Hey there!

Well, I started college again, so life is hectic and full of work that's gonna keep me away from this story. But do not fret, because I won't ever leave my readers hanging :D so onto the next adventure!

Disclaimer: Disney owns Sugar Rush, Activision owns DJ Hero 2, SEGA owns Sonic the Fighters and Angel Kids, and I own all the custom content. What a wonderful mess this is.

Choko's POV

While she would be a little reluctant to admit it, Choko was of the firm opinion that Honey was some sort of 招き猫 (maneki-neko).

Earlier that night, just after the arcade had closed and Choko was free to go off with her team, she had tripped on a fallen candy cane branch and nearly fell into a taffy pool. Honey-chan, who had taken the day off in order to practice keeping her pixels together in times of stress, had saved Choko from a very nasty dip in bright purple taffy. Then when they had trekked towards the port to GCS, Choko was nearly run over by a racing Pollipop-chan and Adorabeezle-chan; Honey-chan had pulled her back and yelled at the candy racers to "go get their carts tilted" or something along those lines. It was hard to tell when Honey-chan used such brash language.

Now Honey-chan was trying very hard not to play with Skrillex-kun's hair, which was very wavy and shiny and glorious. Choko made a mental note to thank Rancis-kun for the use of his serum. It just did wonders beyond any ordinary hair care product.

Smiling to herself, Choko pressed the bright green button on her cookie dashboard, frowning when the engine failed to turn over. Skrillex-kun mentioned that maybe it needed a quick trip to the Bakery—and he was admiring his coral flavored nail polish, Choko knew he protested a bit too much—and Choko huffed; they needed to get to the Angel Kids pronto and they didn't have time to fix the cart. Then Honey-chan got out and kicked the side just under the fondant R, grinning smugly when the engine roared into life. "Percussive maintenance is how we get things done in our game."

"So hitting you in the back of the head is now a good course of action? Awesome."

"Go ahead and try, pretty boy."

"You're just hating because my nails are foking amazing."

Choko tuned out their banter and sped towards Angel Kids. If Honey-chan's luck held up, then maybe they'd be in and out without risking their lives as usual.

One of the Kids bounced towards them, her childishly simple face filled with worry. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here!"

"We're here to help, Angela-chan. Can you tell us what's wrong?"

Angela-chan led them into her game, which consisted of various towers and beanstalks and what Choko thought was a large naked man. Skrillex-kun gave Honey-chan an aside glance, who sputtered that just because her game was also made by SEGA didn't mean that there were stages filled with naked legs. Angela-chan skipped towards her fellow Kids Angelo-kun and Ansel-kun, who were wringing their hands at the base of a beanstalk. "Ok kids, what's the problem?"

Angelo-kun told Honey-chan to look up, and the three code masters could see various children flying out of control at the top of the beanstalk, coins and shoes raining from the heavens. Angela-chan side stepped a falling diamond ring, then squeaked, "Our game was completely fine until just a few hours before closing, and then we lost control! We couldn't float, the others started crashing everywhere...it's a mess!"

"Yes, yes it is." Skrillex-kun shook his head, snapping his laptop shut. "Whatever it is, it's way deeper than just a physics error; the soundtrack is completely fine."

"And nothing seems to be glitching as far as I can see..." Honey-chan motioned towards the pink jump rope Angelo-kun and Ansel-kun were carrying. "I'm sorry, but how does your game work again?"

"Oh, we'll show you!" Angelo-kun handed Angela-chan his end, then the two Kids held the rope taut, the brown haired boy spanning his arms. "All we have to do is get the kids to jump to the top of the stages by making them bounce on here." He jumped on the rope, and the three carried themselves up a bit, Angelo-kun calling down, "That's all there is—"

A soft clicking noise beneath the racket of sound effects above made Skrillex-kun dash forward, but it was too late. Angelo-kun froze in place before skyrocketing, flipping all over the stage with no collision to keep him from phasing through the walls like a mirror match ghost. Angela-chan screamed, then fell back to the ground, falling harshly on Skrillex-kun's head. Honey-chan caught Ansel-kun in a lucky save, then they silently watched Angelo-kun pinball at the top of the world.

"..."

"...so does anyone have any idea what just happened?"

Skrillex-kun shook himself, then grimly stated, "I really hope I'm not wrong, but Angela, is a soft blip part of your sound effects?"

"Not that I've ever heard, why?"

"Well—" Suddenly he was up in the air, Honey-chan diving to save his backpack as the level split and dropped the remaining characters halfway through the ground. Choko struggled to free herself as Angela-chan and Ansel-kun worked themselves into panic attacks—the poor 子供 (kodomo) were going to make themselves faint—and Honey-chan forced herself to pixelate out of the ground.

"What was he about to say?!"

"I don't know Ansel, he's way up there!"

"Why is it that the only time Princess Hipster has something important to say, he gets sucked into the sky?"

"We're going to get unplugged! I don't want to live on a bench!"

"Calm down Angela-chan! We can fix this—Honey-chan, a little help?"

"Wha—oh, lemme fix that..."

"Ouch!"

"Sorry Kid, pixels can be pointy. Choko, what do we do now?"

"We need access to the code well. Ansel-kun, where do you enter your game's programming?"

"At the top of that beanstalk."

"..."

It seemed to Choko that Honey-chan's luck aura was running low.

Honey's POV

"So we just bounce up to the top like on a trampoline?"

"Yep!"

Honey privately thought that this was going to be her death—not even privately, she flat out told Choko they were going to die—but sucked it up. Sonic would've charged right into the thick of the battle, big black eyes all narrowed with determination, his silky blue quills sharp for a fight...she blinked. Jeez, she was daydreaming again. She snorted to herself and held tightly onto Choko's sugar sticky hand, standing on a small ledge over a smiling Angela and Ansel. "You ready for this?"

"Hopefully the game won't affect us as greatly as the Kids, so we'll be fine."

"Skrillex is bumping around the stratosphere, Choko."

"Well...he almost said the problem out loud. Perhaps he jinxed it."

"Jinxed it."

"Yes, like spinning your wheels before the timer starts. Anyway, we jump on 4. 1..."

"Is this what Sonny went through back in SMB?"

"2..."

"By Chaos, he did!"

"3..."

"Welp, time to prove who's the best at platforming."

"4!"

They jumped into the cord and bounced high into the air, screaming as they flipped into balloons. Angela and Ansel floated up to catch their rebound, and Honey relaxed just a bit into the tumbles that Nack was teaching her through. Curl here, absorb the bounce there, and try not to think about the broken pair of glasses below. Honey the Cat was the best secret character this side of Street Fighter, thank you very much, and she'd be beaten by Dr. Robotnik before she would freak out over something like this.

Choko bounced off of her back—oww by the way, did she fill her obi with rocks?—and Honey resisted the urge to flatten her ears. Whatever was wrong with bleeps and bloops was way over her action-minded head, but she could live without being launched into the 16-bit ceiling until Mr. Litwak came to put them out of their misery. Angela yelled that they were halfway up the beanstalk, and Honey let out a sigh of relief.

Ansel then proceeded to drop like a rock, dragging Angela and their jump rope down with him.

Well...Chaos is as Chaos does, or something like that.

Honey clawed onto the beanstalk and let out a very unladylike tirade as Choko grabbed onto her tail to keep from falling to her death. Screaming at Skrillex, who was making Mobius loops somewhere to her right, that he owed her at least three albums in her honor, she clawed her way up the level, glitching her hands wrist-deep into the stalk to keep from losing her grip.

"Choko! Adjust your grip!"

"Umm...is that—"

"NO, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE."

"ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai) Honey-chan, but it's a really far drop..."

"This is the stupidest thing we've ever done! How can this get any worse?"

"—FOKFOKHONEYMOVEBEFOREI—"

Honey shrieked as Skrillex slammed into her and knocked her up into the air, Choko's frightened squeal ending with a loud "oomf!" as she landed at the top of the stage. With a quickness she was impressed by, Skrillex grabbed onto Honey's wrists and yelled, "THE CHECKSUM FOUND THE SRAM" before throwing her at the beanstalk and careening back into a group of flailing children. Honey grit her teeth as she landed, before rolling onto her side. Even if she was the queen of a fighting game, it always hurt to hit the ground at around 30 mph.

"Honey-chan, we need to fix the game as quickly as possible!"

Choko helped Honey to her feet, the cat straightening her twin tails. "Can we patch the game or do we need one of the Kids up here?"

"Technically they're already up here, and we just beat the stage so we're good to go."

"Awesome." Honey stretched her arms up over her head. "Now let's hurry; Sonny boy was looking a little green around the undercut."

Honey floated in the code well, looking at the code boxes. "Don't these look a little...weird to you?"

"Especially the ones running the game, just look." It was true; unlike the pink and blue of Honey's game, the Angel Kids programming was dominated by purples and yellows, and a few very ill-looking green ones. "What exactly did Sonny-kun say to you?"

"Something about a checksum and sram, whatever that is." Honey gazed back up at the entrance to the code well, where Angela was hovering. "My game is a lot different than whatever is wrong here."

Choko paused, then Honey watched the pink flush drain out of her cheeks. "What was the last bit?"

"Sram, why?"

"...I think he meant SRAM, I think he meant SRAM!"

Honey watched Choko frantically pull herself out of the code well, following in concern. "What's that?"

Choko crawled up to Angela, her bright green eyes flashing. "Angela-chan, is your game a legitimate copy?"

Angela froze, then flushed. "I...what does that have to do with anything?"

"It means everything!" Choko whirled about in agitation. "That blip Sonny-kun heard, it was the checksum detecting an unusual amount of SRAM! That's why your game is broken: the anti-piracy codes have been triggered!"

Angela gasped and backed away. "B-but that's not true! We're the same as any other game!"

"Normal game coding is blue and pink, but yours is purple and yellow. Not to mention in the character models the angels are supposed to be two males instead of two boys and a girl..." Choko trailed off as she saw tears form in Angela's eyes. "Oh I'm so sorry about raising my voice, 済みません (sumimasen). But now that we know why the game isn't working, we can take out the anti-piracy triggers and you'll be sweeter than a bun cake."

Honey smiled as Angela hugged Choko, then turned back to the code well. It wasn't an easy thing, to convince a game that some of its programming should be taken out for the good of the characters within, but what did she know?

Vanellope's POV

Vanellope shared an aside glance with Choko then giggled.

Skrillex was laid up on a marsh mellow couch in one of the castle's relaxation rooms, glasses fixed and placed on a side table. According to Choko, he had been sick ever since she and Honey patched up Angel Kids, his equilibrium shot like a sweet seeker out for revenge. Honey had been unusually kind, and was currently brushing out the tangles in his hair, but Vanellope figured that her fighting code kept her from kicking a man when he was down. She had all of tomorrow to make up for it, after all.

Choko sipped her sweet green tea then cocked her head. "Vanellope-heika, I must say...do you think the two are...you know?"

"Hmm?"

Choko held out a dainty pinkie finger.

"Oh no oh no!" Vanellope put her fist in her mouth to keep from laughing too loud. "Oh, I know who she likes, but it's not him. Besides, can you imagine the two together?"

"Like Rancis-kun and Taffyta-chan?"

"Or Gloyd and Snowanna?"

"Or Minty-chan and Sour Apple-chan!"

"Why are they—fok, my hair—rolling on the floor laughing?"

"Well, maybe if you would wear brighter colors maybe you'd have a more sunny deposition."

"And take away your source of endless enjoyment?"

"Oh you're too kind."

招き猫 (maneki-neko): a cat figure which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner (she's saying that Honey is a good luck charm)

子供 (kodomo): children

ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai): I'm sorry

済みません (sumimasen): excuse me

And that's that!

The checksum routine that's referenced here is a kind of anti-piracy measure. Namely, a routine checks to see how much SRAM (memory used for saving, in this case like saving top name scores) is in the game. Pirated versions usually have more SRAM than usual, so the routine goes off and any measure of anti-piracy actions take place, such as breaking the game. Obviously the failsafes are not failsafe, as Angel Kids has been working for some years now, but it was bound to catch up with them.

I've come to the conclusion that the Angel Kids game in Litwak's Arcade is a modified version, because in the original game there are two angels and one girl with green hair. In Wreck-It Ralph three angels are seen, one girl (Angela) and two boys, one of whom (Ansel) has much darker skin than the other (Angelo). So I figured that since Angel Kids is such an obscure game, Mr. Litwak didn't know that he had a pirated console. I also think that I need a life.

Read and review my lovelies, and feel free to guess where the Codebusters may go next :D