Do you think that's the glitch thingy mabob?" Ralph asked.
"Wouldn't doubt it. Not sure what to do with it though..."
Ralph looked down at Sour Bill with a serious expression in his face. "You're sure you don't know anything else about Code?" He asked.
"Nope," Sour Bill said simply.
"And you don't know anyone who does?" Ralph pressed.
"Nuh-uh."
Ralph sighed, frustrated. "Could you find someone who knows?"
"Maybe..?"
Vanellope stepped in, sensing Ralph's temper flaring. "As your President, I order you to look for someone who can help us, Sour Bill. Find someone ASAP. You won't let me down, right?"
Sour Bill blinked at Vanellope, still not used to having Felix's face ordering him around. "'Course not," Sour Bill responded after a moment. He didn't look happy to have that sort of responsibility dumped on him, but then again, he never really looked happy at all.
And so the group made their way out of the castle, no more informed than when they'd entered. Ralph slumped against the outside of the castle, deep in brooding thought.
Felix gave a sigh, feeling anxiousness building up inside him. He'd hoped they might've at least gotten a lead from all that. "What are we gonna do?" Felix asked, repeating his question from earlier.
Seeing the panic rising in Felix's—well, technically Vanellope's— eyes, Calhoun quickly spoke up. "We'll figure this out, short stack." She reassured. Felix perked up when he noticed Calhoun was making eye contact with him finally, but he deflated when she diverted her gaze soon after.
"But when the arcade opens, what're we gonna do?" Vanellope asked, a bit of nervousness creeping into her voice at last. "It's not like we can just switch places, can we?"
"You might have to," Ralph said slowly.
Calhoun shot him a look. "That's dangerous, Wreck-it."
"I know, but—"
Calhoun ignored Ralph and barreled on, "We don't know if their games would recognize that their bodies are switched or not. If one of them gets hurt in-game…" she hesitated, voice low and serious. "We don't know what could happen."
"I know." There was a long, uncomfortable pause. "But we're going to have to do something when the Arcade opens."
Vanellope thought for a moment. "What if I just glitched out of the way of the bricks you throw?" Vanellope suggested.
"I'm not sure how long you could fool the gamer with that," Ralph said doubtfully.
"C'mon, I've got my glitch completely under control, Ralph. I bet I could glitch out of the way quick enough that the gamers wouldn't even notice." To illustrate her point, she picked a hefty chunk of candy off of the floor and tossed it into the air, directly over her head.
Before Ralph could so much as blink, much less protest, Vanellope had glitched just a few inches to the right, safely out of the way of the falling candy. Her form glitched only slightly as she did so, but hopefully the player wouldn't notice.
"Alright, maybe that could work," Ralph conceded after a moment. "But what are we supposed to do about Felix?" He gestured towards the fixer, who, although he looked identical to Vanellope, sure as anything wouldn't be able to race like her.
"Well…" Felix said nervously, looking at the ground and rocking on his heels a bit. "The gamers'd be controllin' the kart, so maybe I'd be alright."
Calhoun locked eyes on Felix for the second time in what seemed like forever. "And if you crashed?"
"I could fix it," Felix said, raising his hammer and giving a weak smile. He hoped so, anyway. No doubt he'd be able to fix the kart if it was damaged, but if he himself got hurt bad enough…he shook his head. Too scary to think about right now. "Besides, we might have nothing to worry about if Sour Bill comes through for us, right?" He gave a shaky laugh.
Calhoun and Ralph exchanged a dubious glance. "Let's… just try not to put too much hope into Sour Bill, alright, cadet?" Calhoun muttered, avoiding Felix's gaze once more.
"Aw, c'mon, guys, don't be so harsh. Sour Bill can do it! He'll figure it out eventually," Vanellope said, seeming to have faith in her advisor.
"Yeah, eventually," Ralph grumbled, to which Calhoun inclined her head in agreement.
"You two need to be more positive," Felix insisted.
"Yeah," Vanellope agreed.
"In any case," Calhoun sighed, quickly changing the subject, "we should get a move on. We gotta figure out what to do until this pesky glitch gets fixed."