Phase I, Level 6: Mission Improgrammable II
Many innocent bystanders milling about Grand Central Station were subject to a speeding blue blur. That is, until he pulled up short. He had just blown past the Whack-A-Mole platform when something caught his eye which prompted him to slam on his 'brakes' and back up.
"Ralph! Felix! What are you guys doing here!? Is the mission over already!?" the speedy hedgehog exclaimed, surprised and indignant.
The duo didn't have a chance to respond before a particularly dynamite gal pulled up on her glider, having finally caught up to Sonic.
"Whoah! Far out! You can surf on AIR!?" Jake cried out, drawing all attention to himself, leaving just about everyone present in a state of confusion.
"Who's this? You took him on your mission and you didn't even invite ME!?" Sonic accused, getting REALLY upset now.
"Sonic, I've been trying to explain, but you took off before I could." Calhoun explained, rather disgruntled herself from having to chase him down.
"You mean you didn't rush out here to welcome me back, honey?" Felix asked, visibly wilting from his past state of excitement of seeing his wife so promptly.
"Dude, can I ride your surfboard!?"
"No!" Calhoun answered her husband and the unknown blond simultaneously. "Sorry, honey, circumstances would've been different if this insubordinate hodge-podge didn't get out of hand."
"Hey! I'm a HEDGEHOG. Hedge. Hog."
"Shut it and listen for once when you ask questions! Felix and Ralph were – "
"Can I PLEASE ride your awesome air-board, Miss Dudette?"
"NO!"
"Who is that, and why is he with Felix and Ralph on their mission!?"
"Er, can we – " Ralph started, but was interrupted by a cough and a sputter, " – go back to the game first?"
It was then that Calhoun noticed that Ralph was obviously a little worse for wear. "Ralph! What happened to you!?"
"Oh don't you worry, Miss Dudette, he just got riptide'd out and had a gnarly encounter with the sea sprite, but he'll be fine, just got himself salty lungs for awhile – t'cha." Jake explained, as if that was a completely suitable explanation for gremmies.
"And who're you?" Sonic addressed the blond foreigner directly.
"Oh hey, lil dude, 'name's Jake, from the 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard' game." he explained, pointing a thumb back over his shoulder at the sign that aptly read 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard' overhanging the platform.
"Hey, I'm NOT little! And you're from the NEW game!?" Sonic cried angrily. How dare they take the newbie with them on their mission and not himself!
"T'cha. NOW can I ride your ride, dudette?"
"For the last time, NO!" Calhoun yelled, "Now I suggest we all head over to Fix-It Felix Jr., calm down, and get all these misunderstandings cleared up.
The rest of the group consenting, they made their way to follow the sergeant's suggestion.
"So… can I ride your board over there?"
"NO!"
"Where are you goin', Doctor? The train's over this way!" Vanellope pointed out as the doctor made his way over to a dead end wall.
Making no response, the doctor only continued walking until he made contact with the wall – and disappeared through it.
"Whoah! Didja see that!?" Jubileena asked in astonishment.
"Yeah! Let's go through too!"
"Do you think we can?"
"Don't worry 'bout it; I'll go first."
"But what if I can't follow you and end up here stuck by myself?"
"Here, I'll hold your hand. Now we can't be separated."
A little more reassured, Jubileena followed her friend through the wall and they emerged hand in hand.
"Whoah…" was all they could say on the other side, for they were in a huge room with all sorts of 'outlets'. From this side of the wall, they could see the power cord that housed the train right behind them, and in front of them, many other cords and wires. Some were just as large as the train tunnel, and many others were far smaller, like a little mouse sized train tunnel.
"Where do all these go?" Jubileena inquired, reaching a hand out to towards an entrance for one of the mouse sized tunnels with the intent to bend down for a closer look.
"Don't touch that!" The doctor shouted, causing Jubileena to withdraw her hand as though she'd been shocked with electricity. Rushing back to the girls' side, he grabbed Jubileena's free hand – the one that reached out to touch the tunnel – and bent over it, examining meticulously. "Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked anxiously.
"N-No…" The startled racer replied. Vanellope gripped the hand that was in hers for support.
"Thank goodness." the doctor mumbled, releasing the hand and resuming full posture.
"What's so dangerous about it?" Vanellope asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.
The Doctor stood still for a while, his muffin headgear bobbing a bit, as though the thoughts flying around his head were too intense even for the large muffin to contain. Sighing, he returned his attention to the bewildered girls staring wide eyed in anticipation. "First, I must beg for your forgiveness. I was in so much of a hurry, I didn't stop long enough to ponder the danger this would pose to you ladies. I do sincerely offer my apologies." At this, he bowed his head a little in their direction. "It's ok" Jubileena replied, but Vanellope wasn't about to get distracted. "You're gonna try an' send us back, aren'tcha?"
"It's the best for your safety, young misses."
"Look here, crumb-face. I'm the PRESIDENT of this here game, and I ain't going back. It is my duty – and it's a BIG duty – to oversee all concerns for my game." The Doctor noted that Vanellope could be quite a tough cookie when she wanted to be. No more miss sweet racer, for sure.
"And I'm not going back without Vanellope!" Jubileena piped in, "because she's my best friend…"
That last addendum made Vanellope freeze. 'Best friend'? She'd never had one of those before… and it felt… incredibly special.
The warm fuzzy Kodak moment was broken when the Muffin Man acquiesced, defeated. "Ahhh fine. But you girls are going to have to obey my every command, got it? And stay close behind me!"
"Got it!" The girls chorused.
"Very well. First rule is no. touching. Anything!"
"What about the floor?" Vanellope challenged with a giggle. She was incredibly happy right now, despite the dangerous situation and somber doctor.
"Yeah, and the air?" Jubileena added, sticking her tongue out.
Rather than getting upset, the doctor just stepped up to them, took both their free hands in his, and looked them in the eye. With the most serious of tones, he explained, "Look, it's my responsibility to keep you ladies safe; and we're in the most unstable part of the cabinet right now. One wrong move and your code could be deleted – forever. When we walked through that wall, we left the virtual graphics realm you've always been used to. It was like a safe little bubble in there, but in here, we're in the motherboard itself, and all those little ports are different buses transporting raw data to where it needs to go. The only reason I'm here is to investigate some serious code anomalies I've picked up on. Being a part of the computer itself, I have no code, and thus I need not worry about deletion like you do. This body that's interacting with you now is an avatar I made from spare code so that I could have eyes and ears in other parts of the system I cannot physically access myself. It's expendable. However you two… your code is all you have. If it gets deleted; you'll be gone forever. Now please… listen to me and let me protect you."
That was twice in two minutes Vanellope had been touched with a warm fuzzy feeling; but this time, there was no longer any desire to giggle about it. She had no idea the doctor cared so much – he must take his job far more seriously than she ever took hers. Upon closer inspection, she could see that the Muffin Man's cheeks were starting to streak and his eyes looked rather wet. He'd hardly ever interacted with them – at least not in his avatar form – how could it be that he was so attached?
The two solemnly nodded their agreement, then silently followed as he led them further into the darkness.
"So you aren't leaving to go find Sugar Rush until next weekend when Litwak's out of town for a few days?" Sonic clarified, spinning his chair at the conference room table – he never could stand sitting still.
"That's right." Felix responded, at the head of the table, since it was his conference room – on the top floor of the penthouse.
"And you were at Blondie's because you wanted to welcome him to the arcade?" the blue hedgehog again clarified, not sure he totally bought into it.
"Yes, sir."
"NOW can I ride the air-board!?"
"How many times do I have to say 'no'!?" An exasperated Calhoun exclaimed, standing up from her seat and looking like she was going to punch Jake in the face.
"Actually, ma'am, I think now might be a good time for Jake to leave the room – er, take your 'board' out for a spin." Felix nudged, communicating with his eyes that it'd be better for them all if Jake just wasn't present for continued discussion – if only for their sanity, due to his incessant pleas.
"Ugh… fine…" Tamora mumbled, barely audible, reluctantly handing over her glider.
"Really!? RIGHTEOUS!" the blond surf enthusiast yelled, and was out the door with the glider faster than Sonic could accomplish.
"Finally…" Ralph groaned. He never liked the thought of befriending the game in the first place; and now that he knew what the locals were like, he REALLY wanted nothing to do with them.
"I can tell you don't believe us, Sonic." Felix pointed out, "but I know Ralph wouldn't want us discussing the real reason with Jake around – even if his remarkably low I.Q. would've enabled it to go right over his head anyway" Looking over at his friend, Felix asked, "Do you want to take over from here, Ralph?"
Not really. But he didn't think he'd get away with refusing anyway. So he started, "It's all part of my 'therapy'. They think I'll be able to come to grips with 'Sugar Rush's disappearance and be more detached and focused on the mission if I can first come to grips with the fact that 'Sugar Rush' has been replaced by 'Laguna Beach Lifeguard'. Believe us now?"
"Yeah, I do. And now I hope you'll listen to my proposal – "
"RIGHTEOUS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the euphoric surfer cried as he crashed through the conference room window.
"That's it, I've had it!" Calhoun roared, and a second later, blond decked blond off the deck of the glider.
Now pinned to the floor, Jake ejaculated, "WHOAH! That ride was so worth it… hit me, baby, one more time! YEAH!" Calhoun was happy to oblige.
"Listen up, guys; the arcade opens up in a few minutes so before this gets too crazy, just hear me out! I wanna go with you on your mission over the internet to find 'Sugar Rush'." Sonic interrupted.
"Oh hey, can I come too? Sounds gnarly!"
"Fat chance, hippie!" the sergeant replied, and followed up with another slug for good measure.
After Felix finished fixing the window and Ralph arranged all the heavy conference room furniture back to their original position, and after Calhoun had kicked out the surfer and put away her glider under lock and key, Felix called for a debriefing.
"Up 'til now, we've been planning this as a 3-man job; just the three of us. But now we've got two more who want to join. I think we should at least seriously consider the benefits of their requests."
"Well nothing good can come of that Josh 'dude' coming." Calhoun huffed.
"The gentleman's name is 'Jake', honey."
"He's no 'gentleman', and he wouldn't last five minutes as a soldier, neither."
"All disqualifications aside, I'm against Jake." Ralph piped in.
"And why's that?" Felix prompted.
"I dunno… just seems… wrong… to bring along the guy who replaced… replaced… her."
"Exactly why I think it would be a good idea for him to come."
"WHAT!?" Calhoun and Ralph chorused in protest.
"Just hear me out. The 'therapy' mission today obviously failed. And Ralph's no closer to 'resolution', or even being able to simply say the name of 'Sugar Rush's heroine. Perhaps prolonged exposure to the reality – to Jake – would be good for him."
"I ain't buyin' it without an actual doctor's opinion – and maybe Josh-"
"Jake."
"-whatever. Should go see a doctor himself!"
"Fair enough. We'll ask Dr. McAlloc. But even if he doesn't agree, I still say if he wants to come, we should let him."
"What!? Why!?" Ralph spoke up, his frown growing more severe.
"Because he saved your life."
"His game's villain attacked me!"
"Doesn't discredit his skills. Such bravery and rescue training could be indispensable on our mission."
"Ugh, can't believe you're even considering him! You saw how he mishandled my glider!" Calhoun interjected.
"With all due respect, ma'am, you didn't see him in action at the beach like I did. And despite his glider fiasco, he skillfully avoided hurting anyone. I think he just got a little too over-excited. If we leave the glider behind, that problem will be solved."
"I still don't like it."
"Neither do I." Ralph agreed, making sure the quarreling lovebirds still knew he was present. It was –his- mission after all, and he was starting to feel sidelined. "What about Sonic?" he asked, hoping a change in subject would get the focus back where it should be.
"His speed could definitely be useful, and he's been a loyal friend to all in the arcade he knows. I'm ok with it." Felix agreed.
"Far better HIM than blondie." Calhoun consented.
"Have you forgotten that you're also a blond, honey?"
Ralph gave up. They were too engrossed in their own conversation and would no doubt be making a third wheel presence feel quite awkward when things started to get mushy. Excusing himself so they could be alone, the lonely giant left the penthouse and stepped off screen, preparing himself for the arcade opening in a few minutes. Savoring the last couple minutes of the night, Ralph pulled out the candy flower hanging around his neck and traced the stem with his finger. "Don't worry, princess. No matter what hurdles get in the way, I'm still going to find you, and then I'll show you how sorry I am – for everything…"
Whistling a self-satisfied tune, the blond and bruised lifeguard meandered back onto the beaches of his game and was welcomed by all his fellow surfers and surfettes, who begged for details on his adventure on the outside and what took him so long.
"Well you see, ladies..." he began, putting each of his arms around the closest girls, "I've been invited on a most DANGEROUS mission; they just can't accomplish it without my rad skillz". As the girls giggled and pressed for more details, he and the crowd headed into the beach mansion – their game's starting point, since the night was nearly over.
They were all so enraptured by his narrative, none of them noticed a dark shadow slink by as it eavesdropped on Jake's every word.
"It's as I feared…" The Muffin Man whispered as he examined a particularly large box. A 'mouse-sized' cord was coming out of it and was pulsing with blue light in regular intervals.
"What is?" Vanellope asked hesitantly.
"Our code's being copied." He stated with finality, as though the girls understood the implications of 'copied', or even got the concept of it in the first place.
"So… what's that mean?" Jubileena pressed.
"It means a backup is being created." The doctor was now pacing back and forth in apprehension, often wiping his face with his hand as he pondered.
"Is that… bad?"
"I'm still not entirely sure. A back up could mean something's wrong with the system and so they want a restore point should the system crash, but I haven't monitored any abnormalities that would indicate we're unstable. It could also mean that a copy is being made to put into a new cabinet so this one can be disposed of, and while I don't have a good view of the outside of the console, I don't think we sustained any sort of damage to the unit that would warrant it needing replacement. No… there's a more plausible deduction; I just need to think of it."
At that moment, they started to hear noises like the computer was getting into gear for something. More lights started pulsing down cords and the sound of giant fans began to whir as they prepared to keep the system cooled.
"What's… going on?" Jubileena asked, grabbing hold of Vanellope's arm in fear.
"We'd better get back." The Muffin Man stated, "The system's on a timer for usual arcade operation, and it thinks it's opening time. The longer we stay, the more dangerous it'll get as it sets up the system for play. Follow me!"
Needing no further prodding, the girls followed him closely, and soon they were nearly back to where they had first entered, but suddenly the doctor stopped, causing them to bump into his back. Before they could process why he'd stopped, he shouted, "NO! DON'T, CANDLE-"
True Word Count for Chapter 6: 2,920
True Word Count for story thus far: 20,712
A/N: Thank you all for your continued support with favorites / follows, and reviews! I'm so excited about the positive response and that you're all enjoying it as I'm enjoying writing it!
Review Responses:
Becky Blue Eyes – Funny that you said 'case'… but I can't tell you why yet. xD I had a lot of fun building on Vanellope's and Jubileena's chemistry in this chapter! I think they're too cute! (Is that prideful of me? Whoops…)
Dixie Darlin – Haha, I guess it is bizarre and hilarious in a way… but so much for trying to get the readers to fear with Ralph as he thought he was more or less drowning… xD This is what I get for mixing danger and adventure with comedy… I hope the idea of the doctors seems a little more plausible after this chapter; I really struggled making the concept of the game doctors 'believable', but I really wanted a closer link between the characters and the computer / code behind them, and I somehow ended up with this idea of doctors and code repair and such…
Christiansoldier5 – Buckle up! As this chapter pointed out, there's more Sonic to come!
Ryanurch – I PM'd you asking for more specifics on what was hard to read, but since you didn't respond, I'll put a review response here as well…
All – I've been told that this story is at times hard to read. Is this a common problem for the rest of you as well? Please let me know if so and which parts you found difficult. I'll try to avoid such instances in the future so ya'll can enjoy the story without difficulty! That being said, there are times when I'm purposely trying to make it 'hard to read', as I wish to play with your minds; bwahahahaha! But only a little bit…