Medals Must Be Earned

by Miratete

In this "what-if" story, Ralph's crowning achievement isn't rescuing Sugar Rush from Cy-Bugs he introduced to that game. In this version, he never got to Sugar Rush. In fact he never even made it out of Hero's Duty. A tiny change in trajectory leads to huge changes in the story the movie gave us. Warnings: severe corporal punishment, underwear, & champagne.

6. Strength

Medals Must Be Earned

-o-o-o-o-o-

Chapter 6: Strength

o-o-o-o-o-

I kiss my window facing south
where endless rains are splashing blue
My mouth spills an ocean of words
crashing waves of intention

If I stood still
Under dark gray skies
Would memories flood me
With alibis

It's here where I stand
with time in hand
Prophesize those days
Rain on me

Wash the rain away my dear

Incandescence can dance
through white shades of sand
Perfect skies
tell the tides
Rain on me

A thousand days of rain

And I see the sunrise kissing my face
sometimes
And I know the sun shines down on me

Rain on me

Feel the sunlight in my face
See the sunshine in my grace
Now that I know I am here
Wash the rain away my dear

-Lyrics to "Purify" by Ballomingo

-o-o-o-o-o-

Felix waited outside of Hero's Duty rather anxiously. For a while earlier, Mary, Don, and Nell had appeared and sat with him, also quite concerned about what was happening in the game Ralph had somehow entangled himself in. They talked for a couple of hours, discussing Ralph and his going Turbo, and about why their bad guy had suddenly gotten out of line. But after a while they'd left, heading home, leaving Felix to his vigil. Unable to stay awake, he'd fallen asleep at the portal to Hero's Duty.

Felix woke when someone began shaking his shoulder. Opening his eyes he found one of the soldiers there in front of him. "I'm supposed to come get you," he said. "Your buddy needs you."

Felix cringed. The plan had been for Ralph to come out afterward. Was the wrecker so mangled that he couldn't walk out?

He was escorted inside and through a series of corridors, and eventually led into one labeled 'Men's Showers,' to where Ralph waited dressed only in his boxer shorts. "Felix! You gotta fix me!" he said excitedly. "She tore me up pretty badly." Ralph turned around and knelt down.

"Oh my land! Ralph! What did she do to you?"

His back was criss-crossed by a web of welts and long cuts, some of which oozed blood, angry at the bandages having been removed. Dried blood stained the waistband of his boxers while drips left tracks down the backs of his legs. Felix immediately got out his hammer and began gently pressing it to the broken skin.

"Felix, this is the best day of my life," he proclaimed. "And I want you to be witness to it."

"The best day of your life?" he asked, pausing a moment. "Ralph, have you gone mad?" There was no suffering or stress or trepidation in the wrecker's voice. Only happiness.

He laughed. "She asked me that same thing. And if this is madness, I'll take a double helping, please."

Felix went around Ralph's front side and waved his hand in front of Ralph's face, watching the big man's eyes. "Did she give you some kind of drugs?"

Ralph pushed the waving hand aside. "Well some doctor here gave me something for the pain, but that's not what's up."

"Don't tell me you get off on this kind of thing," Felix blurted disgustedly, putting his hands on his hips. And then suddenly he blushed and slapped his hands over his mouth, the reality of what he'd just said hitting him.

"Felix," said Ralph, ignoring the man's comment. "I need a big favor of you. I need you to be my best man."

"Your best man?" He stared questioningly. "But if you need a best man that means that you're get..."

"Getting married! Yes!" Ralph interrupted excitedly. "She's marrying me! Or I'm marrying her, or something like that. In like half an hour!"

"She? The sergeant?" he fumbled, his throat tightening. They had only seen one woman in Hero's Duty.

"Yes. Isn't it wonderful! I tell you Felix, going Turbo was the best thing I've ever done for myself."

At that moment a soldier walked into the shower room carrying an olive green military dress uniform on a hanger, a pair of polished black shoes, and a package that appeared to contain a shirt and the uniform's accessories. "Here. This should fit you."

"A uniform?"

The man glared at him, and then hung the uniform up on one of the hooks around the dressing area. "Even if you are some hobo, we're not about to let you marry the Sarge looking like one," he huffed.

"I'll have you know, good Sir, that I am not a hobo," said Ralph indignantly with an affected posh accent. "I happened to live in the penthouse suite atop the nicest apartment building in all of Litwak's."

"Of course," said the soldier doubtfully and he walked out.

"Well I'll be dipped! It's true..." gasped Felix. "You're not kidding me about marrying her."

"The bride walks down just to start the wedding and there's one more girl you won't be getting," sang Ralph to rub it in a little. For almost thirty years the little handyman had been trying to get to the altar, having met with repeated failure, and now even Ralph was going to beat him to it.

"Wait, you said you lived in the penthouse."

"I do now." Ralph got up and walked over to the pile of his own clothing, and from it he extracted the Medal of Heroes. Proudly he held it up for the handyman to see.

"Sweet beans on toast!" Felix coughed. "You did get it!"

"Earned it! Went to the top of the tower and killed a million Cy-Bugs for it. Now finish fixing me so I can shower and get dressed and get hitched. I told you this was the best day of my life."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Felix stood beside Ralph beneath the windows of the chapel. Anxiously the handyman fingered the top of his magical golden hammer hanging at his hip. He was trying to maintain his composure, and was still in disbelief that just five hours ago he'd thrown Ralph to the wolves. And now the wrecker had somehow charmed the alpha-wolf and was being welcomed into their pack, even if somewhat reluctantly by some of its members. How could this have come to be?

Next to him, Ralph was fidgeting the wrapper off of another peppermint, his heart fit to burst with joy. His beloved Medal of Heroes hung around his neck for all to see.

Felix had never seen Ralph so happy before, not in years at least. The sad-eyed, sullen giant was now as giddy as a kitten with a catnip mouse.

Felix sighed. It would have had to be the sergeant. What a grand she-wolf she was. He'd been planning to ask her out after this trouble with Ralph had blown over. He'd fallen for her at first sight, the tall tough blonde who'd nearly killed him when he'd come looking for Ralph. So what if she was twice his height? Stepladders had been invented for a reason. A flame had kindled in his heart the first moment he'd laid eyes on that beautiful high-definition face of hers. She was perfect—her strong blue eyes, her aggressive swagger, her confident crooked smirk, her smattering of freckles, her carefree blonde hair.

But there would be no blowing over. The she-wolf was about to tie the knot with Ralph.

Oh well, he sighed and tried to assure himself that there were other women out there in the arcade. How could he begrudge Ralph for wanting her as well?

A chord of music drew everyone's attention to the back of the chapel.

"Felix, pinch me," whispered Ralph as the bride began her walk down the aisle. Somehow she looked completely different from the first time he'd seen her wearing that wedding gown. It was the same gown, the one she'd worn not too many hours ago down in the prison room. But instead of an implement of punishment, she clutched a bouquet of ivory roses and lacy ferns. The veil of the headpiece had been drawn over her face.

Kohut walked right behind her, a deadly maid of honor, suited up for battle, his rifle powered up and ready to fire. And he wasn't the only one prepared for a Cy-Bug attack. Around the chapel several other members of her squad were armed and on the defensive.

Calhoun began to smile as she approached the dais, and taking her spot beside Ralph, she was absolutely beaming. "You look good in uniform," she said quietly to him. "...but we'll need to get you some shoes," she added, noting that he was barefoot. He'd been able to get his chunky feet into the shoes worn with the armor, but no such luck with those that went with the dress uniform.

In a back row the General and Markowski sat together weeping loudly.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Medals Must Be Earned continues in:

Chapter 7 – The Wheel of Fortune

Chapter 8 – The Lovers

Chapter 9 – The World

Chapter 10 – The Fool

-o-o-o-o-o-

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.