Filling in the Empty Spots
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Chapter 8: Breakdown
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Coming in after finishing up her post-work duties and a perimeter check in Hero's Duty, Calhoun found Felix sitting on the corner of his bed with his head in his hands and looking very tired. "What's with the elevator?" she asked. "Strangest thing I ever saw. Can you fix it?"
Felix looked up at her, his eyes full of disbelief and shock, causing her to draw back slightly. "I can't," he said, his voice sounding about to crack. "The game's Code is breaking down. All those weird little glitches? They were just the start. Now it's big things not appearing...walls, windows, the trees."
"Breaking down? But that means..."
"It means that our ship is sinking. Fix-It Felix, Jr. is doomed. I don't know how much longer we have left."
"Oh Felix!" She rushed to her husband and took him into her arms, holding him so tightly he thought he'd never be able to straighten out completely again. "You'll come to Hero's Duty with me, of course. I can get bigger quarters since there will be two of us living there. Or maybe we could fix up one of the empty rooms as a home. This isn't the end of us." She kissed him and ran her hands through his sandy brown hair. "Losing your game won't pull us apart."
"No, it won't." He looked up into her eyes, their pale blue depths still full of enthusiasm and confidence, unlike his own.
"Isn't that the most important thing? That we stay together? And we'll find homes for everyone else. Everyone here must have friends in other games where they'll be taken in, right?"
"I'm sure they will. And I'm pretty sure Ralph will go over to Sugar Rush. For goodness sakes, he's practically lived there ever since he met Vanellope, and now he's got Jubileena."
"See...not so bad," she said reassuringly.
"I'll be jobless."
"No you won't, presuming your hammer comes with you."
"Of course it will. What kind of a question is that?"
She pushed Felix down onto the bed, rolled him onto his stomach, and rubbed his back comfortingly. "There're plenty of things that need fixing in Hero's Duty," she said. "Though too bad you can't fix shell-shock. Markowski's been particularly strung out lately."
Felix suddenly chuckled. "Climb the building! Fight bugs! Climb the building! Fight more bugs!" he said, hands flailing in the air, miming the soldier's latest breakdown after a few drinks in Tapper's.
Calhoun was chuckling at the shamefully accurate performance. "See, you belong with us," she said with a surprising tenderness in her voice.
"I belong with you."
"Always," she whispered and began to untuck his shirt.
"Don't rumple my feathers, not now. There's a meeting in the penthouse in half an hour about the situation. We're going to try to come up with a plan."
"And after that?"
"Given the ways things have been going I'll probably need a stiff drink and a lot of feather rumpling."
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Jubileena was completely shocked when Ralph told her about the plan to begin the evacuation of Fix-It Felix Jr.. "Ralph, what are you going to do? You know you could come live me in the Cherry Cabana."
He smiled and squeezed her little hand tenderly. "I've thought a lot about it. There's that abandoned gingerbread house I found up there in the Pine Locum forest. I'll have Felix help me fix it up and I can live there. And I can keep exploring and mapping from there." He sighed and looked down at his hands. "I'll miss wrecking stuff, but at least I'll have something to do."
"But you'll be here in Sugar Rush the whole time?"
"Well, I'll go visit my friends in other games sometimes. Felix is moving in with Sgt. Calhoun, and a bunch of the Nicelanders are already moving into Formula One Xtreme as crowd filler. And Gene's actually going over to King of Fighters. He got himself a bartending job there on one of the stages. And the Q*Bert crew's going over to Pac-Man."
"That's good, and it will be nice that I get to see you so much more."
"Maybe. But I will be a bit more remote. That cabin's a long way from the road."
"We'll build a road," she smiled encouragingly. "Vanellope once said that you built her a test track."
Ralph leaned in and kissed her. "So I did."
"And then I can just drive over and see you anytime."
"When I'm not exploring. I still have so many empty places on my map to fill in."
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Ralph and Jubileena caught Princess Vanellope in her office after the conclusion of a Random Roster Race, and announced by the guard at the door they walked boldly up to her desk.
The Princess hopped out of her chair and came around to the front of her desk to greet them. "Miss Bing Bing. Mr. Wreck-It. What may I do for you?" she asked, bowing slightly to the latter.
Ralph dropped to one knee. "Your highness, my game, Fix-It, Felix, Jr. is breaking down. I've come to ask permission to stay in Sugar Rush, permanently."
"I've heard about the misfortune of your game and how could I refuse to let you move in with us? You've been a regular visitor, and of course a very dear friend of Miss Bing Bing." She winked at Jubileena.
Jubileena blushed and smiled and squeezed Ralph's hand.
"Not to be presumptuous, but would you be moving into the Cherry Cabana?"
"Actually," said Ralph, "there's an old broken down cabin I found in my travels, up in the Pine Locum forest in the mountains to the west of here. I was hoping to fix it up and live there, well out of the race area of the game and a good ways out of everyone's hair.
"Oh," she said, seeming somewhat disappointed, which was puzzling to all three of them. "That's so far away. You would be welcome to live in the castle here if you would like though, a permanent guest of the royal family."
"That's a kind offer, Princess, but I don't want to intrude on the affairs of Sugar Rush. Besides, there's a beautiful view of Mt. Toblerone from the back porch of the cabin."
"I can understand that. Well please consider it a standing invitation. And please feel free to settle where ever you'd like. You have my express permission."
"Thank you," said Ralph, bowing again to her and rising.
"Anytime, Mr. Wreck-It," she smiled and bowed back. "Let me know if you need anything of if there is any way I can assist in your move into Sugar Rush."
They said their goodbyes and Jubileena and Ralph left the Royal Salon, walking hand in hand. "Ralph, this is so exciting! You'll be a resident of Sugar Rush now! My game!"
"It'll be my home now, not just place I go visiting and exploring."
"I'm amazed that the princess invited you to live in the castle. I think she likes you a lot. And she's always bowing and curtseying to you. She doesn't do that for anyone else. You don't think there's something of the old Vanellope deep in her Code, do you?"
"I suppose that's a possibility. I wouldn't know though."
"Well I'm just glad she said yes. I was so worried that she would tell you no and then you've have to go somewhere else."
"Well the girls in Vegas Fever did send me an invitation to come live with them. Apparently they're needing someone to help them zip up their dresses."
Jubileena looked up at her boyfriend, the worry in her eyes quite evident. The showgirls in Vegas Fever were all tall and gorgeous and there really wasn't much to those dresses that needed zipping up, if they could be called dresses at all.
"Awww, I'm just teasing. They didn't ask ol' ham hands here. But I did get a serious invitation to be a playable character in Wrestling Superstars. Apparently they've decided to go the retro route and pick up a few classic characters."
"And did you accept?"
"I told them I'd think about it. I've never been a playable character before."
"It's a lot of fun," said Jubileena. "It can be such a thrill sometimes."
"Yeah, but who knows. I think I just want to be an old retired guy for a while. You know...wear mismatched clothes long out of style and yell at you kids to get off of my lawn."
Jubileena laughed. She loved his imagination and sense of humor. "If that's what you want, I'm happy with it too."
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The occupants of Fix-It Felix Jr. moved out, continuing to commute back to the game to do their jobs, hanging onto their world as long as possible. And when the game became noticeably dysfunctional and barely playable one day, they held a meeting and the vote to abandon ship was unanimous.
Together they all marched to the Code room and Gene opened it. Then Felix and Ralph went inside and began extracting the character Code blocks, handing them to their respective owners. "Take these to your new games, and have them installed immediately. Felix pulled his block and the block for his hammer last, and Ralph hauled him out of the Code room. "That's it," the handyman said with a sigh. "Thirty-three years over and done."
Ralph said nothing, but suddenly picked up Felix and held him tightly to his chest. "Thirty-three years is a long time for a game. I keep thinking how lucky it was to have that." And then he hugged Felix tightly. "And it's not over for us either. You've got a loving wife and a home to go to. I've got my girlfriend and a cabin in the woods. Sure it stinks of gingerbread and frosting and candy," he said sarcastically. "It's not my garbage dump, but it will be home."
Felix hugged him back. "You're right. This could just be the beginning...a new start."
"It is a new start. Life will be good again for us."
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Felix sighed as he settled his and Mary's Code blocks into the Code room of Hero's Duty. He had expected to be the only one from his game moving in, but apparently the soldiers of Calhoun's unit had made the little lady an offer she couldn't refuse, and despite the dismal surroundings of the game she had cheerfully moved into a remodeled room in the barracks. Somehow everyone knew her cooking skills were a big part of the reason behind her relocation in such a bleak place.
He watched as a series of connections suddenly appeared and dragged the three blocks into the greater mass of programming. And then he tugged on the rope and Calhoun towed him back. "Welcome aboard, soldier," she greeted him.
"Sir, thank you, Sir," he said with a little salute. And then he looked around as the vault door closed behind him. "It's going to be strange calling this place home."
"Yep. I think it's been even stranger for Mary though. You've spent plenty of time here already. She's a complete newcomer."
"True that."
"I have to say that I'm enjoying the home cooking in the mess hall though, and the men are pretty excited to have her here. This place could use a woman's touch."
Felix looked up at her with questioning eyes.
"Me? A woman's touch? Yeah right." She only laughed.
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Filling in the Empty Spots continues in:
Chapter 9: Little Cabin in the Woods
Chapter 10: Back to the Meadow
Chapter 11: The Spring Solstice Ball
Chapter 12: The President's Legacy
Chapter 13: A Heavy Crown
Chapter 14: The Final Secret
Chapter 15: Filling in the Empty Spots Commentary
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Wreck-It Ralph and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Walt Disney Pictures. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.