After the arcade closed, the group gathered in Game Central once more. They knew they hadn't gathered nearly as much information as they had been hoping to; the twins, unfortunately, didn't have all too many helpful tips. But luckily, they promised they would figure out all that they could about code, so that by the time they met up once more next Wednesday, they would hopefully know enough in order to at least begin to tamper with the code.
The four felt lost at this point. Normally, they would head down to Sugar Rush and sort of hash things out there. But today, there seemed to be no point in going. The process of getting Vanellope and Felix back to normal was almost at a complete stand-still.
Finally, Felix suggested, "Why don't we just do what we used to? Vanellope races 'round the track, and the rest'a us sit back and watch."
There was a smidgen of hesitation before everyone had to agree. It wasn't like there was much else to do. And besides, they still had Felix and Vanellope; they were still the same group of people that they'd always been. It was just that two of the people had switched bodies. But otherwise, everyone was accounted for. So why not do what they always had?
And so they entered Sugar Rush, Vanellope on Ralph's shoulder and Felix on Calhoun's back. Just like old times.
They approached the race track, and before Vanellope could climb her way off of Ralph's shoulder, Felix had hopped off of Calhoun's back and began to bound toward Vanellope's kart. "Hey, guys, d'you think I could race for a bit?" he asked, his young hazel eyes pleadingly peering up at the two adults.
Without waiting for an answer, the fixer then hopped into the kart, hastily pressing the button that started the engine.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" snapped Vanellope. "That's my kart, marshmallows-for-brains! Get out!"
She charged over to Felix and yanked him out of the kart. For a moment, there was a little bit of a scuffle, as he whined and attempted to push his way past her, clawing desperately at the side of the kart.
"Stop it! Have you gone crazy? You're not good at drivin', remember? You don't even like to drive," she snarled at him, shoving him violently to the ground. As his back connected with the ground, his eyes widened, and for a split second, he was blank-faced, as if he had no idea what was going on.
With a short chuckle, he got to his feet, brushing himself off. "S... sorry about that, litle miss. I don't know what gotta hold'a me." With an apologetic smile, he then regrouped with Calhoun and Ralph, who were staring at Felix in pure confusion. He smiled nervously up at them, giving a small shrug to reinforce that he didn't know what had happened.
Luckily, the two shrugged back, brushing the event off with ease. But if they were being really honest, all of them were fretting a bit about it. They were almost in denial of what had just happened, and were forcing themselves to truly believe it wasn't a big deal, despite the fact that they could tell it sort of was.
Vanellope scrambled into her kart and tore off down the track. The three watched as her kart disappeared into the distance.
"Let's go up into the bleachers," suggested Ralph, already starting up the steps that led to the rows of benches. Calhoun trailed after him. Felix, however, faltered, staring down the track at the bend that Vanellope had vanished around. At the moment, the thought of driving was absolutely undesirable to him.
But, for whatever reason, only a few minutes ago, he had wanted to jump into that kart and speed off down the track. There had been a burning passion flaring within him, and his legs had been literally itching to press down on a gas pedal and peel out down the road. He wondered how a desire so strong could have taken over for a short amount of time, and then simply disappeared without a trace.
"Fix-it," called Calhoun, snapping Felix out of his short string of thoughts. He glanced up at his wife, who beckoned him with a short wave of the hand. He forced a smile and trotted up the steps to join Calhoun and Ralph.
"Sorry 'bout that," he muttered as he settled onto the bench in between the two, leaning against his wife ever-so-slightly.
They sat in mostly silence, which was admittedly quite comfortable. Every-so-often, Ralph would attempt to start off a conversation with something lame, such as "This game has really nice weather" and "So how have you guys been, aside from all this cooky body-switchin' junk?" and occasionally something really random like "Are these bleachers candy too? I wonder what kinda candy, if so. Maybe wafers? Kit-Kats? I dunno, what do you guys think?"
But every time he said something of this nature, Calhoun would lash out with a short, snippy answer. It was always slightly aggressive, and Ralph would mumble something akin to "Sheesh" or "Sorr-ee" before falling silent for a while.
Finally, after each of the three had nodded off at least once, Vanellope's kart screeched to a stop. It purred for a moment before becoming completely silent. With a grunt, Vanellope hopped out of the kart, bounding up the bleachers and practically throwing herself upon Ralph's shoulder. "I'm bored now," she declared. "Let's do something else."
Ralph raised an eyebrow, an odd mixture of irritation and amusement crossing his gaze. "Well, alrighty then, your royal pain-in-my-thigh-ness. What were you thinking?"
Vanellope tilted her head upward to stare at the sky; luckily, quite a few cotton candy clouds were peppered about, blocking the bright sun and preventing her from momentarily losing her vision. She stared hard at a particular cotton candy cloud; it somewhat resembled a bunny rabbit, which distracted her for a moment.
Finally, an idea struck her. "Why don't we go down to Soft-Serve Summit and have a snowball fight and make snowmen and stuff?"
"That sounds like fun," agreed Felix as he slid off of the bench. Ralph got to his feet as well, lumbering down the stairs and starting toward the snowy area that was visible from a distance. As Felix started to follow Ralph, he felt his feet leave the ground. He flailed about wildly for a moment, becoming panicked, before he realized that Calhoun had scooped him up. Feeling relieved, he allowed her to slip him upon her back, where he clung gingerly to her blonde hair.
The group made their way up to the snowy mountains. It really was starting to feel like old times again. The brief little fiasco that Felix had brought up a while ago was behind them. It was as if things were back to normal.
But then Vanellope's gaze shifted toward Calhoun's face. And lingered. An uncharacteristically smitten smile crossed her face, her cheeks growing pink. "Wow, the light really catches your eyes in the most breathtaking way, darlin'," breathed the little girl, her azure Felix eyes never leaving Calhoun's face.
Everyone froze. A split second after the words left Vanellope's mouth, her face fell, and she tensed. An awkward silence quickly followed, and Vanellope let out a tiny, forced laugh. "I was... joking," she lamely attempted to play it off, but there wasn't even a hint of amusement in her eyes.
A jumble of emotions flickered within Calhoun's eyes, a taut frown on her face. Her whole body was stiff, her eyebrows knitted together. She looked as if she was unsure of how to react, unsure of what to say. "E... excuse me?" she finally choked out, her expression finally settling on a mixture of anger and sadness.
"I-I... It... was a joke," Vanellope stuttered, her eyes darting about, trying to look anywhere but directly at the Sergeant.
"You..." breathed Calhoun. She paused, grinding her teeth for a moment as she stared hard at Vanellope. "Don't... don't ever joke like that again," she finally managed, her voice wavering.
"I'm... I'm sorr—" Vanellope began, but Calhoun quickly cut her off.
"I mean it, Vanellope! Don't you ever joke like that again!" she snapped, her voice harsh and strained. "Do you hear me?!"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," whimpered Vanellope, flinching back, her eyes beginning to water. "I... I'm really sorry."
"Tammy," Felix yelped, his voice shaking immensely upon witnessing his wife push a child to tears. It wasn't just his voice, however; his entire body began to shimmer. He was so overwhelmed with distress that he felt his actual form begin to react; it felt as if hundreds of angry ants were marching up and down his skin, tearing at the seams of his Vanellope body, stripping away his appearance and revealing the blue 0's and 1's that lay underneath.
Fear sparked within the other three as they watched Felix's 9-year-old body flicker in and out of existence, his mint-green jacket breaking away, replaced by large chunks of blue numbers. Calhoun hastily set him upon the ground, and they all watched upon baited breath as he cringed at the uncomfortable and prickly feeling, an occasional groan of pain slipping from his throat.
Vanellope clambered off of Ralph's body, throwing herself against Felix, wrapping her arms tightly around his unstable form. She, too, was then blanketed in blue numbers, though she was unaffected by the pain that accompanied it. A few heartbeats later, she broke away from his grasp, worry swamping her features as she faced Calhoun and Ralph.
"He's glitching."
Those two words were all Vanellope needed to say before the two adults transformed into anxious parental figures. They gathered around Felix, uncertainty painted on their faces as they unsuccessfully attempted to comfort him, hoping to ease the glitch out of him.
"Felix," Vanellope shouted, squeezing in between Calhoun and Ralph in order to place herself in front of the glitching figure, "you gotta pull yourself together. I know you're pro'lly freakin' out, on account of this whole glitching thing. But the only way to make it stop is to calm down. So just calm down, okay? Think of something nice and peaceful, like, uh... the beach."
Somehow, it appeared that the glitch attack became more violent, and a strangled cry of pain left Felix's throat.
"Why is he glitchin' so bad? This never happened to you," Ralph said loudly, panic mingling with his voice as he hovered his large hands above Felix's figure, as if trying to coax his poor friend with the comfort of safety.
"Well, actually, the first time I glitched, it really was this bad. 'Cuz he doesn't have much control over it yet, and it strikes when a strong feelin' overcomes you," Vanellope explained, seeming much more calm than she should have been. She then turned her attention back to Felix. "C'mon, ya Dumbotron, stop thinkin' about sharks or whatever. I said something peaceful! Think of... a puppy, or a kitten, or..." She glanced about, searching for inspiration. Her gaze fell upon Calhoun. "Oh! Think of your lovely wife kissing you on the cheek," she coached, a cheeky grin crossing her face.
"Aw, c'mon, kid, stop messin' arou—" Ralph began, but he stopped short when he noticed that the glitching had eased up a bit, light strokes occasionally jolting Felix's body. Finally, the glitching died down altogether, and relief temporarily flooded Felix's gaze, before utter exhaustion took over and he collapsed upon the chocolate powdered road, panting heavily.
Calhoun gathered her husband up in her arms, pulling him into an extra-tight embrace as she rubbed circles on his back. "There, there, cadet," she whispered comfortingly. A quiet, grateful hum left the fixer's tiny body, and his breathing became deep and rhythmatic. Ralph and Vanellope were respectively silent, watching the two for a moment. It wasn't long before Felix had fallen asleep.
Content with herself, Calhoun cradled the snoring Felix in her arms.
"What do we do about everything that just happened?" Ralph hissed as he helped Vanellope back onto his shoulder. "This is starting to get really outta hand. These two have been actin' kinda weird, almost... almost like each other. And... and now Felix is glitching!" His voice rose a little in panic, and Felix stirred in Calhoun's arms. The Sergeant fixed Ralph with a stern look, hinting that he should quiet down. "Sorry," Ralph grumbled, voice hushed once more. "But seriously though, Sarge. What do we do?"
She was silent for a moment, contemplating his question. Finally, she lamely whispered in response, "I hate to say it, Wreck-it, but I have no idea. We're as lost as a puzzled fly that strayed into a garden shed." She sighed, glancing about the game. "I don't think I should leave him unattended, though. He hasn't been racing, anyway, so he might as well stick with one of us." She hesitated, before reluctantly adding, "Unfortunately, it's too dangerous in my game for him to accompany me."
Ralph frowned. "I know," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head with one large hand. "Guess we should take him back to the Niceland apartment then, huh? That might be our best bet, anyhow. I'm sure some of the Nicelanders wouldn't mind watchin' over him. Wouldn't be much of a difference from their usual lives anyway. 'Cept that he doesn't look like Felix anymore. But still, I'm sure that won't matter."
Calhoun was quick to agree with this solution. After all, Felix's home was in the Niceland apartments; he surely would feel most at ease in the safety of his home. And maybe, just maybe, if he took a nice, long nap, he'd feel better when he awoke. Maybe he wouldn't glitch again. Maybe this all was just some silly dream Felix was having and none of it was even happening in the first place... and maybe when he awoke, everything would be completely back to normal.
Calhoun couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the ridiculousness of that last thought. Don't get your hopes too high, soldier, she chatised herself.
The group headed back to Game Central Station, only two of them awake now; Vanellope had dozed off as Calhoun and Ralph were discussing the situation at hand. Calhoun accompanied Ralph and Vanellope into Fix-it Felix Jr., mostly just to see Felix off. However, he was still fast asleep, and she didn't want to wake him for no reason. So she planted a light kiss to his forehead in farewell, waved goodbye to Ralph and Vanellope, and set off to her respective game.