A few more months passed. This time Felix and Tamora decided to go with Ralph to see Vanellope. It was the arcade's day off, since Mr. Litwak decided to visit his nana, so they had plenty of time. However when they reached the track they didn't see a single racer.
"That's weird, Vanellope never misses a day of racing." Ralph frowned.
"Maybe they're all at her castle." Felix suggested.
"Yeah, let's go see." Ralph nodded. "If nothing else Sour Bill will know what's going on."
So they headed for the castle, but when they got there they became even more worried. All the Racers were their bunched together in fright. Taffyta spotted them first.
"Oh thank goodness you've arrived." She went over to them with relief. "President Vanellope's missing."
"What?" Ralph gasped, instantly scared for Vanellope. "Doesn't anyone know where she is?"
"No, but Sour Bill and the rest of the staff is searching the castle." Rancis said. "It's possible that she just got lost somewhere, she still hasn't seen the entire castle yet."
"Well it is a big castle..." Felix tried to believe that Rancis was right.
"I wouldn't be too worried, Vanellope can take care of herself." Tamora shrugged. "She had been taking care of herself for around fifteen years or so right?"
"Yeah, but she still knows better than to disappear on everyone without at least letting Sour Bill know where she's going." Ralph said worriedly.
Sour Bill opened the door with a worried look and a piece of paper.
"I found this note by her throne." He explained. "President Vanellope's been kidnapped."
Everyone gasped!
"But who would kidnap her?" Felix asked.
"Well whoever it is is gonna answer to me." Tamora cocked her gun angrily.
"You'll have to get in line Tamora." Ralph pounded a fist into his other hand. "Does the note say where she is?"
"Yes, she's been taken to Diet Cola Mountain." Sour Bill nodded.
"Then let's go." Tamora headed for there with Ralph and Felix following.
"We want to come too." Candlehead said as she and the other Racers neared them.
"Now hold on, we don't even know what we're up against." Ralph turned around and held a hand out.
"Ralph is right, all of you had better stay here." Felix agreed.
"But we can't let our president be harmed." Minty protested.
"Okay, then let's compromise: all of you can follow in your karts, but stay outside the mountain." Ralph said. "If we need backup then you can zoom in and help but otherwise stay out of danger."
"It's a deal." Taffyta agreed.
So Ralph, Felix, and Tamora headed for Diet Cola Mountain with the Racers slowly following in their karts. Ralph led them to Vanellope's secret entrance into the mountain.
"Okay, here's where the rest of you wait." Tamora whispered to the racers. "Ralph, Felix and I are going in."
The racers nodded.
"Follow me." Ralph said.
Tamora, Felix, and Ralph slowly went through the entrance after a few feet in they saw Vanellope tied to a stalactite with a black rope, probably black licorice. She also had a black licorice gag on and some sort of metal collar around her neck. Her eyes widened as she saw her friends.
"Vanellope!" Ralph said with relief. "Hang on kid, we're gonna get you out of there."
Vanellope shook her head frantically and struggled.
"What's wrong?" Felix asked.
Vanellope finally bit her licorice gag away.
"It's a trap!" She cried.
Sure enough, something moved behind Tamora, Felix, and Ralph, something small and skittery.
"Wha-" Ralph stared at the creatures.
The creatures then opened their mouths...familiar looking mouths.
"It can't be..." Tamora's eyes widened with shock. "Baby Cy-Bugs?"
"That'th right." An unpleasantly familiar voice said behind them.
Ralph and Felix's blood ran cold. Tamora just frowned in confusion since she had never heard that voice before. The three of them turned around to see a large Cy-Bug hybrid. It was red and white, but it was the face that made them drop their mouths open. The face was a hideous gray with red lines, yellow eyes, and sharp yellow fangs. On his head was a white helmet with a red T on it. This time even Tamora knew who it was, since Ralph and Felix had shown her a picture of this guy. Though he hadn't been a Cy-Bug hybrid in the picture.
"Turbo?" Ralph and Felix cried.
"But you died in the Diet Cola eruption!" Ralph cried.
"Almotht, the heat thnapped me out of it in time. I was able to dive into a crevithe before I was completely dethtroyed." Turbo, or Turbug technically, smirked. "My King Candy dithguise was completely gone though, probably by thith glitch rethtoring everything, but no matter. I thpent the latht year or tho recovering and plotting my revenge. Firtht, I built thith shock collar for the glitch." He tapped the metal collar around Vanellope's neck. "That'th why she couldn't ethcape, every time she tries to glitch she getth a shock."
Vanellope, in desperation, did try to glitch away but sure enough she got hit with a nasty shock. Ralph glared at Turbug.
"Then jutht a few days ago I thnuck into Hero's Duty and took some thybug eggs." Turbug continued. "I hatched them and raised them as my own. Which means they won't attack until I tell them to. And I won't...not yet."
"What's your evil scheme this time Turbo?" Ralph glared.
"Thimple, my children will thlowly eat the three of you and then we'll take over all the other games." Turbug grinned evilly. "Only the glitch here will be left unharmed, she'll jutht be homeleth and friendleth in Game Thentral Thtation. Now you'd think that I'd actually do that to you inthtead Ralph, because you were the one who ruined my previouth rule. But then, that'th exactly why I'm going to kill you. Tho you don't ruin thith plan! Now my children, time to featht. But thlowly, I want to watch them thuffer."
"You monster!" Felix glared.
"No please!" Vanellope pleaded. "I'll do anything! You can have my throne, you can even kill me, just let them go! Please!"
"Not gonna work, I don't want your throne anymore anyway." Turbug dismissed.
The baby Cy-Bugs, mouths open, advanced towards Tamora, Felix, and Ralph.
"No!" Vanellope cried. "Ralph!"
Suddenly there were zooming sounds. The baby Cy-Bugs stopped and turned around with confusion.
"What the-?" Turbug frowned.
Taffyta and the other racers went right through the entrance and crashed into dozens of baby Cy-Bugs, knocking them out for a few seconds. Taffyta even crashed into Turbug and knocked him out.
"Taffyta!" Vanellope said with happy shock. "You came to save us?"
"Anything for our true leader." Taffyta saluted.
Ralph went over to Vanellope and broke off the shock collar. Vanellope glitched onto Taffyta's kart.
"Let's get out of here!" Vanellope ordered.
Ralph, Felix, and Tamora hopped onto the backs of other karts (well Ralph carefully got on one, not wanting to break it) and the racers sped away.
"Head to Game Central Station, we'll go into my game and activate the beacon." Tamora ordered.
Thanks to the speed of the racer's karts, they were close to the exit by the time Turbug and the knocked out Cy-Bugs woke up.
"Get them." Turbug ordered menacingly.
He and the Cy-Bugs flew out of the mountain and headed for the exit too. Turbug knew that they would try to use Hero's Duty's beacon. When he went to get Cy-Bug eggs he did a little research on the game as well.
Meanwhile, once they were in Game Central Station the racers stopped. The game characters that were there looked at the group strangely. Sonic zoomed up to them.
"Hey Ralph, Felix, what's going on?" He asked.
"Turbo is back." Felix explained. "You've got to warn the others, tell them to head for their games and seal the exits."
"Except for Hero's Duty, we're gonna need the beacon to destroy him and his little Cy-Bug army." Tamora added.
Sonic, after giving them a shocked look, rolled towards the area where he delivered the PSAs. Fortunately the story of Turbo taking over Sugar Rush and Ralph defeating him was now known by all the game characters so no explanations were needed.
"Attention everyone!" Sonic announced. "Quickly head for your games and seal the exits, but make sure that no one had been left behind first! Only Hero's Duty is to remain open. This is not a drill, the Turbo-Cy-Bug hybrid is back and he has Cy-Bugs with him!"
All the other game characters freaked out and headed for their games. After Game Central Station was cleared, except for Ralph, Tamora, Felix, and the racers, the exits were sealed. The racers then drove to Hero's Duty...only to find it sealed too.
"What?" Felix was shocked.
"Blast Markowski and his entomophobia!" Tamora glared.
"His what?" Gloyd asked.
"It means 'fear of bugs'." Tamora explained.
"Huh, so that's why he got freaked out by that cockroach on my shoulder back when we first met." Ralph remarked. "Now what are we going to do?"
Turbug and the baby Cy-Bugs were coming from what they could hear.
"No time to wait for one of my soldiers to reopen the exit, we're just going to have to stand and fight. Head for the main plug!" Tamora ordered.
The Racers drove until they reached the main plug, which contained a train that led to the Game Central Stations in other arcades.
"Everyone to the wall, Ralph, help me make a wall around them using the karts." Tamora said.
"Right." Ralph agreed, getting the idea. "But I'm going to fight with you."
"Something tells me I'm gonna need your fists." Tamora nodded.
"Wait, what are you two doing?" Felix asked.
"All of you are going to stay here while Ralph and I fight." Tamora explained. "Hopefully us fighting them plus these karts will help prevent all of you from being eaten, but if it looks hopeless then head for the next Game Central Station. With any luck there'll be a Hero's Duty there and you can use the beacon in that game to finish this."
"But what about you?" Felix protested.
"Look, I may have lost my programmed love but I am not going to lose my true love." Tamora retorted before kissing Felix. "Stay strong sweetie, someone has to look after these sugar racers."
"Ralph." Vanellope sobbed.
"Sorry kid, but I have to help Tamora." Ralph said as he finished building the kart wall.
Vanellope glitched onto him.
"I'm not letting you do this without me." She protested.
"Kid..." Ralph groaned, trying to pull Vanellope off him.
He did pull her off but she just glitched back on much to his frustration. Ralph then got an idea. He still had the shock collar pieces, having automatically put them in his pocket, and so took them out and put them around Vanellope's neck.
"Felix? Mind giving me a hammer?" Ralph asked.
Knowing what Ralph wanted him to do, Felix reluctantly fixed the shock collar. Vanellope looked at Ralph with shock (pun not intended).
"Sorry kid, but I'm not letting you get eaten." Ralph pulled Vanellope off him again and gently set her down behind the karts.
"Ralph!" Vanellope cried as Ralph ran to help Tamora.
Vanellope tried glitching to Ralph but just got a nasty shock again. Even so she kept on trying. Everyone watched her with pain in their eyes.
"President? Ma'am?" Taffyta said, concerned for her. "Vanellope please stop!"
Shocked (again pun not intended), everyone stared at her. Even Vanellope stopped to stare at her.
"Shocking yourself like that is not going to do anyone any good." Taffyta shook her head calmly.
Vanellope gave in and started to cry. Taffyta comfortingly put an arm around her.
Meanwhile Turbug and the baby Cy-Bugs were nearing Tamora and Ralph.
"If anything happens to Tammy, my heart will become the first thing I'll never be able to fix." Felix said to himself sadly.
Vanellope overheard him.
"Same with my heart." She said to herself, looking at Ralph.
Turbug and the baby Cy-Bugs kept on nearing Ralph and Tamora...but then suddenly the ones in front were snatched by long green things! Startled, Turbug and the remaining baby Cy-Bugs stopped. Everyone looked up and saw giant praying mantises eating the baby Cy-Bugs!
"Great, more bugs." Tamora said dryly.
"At least these seem to be on our side." Ralph noticed.
"They are."
Startled, Ralph and Tamora turned around and saw an ant smiling at them
"Better get over here, they can feast better when they're on the ground." The ant gestured.
Ralph and Tamora went over to the ant, allowing the praying mantises to land on the ground and continue eating baby Cy-Bugs.
"Hey, name's Flip." The ant smiled. "My praying mantis friends and I live just a couple Game Central Stations over. Our arcade owner is out sick so we thought we'd explore some other Game Central Stations."
"So what kind of a game are you guys from?" Tamora asked.
"Well, it's sort of a multi-goal game." Flip explained. "We're from the game Bug Battle, where gamers play us ants. In the game we're collecting food but also have to fight off our rivals for the food, especially grasshoppers. The praying mantises obviously don't like their food being killed off, so they try to stop us. Basically the gamers have to collect food, fight off other bugs, and avoid the praying mantises. Of course outside the game we're all friends, especially since we know that if we fight each other outside our game we could accidentally kill each other which means Game Over."
"But wait, if the praying mantises 'eat' regular bugs how come they can handle eating robot bugs?" Ralph asked.
"Oh we've got a Hero's Duty in our arcade too." Flip explained. "So the praying mantises trained themselves to handle eating robot bugs in case a Cy-Bug or two got loose in our Game Central Station. Anyway we were just entering this Game Central Station when we saw what was going on so we decided to help out."
"Thanks for that." Ralph smiled.
"Yeah, glad to meet some good bugs." Tamora agreed.
"Watch it!" Flip suddenly panicked.
Tamora turned around and blasted a Cy-Bug that escaped the praying mantises.
"Better concentrate on blasting those Cy-Bugs." Flip wiped his forehead. "I'll be over with your friends."
"Right." Tamora agreed as she continued blasting Cy-Bugs.
Ralph also had his chances at wrecking Cy-Bugs. Soon there was only one left.
"No!" Turbug panicked. "No no no no-"
Too late, there was a sickening crunch that made even Tamora wince. The praying mantis that had chomped Turbug suddenly dropped him and reacted with disgust.
"Ugh, not used to Cy-Bug hybrids." The praying mantis winced. "And this one had a nasty flavor."
Tamora and Ralph went over to Turbug to make sure that he was dead. He was, he was lying on the ground mangled and with a bite mark on his body. His eyes were open and oil was seeping out of the bite mark and his mouth. Tamora blasted him, destroying his remains.
"And that's the end of that." She said.
Ralph and Tamora went back to the racers and gently put the karts back on the ground. Once Vanellope had a chance she went over to Ralph, who broke the shock collar off for good. Vanellope then glitched onto Ralph, clung onto him, and started to cry.
"I thought I was going to lose you." She sobbed.
"You'll never lose me." Ralph put a hand on her comfortingly.
She just continued crying.
Felix, once he got the chance, leapt up and hugged Tamora tightly. She hugged him back for a few seconds and then pulled him off and set him down.
"We'll have our time later Felix, first I'm gonna go make Markowski wish that he had been eaten by a Cy-Bug." She said.
"You're a bit late for that Sergeant." A soldier appeared and approached her. "The other soldiers and I already gave Markowski hell for sealing the exit on you. If you want to give him some punches of your own though go right ahead."
"Hm..." Tamora thought about it; she also looked at Felix and saw him still looking a bit upset. "You know what, I'll give Markowski a break this time. If you need me I'll be over at Fix-It-Felix Jr with my husband."
Felix beamed.
"Yes sir." The soldier saluted.
Meanwhile Vanellope was still crying. Ralph sighed.
"I'm gonna take her back to my house until she calms down." He said. "Then I'll bring her back to her castle."
"Fine with us." Taffyta shrugged.
"Yeah, we know how much you mean to her." Rancis added before chuckling. "She hardly ever stops talking about you."
Ralph just smirked and approached Flip and the praying mantises.
"Hey, thanks for the help." Ralph smiled.
"Definitely." Tamora saluted. "Normally I hate bugs, but you guys are all right in my book."
"Anytime, just glad we got here in time." Flip nodded. "Well, we probably should get back to our game. We'll try and visit you guys later."
Flip and the praying mantises waved and headed for the main plug as everyone else waved and thanked them. Once Flip and the praying mantises were gone Ralph, Felix, and Tamora headed for Fix-It-Felix Jr with Ralph still carrying Vanellope.
As Felix and Tamora headed for their apartment Ralph headed for his house with Vanellope. He then just sat down and let Vanellope continue to cry on him. Eventually she managed to relax her grip and her cries started subsiding.
"Kid, come on everything's okay now." Ralph was becoming concerned for her. "You're gonna make yourself sick."
Then there was a knock at the door.
"I'm still here, easy." Ralph gently said as he slowly laid her on his bed.
Vanellope just sniffled a little, so Ralph went over and opened the door.
"Oh, hi Gene." He said.
"Hi, I heard crying so I came to see if everything was all right." Gene explained.
"Felix didn't tell you what happened earlier did he?" Ralph asked.
"Actually he did." Gene shrugged. "I guess I, well..."
"Heh, I'm fine." Ralph smirked, getting what Gene was trying to say. "Vanellope's the one crying, the Cy-Bugs nearly getting me took it's toll on her. I think she's starting to calm down now though."
"Ah." Gene said understandingly. "Good, glad everything is relatively okay. I, uh, guess I'd better leave now so that you can take Vanellope back home."
"Yeah." Ralph agreed. "See you tomorrow Gene."
"Right, see ya Ralph." Gene left.
"Come on kid." Ralph said gently as he went over and picked her up.
She was asleep by this point, so she didn't protest. She just snuggled up against him. Ralph then slowly made his way into Sugar Rush.
When he reached the castle he lightly knocked on the door. Sour Bill opened it of course.
"Ah good, is President Vanellope doing better?" Sour Bill asked.
"Not sure, but she fell asleep so I thought I'd better bring her home." Ralph explained.
"She could've stayed with you since the other Racers already did the Roster Race, but whatever you think is best." Sour Bill shrugged. "Either way missing the Roster Race probably wasn't a bad thing though, considering what she's been through."
"Yeah, resting in the castle instead of racing all day might be better for her." Ralph agreed.
He and Sour Bill were walking to Vanellope's bedroom by this point. Once they were there Ralph gently put Vanellope in her bed and pulled the covers over her.
"Night kid." Ralph gently stroked her hair. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Ralph then left for his own game.