((New chapter up! BTW, I changed the rating of this fanfic because it's going to be a little darker from here on. Oh, remember I told you in the previously that I will write the anniversary race in this chapter? I LIED. ... Actually, I think the big race comes after two more chapters hopefully because there are still things that need to be explored first.))
Chapter 23
Vanellope and Swizzle are still working over the kart and engine, but Swizzle still couldn't figure out to fix the latter properly even with the right tools they brought in. They couldn't even get the kart to start running after repeated times putting the engine block back under the hood. The sky began to darken as the digital sun began to set behind the sugary mountains, and the kids knew they cannot work properly in the dark.
"Come on, you stupid piece of junk!" Swizzle muttered under his breath as he pressed the pedals of the Whipper Snapper. The kart remained dead.
"Let's stop for now, Swizz," Vanellope said, looking up to the sky. "Maybe we can find a piece of red vine rope and and drag the Whipper Snapper back to my home."
"You're not going anywhere," a voice said.
Vanellope jumped with surprise and she turned to see Minty, Jubileena and Adorabeezle approaching them. Swizzle hopped out of Vanellope's kart and stood behind her.
"What are you girls doing here?" he demanded. "Have you come back to cause more trouble for Vanellope? Haven't you done enough!"
"Swizzle, we just want to talk to you," Minty insisted. Then she added, motioning to Vanellope, "And her!"
The unicorn pop-themed racer crossed his arms, glaring at them suspiciously. "I'm listening."
"We just wanted to know how you got out from the Fungeon and how you..." Minty glanced at Vanellope's direction, "survived that fall at Cereal Box Canyon. I heard most karts can survive damages falling from a racetrack in one piece, but it shouldn't have been the same for glitches."
"I escaped from the Fungeon," Swizzle replied. "With Vanny here, of course, when she later got captured."
"And I regenerated, Gah-DOY!" Vanellope said. "Turns out I'm not a glitch after all. I'm actually a real racer!"
Minty shook her head impatiently. "How long are you gonna keep fooling yourself? King Candy says you're a glitch!"
"Yeah, about King Candy-he's nothing but a fraud! A humbug!" Swizzle said. The girls were taken by surprise and they looked at each other in confusion.
"Wait... you called our good king a humbug?" Adorabeezle asked. "W-why would you say that, Swizzle?"
"Because he's actually a different person named Turbo, and King Candy was just his disguise to fool us!" Swizzle explained. "There's a reason why he looked and seemed different from the rest of us, because he's not originally around here!"
"That's silly, Swizz!" Jubileena pouted. "How could King Candy be an outsider? He's a racer like the rest of us."
"Besides, I seemed to recall that he's been around Sugar Rush since the day it was plugged in," Adorabeezle added, but she looked uncertain.
"He's from an old racing game, that's why he's a good driver!" Swizzle hoped the girls can believe him and he looked at each of them desperately. "Listen to me, King Candy-I mean Turbo- had hacked and reprogrammed our world, and then lied and manipulated us for fifteen years! He doesn't even care about us, only for his selfish needs! He's a madman with a bad ego!"
"Your last name just summed up all those things you just said... a bunch of malarkey!" Minty snapped. "Do you even have any proof that King Candy is actually this... Turbo... and you're not making things up just to throw us off our guard?"
During all this, Vanellope went back to retrieve the lickable tapestry and dump them at their feet; unraveled for everyone to see and she pointed a finger to the image of her riding the white go-kart.
"There's your proof!" she declared. "This was originally from the castle, hidden behind the velvet curtains at Confectionery Hall."
"Is that... is that you?" Adorabeezle asked as she peered closely. "You're even riding on a kart that is similar to King Candy's."
"That's because it was originally my kart," Vanellope told her firmly. "Years ago, Turbo tried to delete my code but since he failed, he turned me into a glitch and stole my identity, my kart, and my life."
"Whoa, hold up! This Turbo tried to delete your code and stole your kart?" Jubileena looked up with wide, frightened eyes. "And you're not really a glitch before? That means, you're actually a... a..."
"A racer," Adorabeezle finished for her. She then realized what she had done to Vanellope all these years and covered her mouth in shock. Jubileena looked as though she was going to have a heart attack. However, Minty didn't look convinced.
"An image of you with King Candy's kart doesn't prove anything!" Minty stubbornly insisted. She scowled at her two friends who easily believed Swizzle and the glitch's words. "You're just saying those things because you just want to find an easy way to make us let you race, Vanellope!"
"Of course, I have to race, Minty!" Vanellope yelled. "Because Sour Bill told me that if I cross that finish line, the game would reset and I would no longer be a glitch."
"You're a filthy, dangerous liar. Your glitching will doom our entire game!"
"Turbo only told us that so we can have justified reasons to keep Vanellope away from the race," Swizzle said. "He also didn't want any of us to leave our game because he didn't want anyone to find out his secret. You got to believe us, Minty!"
"Why should I believe you two?" Minty asked quietly. "Ever since you two started dating each other, you've been nothing but cause great inconvenience for everyone."
"Wait, what? We... we're not d-dating!" Swizzle stuttered, his face turn red.
Vanellope blushed a little too but she stepped forward and leaned her face close to Minty's, both sizing each other up. "Minty, can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"How far can you remember aside the first memories being plugged in? Do you remember any special motivations why you want to race?"
"What does that have to do with-?"
"Just do it and try looking inside yourself!"
Minty angrily stared at her and tried to remember, but all she can come up are faint memories of her knowing just her name and her desire for racing, and that's pretty much it. But she also recalled that she felt... confused and her mind was blank. It was like she was suddenly born without any ideas of her previous past life and WHY she wanted to race.
There's also a little memory where King Candy introduces himself to the racers but for some reason, he doesn't seem to fit in with others since he had a generic name and an odd appearance... Then in a flash of lightning, Minty suddenly remembered a distant memory of how King Candy enforced some rules about how racers with recolors, like Minty (as well as Jubileena and Adorabeezle) are just templates and their only purpose is to race and take up space. Templates are only to be seen, and not heard...
The renewed memories of the insults, mocking, and threats made Minty's blood boil and then she remembered why she joined Snowanna and Taffyta's "in" groups in the first place: she didn't want to be associated with her unoriginal "sisters" Sticky and Torvald, and she wanted to be her own independent racer... even it meant being hostile to someone who doesn't fit her standards.
If Vanellope and Swizzle is actually telling the truth about King Candy being a fraud and lying everyone for many years, then that means... Minty's body shook and she buried her hands into her face, absorbing the horrifying revelation in her mind.
"Minty, are you okay?" Swizzle asked.
"I'm fine!" Minty growled. "Just... remembering things I thought were forgotten... But other than that, I knew something was wrong with my memory. I couldn't remember anything about what had happened before I awoke when Sugar Rush was plugged in."
"I felt the same thing too!" Jubileena said. Adorabeezle nodded with agreement. "It's like my mind was wiped clean!"
"Turbo did all those things to you," Vanellope said. "He locked up all our memories because he didn't want anyone to remember him hacking into our game and my true identity."
Jubileena suddenly burst into wails and then threw herself at Vanellope much to everyone's shock.
"I AM SO-SO-SORRY, VANELLOPE!" the cherry-themed racer sobbed. "I'm sorry for all calling you glitch and treating you badly!"
"I never wanted to bully you in the first place," Adorabeezle hiccuped as she wiped her tears. "I just wanted to avoid you but Snowanna and Taffyta pressured me into doing so!"
"Guys, it's okay..." Vanellope said sheepishly. "I don't have any grudges against you now. You couldn't do anything about since you were all brainwashed."
"But we were still mean to you!" Jubileena sniffed. "We should've know something was wrong in this game much earlier!"
Minty held back her tears and she looked at Vanellope and Swizzle straight in the eye. "A few minutes ago, I didn't believe you guys because I still trusted our king because he made rules to protect us," she said. "Now I have certain doubts about him being a 'good' ruler... We're going to help you fix your kart, Vanellope. Five heads are better than two."
Vanellope beamed with joy; she and Swizzle finally convinced a few racers and got them on their side. Turbo and everyone else won't even see this coming!
"Hey, guys, sorry to cut this heartwarming moment short, but the sky is getting darker and we won't work on the Whipper Snapper without good light," Swizzle spoke anxiously.
Vanellope turned to the other racers, a smirk played on her lips. "Since you three are now on the team, I guess it's time I show you my secret hideout."
Meanwhile back at Game Central Station, Tapper was standing outside his game and he was talking to Surge Protector.
"... When I went to the back room to get some new mugs, it was gone," Tapper told him.
"What's going on here?" Wreck-It Ralph asked as he came up to the scene. Behind him are Fix-It Felix Jr and Sergeant Calhoun from Hero's Duty.
"Something serious had happened," Surge Protector said as he jotted down notes into his clipboard. "Earlier, someone had snuck into Tapper's game and stole the Lost and Found box."
"That's terrible!" Felix gasped. "Why would someone take it? Those items in that box don't even belong to them!"
"I was hoping I can easily retrieve Markowski's weapon since he accidentally dropped it," Calhoun grumbled. "I swear I should put him in jail for his carelessness and idiocy. I hope the perpetrator will get caught soon."
"I will deal with the arresting myself," Surge Protector said. "For now, I will to enforce stricter security checks."
Ralph groaned, he hated those darn security checks. "Couldn't you form a search party or just find the guy yourself?"
"I would, but that will put someone at a risk of dying outside their game. And I cannot just leave my post and let anyone else perform unauthorized game-jumping."
Ralph face-palmed at Surge Protector's uselessness. He felt something nudging his leg. He looked down and saw Q*Bert standing before him. It began to say something in gibberish in the form of a floating speech bubble.
"What is he saying?" Calhoun demanded. Felix stepped forward.
"I can understand Q*Bertinese," he explained. "He's saying that he knows who took the wooden box. He saw a little green fellow was taking the box out from Tapper's and into another game."
"Wait, did this little green guy looked like he had green jelly beans for hands and feet?" Ralph asked, as though he knew something.
Q*Bert nodded.
"I saw him coming out of another game along with two donut cops!" Ralph exclaimed. "I didn't stick around longer so I never saw the cough drop taking the box."
"I know the two donut cops, I was talking to them earlier," Surge Protector said with realization.
"Of course, this little thief needed something to distract you so he wouldn't get caught," Tapper muttered, stroking his mustache.
"Ralph, did you see the name of the game where they came out from?" Felix turned to his Bad Guy colleague.
"Yeah," Ralph replied sourly. "It was Sugar Rush."
((So it looks like several people knew Sour Bill has taken the Lost and Found box, while Vanellope and Swizzle finally convinced a few racers to join them. What will happen now?))