Wow, okay, THIS is now officially the longest story word-count wise that I have ever written, butting out its predecessor "That Little Game Called Life". It's a wonder my fingers don't hurt. Hope y'all enjoy, just ONE MORE CHAPTER! :)
Save Me from My Dark Side
Chapter Twenty-Seven
He was hit so hard that he stumbled back a few paces then found himself being rammed into the ground with Officer Bob's hands wrapped around his throat, fully intent on choking him to death right there behind the privacy wall in DDR. Turbo's self-defense mode kicked in and he started trying to work his legs between him and the policeman to start kicking him off, and then grabbed at his wrists in an attempt to pry his hands off his neck.
"Son of a bitch! Because of you, everyone thinks I'm the enemy!" the psychotic cop spat angrily, his eyes flaring with hatred and his lips peeled back in a snarl. "You're the one that deserves being ostracized, not me!"
Candlehead had thankfully worn her namesake hat to the party and she shouted, "You leave Mister Turbo alone!" right before taking her hat off and shoving the lit candle against Bob's face.
He hadn't expected on getting burned and he instinctively grabbed at his scorched cheek with one of his hands, resulting in Turbo being free to breathe and also get in his own punch. Bob's head flew back from impact and the racer bent a knee up so he could kick him in the chest, which made him fly off onto his back.
"Candles, move!" Turbo demanded of the little girl as he picked himself up off the floor.
She ran out onto the dance floor while Bob took opportunity to charge right into his nemesis, briefly knocking the wind out of him as the two went crashing into a nearby unoccupied table and chairs. A group nearby screamed at the sudden fight that had erupted and Bob punched Turbo again while he had the upper hand. Rosie came out of the restroom and went into a panic when she saw what was going on, then forced herself into action by grabbing her husband's attacker by the back of his shirt.
"Get the hell off him, dickface!"
Bob swung around and punched her in the eye, making her back away and start crying with her hand over her face. Turbo's face drew up into an angry scowl when he saw that and he grabbed Bob by the collar of his uniform.
"Keep your goddamn paws off my wife!" he growled before punching him in the nose hard enough to knock the man back, crashing him into yet another table.
This prompted the DJ to quit playing the music (Ke$ha's "Blow" was halfway over) and everyone's attention went towards the two men spinning and crashing into things like a miniature tornado. Everyone moved quickly out of the way to keep from getting knocked into; a few people let out a few screams. Finally, Bob managed to fling Turbo off when they were somewhere in the middle of the dance floor, the latter falling into a clumsy sitting position. Ralph and Calhoun had worked their way through the panicking crowd to try and help but that's when Bob did something no one expected.
Since he had gotten the bouncer out of the way when the arcade closed, he hadn't had to go through the mandatory weapons check that Yuni had in place. He pulled his pistol out and aimed it right at Turbo, who froze in his spot on the floor. Everyone gasped and backed up considerably, and Calhoun muttered something about how she knew not having her own gun with her was a bad idea.
"Anyone comes near me, I shoot you and him," Bob warned in a snarl, his eyes glinting with rage as trickles of blood came out his nose and corners of his mouth. He looked like a man possessed, hell bent on revenge against someone that hadn't done a thing to him.
Turbo's heart pounded hard in his chest, anxiety growing at both the fact he had a gun pointed at him and also that he was practically being put on display here what with everyone looking at him. He had leaned back slightly when he first saw the gun, having to hold his hands back behind him with palms on the floor to hold himself up and keep from falling backwards.
Rosie had both hands over her mouth in shock and fear as she could do nothing but watch helplessly as her husband got threatened at gunpoint. If there had been a chance that Bob wouldn't act on his threat, she would've dared run up to jump-kick him in the face. Ralph and Calhoun were fuming mad at the inability to try anything, while Felix displayed a look that was a mix of concern and anger.
"Bob, put down the gun before you hurt someone," the handyman tried to reason with him.
"Shut the hell up, Fix-It," Bob snapped at his former friend. "Any good blood we had between us was tainted when you let this...this...murderer, this criminal live in your game."
"You doodie face!" Turbo heard Vanellope call out from somewhere in the back.
"You idiots!" Bob kept preaching to the crowd, giving brief glances around him to make sure someone didn't try anything. "You're content on letting this monster live free among us after all he's done, willing to forgive him like a bunch of mindless sheep? Have you all lost your damn minds? He's a selfish homicidal maniac!"
"All we see is you waving a gun around and threatening to shoot anyone that moves!" Calhoun barked at him, her fists clenched tightly.
"And you're saying he's the crazy one?" Yuni piped up from the back, obviously pissed off at this standoff taking place in her territory, not to mention the fact that someone broke her rules about weapons.
Different remarks sounded from around the room, most of them angry and hailed at Bob. Turbo's eyes were darting in different directions at all the people that were standing up for him, feeling both embarrassed and at the same time uplifted. Amazing that only two weeks ago it had been a completely different story. Bob was growing more and more outraged at this turn of events in the racer's favor, his facial features developing a more evil twist to them.
It seemed like this situation would have dragged on forever until out of nowhere, what appeared to be a scoop of Neapolitan ice cream went flying through the air and splatted against Bob's cheek. The sudden cold sting startled the police officer so much that he was momentarily distracted enough for Calhoun to leap forward and swipe his legs out from under him and then kick the gun away from him.
Turbo glanced over in the direction he had seen the ice cream come from and saw Gloyd with a slingshot he had snuck in giving him a thumbs up. Ralph had placed one of his huge fists on top of Bob's torso to prevent him from escaping or causing any damage, glaring down at him as if to dare him to even think about fighting against him. Rosie let out a shuddering sigh of relief, her lungs burning from holding her breath so long, and she tore through the people that she was behind in the crowd to kneel down and squeeze Turbo into tight hug. He wrapped one arm around her, keeping his eyes fixed in front of him on his attacker and breathing deeply to get oxygen into his own lungs.
Yuni pushed herself out of the crowd and stormed over to Bob, leaning over his face so he could see the furious look she was wearing. "You are so banished from this game."
"Whoop-dee-doo," he muttered dryly as he continued to lay supine with Ralph's fist pinning him to the floor.
That's when M. Bison of all people stepped forth into view, people wisely moving out of his way. Turbo tensed up a little when he saw the enormous caped fighter, memories of getting punched by him almost three weeks ago making him experience phantom pain in his face. However, it wasn't Turbo that Bison was after.
"Want me to toss him?" he asked Yuni, who simply nodded and crossed her arms across her chest. The fighter had to kneel a bit to grab Bob by his collar while Ralph drew his fist up off of him at the same time.
"Let go of me, you overgrown buffoon!" growled Bob as he was carried out of the game, his little legs swinging in mid-air as he tried uselessly to kick at the muscular man. Other idle threats and fussings could be heard from the little cop as he was toted away.
Turbo rubbed Rosie on the back, asking, "You all right, sweetie?"
"I'll be fine, champ," she replied quietly, pulling back a bit so she could see his face. She saw him wince when he saw her now swollen eye which had turned a nice shade of red.
Felix bounced up and healed the both of them quick as possible, all injuries from the fight disappearing instantly.
"Geez, Turbo, can you go to an anniversary party without getting into some kind of tussle?" he questioned his friend with a smile as he helped the two of them up.
"What are you...oh, yeah." He had almost forgotten about how he and Teddy had gotten into a fistfight on TurboTime's tenth anniversary...the night before he game-jumped into RoadBlasters and changed his life and everyone else's forever.
Vanellope, whose hair-do was falling all over her face after Gloyd messed it up earlier, shoved her way through the crowd and crawled up Ralph's arm to get on top of his shoulder and cupped her hands around her mouth so she could announce, "Okay, people, show's over! Let's get back to my party!"
Almost as if she had spoken magic words, the music started up again (Owl City's "Good Time") and everyone went back to doing whatever it was they were doing before being interrupted. Some people patted both Turbo and Rosie on the shoulder to ask if they were okay. Vanellope crawled back down Ralph's arm and started shouting again for Gloyd to give her that tiara back or he was banned from racing for a whole week, to which he just stuck his tongue out and gave her the run around again. Ralph decided to help her out since he hadn't gotten his payback yet for the blue urine joke.
Calhoun turned Bob's gun over in her hand in observation after she had picked it up and then tossed it to Felix, who fumbled some while trying to catch it. "Here, short stack, something more your size for when you come shooting with me."
"Oh, um...thanks, honeybunch," he smiled nervously, still not having gotten eased up about firing a weapon even though they frequented the shooting range a good bit.
"You don't think Bob will try something again, do you?" Rosie asked Turbo as they decided to retire to an empty table to sit and relax for a few minutes, understandable given the scare they'd just had.
"I hope not," he responded, putting a hand over hers. "Hopefully he took a page out of my book and realized getting pissed off and violent doesn't get you anywhere."
She smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze, so proud and happy that he had gotten over all the issues he'd been dealing with for so long. "Love you, champ."
"Love you too, pretty girl."
Meanwhile, in Grand Central Station...
"I order you to put me down this instant! I am an officer of the law, you should be arrested for obstructing justice! I have rights, you know! I'll make sure to shut down every illegal keg party you Street Fighters throw if you don't release me immediately!"
Officer Bob hadn't shut up fuming and fussing at M. Bison the entire time they had been gone from DDR. The caped fighter was getting more and more infuriated and impatient with this little mustached punk and by the time they finally made it to the Station, he'd had enough.
"Here, how's this for a release?" M. Bison bit irritably as he reared back and literally threw Bob through the air and then turned right around to head back to the party.
What he didn't see was Bob crashing into Sonic's video display sign, the same one that Turbo had rolled into a mere three weeks ago when he got booted from DDR. Only difference, Bob actually was slammed hard enough to crack Sonic's face and the electricity within it shot sparks into his body, causing the whole display to malfunction.
"If if if yoou yooou d-d-d-diiiie oout out-out-side yooouurrr own own g-gaame game, yyou-yoou d-d-d-d-don't regen-regen-regen err ate ev-ev-ever! Game game game ov-ov-ov-er!"
He screamed in agony as he literally hovered in mid-air as the deadly voltage, intensified by short circuiting the taser he had in his back pocket, fried his very code. He flickered into different shades of blues and purples, glitching madly until all that could be seen was straight binary code, then a small blip sound was heard.
Nobody ever saw Officer Bob again.