The Race

As Vanellope maneuvered into position, she felt a familiar excitement that always preceded these races. She always made sure to use the cart she and Ralph had built together as it was her favorite. It may not be as 'pretty' or as fancy as the carts that some of the others like Candlehead or Taffyta use, but it had a real sense of character, plus it was the first time she and Ralph had bonded. Of course it might be easier to build a new cart than to keep asking Felix to fix it, but she couldn't see parting with it or racing in something else, even if she had any possibility of recovering her original cart from inside the Cy-Bug that wound up merging with King Candy (a.k.a. Turbo).

Looking in the stands, it didn't take long to locate her favorite Stinkbrain: even seated, he practically towered over everyone there. He was shortly joined by Felix and Calhoun, who quickly took the seats Ralph had saved for them. Vanellope couldn't hear what they were saying from so far away, but she could see that Felix was gesturing excitedly to his hammer and to Calhoun. Her curiosity now piqued, she'd make it a point to ask them what they were talking about later, but Vanellope had kept the crowd waiting long enough.

Signaling for Sour Bill to bring her the microphone, Vanellope took it and said, "Thank you all for coming today, and for your patience in waiting for the start of today's Random Roster Race! I'd like to welcome all of our returning racers as well as our newcomers Cordial Charlie, Pete Nutbrittle, Pixie Stickra, and Pamelapop Roxanne!"

Everyone sheers at this announcement, and Vanellope had to smile at the brilliance of the idea of allowing 4 racers who've not been able to afford the pay-in to be chosen by random drawing for these races. People got bored watching the same racers every day, but with newcomers you got unexpected variety and spice. Besides, she knew what it was like being on the outside looking in, thanks to that Turbo creep campaigning against her entering just so he could maintain his control over Sugar Rush!

"And now, without further ado, let the Random Roster Race commence!" Vanellope announced as she tosses the microphone to Sour Bill, who hurries off the track as the lights change from red to green and the karts surge forward together as one.

As the racers took off and everyone directed their attention to the screens of the cameras, following the race, Felix continued his explanation to Ralph, "So even though I'll be using my hammer the way I always have during the game, it's still handy to know that my hammer can take things apart too. I just wish I'd known about that when I was trapped in King Candy's Fungeon! I just find it embarrassing to think that I had the means to escape with me all along! "

Ralph, who had been following Vanellope's progress in the race, asked concernedly, "What do you mean? You didn't want to help Vanellope?"

"Huh?" Felix said in confusion, then he backtracked and said in correction, "No, that's not what I meant! Of course I would've helped her! I just find it embarrassing that I was stuck down there when I could have gotten out at any time!"

"I understand, honey, but Ralph does have a point:" Calhoun pointed out, "If you'd escaped on your own, then Ralph would not have found you to tell you that she needed your help. That means that she would not likely have entered the race in time to catch up, if she could've entered at all. That could have led to someone else besides King Candy being eaten by the Cy-Bug, he would have likely been the one to lead the evacuation of Sugar Rush, and we may well have lost Vanellope entirely; either to the swarm of Cy-Bugs, or to the game's plug being pulled."

"Jiminy Jaminy, I never thought of that!" Felix said in surprise.

"As I said, it's okay," Calhoun said, "Everything happens a certain way for a reason. If you had realized your hammer's full potential back then, things would have happened very differently back then. You might have saved yourself some embarrassment short term, but we might not have gotten together, had that beautiful wedding…"

As Felix and Calhoun gazed into each other's eyes, Ralph said, "Guys, hate to interrupt this mush-fest, but you're missing Vanellope's race."

"Right, of course!" Calhoun said quickly as she and Felix fix their gaze on the display screen, both blushing furiously.

Vanellope was on a roll! She was passing racers left and right without even breaking a sweat, and she was doing so while keeping the promise she'd made to herself about not using her glitch powers to win here! Of course, she would have no problems winning if she did, but that was the point: it'd be too easy! The fact that she had this ability when no one else did gave her an unfair advantage. If the player activated her glitch, then so be it, but she would not use it to rob someone of the chance to be on the next day's random roster!

As she came up on Rancis Fluggerbutter, she was prepared to use his slipstream to slingshot around him when he juked to the left and slowed down unexpectedly, which allowed her to pass easily. Vanellope at first though he might have misjudged when she was going to go around him, but then she saw from the corner of her eye that he smiled and winked at her as she passed.

Did Rancis just….throw the race for me….again!? Vanellope furiously thought to herself, I understand that he may still be feeling grateful to me for having helped him build the RV1 cart for him, but this is getting ridiculous! When this is over, I'm going to have a serious talk with him!

Putting Rancis and his inexplicable behavior out of her mind for the moment, she raced on, closing on the final stretch and the last two racers ahead of her.

As the lead racers approached the finish line, the crowd's excitement ramped up, as did that of Ralph, Felix and Calhoun. The announcer states, "Vanellope passes Candlehead, leaving her and Taffyta to fight for the top spot! It's neck and neck folks!"

Calhoun is distracted by a beeping coming from within her purse. Digging out the offending device, she saw it was the Cy-Bug tracker that she went everywhere with these days. But why would it be going off here now?

Calhoun barely heard the announcer as he said, "And it's Vanellope by a nose! Vanellope has taken first place in the Random Roster Race!"

As Vanellope skidded to a stop, the ground bust in front of her, upending her kart and rendering her unconscious. Calhoun could not believe what she was seeing: that monstrosity of a fusion between King Candy and the Cy-Bug was still alive! As she watched it quickly scurry out of the hole, Turbo-Bug grabbed Vanellope and tossed her kart to the side as he said, "That makes you the lucky winner!" Then, with an evil chuckle, Turbo-Bug scurried back to the hole in the road as everyone else panicked.

No! Not again! Calhoun's mind reeled, This can't happen again! She reached into her purse and pulled out her sidearm. As she aimed at Turbo-Bug, Ralph placed his extra-large hand in her way, yelling, "Don't! You might hit Vanellope!"

She'd started to point out that she wouldn't miss, but then realized that Ralph was right! While she was a superior marksman, this wasn't her average Cy-Bug: it was fused with a conniving sprite who had no honor and a huge grudge against Vanellope! He wouldn't hesitate to use her as a shield to save his own skin!

Leaping down from the stands, she rushed over to where Turbo-Bug was escaping. However, as fast as she was, Turbo-Bug was faster, and before she could get within the point-blank range she was aiming for the monstrosity had disappeared down the hole in the track. As she screamed in rage and heart-sick pain, she barely heard Rancis (who had arrived mere moments ago) cry out "Vanellope!"

As Felix and Ralph joined her at her side, Felix asked helplessly, "What do we do?"

Checking her tracker again (which she'd specially modified to deal with the sugary nature of this place), Calhoun said to her husband and his best friend, "You guys direct the remaining racers around this hole. We don't want anyone else to accidentally fall down there. I'll be back in five minutes, then we'll be going after her!"

As she mentally plotted a path to where she'd hidden a cache of weapons and an extra armor suit, she thought about the pain those bugs had already inflicted upon her. They took her first fiancée, which led to her hardening her heart and nearly missing her second chance to be happy again! There was no way she was going to let them take Vanellope away from her too! She was going to grab as much firepower as she could get, then she was going to find that Turbo and make him rue the day he ever decided to go game-hopping!

As Vanellope woke up, the first thing she noticed was how much her head hurt! She had a hard time getting her eyes to focus right, not that there was much she could focus on, it was so dark. The last thing she remembered was that something had come out of the ground in front of her, then her kart had got flipped over and she hit her head.

"Where…?" Vanellope mumbled through her strangely dry mouth, "…where am I?"

"Why, you're home, my dear!" A voice answered her.

That voice! It couldn't be! Forcing her eyes to focus in the dim light, she saw that she was in a cage, and that a pair of chains were connected from the bottom of said cage to a familiar collar around her neck! And beyond the bars of the cage was…

"King Candy!?" Vanellope exclaimed, "But how!? You were…"

"…vaporized by that hot cola eruption set off by your muscle-bound brute?" King Candy finished for her, "Don't you know, dear? Any sprite can regenerate themselves, as long as they're within their own game when they die."

"But this isn't your game!" Vanellope protested.

"But it is!" King Candy protested, "It had been ever since I altered the code and programmed myself into it. Of course, it took me longer than normal to regenerate, due to the extra data caused by my being melded to a Cy-Bug, but I was well on by way to becoming whole again when you rolled across the finish line and reset the game code, undoing all my hard work and removing me from the system. Still, enough of me was regenerated enough for me to pull myself together bit by bit. It was a long, painful process; long enough for me to plan my revenge in intricate detail. You should have left this place in my hands: the people were happy, and they were better off than they'll be now."

"What do you mean?" Vanellope asked, transfixed with horror.

"While the collar you're wearing prevents you from glitching your way out of here, that cage does that and more: it prevents all methods of transporting through it, including being selected by the player for a race. Now tell me, dear: What do you suppose would happen if you were selected as a racer, but you did not appear for the race?"

Vanellope's heart sank as she saw the depths of Candy's plan, "The player would think the game was broken…"

"…and Mr. Litwak would pull the plug, yes!" Candy confirmed, "Now, even if you were not stuck on that cage, your being a glitch would prevent you from leaving this game." Candy started rolling an orb of light across his knuckles as he said, "Ah, if you only had this back!"

"Is…" Vanellope stammered, "…is that…?"

"…the rest of your code," Candy answered, "the part that contains your memories of before I became King Candy. Without it, you'll always be an amnesiac glitch. Now I'm sure that your friends could save themselves before the plug is pulled, but I don't suppose that they'd be very good friends then. I imagine they'll continue looking for you even while the game world disappears around them: 4 birds, one stone."

Vanellope was in shock. She'd known ever since she could remember that King Candy was a real jerk, but she'd never imagined that he could be so….evil!

"Well I'd love to stay and continue my villainous monologue, but I'm sure that Amazonian friend of yours is tracking my whereabouts, and I don't intend to make it easy for her or the others to find you her, so I'll be going now!" Candy cackled as he skittered down one of the tunnels and out of sight. "Have fun dying!" his cackling voice echoed back up to her.

End of chapter