Once again, sorry for the slow updating, and I hope you readers didn't die of suspense...yet.
Kristin: *smacks me* You are so evil! You put me in danger, leave the readers hanging, take forever with the chapter, and now you're planning to kill Taffyta?! Bad author! Bad author!
Me: Hey! Ow! Aren't the characters supposed to obey the author? And why didya give away the plot?!
Kristin: Whatever! Angry mob! Charge!
Me: Aaaahhh! *runs from angry mob*
And while I'm running from a bunch of enraged racers and NPCs, here's the chapter.
20. A Heavy Price
When the CyBug had burst out of the ground, Ralph had picked up Vanellope and dived for cover. From a 'safe' distance, Vanellope had watched Amos, Jerry, Kristin, and Taffyta in a life-and-death struggle. Deep down, she wanted to go help her friends, but fear had snaked its dusky fingers around her chest. A battle raged both without and within her, and she had no clue of the eventual outcome.
Taffyta floated in and out of blackness. Indecipherable noises and shapes assaulted her from all angles as jolts of pain cut through her. She saw herself racing in Caramel Swamp, laughing as she led the race. Suddenly, the road dissolved into a mess of gooey caramel. Pink Lightning slowed, bogged down by the sticky substance. She struggled to free her kart as the caramel slowly dissolved the pink hard candy. She screamed and flailed as she sank, deeper and deeper into the swamp. No, she thought. That's a memory. But wait! She struggled to reorganized the jumbled thoughts tumbling around in her mind. If caramel melted Pink Lightning, then – could caramel defeat the CyBug?
I have to tell someone! she screamed internally. Determinedly, she wrestled herself back into consciousness, despite the pain. Just then, she sensed someone holding her and calling her name.
"Taffyta! Taffyta!" Rancis cried despairingly. Jerry and Amos were desperately holding off the CyBug with the help of Calhoun and her men. Rancis had cradled Taffyta in his arms, swiftly bearing her as far as possible from the centre of the battle. He laid her down on the edge of Gumdrop Gardens and held her, weeping. Suddenly, he felt a feeble squeeze of his arm. He gasped and leaned closer. Taffyta mumbled, "Rancis?" His heart leapt. "Taff! You're alright! You're gonna be alright! Just relax and everything's gonna be f-" Taffyta cut him off. "Car…a..mel…" she whispered.
"You want caramel? No problem; I'll go-"
"No…CyBug…changed to Pink Lightning candy…can be melted…with caramel…" Taffyta murmured insistently, trying to get Rancis to understand.
"Wait, do you mean that the CyBug can be defeated using caramel? Are you sure?"
"Caramel…melted Pink Lightning…should work…" Taffyta replied, before slipping back into unconsciousness. Rancis didn't know what to do. Was Taffyta even aware of what she was saying? Was the caramel talk mere gibberish or was she actually revealing a chink in their enemy's armor?
Outside, the battle raged on. Sugar Rush's forces were decimated, despite their superior numbers. The CyBug had abandoned all caution and was attacking with a fury. It was all the defenders could do to ward off a flurry of powerful razor-sharp claws, jaws, and blades, covering each other and standing united against the enraged CyBug. Rancis knew that he had to try. He dashed out and pulled Calhoun aside. "Taffyta says that caramel can stop the CyBug!" he yelled in her ear.
"What?"
"Just try it! She says caramel melted her kart before!"
The same doubt crept into Calhoun's mind. What could caramel do to a foe impervious to plasma? And yet, the racers here understand candy like I understand warfare. "Worth a shot!" she yelled in reply. "Go get Kohut and find some caramel!" She pushed Rancis one way and dove the other as a claw sliced into the ground where they were standing a moment ago. "GO!" she yelled, discharging several bursts from her blaster to draw the CyBug's attention away from Rancis. He scrambled to his feet and spotted Bubblina. Sprinting to her, he yelled, "Do you guys store caramel here?"
"We've got a couple of tanks of it over there!" she replied, pointing to the edge of Gumdrop Gardens. He nodded and glanced around for Kohut. He was guarding the bunker in which the racers had taken cover in. He quickly described the scenario. Kohut thought for a moment and nodded. "Is there a way to release a whole tank at once?" he asked Bubblina.
"Well, the cover is rather flimsy…" she replied slowly.
"If it was overturned…" Kohut prodded.
"The cover would break," she finished.
"Good! We have a plan."
Bubblina and Rancis looked at each other. Their joint response was succinct. "Huh?"
Despite the danger they were in, Kohut had to smile. "Kids, remember the aerial vehicles? We're gonna take two of 'em, hitch 'em up to one tank, and dump it on the bug."
"Let's do it!" Rancis urged, ready to jump into action.
"Whoa, kid. You're not going up there." Rancis' face fell. Kohut put a gloved hand on his shoulder. "I need you to report to Calhoun; tell her what's going on. I can't get through to her communicator. Hurry, now." Kohut handed him a spare communicator and hustled off to put his plan into action.
Rancis stared, slightly crestfallen. He'd assumed he'd be in the thick of things, yet he'd been relegated to errand boy and messenger. A cry of pain cut through his thoughts, and he looked up to see that another marine had been cut down by the CyBug.
The casualties of war were mounting. Of the originally thirty-strong Alpha Platoon of Space Marines, fourteen had fallen, never to rise again. Another seven had sustained severe injuries and had been carried off to be tended to. Only nine were still in any shape to fight, but Kohut and another pilot had taken to the air, leaving seven to face the CyBug alongside Calhoun. Of the Sugar Rush racers, Jerry and Amos were still battling hard, and Gloyd, Swizzle, Rae, Karmahlan, Carmen, and Kristian had joined the battle. All were very different characters and fighters, but united by the threat to their game.
Despite her ragtag force, Calhoun had managed to come up with a strategy that kept that CyBug off-balance. The Marines and racers fought in small packs of threes and fours, attacking from different angles and falling back. Calhoun herself prowled around and pounced with a flamethrower whenever the CyBug's attention was on a group of attackers. The Marines were the ones taking the bulk of the casualties to open up opportunities for attacks.
"They're all playing their role unselfishly in the battle plan," Rancis realized. The Marines willingly took damage, and the more experienced fighters among the racers didn't try to be heroes. I gotta play my role too. He took off running and caught hold of Calhoun's arm. She turned and nearly flamed him before realizing who he was. "What is it, kid?"
Rancis quickly described Kohut's plan to her. She grabbed the communicator from his hand and keyed it. "Kohut!"
"Yes, Sarge?"
"Don't miss; we don't want more casualties. My boys down here will try to pin it down somehow."
"Yes, ma'am. Over and out."
Two cruisers whirred to life and were hitched up to the tank. They hovered near the battle, waiting for their chance. Meanwhile, Calhoun had arranged her forces in a rough semicircle, attempting to hold the CyBug in one spot. Though weakened, the CyBug kept breaking through.
Vanellope watched the battle, still conflicted. "I want to help, but I don't know how!" she thought. As she watched the CyBug break through Sugar Rush's lines time and again, she realized that Calhoun's strategy had changed. Instead of trying to hurt the CyBug, Calhoun was trying to hold the CyBug down in one place. Why? The plan clicked when she noticed the cruisers hovering to one side of the battle. Okay, so they want to drop the tank on the CyBug, and that's why they're trying to hold it down? She took a deep breath and dashed out as an idea hit her like a lightning bolt. She glitched onto the CyBug's back, immediately gaining its attention. She leapt off as a claw swiped through the air. She started glitching around the CyBug, twisting it from left to right as it struggled to keep its eyes on the agile girl.
"Hey, this is pretty fun!" she thought, as she circled the CyBug. "It's like playing tag-" The CyBug angrily body-slammed the ground where she had been standing a second ago. "But on a more dangerous scale," she finished mentally. She frantically gestured to Calhoun, but the battle-hardened Sergeant had already recognized Vanellope's idea. She was on her communicator, signaling Kohut. The cruisers moved into position and prepared to drop the tank. Unfortunately, the motion caught the CyBug's attention, and it crouched to leap into the air. Vanellope quickly glitched onto the CyBug's head and decisively planted her foot into one of the CyBug's eyes. It screeched in pain and slashed wildly, confused. "Now!" Calhoun yelled.
In that moment, time seemed to slow as Vanellope glitched off the CyBug and the tank of caramel tipped. A wave of sticky brown caramel splashed onto the CyBug, pinning it down and completely coating it.
Vanellope tucked and rolled as she hit the ground. Scrambling to her feet, she waited with the others to see if the CyBug would rise. A few seconds passed in suspenseful silence. The CyBug suddenly stirred and roared in rage. Blinded and coated in caramel, it staggered around flailing. As Vanellope glitched out of its way, she noticed steam coming from the caramel. The caramel was eating through the CyBug rapidly like acid through metal.
The CyBug never saw it coming. One moment, it had been flapping at a quick little pest that flickered around; the next, a stab of pain in its eye, before a wave of brown enveloped it. Stunned, it struggled to rise, but burning pain rippled over its hard pink candy skin. Screeching in agony, it collapsed to the ground.
Rancis had hurried back to Taffyta once the CyBug had fallen. He cradled her head gently. "Rancis, is it dead?" she whispered. "Yes, Taff. We beat it. Thanks to you."
"I need...to see."
"Taff, you're injured; you shouldn't be moving around!"
"Please…I need…to see it…myself...help me, Rancis."
Against his better judgment, Rancis carefully carried her to the door. A mound of caramel and steaming pink candy greeted Taffyta's eyes. "Yes…it worked," she whispered through gritted teeth. Her relief was brutally shattered by a feeling akin to being torn apart by jagged claws. Her chest and abdomen was wracked with convulsions and pain unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Even her worst crash had not been a fraction as painful. She screamed and writhed in Rancis' arms. Startled and worried, he yelled for help. As the racers gathered around, Taffyta grew weaker and weaker and the convulsions stopped, but the pain was still enormous.
The Marines' medic quickly examined Taffyta. His furrowed brow and grim face told the story. Turning away from Taffyta, he spoke to the small group of leaders from both games: Vanellope, Jerry, and Calhoun. Rancis lifted his head from Taffyta's in time to hear,"…few minutes left. Her code's breaking up."
"No!" Rancis screamed. Throwing himself on the medic, he cried, "There's gotta be something you can do for her! Please!" It took Gloyd, Swizzle, and Amos to hold him back. "I'm sorry, kid," the medic replied. "There's nothing to be done. Her code has been previously damaged, and the injuries she's sustained are just too severe."
Vanellope lowered her head in shame. It's my fault, she told herself. I made this happen. This was what I wanted then, but now…I know better. But it's too late. Only she, Jerry, and Ralph knew the truth about Taffyta's code damage. Rancis threw himself beside Taffyta, wailing in grief.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Jerry's background as a black-market coder had given him an idea. He drew Vanellope aside and whispered," I might be able to help Taffyta, but I'm gonna need you."
"Of course. What can I do?"
He dashed off to his kart, the Gummy Glider, Vanellope in tow. "Let's get going."
"What's going on?" Vanellope was completely befuddled by the way Jerry was acting.
"I'll explain on the way."
"Where to?"
"The castle's code vault."
Me: *whispering* Whew! Ssshhh! I managed to escape from Kristin and her minions. As usual, leave a review, and I'll try to get back ASAP with the final 2-3 chapters if Kristin doesn't torch my house.
Kristin: There he is! Get him!
Me: And here we go again...Bye everyone! * dashes away with mob in pursuit*