CHAPTER 13, THE UNLUCKY NUMBER. LET'S HOPE THAT NUMBER DOESN'T AFFECT THE FUN OF THIS CHAPTER.

I do not own Wreck-it Ralph or any of the video game content mentioned.

THE FIREWALL

There they all were, against a cliff wall, and multiple heads of the Hydra of which they had never seen or head before. The kids were frozen in fear and had no idea what to do against a monstrous creature from their darkest nightmares. The hydra hissed and watched as its food remained petrified in fear.

"We're gonna die!" Taffyta cried.

Gloyd grabbed onto Roxus and begged, "Please do something!"

Roxus tried to think of a way out and quickly came with a solution, "Everyone, grab onto Vanellope so she can glitch everyone out of here!"

Everyone placed one hand on Vanellope's arms. The Hydra began to open its mouth for the strike.

All of a sudden, Noctus appeared behind the group, on his trike in its air form, and started to fire malted milk balls from a cannon at the back of his trike. The attack hit its mark, splattering the snake's head and blinding it. Noctus nodded to the group. "Everyone go. I'll hold it off for as long as I can," Noctus then fired several more projectiles, which hit the other heads of the Hydra, blinding those as well.

"Just keep glitching till we get to the castle Vanellope and don't stop." Roxus said.

"Alright!" The group held on as Vanellope glitched them all to safety and kept glitching to reach the castle.

Noctus fired several more malted milk balls and even a few Sweet Seekers. Satisfied, he attached cereal straws to the others' Karts and Roxus' bike, driving them back towards the castle.

But such luck lasted so long, since the arcade had no true knowledge of a snake like creature, the Hydra was able to use it's tongue to locate exactly where Noctus was by the scent of his vehicle's engine and clamp it's powerful jaws on his flying trike and force it to the ground.

Noctus was slammed to the ground. He tried to get up, but every time he did, he was forced to the ground by intense pain. "Swiss cake rolls... I have a broken leg."

The Hydra was able to scrape and wash off the candy substance off its faces by the walls of the cliff side or the punch waterfall. After that, all the heads turned down to look at Noctus in his unfortunate injury. The Hydra neared as it hissed and licked the air taking in the scent of its meal lying helpless on the ground.

Noctus cringed. "Hmm... So I'm about to feel death. Interesting." Noctus braced himself for impact.

The Hydra opened its hissing mouth to chomp down on Noctus as bits of saliva sprayed onto Noctus face. Noctus heard the oncoming head as it launched forward to have it's meal, but then was shoved to the side with great force as the head of the Hydra charged right by where Noctus was supposed to be.

Noctus blinked in surprise. "Wha... What happened?"

Noctus turned to see Roxus in a failing attempt to keep the mouth open from closing down on him. Roxus must have stayed behind before Vanellope had a chance to glitch them all out of there, and now he was about to sacrifice himself for Noctus to live.

SUGAR RUSH CASTLE

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Vanellope made the final glitch in front of the castle before they all started to run inside.

"Alright, Roxus, now what do we do?" Vanellope asked, but was answered by silence. "Roxus?" she asked again search where he was, "Hey Flan! Where is Roxus?"

Flannery looked around in frustration. "He must have stayed behind!"

PUNCH FALLS

The Hydra managed to shut its mouth on Roxus and slowly begin to swallow him down. Inside Roxus was desperately trying to fight his way out. He then came up with a theory. If this game content came from him like the ring did, maybe, just maybe, he could bring something out from his game to help him as well.

"Come on, come on, you can do it." Roxus told himself. He began to feel little pricks around his body. He knew that it was doing something. He had to focus more, "Come on! If you are able to bring out a magic ring and a damn freakin' Hydra, then you could bring out one small thing to survive!"

Roxus gave all that he had into his effort. Soon enough, a great sword formed into his hand, and not just a regular one, but a high quality dragon forged great sword.

Noctus looked at the small lump where Roxus was being swallowed down the Hydra's neck. All he could do was watch in horror as his friend was about to be swallowed completely. But then it seemed like a part of the neck had something trying to stab its way out. But Noctus knew that Roxus had nothing to try to penetrate through the neck and wondered what exactly was going on.

Noctus raised his eyebrows. "How... How can he do that? There is definitely more than magic at work here." He then frowned. "Wait... Is this like the mythological Hydra?"

Finally, the sword burst out of the front of the Hydra's neck and slashed completely around and cutting off the Hydra's neck and head completely and had Roxus tumbling out of the severed neck trying to breathe in fresh air. The Hydra was swinging its heads wildly at the sudden loss and pain of its severed head.

Noctus raised an eyebrow. "Where... Where did you get that sword? And... How is this possible?" Noctus' eyes narrowed. "And don't try to tell me this is magic. I want the truth."

Before Roxus could answer, The Hydra began making strange noises that caught the boy's attention. The headless neck was coming to life again and soon grew out another head.

"That will have to wait after the show kid," Roxus said drawing attention to the matter at hand. Roxus then held his great sword as if he could easily handle it.

Noctus smirked. "This is just like the myth! Every time you slash a head off, use fire to burn the charred stub of the neck. That way, the heads don't grow back."

"I've dealt with this thing before, so let the master work here," Roxus said in a cocky attitude, "Just hide somewhere so it can't see you. I need to lure it to a certain spot when I can find it."

Noctus cringed at the change in his friend's usual attitude, but looked at him strangely. "I'm not leaving you here alone with that thing."

The Hydra started to charge, "Looks like you don't have a choice," Roxus said and placed Noctus on the flat end of his sword and flung him far up and over the top of the falls.

The Hydra tried to snap at Roxus, but he saw that move coming and was able to easily dodge it in time. As the head passed by, Roxus grabbed hold of it and rode up onto the head as it rose up to look for him. Since Roxus was smaller and lighter, the Hydra did not notice him on top of its head. Roxus was charging up a strike as he positioned his great sword over his head until he held it behind his back preparing to strike.

During this, the Hydra managed to slither off into the Candy Cane Forest near the waterfall. When Roxus was ready, he slid off the head and down to where the joined necks were that connected to the main body. Roxus then landed and ground shaking slash into the Hydra and nearly slashed off most of its heads.

Noctus had landed in one of the candy logs Roxus used to splash down the waterfall. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the remote, which caused his trike to slowly hover up to him. Sighing, he pushed a red button on the remote, releasing a different cannon. He smirked as he slowly crawled into his was difficult to fly after breaking his leg, but he managed to fly over to where Roxus was, having sliced off most of the heads. He called out, smirking, "Anyone up for an Atomic Fireball?"

"Not yet!" Roxus called back, "Wait for it!" Roxus quickly made his way in front of the Hydra and taunted it to attack him.

Noctus nodded, his finger resting on the button that would fire the incendiary projectile.

"Whenever you're ready."

Roxus ran deep into the Candy Cane Forest with the Hydra in pursuit. Roxus began cutting deep into a large candy cane tree. It was deep enough to need a big enough strike to make it fall and he hoped that the Hydra gave that strike, "Okay that should be enough."

The Hydra came up right behind Roxus and snapped at him. Roxus made a jump out of the way, but the force of the impact sent Roxus tumbling to the side. Roxus had no idea if the tree was hit or not, but saw that it was still standing. The Hydra came back around and advanced at Roxus as he scurried backwards to try to reach his weapon. Just as Roxus reached for his great sword, the Hydra struck just as Roxus turned and stuck his weapon out to try to protect himself.

Then a great loud crash came from behind the Hydra and a large candy cane tree was suddenly crushing the back of the Hydra and kept it from reaching Roxus. Roxus took a breath relief at his good fortune and leaped into action, "Get ready!" he called to Noctus.

Noctus nodded, hovering above the fallen Hydra.

"Ready!"

Roxus waited for the moment where the head of the Hydra came low enough for him to jump on top. When Roxus made his jump and clung on, he climbed his way up on the top center of its head. Roxus waited until the Hydra stopped thrashing around enough to sink the tip of his great sword into the head and made sure it was stuck good and tight inside the head. The Hydra swung back and forth to try to shake off Roxus from its head.

"NOW!" Roxus shouted.

Noctus blasted the Atomic Fireball at the Hydra. It rocketed right towards the hydra aiming for the severed heads. Roxus readied himself and when the moment was right, he pulled his great sword from the Hydra's head and jumped in front of the flaming candy projectile and managed to fuse the candy weapon into his great sword. The impact gave Roxus the chance to turn around and sink his blade deep into the main body where the heads joined and unleashed the intense flames of the candied weapon into the hydra and burning it from the inside out. Roxus left the great sword inside and jumped for cover before the hydra exploded in flames. After the explosion died down, Roxus peeked out from behind roasted marshmallows to see the beast in pieces and still burning.

Noctus hovered down, transforming his trike into its land form before walking up beside Roxus. "Personally, I prefer my Hydra roasted."

"Humph, city slickers; real men eat them raw," Roxus joked, "Now if you'll be so kind, go keep the girls occupied. They most likely figured that I stayed back here and will give me hell if they find me."

Noctus nodded. "No problem... But I'm not going to let you get out of explaining this to me."

Roxus knew that Noctus wasn't about to let him go and gave him no other choice to make, "Fine, I'll tell you," he sighed as he placed an arm around Noctus shoulder in need of support.

Noctus motioned a hand for him to go on, an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"But I need to talk to someone before this gets out of hand," Roxus then got Noctus in a solid blood choke head lock like Solid Snake had taught him. Roxus set Noctus feet off balance and walked back enough so Noctus wasn't able to get a good footing on the ground. Roxus began to apply just enough pressure to make Noctus pass out and lay him down carefully.

"Please understand that this must be done before anyone could know and I'm sorry for the head ache you'll have when you wake up." Roxus apologized to his friend and ran off to the exit.

A moment later, Vanellope glitched her way over with Flannery by following the trail made by the now-dead Hydra. They both panicked when they saw Noctus laying on the floor motionless near the dead Hydra. They panicked more when they didn't see any sign of Roxus as well.

Vanellope pulled Noctus onto a candy cane stump to sit him up while Flannery searched for something to try and wake Noctus up with, "What in the candy coated ice cream sundae happened out here?" Vanellope asked amazed at seeing the dead monster.

Flannery blinked, temporarily stopping her search, and walked over to Noctus, putting two fingers on his wrist and sighing with relief. "He still has a pulse, so that's good. I can only assume he'll be unconscious for a while." She sat down on a separate candy stump. "Well, this must have been quite the epic battle."

"But where is Roxus! Did he get eaten?!" Vanellope panicked.

Flannery frowns. "I doubt it... But I do think that Noctus should know once he wakes up."

She smirked. "Don't you worry; your boyfriend is probably making more mischief elsewhere after taking down this random snake-thing."

Vanellope giggled at the sound of Roxus being called her boyfriend. It may have sounded weird, but at least it gave her a warm feeling, "Well, I hope he's living up the moment, cuz I'm gonna kill him when he gets back, the gummy head."

Flannery raised her eyebrows. "Wouldn't that kind of ruin the purpose of surviving the battle?"

Vanellope gave her a frustrated look, "That was just a figure of speech you dum dum head," Then, Vanellope got an idea, "Hey, do you have a pixie stix?"

Flannery shrugged. "I should have one in the spare pocket of my Kart... Why?"

Vanellope rolled her eyes, "We use them like smelling salts, doy."

Flannery facepalmed. "Oh yeah, I forgot. Be right back."

Within a few minutes, she returned, Pixie Stix in hand. She handed it to Vanellope.

Vanellope took a pinch of the powdery sugar and ran it under Noctus' nose. Noctus then gave a jolt as his eyes shot wide open.

Noctus jumped up until he saw that Roxus had fled, causing him to grit his teeth in frustration. "Curse that Roxus! He was about to tell me how he used a freaking great sword to kill the Hydra when he put me into a headlock!" He then groaned and fell to the ground as the pain hit him after his adrenaline rush. "Oh Programmer, that hurts!"

Vanellope was shocked and confused, "When he used a what to kill the what!?"

Noctus sighed, still clutching his head and leg in pain. "He used a great sword to kill the Hydra. Is this terminology too advanced for you?"

Vanellope flicked Noctus on the forehead, "Don't get snappy with me wise guy, I can tell what this monster is now. What I don't know is how Roxus was able to get a sword in this game and how he was able to kill that thing."

Noctus shrugged. "Not sure how he was able to get the sword, but he slashed its entire heads off and I charred it with my extremely rare, emergency-use only, Atomic Fireball power up so its heads wouldn't regrow."

Vanellope was surprised that Roxus was able to not only slay a giant monster, but have the strength to cut its head off with a small body of a twelve year old. "Where is he now?" she asked.

Noctus frowned. "I can't help you there. He left while I was unconscious."

"Rrgh! I hate it when he does this." Vanellope growled.

GAME CENTRAL STATION

Roxus changed into his Wolffang character after he passed through the tunnel of Sugar Rush. He had to see if Eggman had finished his invention that would help him get the situation under control; that is, if Eggman isn't too sore after turning his lab into a rave party. Well, he would have to deal with that when he got there.

Wolffang thought back to the sudden appearance of the Hydra and Noctus witnessing what he did. No doubt he would have told Vanellope and Flannery and both would want an explanation. Vanellope would be more understanding of this, but Flannery and Noctus would be difficult to explain to after he had lied to them about who and what he really was.

Although, it did feel refreshing to get back his old self with fighting giant monsters. It was also good to know that he was able to call upon old weapons that he once wielded, but it was a little disturbing on how he was able to use old data on his gaming skills of using those weapons. He thought that it was erased after he was disconnected from his gaming console.

Well Wolffang shouldn't be too surprised since things have been popping up here and there from his game. He just hoped that nothing serious would pop out and destroy everything in the arcade. But after this whole thing was taken care of, Wolffang wouldn't have anything more to worry about.

In his deep thinking, he was not looking where he was going or who was going to walk into him. They both crashed and fell on the floor.

"Heyn ya overgrown clod! Watch where you're going!" Wolffang shouted.

"Whoan bro, no need to say such hurtful words, it was an accident." The tall stranger apologized.

Wolffang automatically assumed what kind of person he was dealing with and it was the worst kind he could ever hope to meet, "Oh great. Of all the characters I could possibly run into in this entire arcade, I had to run into a hippie," Wolffang deadpanned.

The man raised his hands in mock offense, "Whoa amigo, hold on. I prefer to be called the easy livin' guy. The name's Bobby, Bobby Dunderson," he introduced himself with a hand reaching out.

Wolffang swatted it away, "What's the difference?" If Wollfang was in his child like appearance he would have made jokes about Bobby's name, but he had to play the role of Wolffang.

"I like to make everyone happy. Speaking of which, why are you looking so down?" Bobby asked concerned

Wolffang didn't trust the man a far as he could throw him, "It's none of you're concern"

"I can help you. After all, I did just come from Mr. Litwak's PC computer," Bobby continued.

"I don't care if you came from the future console of perfected virtual reality. You can just…" Wolffang stopped as he replayed what booby said a while ago in his mind, "Wait, did you just say Mr. Litwak's PC?"

Bobby nodded, "Of course I did. Where do you think I came from?" Wolffang shrugged, "Oh, you must be a noob here." Wolffang gave an offended look, "Whoa, sorry, I didn't mean anything by it."

Wolffang rolled his eyes, "Look, can you tell me where to find you at this PC so I can come by later"

"Sure, Bromigo. Just head towards to each exit of each main surge protector until you hit the last one. Then, it's the third plug to the left" Bobby instructed, "So I'll see you there little wolf man"

"And I'll see you there, too, Goldilocks." Wolffang then walked off towards Sonic's game.

Bobby watched Wolffang walk off with a confused look on his face, "How does he know about book characters?" he asked himself. It was true that the arcade games knew very little of the things outside their arcade, but for a new game character to suddenly know stuff from the outside arcade is oddly suspicious.

DR. EGGMAN'S LAB

Wolffang was now thinking about what Bobby said about coming from a PC. He new that the net was connected to his old game. It had it's own interactive website, for griffin's sake. If he could get into that site then perhaps he could communicate to someone, at least, and tell them that he was okay. Maybe they could help him think of a way to get him back to his home console. There must have been a lot of stuff that had been added to the PS3. New games, new add-on content, videos, avatars, themes, and such. Maybe he could see if the rumored PS4 was being made.

It felt like he was closer to home than ever. He would once again slay giant monsters, explore his game's countryside, and reunite with his old friends.

At last, Wolffang stood in front of the lab's door and entered. He saw that the lab was almost completely clean after what he did. Some bots were still scrubbing the paint mess in some of the machinery. Wolffang smiled at remembering that crazy night of raving out with all the robots until it was ruined by that fat party pooper.

Wolffang hoped the crazy scientist came through with his little virus problem.

Just like always, Dr. Eggman was hard at work on his computers and working the machinery inside his lab. Typical mad genius.

Wolffang walked right up behind the old man and pulled out a pipe and placed pressed it against his back, "You got three seconds to give me all you have, you quack," Wolffang said in a low voice.

Eggman froze in surprise. No one had ever attempted this, so he was caught unprepared, "How dare you. Do you know who I am, you little thief?"

Wolffang tapped Eggman a few times on the head with the pipe, "Of course I do, scrabbled brains, who else would pass through your robot security without raising the alarm?"

Eggman turned, not too happy at the unsuspected guest, "Humph, you may look like an adult in that wolf form, but you will always be an immature brat."

Wolffang bowed in accepting the comment, "And I will keep it that way, thank you. So, is the project ready?"

Eggman began pressing buttons on a console and a shielded container tube opened in front of them to reveal a small data cube. "It was difficult to make, since it is the first one ever made. I had to do deep research to make such that the odds of it erasing your very existence wouldn't happen."

Wolffang gave a grim look, "And what are the odds now of it doing that?"

"Fifty-fifty chance," Wolffang chuckled nervously, "But if you do survive the firewall code, I can extract a piece of your data after to make it last completely without any risk of it erasing your data."

"And all it requires is a guinea pig for the sacrifice," Wolf clarified.

"Exactly," Eggman said as he used a special glove to handle the dangerous code cube.

"Well, as long as it's for the sake of science, I am happy to end my life for it," Wolffang said sarcastically.

"Now, don't move, while I place this in the back of your head" Eggman warned.

Wolffang started a mini panic, "Wait what do you mean in the…"

Just as Eggman placed the cube in Wolffang's head, it quickly sunk in and Wolffang began to glitch wildly and started to turn into coding. Wolffang began to spas violently and shift into his different images. Eggman took a few steps back as the firewall set into Wolffang. After a moment of this, Wolffang froze in a glitch and then dropped to the floor.

Eggman cautiously walked up to Wolffang and raised him up, "Are you still alive?" he asked, hoping the firewall worked.

To his amazement, Wolffang was no longer Wolffang, but a high definition twelve year old looking boy in light armor. His eyes were a deep green and his hair, like before, was slicked back. He was as tall as a normal sized twelve year old, and yet looked very fit for his age.

Alpha looked up, weary at Eggman, "Did… did it work?"

Eggman looked extremely amazed, "Did it work!? It went far beyond my expectations! It has somehow restored some of your old game data!"

Alpha looked at himself and saw that he was back to the way he used to be in his old game. Alpha only had one thing to say, "Holy Shit!" Alpha started looking over himself, checking to make sure everything was what it once was. He had been away from his original image for so long, he had trouble remembering if he had everything from before and looked the way he did. Thankfully, everything looked the way it did, as far as he could remember. Eggman was equally amazed, but more by the high definition and realistic features of Alpha. Sure, the people from Hero's Duty had good graphics, but this was near reality.

"I'm me again! I can't believe I have my old self again!" Alpha exclaimed in joy.

"Amazing, who knew graphics could get so real?" Eggman said, still amazed.

"You think this is something? Just wait for the Playstation 4," Alpha boasted.

Eggman looked even more interested in what Alpha just mentioned, "Playstation 4? You mean that the console you came from is getting an upgrade?"

"Well, sort of. Our gamer will have to buy the new console, but he will transfer our data into the new console when he gets it," explained Alpha. "But anyways, does this mean the firewall is working?"

Eggman then took out a small tool, "All I have do is extract a bit of your code and perfect whatever needs to be added to the firewall, and then I will give you a stronger and more perfected firewall that will last for the rest of your existence."

Alpha raised his arm up without hesitation. "Well, hurry up already!"

Eggman then extracted a bit of Alpha's coding from his arm and placed it in a capsule. "Come back in a few days and I might have it ready by then."

Alpha was disappointed to hear that he had to return in a few days, but at least it wasn't a week or more, "Okay, fine. Oh, and don't forget to destroy that ring."

"Why are you worried about that ring?" Eggman asked, confused at Alpha's request.

"That ring could be hazardous to me. Whoever wears it will bind that person to me for eternity. If a guy happens to accidentally put it on," Alpha shivered in disgust at the thought, "Ugh. I fear to even mention the outcome."

Eggman understood where Alpha was getting at and agreed to Alpha's request. "As you wish. I'll dispose of it after I finish the firewall."

Again, Alpha was disappointed in the wait. "Fine; better later than never." Alpha left soon after, as he changed back into Wolffang.

Eggman started on what he always loved to do, building and studying. That is, until he heard a slight, stern, and feminine voice, "So, what is this ring that he was talking about?"

Eggman jumped as he turned to see Tamora folding her arms. "Blasted woman! I am in the middle of a project!"

Tamora asked again, in a more firm voice, "What is important about this ring?"

Eggman wasn't so intimidated, "What would I care about a ring?"

Tamora tried to keep her cool, "I know about Alpha and what he could now do."

Eggman felt a bit awkward to know this, "What do you want?"

"A little help with Vanellope's situation," Tamora said vaguely.

Eggman still remained frustrated and impatient with the interruption of his work. "Why must I be concerned with one who has also broken into my lab for pranks?"

"Because not only will this help a little girl find happiness and forever in your debt, it will also help you get even with the one who let her break into your lab." Tamora elaborated.

Eggman sat in his seat and pressed his fingers together in interest. "Do tell."

FIX-IT FELIX JR.

Alpha changed into his Sugar Rush form as Roxus as he returned to his home hidden in the woods. Satisfied with the way things were going, he felt that nothing would go wrong from here on out. Leaping onto his pixilated sofa, he rested in front of his 8-bit fireplace and began to rest his cares away.

"Took you long enough to get back home," an upset voice called from the corner of the room.

Roxus was startled out of his sofa and onto the floor face-first, staring at a small, shadowed figure in the corner.

"You know it's indecent for a little girl to enter a boy's house by herself," Roxus stated.

Another voice arose from the back of the room, "She didn't exactly come alone." Noctus stepped out from the shadows, smirking.

Roxus grunted irritably, "Doesn't anyone understand the words breaking and entering anymore?"

Noctus raised an eyebrow. "Just like you don't understand assault, apparently."

Roxus scratched the back of his head, "Uh, yeah, sorry about that. But I had good reasons to go off alone."

Vanellope crossed her arms, "I'm waiting to hear."

Noctus glared at Roxus. "We all are."

Flannery and a few other Sugar Rush racers also joined the inquisition.

Roxus was quite surprised at the sudden gathering and, as always, tried to lighten the mood, "Well, if I knew we were going to have a sleep over, I would have made the Nicelanders make treats."

Candlehead became very excited, "Wait, what? We're going to have a slumber party?! Yippee!"

Flannery put a hand on her shoulder. "Not just yet, Candlehead, though your energy astounds me. First, we want to know what happened to Roxus." She held up a sprinkle throwing star. "And I'd rather not say what'll happen to him if he doesn't tell us."

Not knowing how to tell, Roxus then decided to give bits of the truth at a time. "Okay, I used the greatsword to slay the beast."

Noctus raised an eyebrow. "With my help, you mean. The heads would have regrown if I hadn't burned them."

Flannery sighed. "We got that much. What else? And exactly how did you do that?"

"I can make weapons appear," he said simply.

Vanellope was surprised and amazed that Roxus could now do that, "You can do that?"

Noctus crossed his arms, "You can definitely do more than that. You fixed up my racer, after all. Conjuring weapons definitely isn't the upper limit of your power."

"You make me feel like I'm a Jedi who hasn't realized his full potential, like Starkiller," Roxus joked, but was only given looks of confusion. "Ugh, I should have known you wouldn't know about that stuff."

"What's a starkiller?" Rancis asked.

"Never mind," Roxus said, trying not to get off subject.

Flannery was becoming impatient, and glared at him. "Stop stalling and get on with it!"

Alpha then grew frustrated on being put on the spot and decided to tell it straight. "Alright, you want to know the truth? You got it." Alpha took a deep breath, then began, "I came from a home console game where I fight giant creatures using all types of skills and magic, got stuck in a surge protector, got my data corrupted, came here, met Eggman, who helped me adapt to this arcade by taking different forms to adapt to whatever game I came to. I am a virus that brought that Hydra here, and now I was given a test Firewall to try and prevent it from happening again." Alpha started to breathe heavily after he finished at the dumbstruck kids in front of him.

The group's eyes widened, and most of them stepped backwards in shock.

Noctus' eyes were as wide as dinner plates in realization. "So you were talking about yourself earlier... Does that mean..." The group looked at him as he said, "Armageddon?"

Taffyta looked at Vanellope, upset, "You knew about all this and didn't tell us?"

Vanellope placed her hands out in front of her in explanation, "Wait, wait, I only knew where he came from, I knew nothing about the last part!"

Flannery moved to defend Vanellope, holding her arm out, sprinkle star at the ready.

"Let's not hurt each other. If anything, the fault belongs to Roxus, or whoever he really is, for lying to us all."

"Hey, come on, that's not fair. It's not like I could go off telling everyone what I am, or that would cause too much trouble," Roxus said, trying to defend himself.

Rancis, seeing this as an opportunity, made a low move, "It's also his fault for not only nearly bringing corruption to our game, but putting our dear president in harm's way. What if he is no better than Turbo?"

Roxus was shocked at the sudden accusation, "Wha… where did that come from? Is everyone against me?"

Noctus glared at Rancis as everyone else stared in shock. "Listen. Unlike Turbo, he has no malicious intent. Unlike Turbo, he didn't trap you in a dystopian world for years, and unlike Turbo, he saved us from the Hydra! That, to me, sounds unlike an enemy, but more so, a friend" He walked over to Roxus and nodded, "Because no matter whether he's a racer or a console-jumper, he's still my friend."

Rancis tried another approach, "What about his way of causing damage for fun? Doesn't it sound strange that he claims it's just a joke when he breaks things in the castle and the bakery? His little recreations of different games? Doesn't that sound odd that he causes all this damage and then plays nice to calm us down?"

Flannery also walked over beside Noctus and said, "Even I have to admit that his mischief sometimes gets out of hand. But, that's just his personality. He's mischievous and thrill-seeking for the same reason you're completely and totally narcissistic."

Taffyta had a look of uncertainty as well as skepticism of both sides of the argument, "Still, it does sound unsure about Roxus playing these pranks and adding his own content to games without their approval."

Rancis crossed his arms, "This is a democracy right? I say we put it to a vote. Who's to say that this firewall will work or that no more monsters will come? We need to do what's right for our game, even if it means banishing someone like him." Rancis turned to the others, "You all heard what was said on both sides and now we must choose what is best for us and Sugar Rush."

Everyone knew that even though Roxus may be a good person, the safety of the game must come first. Roxus saw this many times before in other PS3 game plots and knew what must be done.

Roxus took a deep breath, "You don't need to vote. I'll leave and I won't come back to your game, so it won't be put in danger."

Everyone stood still as they watched Roxus leave the home and heard him on his motorcycle to drive away.

Noctus sighed. "I'm going to stick by him. I'll see you guys around." As he opened the door, he said, "Welcome back to your monotonous routine. Like it or not, he gave the game personality, and it's not going to be the same without him." The sound of his trike was also heard as he drove after him.

Snowanna saw the sadness in Vanellope's eyes and tried to speak to cheer her up, "Don't worry, Vanellope, I'm sure we'll see him again after closing time."

Swizzle joined in, "Yeah. We can have a whole lot of fun after we have the random roster race."

Taffyta was still too skeptical over Roxus, "I don't think we should ever see him again. I mean, what if Rancis is partly right about Roxus? Even if he doesn't mean us harm, something might happen that he might not have control over."

Vanellope looked at all of them in teary eyes, "You're wrong about him." that was all she said before running off.

Flannery frowned. "We need to go after her... She'll never get over this."

Candlehead jumped with strange enthusiasm, "I'll help! I can help a lot!"

Swizzle stepped up next, "Count me in, too."

Snowanna and Jubileena spoke at the same time, "You can count on us." the two giggled after that.

Flannery nodded in thanks, then looked to Taffyta and Rancis. "Are you with us, or against us?"

Rancis just crossed his arms and began to walk out, "You are making a mistake. Just let her deal with it on her own, to forget him"

Taffyta shook her head and rolled her eyes, then looked back at the others. "Just... just..." She struggled a bit, "Just be careful, okay?"

Flannery nodded. "We will... trust me." Once they were all outside, Flannery said, "We'll find Vanellope faster if we split up. Go out in all directions to find her."

SUGER RUSH CODE VAULT

Deep within the vault, the data cubes floated and blinked in the empty, dark room. Far in the darkness, an old, disconnected, corrupted code box floated endlessly. Then, it started to blink and twitch until it came to life on its own, without being reconnected to the game's main data. A curled-up figure appeared in front of the code box and woke up in confusion. He looked back at the code box and saw his face displayed on the front. Below the display, a name soon appeared on the bottom… Turbo.

SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. I HAD SO MANY THINGS GOING ON. BUT HERE IT IS, NEXT CHAPTER, DRAMA, CLIFFHANGER, AND ALL THAT JAZZ. I AM UPDATING OTHER STORIES AS WELL SO IT WILL BE A WHILE TILL I UPDATE THIS ONE AGAIN. ALSO, THANKS TO THE FOLLOWER WHO ASSISTED WITH THEIR CHARACTERS.