A/N: This chapter in a nutshell: #donotgetfelixoutofcharacter.

LOL

Chapter 5

Felix

"Hey Felix, what are you looking at?" Gene taps me on the shoulder.

I jerk and look away from the window. Behind me, a party is in full swing, the Nicelanders dancing and eating cake like any other party.

But tonight, my thoughts are not on the party and all its guests and entertainment. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot tear my thoughts from Ralph and RJ, particularly RJ. Something about the guy bugs me, like there is something that he hasn't revealed to the rest of us.

The ground shakes again, but no one seems to notice.

"Hey, seriously." Gene glances me straight in the eye. "You've been looking out at the window for like 20 minutes; Mary's got the cake ready, with your favorite: vanilla! But you're just looking out and not joining in." He steps closer to me "You're not like, well, you, tonight."

"Really?" I gulp. I have not realized that I have drawn such a crowd just by not paying attention. "Um…yeah." I stammer.

"Please don't tell me that you want to invite those two behemoths to our party, eh?" Gene says, rather rudely. "It's a miracle that they didn't trash up this place earlier on their visit, right?"

"Don't say them like that…" I mutter.

I shake my head and walk into the party. I try to clear the thoughts of RJ from my head, but the more I try, the more embedded they become in my mind. It seems like a million invisible questions were hovering around me, begging to be answered.

Like: How did Ralph have a sibling he didn't know?

Like: Why had there been no earthquakes until today?

Like: Why am I still so deeply suspicious of RJ?!

The questions close in around me, blocking me from the rest of the party; but I can't answer them…

…or can I?

"Hey, I just thought of something, and I wanna go and check on it. I'll be back soon." I call to the Nicelanders. As I turn for the door, I swing back on my heels and say, "Oh, and Mary; get me a slice of cake: I'm starved."

Soon, I click the door softly behind me with a plate in my hand. I take another bite of my cake and press the button for the elevator. A plan is quickly forming in my head as I waited for the lift, but to be honest, I actually feel guilty about putting it into action. I don't want to tamper around with anyone's code without them knowing; but then again, I don't think I have any other choice.

The elevator arrives. I get into it and travel to my own floor, and enter my apartment. I set the now-empty plate on the table, and I face the room. The room is bright, the lights bouncing off the array of medals that lined up the side of the wall, family pictures of Tamora, Ralph, Vanellope and me encased in frames on top of the chest. Everything is where it should be.

Very quietly, I kneel down and pull out the bottom drawer of the chest. The entire chest is made out of wood, and has been standing in this room since the game began. It is an ordinary chest, one that you wouldn't give a second thought when you saw one. But my father knew better, and in my backstory, he told me that the chest holds a tiny secret, a key unknown to most, but vital for our survival.

I look carefully around the wooden space in which the drawer has once been. There, in the far corner, I see a slight piece of wood jutted out. I take a knife and pry out the piece of wood and reach inside the space emptied out.

Inside, I find a skeleton key, slightly rusted with age; and after slipping it into my pocket, I take a look at the piece of wood. There is a code handwritten on it: F3lr4l1102. I take a second glance at it, and although I had no idea what it means, I walk to the table, jot the code down on a piece of paper, and replace the piece of wood in its original place.

I take out a flashlight from the first drawer of the chest, and stash it into my belt. I then quickly slide all the drawers back into their original positions, and look at the result.

"There, I'm done!" I think. Now I just need to get out without being seen…

I walk out of the building and turn sharply to the right, until I was at the back of the building, where vines grew all over. I carefully part some of the vines, and there it is: a door built into the wall, practically invisible to everybody.

I turn the key in the lock, and hear a soft click. Instinctively, I turn my head to the left and right, fearing that someone may be following me or spying on what I'm about to do next.. I see RJ sitting in the brick pile in the distance with his head down, scribbling something on the ground with his giant finger. I quickly breathe in a sigh of relief. Good, he hasn't seen me. I open the door silently and walk in the doorway.

I turn on the flashlight, and the light beam shines upon a stairway that leads down, and down, and down…

I grip my flashlight tighter as I descend down, feeling my code pulse quicker than it should. The walls are moist and damp, though it seems no one has come down here for years. I shine my light onto the wall surfaces and the floor, insects scurrying away from the light beam as it hit them.

The ground beneath my feet quakes, and I shriek, my flashlight clattering onto the floor, startling thousands of dark insects, running all over the floor and on my feet. I shriek again, suddenly glad that the walls were somehow capable of blocking out any loud noise.

"Get it together, Felix!" I scold myself as I bend down and pick up the flashlight. I give it a quick dust-off and shine it downward again.

Gene is right for one thing: I really don't feel like myself tonight.

Soon, I stop in front of a large metal door, with a digital pad fastened in front of it. I quickly pull out the piece of paper and with the help of my flashlight, punch in the code. The door swings open silently, and I find myself looking into what seems like infinite darkness, with a cluster of lights in the distance.

The Code Room.

Holding on to my hammer tightly, I run forward and push myself into the darkness.

It's quite an alarming feeling, suspended in darkness, hanging on what seems like thin air. But at the same, I feel a sense of calmness wash over me as I approached the web of code boxes. It is the weirdest feeling ever, one that I can't seem to describe.

After a while of pushing and swimming, I finally reach the shimmering, neon-colored boxes, connected to each other by thin wires, pulsing with energy.

Everyone's in the arcade has heard the story of how Turbo invaded Sugar Rush by tampering with its code, claiming the throne for himself, causing Vanellope to become a glitch, and ridding Sugar Rush of its past memories. It is the vilest thing the arcade has ever seen, and so one would fear that a character going into the code room may have destructive plans in mind.

But I'm not here for chaos and disorder; I'm here for answers.

I swim to the cluster of boxes with names and faces marked on it. I look up and down, recognizing names and faces: my smiling face beside my name, Ralph's scowling face besides his name, the familiar faces of the Nicelanders besides their names, each face etched in regard to his or her personality.

And in the far corner, I finally see it: a glowing box with the name RJ written on it.

I glide myself to it, and tap a hand lightly on RJ's code box, causing it to flicker and pop up into a hundred tiny icons.

I gently move a hand over the sparkling icons, trying to find anything relevant to RJ's past. But so far, I've found nothing.

Just as I'm about to remove my hand from the sea of icons, my hand brushes against a random icon, and the whole box, yes, the whole box, just glitches up, shimmering and flickering. I jerk my hand back, just in time to see it flare up into a million tiny blue lights, glitching as I watched.

As soon as my hand restores to normal, I take a closer look at the particular icon I had just brushed. Strangely, it seems to be connected to something, and not just to RJ's code. I trace the thin wire connecting the icon with my eyes, trying to see where it ended.

When I finally found it, I draw in a large, deep breath.

The wire was connected to the main code itself.

Connected to the heart of the game.

The icon flickers again, and I see pulses of energy transporting through the wire and into the main code, causing it to also flicker.

Another flicker catches my eye, and I look, just in time to see a second icon in RJ's code to flicker, and the main code to also flicker up as well.

A third icon flickers, and again, the main code flares up into sparks briefly.

RJ's code: it's glitching, and that…oh no.

As dozens of icons in RJ's code glitch up instantaneously, I feel light-headed as I found myself assuming a terrible theory about RJ. I draw in a few quick breaths, unable to believe what is happening in front of my own eyes, and suddenly wishing that I never entered the Code Room at all.

This can't be true…right?

The icons flicker again, this time with stronger intensity and the main code glitches up again. I quickly tap RJ's code box shut and swim to the doorway as fast as I can.

I need to tell Ralph about this…