Chapter 6

Breakfast Talk and Date Crashers

Ray woke up at 9 the next day and cracked his back. He vaguely remembered his old friend, Carlton, spent the night downstairs and practically floated to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Ray placed two plates loaded with meat on the table and watched Carlton mimic his movements and sit at the table.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Not enough." Carlton replied and bit into a piece of bacon. "Thanks for letting me crash here."

"Thank you for the heads up."

"Anything for my best friend and crown prince."

Ray shrugged. "If only I could lose that title. We don't even have a castle anymore. My dad decided he wanted to be more discreet when he took the crown."

"Well when you rule the Shadow Paladins, you can build a new castle." Carlton smirked.

"But I don't want to. And even if I did, we're more of a protection company than anything now. Where are you stationed today?"

"At the Royal Paladin Embassy. I'm working security detail..."

"See? We used to be feared. Not that I liked the evil that we brought with us everywhere, but we were still something to be respected."

"You're a really weird guy..."

Ray laughed heartily. "Like you're one to talk Mr. 'Do girls like fire balls?'"

"Fair enough..." They shared a laugh and finished their meat stacks in silence.

After Carlton left, Ray decided to play video games to pass the time before his date. And by play video games, I meant chat with them.

Somehow his console games found out he knew their secret and decided to teach him how to create cards from their powers and skills. It was as simple as slipping their game data into his gauntlet.

He decided to teleport to GCS around 10:30.

After making his rounds, he teleported into Sugar Rush to get the date ready.

"Vanellope! Where are you!" Ray shouted as he entered the castle, but stopped as he felt someone glitch behind him. The cavity queen had skipped on the races for the day to help Ray set up the location.

"You got the stuff?" Ray acted like he was making a deal on the black market.

Vanellope nodded and pulled out a high-tech containment unit from Hero's Duty. "Are you gonna make Ralph happy?"

"May Miyamoto delete my code if I don't." He answered as he reached for the backpack of holding.

"You better. Otherwise I will come after you with Calhoun's help." She threatened as she handed him the bag.

"You got about an hour! " Vanellope glitched to her cart.

"OK!" Ray shouted as he rode off towards the peppermint woods.

"So where is he?" Ralph asked Felix as he stood on the rainbow bridge.

"Maybe he's late." Felix replied.

All of a sudden, a familiar board appeared with a note on it, and then disappeared into thin air.

"What's this?" Ralph inquired as he picked up the note.

"Meet me in the peppermint woods for a surprise."

"Ooh! How romantic!" Felix gushed as he patted the wrecker on the back.

"Shut up Fix-it!" Ralph replied as he made his way down the rainbow.

He made it to the entrance of the woods to find bricks. Not candy bricks, but real bricks that were in the shape of an arrow pointing to the taffy swamp. Ralph walked in that general direction, but was stopped by two hands cupping his eyes.

"Guess who?" the mystery person inquired.

"Zangief?" Ralph joked as he turned around to see Ray standing by a picnic blanket with a huge picture of Ralph stitched into it.

"I made strawberry everything because Vanellope told me you don't like chocolate." Ray explained as he pointed to a big strawberry cake on the blanket.

He actually picked it off a tree, but Ralph didn't need to know that.

"It's perfect, but I kinda like chocolate now. And to be honest, I would've just enjoyed sitting in my hut with you watching the new high-definition TV I got from Hero's Duty." Ralph replied sitting on the blanket.

"Phew! That makes two of us, my friend." Ray sighed as he plopped onto Ralph's lap.

Ralph turned cherry red seeing his crush curl up in his lap. He used all his willpower not to harden up on contact.

"Wait... Am I going too far?" Ray inquired as he attempted to get up, but was held down by the man behind him.

"Not... at... all." Ralph replied as he grabbed a slice of cake.

"Umm... Sarah? I think we need Ray's help now..." Felix stammered as a huge fireball coasted past his head.

"It'll be fine. Everything's fine..." She absorbed the fire from the building into her daggers just to have it catch on fire again by a stray fireball.

"Oh come on!" Felix barked as he tapped the building and the fire went away again just for Bowser to blow another fireball and light it like a candle.

"When I told Ray I'd cover for him, I didn't think I'd need backup... but I need backup." She thought to herself as she dialed a name into her gauntlet's phone.

"Well I know all about you, Ralph, but what do you know about me?" Ray inquired as he supressed a sigh of comfort.

"Well... You're Ray Hagane, age 18, you've come to Litwak's for 11 years now, I've been crushing on you since you turned 15, you stick up for those that can't do it themselves, and you're our codemaster now. Anything else I need to know?" Ralph replied with a smug grin.

"Not really. Just that I've crushed on you since I knew what crushes were. It was one of those 'I know I'll never get with this person because they don't exist' crushes." Ray blushed as he stuffed his mouth with cake.

"Oh really?" Ralph smirked as he started to tickle Ray into his chest.

"St-top! I'm t-t-ticklish! Ralphy!" Ray shouted as he squirmed in Ralph's grip.

"Ralphy?" Ralph inquired as he gave Ray another smug grin.

"Yeah... You don't like it?" Ray inquired as he tried to leave Ralph's lap again, but was stopped by his ham hands.

"No... I love it."

They both sighed as they sat there in comfortable silence.

"I have something for you." Ralph said after a minute of enjoying Ray's company.

"What is it?"

"Close your eyes." Ralph commanded.

"My eyes are closed."

"Oh, then hold out your hand."

"This better not be a ring." Ray joked.

Ralph placed a card with his picture on it in Ray's hand.

"Call me whenever you need me."

"This is actually better than a ring." Ray grinned.

Ray's gauntlet chimed out, trashing the mood. He had finally fooled around with it and found the ring function so it blurted out the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers chime.

"Give me a sec, Ralph." Ray finally left Ralph's lap and went behind the tree. Again, Sarah's face was on screen, but it looked distressed.

"Ray! I need backup. Bowser is attacking Fix-it Felix Jr. and the apartment is trashed. I called in someone, but they got captured by Bowser's goons! Help?" She yelled as a fire was raging behind her.

"We're on our way." Ralph spoke from behind Ray as the call ended.

"You up for a fight, because I'll need your help." Ray inquired as he set the teleport site.

"You kidding? I'm gonna wreck it!" Ralph boasted as Ray grabbed his hand and teleported to his game.

As they appeared next to the condominiums, they found the building on fire and Sarah trying to hold off Bowser with little success.

"Time to fight! Codemaster! Wreck the code!" The rings appeared and the armor formed.

"I'm gonna wreck it!" Ralph belted out and cracked the ground in front of Sarah and Bowser successfully separating them.

"I always thought that sounded cool." Ray's katana appeared as he charged the King Koopa.

He went up and over and slashed him in the face, but he blew fire at Ray and sent him flying.

"I knew I'd find you here, sweet cheeks!" Bowser barked as he halted his troops.

"Sweet cheeks? What's he talking about?" Ray inquired as Bowser walked over to Ralph.

"I broke up with you years ago! Why the sudden interest!?" Ralph inquired as the Koopa King hugged him.

"Baby... You know you'll always belong to me." Bowser chided as he groped Ralph's butt.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning seperated him from his crush.

"Step. away. from. my. boyfriend." Ray calmly uttered as he waved Ralph towards him.

"Who are you? The League told me only two codemasters guarded this arcade."

"So you are with the league!" Ray barked as he dismissed his sword.

"I only joined to get Ralph back. He left me for no reason." Bowser squacked as he pointed at the wrecker.

"You hit on everything and anything with legs while I was with you! Fuck your couch!" Ralph barked as he threw a brick at Bowser's head.

"Aww, come on! I'm sorry! I'll even release my prisoner." Bowser pleaded as he released the codemaster behind him. He teleported away in panic.

"Defect from the league and maybe I'll go back to you."

"WHAT?!" Ray shouted as he grabbed Ralph's arm.

"Shh! Trust me... When his guard's down, slash him to bits." Ralph whispered as he walked over to Bowser.

"Give me your daggers!" Ray pleaded to Sarah.

"But..."

"No buts, just give me the daggers!"

Ray grabbed them and the fire was replaced with electricity. He began to charge power as Ralph talked to Bowser.

"You want a kiss?" Ralph inquired as he rocked back and forth with his hands behind his back.

"Hell yeah!" Bowser replied.

"Close your eyes and count down from 5." Ralph instructed as he batted his eyelashes at the big turtle.

"Ok. 5... 4... 3... 2..." Bowser counted off and giggled in delight.

Suddenly, codes surrounded Ray and downloaded into his armor. A new card floated before him.

"The power to defend what I love manifested... Skill Card Heat Riser!" Ray howled as he swiped the card and split it with a dagger causing him to become a blur.

"Finishing Move! Brave Blade!" He barked as he slashed Bowser repeatedly, then threw his daggers at him knocking him out.

Sarah reset the damage and the fire disappeared.

"How'd you do that?!" Sarah exclaimed as she approached Ray.

"I don't know. I just followed the code. Might have helped that I had some Persona 3 data in my gauntlet." Ray replied as he walked towards Ralph.

As he reached the wrecker, a glowing card materialized from Bowser's back.

"Got it!" Ray stated as he plucked the card from his back.

It was another virus card.

"So he was hopped up on league power."

"Nnrgh..." Bowser mumbled as he woke up.

"Bowser... You okay?" Ralph inquired as he picked up his ex.

"Yeah... the league clouded my mind and sent me here to tear you away from Ray. I'm sorry." The koopa king apologized as his minions filed out through the tunnel.

"It's ok. I should've figured our break up would affect you." Ralph replied as he hugged Bowser and let him leave.

"So you guys are cool?" Ray inquired.

Ralph hugged Ray tight. "Yeah. I think we are."

With everyone distracted, no one knew that a familiar codemaster had been standing on the roof.

"This is troublesome... nothing shall stop me from harnessing the power of the L.O.S. and no one shall get in my way." he whispered to himself as he teleported out of Fix-it Felix.