The weekend was upon them, and the rush of kids eager to spend the day playing video games was inevitable. This always tended to be a stressful time for video game characters; it was the busiest part of the week. And on top of that, Felix and Vanellope were only getting worse.
Felix mostly rested to try and minimize the chance of glitching, while Vanellope tried her best to act the part for the hoard of kids lining up to play the game. She did decently on Friday—there were a few slip-ups, but for nothing too drastic. But it was clear she was struggling to keep up.
They tried not to worry too much about it, as Felix's problems were worrying enough already. But Ralph couldn't help but be concerned when, instead of using the glitch more to accommodate for the large amount of kids, Vanellope seemed to be using it less.
She was dodging and weaving the bricks like a pro, but it was like she refused to glitch unless she had to. At the interim between games, Ralph picked himself out of his mud puddle and craned his neck up at the Niceland apartment, catching a glimpse of Vanellope at the top. Wrought with worry, Ralph called up to the little Felix look-alike.
"Hey, kid, what're ya doing?"
Vanellope peeked over the edge of the building, straining her eyes to see the little red dot that was Ralph. "What?" She hollered back.
Ralph cupped his hands around his mouth so she could hear him better. "You gotta use your glitch, kid! I don't care if the players notice, it's too risky otherwise!"
"I'm tryiiing," Vanellope whined. Ralph put a hand to his ear to show he couldn't hear what she was saying, and in response Vanellope hoisted herself over the ledge and carefully hopped her way down the building until she was standing in front of Ralph. "I said I'm trying," she repeated. "My glitch isn't working right!"
"What? Why?"
"I don't know!"
Ralph stared down at her for a moment, at a loss for what to say. When he finally opened his mouth to say something, a Quarter Alert cut him off.
"I can still glitch," Vanellope assured him. She was probably trying to reassure it to herself, too. She took off Felix's hat and avoided eye contact as she fiddled with it. "It just keeps gettin' wonky. Like, it won't always happen when I want it to."
"Are you sure you're able to keep playing?" Ralph asked. He tried to appear calm, but was unable to keep the concern out of his voice.
"Well, I gotta, don't I?" Vanellope asked in exasperation, flailing her arms about. There was a tired look on her face that wasn't hard to miss, even when she still refused to look him in the eye.
Ralph knelt down to her level. "Vanellope, look at me," the wrecker said softly. After a moment she reluctantly complied. As hard as Vanellope tried to hide it, Ralph could tell the kid was scared. He could see it reflected in the blue eyes that weren't hers.
"I'm more worried about your safety than getting our game put out of order for a little while," Ralph stated firmly.
Vanellope just stared back up at him, unsure how to respond to that. After a while she looked away again and placed Felix's cap back on her head, a look of resignation on her face. She couldn't just let Ralph's game go out of order. This wasn't just about her.
"I'll be fine, Ralph," she insisted, putting on a smile to show it.
Ralph looked a little dubious, but he just nodded and let it go. He'd just have to trust her judgment on this one, she knew her glitching abilities better than he did.
As he turned to head over to his start position, Ralph glanced up in time to see a blonde haired girl appear on the game's screen. He groaned, smacking his hand to his face. Just what we need right now, he thought to himself sarcastically. This kid's a pro at this game.
Everyone was stiff and anxious as the game started up. Especially Vanellope, it seemed. Ralph couldn't help but notice that she was having an even harder time dodging bricks and keeping her balance. C'mon, kid, he mentally urged, don't let the player psyche you out!
Ever since Vanellope's first game in Fix-it Felix Jr., Ralph had taken to throwing the bricks in a wide arc so that they made flew over Vanellope's head before dropping. That was all well and good, since from the gamer's perspective, they couldn't see the difference—but Ralph couldn't do anything about the ducks when they got to the higher levels.
Vanellope was becoming more and more hesitant as the number of ducks increased. Ralph could see that she was relying too much on the player, who, though skilled, wasn't perfect either.
Whenever the player started slipping up and failed to dodge the flying ducks properly, Vanellope struggled to jump out of their path. Ralph was contemplating whether it would be worth it to risk aiming a brick at a few of the ducks when it happened.
Vanellope had been getting increasingly frustrated with her glitching ability. She kept attempting to teleport before resorting to manually jumping out of the way, but more often than not her teleporting powers failed her.
A few of her pixels sparked whenever she tried, but not much else. It felt like a dying flame. And worst of all, she was pretty sure she knew why it was happening. Vanellope didn't want to accept it, but the truth was creeping up on her.
Felix was taking on her glitch, and she was losing it.
Vanellope was so lost in her thoughts that she barely noticed the duck flying in a haphazard path towards her. She didn't react in time, and neither did the player.
Ralph watched in horror as Vanellope was knocked from the windowsill. She flailed about as she fell, trying to grab onto a ledge, a windowpane, anything—but the game wouldn't let her.
Ralph broke character and lunged off of the ledge he was standing on, barreling his way downwards towards Vanellope. He'd never scaled the building so fast. He managed to catch up to her, thrusting his arms out to catch her, but she passed right through his oversized hands.
The game wouldn't let her touch anything that could break her fall. It knew she had lost a life, and the game had to follow through with that. It was in the code.
As Ralph watched Vanellope fall towards the ground, helpless, he felt his heart plummet with her.
Vanellope lay at the bottom of the Niceland building. She was on her back, gloved hands grasping a flower the same way Felix did whenever he died in-game. Ralph reached the bottom of the building not long after, rushing over to her and pulling her off screen.
Once away from the player's prying eyes, Ralph laid Vanellope down on the dewy grass, looking her over. Looking for any sign of life, despite the odds.
The wrecker then looked around desperately at his surroundings, for anything that might provide a solution. His brick pile, the little tram train station…everything was familiar, but he'd never felt more lost.
Ralph turned back to Vanellope and gently touched her face, hands shaking. Her skin was cold. Vanellope continued to clasp the flower, lying still as a stone. She looked like Felix to a T, but Ralph knew she wouldn't be waking up. She never would.
He felt his eyes welling up with tears that he struggled to fight back. A pained, choking noise escaped his throat, his large frame shaking with sadness as he sat hunched over Felix's small form.
She was only a kid.
When Ralph opened his eyes again, his tearstained vision was so blurry that he almost didn't notice Vanellope's body glitching.
It was only a sparking of pixels at first, but soon her entire form was glitching wildly. Ralph stared in stunned awe as Vanellope's mouth twitched, and her eyes slowly fluttered open. She shakily stood up.
"Vanellope?" Ralph croaked out. They stared at each other for a long moment before Vanellope collapsed into Ralph, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.
Relief overwhelming him, Ralph stuttered uselessly, "Y-you… you regener—you—"
"I'm okay Ralph, I'm okay," Vanellope kept repeating as Ralph blinked back his tears. He didn't want to let go, but Vanellope eventually pried herself from his grasp.
"C'mon, Ralph, we gotta hurry!" She said, turning towards the Niceland building.
"Wh…what?" Ralph slowly stood up, confused.
"I'm okay, I can regenerate, and we've got a player waiting!" Vanellope said. She looked up at him, determination shining in her blue eyes. "I'm not letting your game get unplugged, big guy. Quit wastin' time!"
Ralph was still a little in shock, but he followed her back on screen. He was just glad she was alive.
The blonde haired gamer was about to call Mr. Litwak over for help when Felix came running back onto the screen. She was a little confused, as she was pretty sure the game wasn't supposed to play out this way, but it wasn't like she'd never seen the game act up strangely before.
And besides, the game seemed to be working more regularly after that. Felix wasn't doing that weird glitching thing anymore, and she was glad to see her favorite game seemed to be back to normal. She readjusted her glasses and continued to play.
Vanellope was able to get through the rest of the game, as well as the following games, with ease. Now that the fear of dying was gone, she was doing better than ever. Not quite as good as Felix himself, but pretty darn good if Ralph did say so himself.
After the arcade closed, Ralph told Felix and Calhoun what had happened. They looked just as shocked as Ralph had been.
"Sounds like you were mighty brave, little miss," Felix told Vanellope after the initial surprise had worn off.
"Quite brave," Calhoun agreed with a nod. Vanellope smiled sheepishly.
However, none of them could quite shake the troubled feeling that came with Vanellope's newfound ability to regenerate in Felix's game. Felix was acquiring Vanellope's traits at a rapid pace, and vice versa… and the thought of that didn't sit well with any of them.