Last updated: 12/30/2013 14:08 (UTC-5:00)

. : : Disconnection : : .

Phase I, Level 4: Newport Party

. Present Time, The following night at Litwak's Arcade .

The first thing to infringe upon Ralph's senses was noise - great, thunderous noise with enough decibels to shatter even the thickest eardrums. The low-pitched tones echoed through his body with such ferocity, it penetrated his large chest and threatened to give him heart palpitations. The next sensory overload he experienced was that of smell. No longer able to smell the faint wisps of peppermint from Vanellope's memento around his neck, his nostrils were now flooded with the grating smell of salt and fish – a far cry from the sweet gentle aroma he'd grown accustomed to. Looking down and to his left he caught the gaze of his genteel hammer-wielding friend, who looked up at him with a reassuring smile, though Ralph was pretty sure it was forced – Felix looked like he didn't like the prospects of this mission any better than Ralph did. Nonetheless, the wrecker was grateful for the company on this otherwise lonely quest.

Disembarking from the train, the two cautiously ventured forth into this previously unknown world – and nearly tripped over their own feet. "My lands! This terrain needs some serious fixing!" Felix exclaimed as he tried to regain his footing. Since when was the ground supposed to MOVE under one's feet like this? Ralph seemed to be getting the hang of it quicker, perhaps since he didn't have any form of shoes hindering his feet from being able to grip the surface – although he DID seem to have the slight disadvantage of substantial mass, and would sink into the terrain a lot more than Felix did.

Eventually, they managed to adjust their walking habits in a way that effectively got them from point A to point B; Ralph just wasn't too thrilled to think about what might be waiting for them at point B – the supposed origin of the loud noise and crude smells. Cresting the top of a… hill of some sort - though it was already ceasing to be a hill as a salty breeze caused a shift in the particles along the top of it - the pair looked down upon a lively party of some sort. Felix was soon 8-bit bopping to the catchy dance tune with his signature 'Fix-It Felix' move, while Ralph was trying to assess what sort of threat the large white ball being volleyed among a bunch of party-goers presented – He had learned not to take small spherical objects lightly after the Cy-bug eggs. Before he had finished his assessment, the cautious wrecker noticed his companion was already jump-dancing down to meet the crowd without him.

Attempting to catch up, Ralph went bounding down the hill and was suddenly struck with apprehension when he noted he was gaining far too much momentum and starting to slip on the shifty granules that comprised the ground. Before he could so much as say, "I'm gonna wreck it!" Ralph was tumbling head over heels and bowling over a bunch of blond party-goers that were probably already pinheads to begin with.

Unfortunately the ride didn't stop there and soon he was able to assess that the white ball didn't pose much of a threat other than perhaps a few knocked out teeth as it made a collision course with his face, but he had other problems to worry about as he narrowly managed to escape an entanglement with the net. His change in direction sent him careening towards a big blue – and from all appearances, wet – thing that kissed the edge of the shifty yellow terrain he was currently in combat with.

"Ralph!" Felix cried as his tumbling friend collided with the foaming substance. Not a moment after, it engulfed his friend when a large tongue of blue swept over him. Bravely deciding to go after Ralph right into the monster's mouth, Felix returned his hammer to his belt and took a deep breath to prepare himself.

"Dude! Your bro's totally amped to go spongin'! Awesome!" one of the natives piped up – RIGHT behind Felix, making him lose his resolve.

"Er- uh, Hi! My Name's Fix-It Felix Jr., from the game, 'Fix-It Felix Jr.', and my… 'bro' there is Wreck-It Ralph. We're actually on a very important mission." he responded, going into speech mode and momentarily forgetting Ralph's plight.

"Far out, dude! The name's Jake, and this here's my territory. Finest beach in all Cali! Welcome to the Laguna hot spot!", the tall blond guy with the funny accent and vocabulary talked back. Felix only wished he knew what the guy was saying, and was only further confused when he slapped on a "...t'cha!" at the end.

Ralph wasn't quite sure what he was in, but he was keenly aware of the fact that he couldn't breathe, and when he tried to open his eyes, they stung like mad. He forced himself to keep them open and took in his surroundings. He'd been in there for what felt like a minute now, but at least things had calmed down. When he had first made contact, the shifty ground got even more aggressive and sank away from his feet as the blue stuff tugged him further and deeper into itself. He couldn't see very much, but there seemed to be some light entering the blue on his left, so he made toward it as best he knew how, but try as he might, he was only getting further and further away from it. Aside from being irked that this blue wet stuff was apparently stronger and bigger than he was, he was becoming increasingly panicked as his oxygen levels were running low and his muscles were beginning to fail him as his weight made him sink further and further.

Suddenly he caught sight from his right peripheral of a dark shape slithering by with alarming speed and dexterity, and a chill went down his spine as though he could feel the motions that shape had just made through the viscous he was surrounded by. Fear gripping him, he made another attempt to get closer to the fading light with all his might, though he was now getting dizzy and his lungs were burning and twitching with a base desire for air. The dark shape made another pass, this time on his left. Great, he was being circled… or surrounded. And by a very ominous being… or two… or more. He didn't like this atmosphere one bit. It was like he had a heightened sense of motion here, and was able to feel the after-effects of others' motions. The sense of foreboding was overwhelming, especially when he felt the substance start to beat against him from all sides – like something – or some things – was closing in on him. His heart racing a mile a minute, his eyes and lungs burning, and still ever so far from the light, he tried flailing his limbs one last time, but the next thing he knew, everything went dark.

. Present Time - In another part of town .

"WAAHHHHH!" The sound of sobbing, cries, and wails filled the air as panic – sheer, bloody panic – overtook the otherwise sweet lands of Sugar Rush.

"Alright everybody, just calm down!" Vanellope shouted in an attempt to bring everyone to order – though she was just as scared as everyone else. As president, she had a job to do - a job to protect her citizens – and doing so would be pointless if they'd all lost their sanity to begin with.

Truth was, she had no idea how to do either – calm them down or figure out what was going on. According to the system's millis, a lot of time had passed since they'd first been unplugged – and they were often unplugged in between short times of consciousness. Her best bet was that the game's power supply was having issues, and for some reason, rather than having it looked at in-house, old Litwak had sent them out to a repair shop. But even if that was the case, she didn't think a hardware issue like that would have taken months to repair. Every time they gained consciousness was just another time to ponder if this time would be the last time they had it – if the next time they would be unplugged permanently. What she really wanted to do was to get a team of semi-sane people together to do reconnaissance on what awaited them at the end of their plug – if there was anywhere they could escape to before the next unplugging. But so far, the pandemonium was preventing her from getting through to even one person. She felt like she now had a clue as to what Ralph was going through with his job. Dealing with unplugged – or about to be unplugged – characters was impossible! She had it easy being a leader up to this point, and now that it'd actually gotten hard, she was useless as such. Now she only wished she'd have a chance to admit her prior ignorance and ask for Ralph's forgiveness. Aw poop - pardon the potty mouth, I meant 'aw tootsie roll'. Now she'd done it. All this remorse and missing Ralph was now making her lose her wits and before she could do anything to stop it, she was now bawling with the rest of them. Some leader… "Ralph…" she choked softly as the madness began to overcome her as well.

"Just keep your head on straight, Vanellope, keep it together", Vanellope told herself as she wiped at her eyes, "...and just think of what Ralph would do in this situation..."

. : : Meta-Data : : .

Congratulations, Player 1... You've unlocked bonus content...

To access this content, go to the grooveshark webite and search for "Newport Party Disconnection Remix" there's a song the developer uploaded there as the song Felix was dancing to in this chapter.

. Player Responses .

WhatNames – So glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun writing it and trying to use as many references as I could! And I'm also really happy you liked Candlehead. I love Candlehead, and am often disappointed at how she's portrayed (or not even portrayed at all – sadness)

applebut999 – bwahahah! I mean, sorry for the torment… but really, the first question is torment in and of itself…

Awesome Stories May Occur / Guest – Thanks for all the reviews! Please check your PMs for my response, as they contained spoilers, and I didn't want to post them here. So happy you like the story so far!

Awesome Stories May Occur / Guest – No, not up for auction. If I had responded to you sooner, you wouldn't have had to wait until this chapter where I mentioned that Sugar Rush was sold to a private buyer (not that I stated that explicitly, but it was somewhat implied by Kitty's comment that it was a single e-mail / IP address / buyer… and the transaction had already taken place before Sugar Rush 'woke up' to those people playing it.

Annie C – Thanks! Not really a promotion, just moving around within the same department, working on a different team for a different product… yes, that's all rather vague, but I'm not entirely sure how to explain it. How about I just state that I work as a software developer and now I'm working on a different program than I was before? I don't fully get all the company politics myself anyway… Glad you like the story! And yes, I just had to put Zombie in… he's so endearing… in a weird, sort of morbid… way… yeah…

. Developer's Notes .

Sorry this is so short, guys! I also apologize for any errors and/or things that don't make sense… I didn't have a lot of time to work on it with the new job and all. I just completed level one of the training… and next week starts level two… oi. So yeah, I wanted to get SOMETHING posted before things got REALLY crazy! Hopefully soon it'll all calm down and I can write more…

Concerning the bonus content... As the 'remix' implies, yes, I did a little editing on the original to customize it for this story. This is the first time I ever edited a song and I used free crappy software to do it, so I apologize for the bad quality… If it suites your fancy, you should check out the original song, cause it's way better. I only wanted to speed up the tempo a big and make it more 'danceable'.

Once again, I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support! If I had the time, I'd do review responses and thank each one individually that has favorited and/or followed this story since the last time I had a chance to do so... I will catch up on that all eventually! In the meantime, I'm sorry, this general all-encompassing one here is all I have time for... sadness...

. Cheat Codes! .

"His change in direction sent him careening towards a big blue – and from all appearances, wet – thing" - Another "Muppet Treasure Island" reference, this time for how squire Trelawney refers to the ocean as, "The big blue wet thing".

"Sheer, bloody panic" - A shameless reference to the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack.

"According to the system's millis" - Computer time is tracked in milliseconds, and is continually tracked even when the system is powered down. Thus the system could calculate how much time had passed since it was last active.