Vanellope's Bug Problem
Chapter Eleven

"Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start."

The code room door opened as Vanellope stuck the napkin into her pocket.

Felix took hold of the licorice tied around Vanellope's waist. "Alright, be careful in there."

"I'm just going in to figure out how Turbo is still alive."

"And Tammy wanted you to check your own code as well for any unrepaired damage."

"I do have doubts about there being any trace of Turbo's code integrated in the game, with the game resetting and everything."

"Best you find out, then." Felix took hold of the licorice.

Vanellope drifted into the code room toward the web of code boxes that held the game together.

She knew where to find her code box and what Turbo had done to integrate himself into the grid as King Candy. The avatar only existed as part of Vanellope's pre-programmed backstory, so King Candy's code box would be dangling from her own and only hers.

As she expected, she found no evidence that Turbo's code was ever integrated into King Candy's. But she remembered how he had gone about doing so, and suspected that he had integrated himself well enough to be able to regenerate in Sugar Rush before she reset the game, expunging Turbo's integration in the process and rendering him vulnerable as in any other game.

Knowing that the only way to prove her theory would be to reinstate Turbo's position as King Candy, and adamantly against such an idea, she was left only with the option of checking her own code box as Calhoun requested.

Felix was suddenly alerted to a slow cry of "What... the... fudge?!"

"Is everything alright in there?"

"What is this stuff?!"

"What's what?"

Vanellope slammed her code box shut and tugged on the licorice until Felix started reeling her back to the entrance.

"Do you want me to take a look?"

Vanellope grabbed Felix's hand. "Let's go find Ralph."

"What did you see in there?"

Vanellope said nothing.

They arrived at the castle's doorstep minutes later.

Vanellope ran into Ralph's arms as soon as she saw him.

"You alright, kid?"

Vanellope took a few breaths to calm herself. "Yeah."

Calhoun had arrived at that point. "You don't sound alright, Sugar Plum."

All the other racers followed behind her.

Taffyta was the first one to reach the president. "Hey, Vanny, what was Sarge going on about that day our game was almost destroyed?"

"What do you mean?"

"She was asking all of us about what we remembered," Candlehead walked pasted the sergeant, "and how many of us weren't able to escape."

"What did you tell her?"

"Five of us had gotten eaten by those giant bugs that were eating up the game." Citrusella pointed out the racers in question. "Torvald, Nougetsia, Taffyta, The Swizz, and me."

"And then flew into the Diet Cola geyser that Ralph set off?"

All five of the identified racers nodded.

Rancis approached the former glitch. "Any idea why she was asking us about that?"

Vanellope looked to the identified Cy-Bug victims. "Well, it wasn't just you five that were eaten by Cy-Bugs."

"You also got eaten by one?" Torvald asked.

Vanellope nodded. "The geyser fizzed out before I could reach it, and I was restored when I crossed the finish line and reset the game."

"So, if we're all back to normal, we should be good, right?" Swizzle asked.

Vanellope shook her head. "Not quite. You guys are perfectly fine since you were restored after flying into the geyser. But I was restored from being a glitch and a Cy-Bug when I crossed the finish line; since my code was disconnected up to that point, there's still traces of Cy-Bug still in my code."

"Is that what you saw in there?" Felix asked.

"I think it was. Everything in my code box was covered in sticky green jelly."

Ralph looked to Calhoun. "Any idea what that means?"

"It could very well be traces of Cy-Bug in there."

Vanellope looked to Calhoun. "So, if the other racers who got eaten by Cy-Bugs were restored through regeneration, would it work on me?"

"Not if your entire code box was infected. Since you were reintegrated into the grid as a Cy-Bug, the game likely suppressed that part of the code, and it's simply lying dormant for now. If you died in this game and regenerated, it wouldn't clear out the Cy-Bug code, just produce another copy of yourself with your memories intact."

"Does that mean I might turn into a Cy-Bug at some point?"

"Hard to say for sure. To my knowledge, you're the only sprite whose code someone tried to delete, and I'm in no position to experiment on any games to find answers. But it would be in the game's best interest to be prepared for such a scenario."

Gloyd looked to Vanellope. "I still can't believe Turbo took over the game the night it was plugged in."

"Like I said, he had a way of playing with people's emotions..."