A/N: Sorry for the wait! This chapter was stupidly hard to write, plus I've had to juggle it with school. But I'm on holiday now, so updates should be coming a bit more frequently. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed.
By the way, this story is just a little collection of snapshots, not in chronological order, with no actual plot as of yet. Therefore, this chapter has absolutely NO relation to my last one- although Candlehead & Taffyta will make an appearance in future chapters. Hope this isn't too confusing.
Great, now I've put you all off the story *facepalm*. Without further ado...
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or concepts mentioned in the story below.
Chapter 2: When Can We Do This Again
Fix-it Felix Jr
Niceland Apartments
12.11.2012 16:18
To Ralph, it was a lot like any other day. Climb up the building, wreck it, fall down splat in the mud, start again. But tonight, he had something to look forward to. Something better than a Nicelander party, or an afternoon in Tapper's with Felix and Calhoun. Tonight, Vanellope was going to leave her game, for the first time in fifteen years, and he wasn't missing that for the world.
All day she'd been acting slightly distracted- wiping out on easy corners, forgetting to fist-bump the player, even ignoring her Winner's Cup- although it was true she had six of those already. At four o'clock, when the arcade was starting to close, she'd been the first to vanish from the screen. Ralph was glad she was excited, but he couldn't help being worried that the universe outside her game would be an anticlimax. Especially Fix-it Felix Jr; compared to the high-definition, hyper-realistic world of Vanellope's game, his own seemed like old, cheap trash.
From where he lay in his mud puddle, he could see the whole land: the apartment block rising up to meet the ceiling, the well-kept lawn that surrounded it, his little one-storey shack in the newly-named East Niceland. The train from Game Central Station puttered to a halt by the railway platform. Watching it trundle in, Ralph groaned inwardly. For the first time in thirty years, he felt embarrassedof his game- it was barely forty foot square, while Vanellope's stretched on for miles. But she didn't have to visit it, did she? There were lots of other games in which she'd feel more at home. Mario Kart, BurgerTime, Hero's Duty...on second thoughts, definitely not Hero's Duty. One trip there had been enough for a lifetime.
Hauling himself up from the dirt, Ralph shook off droplets of mud and set off towards the train. He'd promised to meet Vanellope at half-past four, but he figured it was a good thing to be early, just in case. It took him some effort to squish into the tiny carriage, but he managed it eventually. Waving goodbye to Q*bert, who was standing on the platform, Ralph began the slow ride to Game Central Station.
ooo
"Name?"
Ralph groaned, glaring at the bespectacled blue man blocking his way, and said flatly: "Wreck-it Ralph from Fix-it Felix Jr on my way to Sugar Rush I'm nine feet tall six hundred and forty-three pounds and I'm coming back in about four hours."
The Surge Protector gaped in astonishment, his pen poised above his clipboard. ''Er, very good, sir...anything to declare?"
But Ralph had already set off through Game Central Station. The milling crowds parted before him, pointing and staring unabashedly as he stomped through. But these weren't the usual mutters of 'Bad guy coming' and 'Watch out'- it was more like he was some kind of celebrity.
"That's Wreck-it Ralph? The Wreck-it Ralph?!"
"Hey-o, Wreckin' Man!"
"Ya think I could get his autograph?"
They waved and cheered as he passed by, which for some reason made Ralph feel as if he'd just eaten one of Mary's hot pies. The Sugar Rush portal, a yawning dark cavern of crackling wires, was right near the end of Game Central Station. Lifting one foot delicately onto the wires- or as delicately as someone like Ralph could- he set his teeth and began to walk down the tunnel. There was no sound except for the muffled plod of his bare feet and the fizzing of the wires, and after fifteen minutes, Ralph was beginning to get fed up. Why couldn't there be some kind of vehicle, especially in a racing game? When he first heard the whirring of an engine, he thought he was hallucinating - or maybe that some pixellated genie had magically granted his wish.
But then, winding through the tunnel, Ralph made out a chocolate-splattered, green-and purple bonnet, dotted with star-shaped sprinkles and and lit up by two gummy headlamps. Forgetting his aching, blistered feet, unable to stop the grin spreading across his face, he broke out into a run.
ooo
Vanellope neared the first bend in the tunnel, telling herself she'd wait for Ralph at the end. She'd just have a little peek outside, check out Game Central Station- and besides, Ralph was usually at least twenty minutes late for everything, she reminded herself with a smirk. What could go wrong? It wasn't as if she was scared, or anything...
Her breathing became slightly ragged as she turned another corner, skidding across the prickling tangle of wires. All right, maybe she wasn't quite as fearless as she thought she was. It wasn't like she knew much about the arcade- there wasn't much to see from the Sugar Rush screen. But she knew there were at least fifty games in the arcade, dating back to long before she'd been plugged in: fighting games, fashion games, space games, dancing games...Heck, even Ralph was from the 1980s. He knew so much more about this place than she did. Maybe she should go back and wait for him. Maybe she wasn't ready to go outside yet.
But then, she heard a faintly audible noise, growing louder by the minute. The thud, thud, thud of a pair of feet- and not just any pair of feet. A large and square, size-26 pair of feet with dirt rimming the toenails and caking the soles. In short, her favourite pair of feet in the arcade.
Vanellope rubbed her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. No way. The guy who overslept on Felix's wedding day- the guy who always misses all my races, every week- the guy who is, as he puts it, a dummy with dates- he's here right now, and he's early? Impossible.
But he was.
Vanellope felt a grin split her face in half. "Prepare to be annihilated, Mountain Man!" she cackled, plowing into the wall of orange flannel and overalls that stood, catching its breath, in the middle of the tunnel. She felt a wave of dizziness overcome her, but regained her feet immediately and began to caper around in circles. Ralph clutched his head and smiled wearily at the green blur dancing before him.
"I'm gonna go OUTSIDE! I'm GONNA GO OUTSIDE!" she chanted, spinning jerkily around. "Great gambolling gumballs, Ralph, can you believe it? I mean, I have dreamed about this moment for so long, and now..."
"You think you're gonna puke?" Ralph joked, plucking her from the ground by the hood of her sweater. "Kiddo, you better calm down. You're seriously hyper, and that's pretty bad for someone who lives on sugar. Just take a deep breath..." Vanellope stifled a snort, but inhaled obediently. Ralph climbed up to the boot of the car, smooshing it a little, and plopped Vanellope into the driver's seat.
"Get ready for one heck of a ride, kid!"
With that, Ralph began to scoot the kart along, his gargantuan hands striking the floor in synchronised gorilla movements. The needle on the speedometer flicked from one number to the next. Sixty, seventy, eighty miles an hour...ninety miles an hour...a hundred...Vanellope screamed with elation, the wind whistling through her hair as the go-kart rocketed forwards. They were zooming, they were flying, they were soaring...
All of a sudden, the kart screeched abruptly to a halt. The tunnel was suddenly flooded with light, and Vanellope instinctively screwed her eyes shut. She was vaguely aware of a cool, bland woman's voice speaking from above, although the words meant nothing to her.
"Here we go, Madam President," she heard Ralph say, the grin evident in his voice, "welcome to Game Central Station."
ooo
Ralph clambered down from the kart and dusted himself off, smiling at his diminutive friend. She was still sitting in the driver's seat, eyes huge as saucers, taking in the scene before her- the graffiti decorating the blue walls of their small off-chamber, and beyond, the faintly glowing expanse of Game Central Station. Squeaking with excitement, she somersaulted from the kart and landed before him.
"So, kid..." he chuckled, running a hand across his mussed-up hairline, "you ready to take your first steps out into the big, wide world?"
Vanellope jumped up and down, her oversized head bobbing excitedly...but then, suddenly, unexplicably, she began to deflate. Turning away from him, the president of Sugar Rush sat down in the tunnel and hugged her knees.
"The thing is, Stinkbrain..." she muttered, avoiding his gaze, "I don't know if I really want to leave my game yet." Ralph felt his heart swoop down into his stomach. He stared at her, dismayed.
"But you've wanted to do this forever, kid! What d' you mean, you don't-"
"Look, big guy-" Vanellope cut him off sharply, meeting his gaze with her limpid eyes. She sighed again, her stare darting to the floor. "I want to do it, don't get me wrong, but- agh, I don't know why, but I'm scared! What if I die, and I don't regenerate?"
Ralph inhaled sharply, preparing to confront her with another barrage of words- but suddenly, realisation swooped down on him.
She's just a nine-year-old kid, Ralph. A nine-year-old kid who hasn't been outside her game for fifteen years. If she doesn't want to leave yet...if she needs some time to settle...that's absolutely fine. Don't push her. Just give her some space.
Ralph blew a stream of air from the corner of his mouth, stooping down so that his head was level with Vanellope's. "Trust me, kid, you're not gonna die. After meeting Cy-Bugs, battling Turbo and almost getting broiled in Diet Coke...really, you've seen basically all the danger the arcade has to offer. And there's so much great stuff, too, stuff you can't just miss out on for the rest of your life!" Vanellope lifted her head ever so slightly, and Ralph smiled at her, extending his hand. "You can do it, kid. One little step, and you'll never have to be scared again. But if you don't feel you're ready yet...well, I guess that's up to you."
Vanellope sniffed faintly, using Ralph's thumb to pull her up to her feet. "Keep your pants on, Brick Brain!" she replied, with a hint of her old gutsiness. "I'm going outside. Ten...nine...eight..." She gulped. "Seven...six...f-f-five..."
Ralph shook his head, allowing the trace of a grin to flit across his face. "Aw, come on, kid! You're never gonna do it that way!" He jerked one arm out, grabbed Vanellope, and dumped her into the seat of her kart. She sputtered, outraged, for a moment, but then went quiet, her eyes round and bright. Ralph climbed up to his regular perch at the back and gave her the thumbs-up, his massive hands already outstretched to scoot.
"Three...two...one..."
ooo
Vanellope's knuckles were white on the steering wheel, even though she wasn't driving. For the first time in her life, she felt nauseous in the seat of her go-kart, and her head was spinning relentlessly. The yellow glow behind her scrunched-up eyelids was piercing ever brighter, and she screamed with all the force of her lungs as she felt the kart's wheels spin out of control, no longer making contact with the ground beneath them.
This is it, she thought frantically. Ralph was wrong, way wrong. Five minutes out of my game, and I'm already dead.
As she braced for impact, the kart jolted back down to earth, skidding on a smooth, slick surface completely different from that of the tunnel's rubbery wires. It slid quietly to a stop, and Vanellope slumped back into her seat, trying to clear her throbbing head. Behind her, she felt a slight jolt as something thudded down from the top of the kart. The air was bubbling with muted chatter.
"Vanellope? Vanellope? Are you OK? Open your eyes, kid!" It was Ralph's voice, filled with concern and wonderfully real in the mayhem surrounding her. Vanellope eased herself up into a sitting position and blinked groggily. The world blurred, then slid back into focus. Ralph's face swam before her in the light, his small brown eyes fixing her with an anxious stare.
"Chill out, worrywart, I'm fine," she mumbled, trying to sound as assertive as possible. It didn't fool Ralph, who reached out his huge, square-knuckled hand and scooped her gently up. Any other time, Vanellope would have protested vehemently, but she was still too dizzy to do anything other than loll back in his firm grip. Besides, she needed to get a proper look at Game Central Station.
"Shut your eyes," Ralph instructed, lifting her up to his shoulder. Vanellope groaned crabbily, but reluctantly obeyed. She felt Ralph turn slowly around, still keeping his hand there so she could balance. "O-kaaay...three, two, one, open!"
Vanellope lifted one eyelid just a fraction. Impatiently, she blinked away the glowing rays that fractured off her thick lashes. Her eyes grew wide, locating the crystalline windows that flooded the station with sunlight, reflecting off the glossy white floor. She felt her jaw drop of its own accord at the thousands of characters coming and going through the golden portals lining the walls. Some she recognised- there were the aliens from Space Invaders and Yuni from Dance Dance Revolution, whose screens both faced that of Sugar Rush. But others were completely unknown to her- a giant of a man whose body was covered in tufts of hair, for example, or a group of lime green penguins wearing princess outfits. Even if Vanellope stayed in the arcade for another fifteen years, she felt she'd never know all the people who lived there.
It was the first time in her life she'd ever been lost for words.
ooo
Ralph had no idea how Vanellope would react to Game Central Station. She'd been acting so unpredictable lately- one minute whooping and hollering and gambolling around, the next curling up crying like a sad little hedgehog. Maybe he'd made the wrong decision. Maybe she'd run back screaming into the tunnel. Ralph had never known any little kids before Vanellope, so he wasn't sure what to predict.
But when he saw her get her first look at the place...he knew he'd done the right thing. She flopped there on his shoulder, her eyes like stars, soaking up every aspect of the world around her. For a minute or so, they just stood there, Vanellope propping herself against his neck like a rag doll. Eventually, Ralph felt the need to clear his throat.
"So, how'd you like the station, kiddo?" His own voice sounded hoarse and raspy. Vanellope looked up slowly, her round face crinkling into a huge grin, and suddenly slid down his arm to his hand, dangling from one finger like a small pendulum.
"It's..it's...I love it! ILOVEITILOVEITILOVEIT!" she ejaculated, punctuating each word with a small glitch. "Ralph, my man, you've done it again! All these games...all these characters...I mean, this is just too good to be true! It's impossible!"
Ralph heaved a sigh of relief, beginning to smile. "You up for a tour of the arcade, then, President?"
"Hell yeah I am!" Vanellope glitched up onto his shoulder in a blur of blue pixels, grinning impishly and flashing him the thumbs-up.
Ralph felt the hot-pie feeling spread through his stomach again.
A/N: Well, there we go. Not entirely sure how pleased I am with this, but I'm glad to have it done at last! There will probably be a later chapter describing the tour around the arcade, but not for a while yet. I'd like a minimum of 12 reviews before publishing Chapter 3, so please do if you have a moment :)