The Flight

Back at Fix-it Felix Jr., the Nicelanders are starting to get rather nervous.

"Where are Ralph and Felix? They should have been back log ago, and the Arcade is about to open!" Roy said nervously.

"Maybe it was a mistake to trust Ralph," Gene said with a scowl.

"Oh Gene, stop," Mary said with a nervousness she could barely hide, "I'm sure they're fine. After all, Ralph is with Felix. You know we can always count on him!"

Don piped in, adding, "And let's not forget Felix's wife Calhoun is with them too! You can always count on the military types for their punctuality!"

"But where are they?" Deanna said with nervous tension, "Vanellope's race should have ended a long time ago!"

As they are watching through the screen, troops from Hero's Duty arrive on the tram behind them. Kohut approaches the Nicelanders, saluting smartly as he stated, "I have a situation report from Sgt. Calhoun; Vanellope has been abducted by the Cy-Bug abomination Turbo."

The Nicelanders all gasp in fear. "Turbo?" Norwood said in surprise. "I thought that Ralph took care of him six months ago!" Lucy added fearfully.

"Apparently he's back. Calhoun and the others went after him, but she radioed the rest of us and told us prepare for the worst case scenario," Kohut stated.

"Which is?" Gene asked.

"Evacuation," Kohut said simply.

As the Nicelanders murmur fretfully, one of the other soldiers approach Kohut and whispered In his ear, Kohut then says to the Nicelanders, "We need to go and cover for the Sargent in case she doesn't get back before the arcade opens, but you folks should get ready to move on a moment's notice."

As the troops returned to the tram, Gene said with concern, "I know I said some things about Ralph's trustworthiness, I'd rather have him over Turbo any day! I just hope he and Felix are okay!"

Over in Sugar Rush, Felix and Calhoun are running full tilt through the tunnels with a swarm of cy–bugs snarling on their heels. As they run Calhoun detaches a number of disk shape objects from her belt and throws them against the Opposite walls, where they stick and start beeping. The beeping quickly rises In speed and pitch until they all detonate in rapid-fire sequence, resulting in a huge explosion that engulfs and consumes a large portion of the pursuing swarm.

"I guess that we're done worrying about causing cave-ins?" Felix said breathlessly while they ran.

Calhoun, who's not as winded due to her physical training, replies, "Right now, I'm more focused on a) keeping those Cy-Bugs back there from eating us, and b) stopping those things from stopping us from getting to Vanellope before Turbo-Bug can do anything bad to her!"

Looking over his shoulder, Felix called out, "Then I hope you have more of those things, because here they come again!"

Behind them, the cy-bugs that weren't caught in the explosion hesitate at the edge of the scorched tunnel for a second, then they snarl and surge once more after the couple.

Meanwhile, at Litwak's Arcade, the random roster racers watch in trepidation as Mr. Litwak opens his doors to a surge of delighted kids, including one girl with blue eyes, blond hair, pink shirt and braces.

"Oh no! It's Moppet Girl!" Snowanna cried out in dismay.

"Who?" Pamelapop asked.

"Moppet Girl," Taffeta explained, "She comes in here all the time…"

"Her name's Holley," interrupted Crumbelina, "Not 'Moppet Girl'!"

"Holley, Moppet Girl, whatever!" Taffeta said agitatedly, "The point is that she always chooses Venelope! Always!"

As the racers watch her approach the cabinet with a growing sense of doom, suddenly a pair of rowdy boys rush past her and take both open seats of the cabinet. Inserting the quarters into the slots, one boy turns and laughs at her, saying, "Sorry, Moppet Girl! You're too slow!"

The racers breathe a sight of relief as Holley grunts in agitation, then watch in dismay as she turns her attention to the Fix-it Felix, Jr. cabinet.

"Oh no! Those poor Nicelanders!" Zaki said dishearteningly, "Ralph and Felix are not back yet! When she goes to play and they don't show, their game will get marked out-of-order for sure!"

Back at Fix-it Felix, Jr., a soldier from Hero's Duty who'd remained behind to evacuate Q*Bert and his friends now is standing at the back of the apartment, out of sight of Holley, and gesturing for the Nicelanders who'd entered the building at the game's start to continue out the back door.

"But shouldn't we stick with the program?" Gene asked him in concern.

As the others continued to file past him, the soldier replied, "Without Ralph and Felix, there is no 'program', and if you guys freak out again like you did the last time Ralph disappeared, then your plug will get pulled for sure. It's best if Holley and Mr. Litwak think that the game merely froze or something of that order, something that will sort itself out."

As Gene starts to ask something else, he is interrupted by a beeping from the soldier's communicator. Thumbing the talk button, the soldier says, "Striker here."

Calhoun's voice, punctuated by the sounds of bursts from her plasma rifle, muffled explosions and the screeches of Cy-Bugs, is heard saying, "Striker, what's your status?"

Striker, who recognized the sounds of trouble, summarized quickly, "I've completed evacuation of the new residents here and was in the process of doing the same for the Nicelanders."

"Do so quickly, then double-time to Hero's Duty!" ordered Calhoun, "Inform Kohut that code 0704 is in effect!"

Striker could barely comprehend what he was hearing. He asked in concern, "Sir, are you sure?"

"Does it sound like I'm throwing a party here!?" Calhoun yelled, and admittedly it did not. She continued, "We have a situation here, and some of these residents cannot be evacuated! You know what our duty entails, now do yours! That's an order!"

"Yes sir!" Striker said as he saluted smartly, despite the fact that she could not see, then he turned to Gene and the others and said, "You heard the lady, now let's move! Stay in the building's shadow and head for the tram! Go, go, go!"

As the Nicelanders hurried to the tram with barely controlled fear, Striker thought about Calhoun's order. Code 0407 was only to be used in the most extreme of situations, especially so if the arcade was open because it could potentially mean the death of their own game! But if the situation at Sugar Rush was severe enough that his Sargent would issue it, then he won't be the one to countermand it behind her back.

Back in Sugar Rush, a David Vs. Goliath style standoff is taking place between Rancis and his former ruler-turned-malevolent virus, with Ralph torn between whether he should help Rancis or Vanellope first.

"Just what do you think you're going to do with that, Rancis?" Turbo-Bug said with a small chuckle.

"Take one step closer, and you'll find out!" Rancis replied as he kept his spear leveled at Turbo-Bug, then he told Ralph over his shoulder, "You finish getting Vanellope out! I'll handle the bug!"

"Do that, Ralph," Turbo-Bug warned, "and I eat this kid first!"

"Why?" Rancis asked uncomprehendingly, "Why are you doing this?"

"Ask them!" Turbo-Bug replied, gesturing at Ralph and Vanellope, "They're the ones who ruined my life! I was happy! All of you were happy! Then those two took all that away! It's because of them that I became this!"

Rancis, refusing to be swayed, retorted, "You ruined Vanellope's life! You took our memories, took her life away from her! You took….things that you had no right to take! If anyone deserves revenge around here, it's her!"

"Let's agree to disagree," Turbo-Bug said, "Truth is that I don't have to lay one hand on you to succeed. All I have to do is keep you here: You see, the Arcade's now been open for a while! I'm actually surprised that you haven't been called to the starting line yet. Don't you have any fans?"

Refusing to be baited, Rancis replied, "A few."

"Anyway, it's only a matter of time before someone chooses the little princess, and when she doesn't show the game's plug will be pulled and she'll go down with the ship!" Turbo-Bug continued with glee, "Of course, you guys don't have to stay and die along with her, that choice is entirely up to you!"

Back in Litwak's arcade, a couple of teenage boys are playing Hero's Duty when Striker, whom they had not seen all campaign approached acting-commander Kohut (who, for some reason, had taken Calhoun's place) and said to him, "Sir, a message from Calhoun: Code 0704 is in effect!"

"What!" Kohut said in astonishment, "Is this confirmed?"

"Confirmed sir!" Striker replied.

Kohut cursed under his breath then turned towards the players and said, "Sorry kids, hope you don't take this personally because it was an honor to serve with you. I hope that we may serve together again one day." Then he aimed his plasma rifle at each of them in turn and fired, resulting in their screens going blank and a Game Over message appearing on them.

"What the…!?" one boy yelled as the other called out, "Mr. Litwak?"

Inside Hero's Duty, the Game over message is followed by the beacon activating and the remaining Cy-Bugs are drawn into it. As the regenerating soldiers get to their feet, Markowski approaches Kohut and asks, "Are we really going to do this, sir?"

"We have no choice son," Kohut replied, "If code 0704 has been intoned, then it means that the Arcade is being jeopardized by a Cy-Bug infestation, and it's our duty to protect it and everyone who lives here. To do otherwise would result in the Arcade being closed permanently due to Mr. Litwak being unable to afford replacing all the games that'll be ruined. Preventing that trumps all other concerns, even that of our own game."

"Take the first-person shooters with you, then seal the ship's entrance," Kohut continued, "Then once they've finished regenerating, booby trap our tunnel behind you as you bring them to Sugar Rush. Hopefully we'll get the Out of Order sign right away, but if they to start again we can't risk more Cy-Bugs escaping from our own game."

Markowski responded with a salute, then Kohut turns and heads for the ship as Markowski gathers the FPS avatars, whose 'screens' are still in the process of regenerating.

Back at the Arcade, the boys at the Sugar Rush cabinets are listening with smirks as Mr. Litwak places out-of-order signs on the Hero's Duty cabinet and muttering, "What is going on today?"

One of the boys who'd cut in front of Holley snickered and said, "Man, those shooter games break so easily!"

The other boy laughs stupidly and says simply, "Yeah!"

They are having so much fun laughing at Mr. Litwak's troubles that they end up not paying attention and wind up driving into the Taffy Swamp and the Nesquicksand Ravine respectively. By the time their Karts are reset on the track, they've dropped into 8th and 10th place and each receive a message on their screens saying, You Lose. Game Over.

"Aw man!" the second boy complained, "I'm broke, you got anything left Claude?"

"Only the lunch money Mom left me," Claude replied, "You want to go get a bite to eat, Sykes?"

"Sure!" Sykes agreed, "Let's blow this dump!"

As the rude kids leave the Arcade, Holley, who had been unable to find a game she wanted to play since Fix-it Felix, Jr. was marked out-of-order, rushed over to one of Sugar Rush's vacated seats and started plugging her money in.

As they see Holley enter the character select screen, Taffeta turns to the others who are watching in dismay and says solemnly, "Well, guys, this is it."

Crumbelina reaches over and grabs the hands of those positioned closest to her as she says with a sad smile, "It's been fun racing with you guys."

As Holley highlights Vanellope's avatar and is about to hit the start button to lock in her selection, a voice behind her cries out "Wait!"

When Holly turns, a boy with tousled brown hair, a rust-colored jacket and a buck-toothed grin takes the other vacant seat and asks, "Do you mind if I join you?"

Holly, who didn't know what to make of this, said, "Sure! Why not?"

The boy then inserted his money, selected Join game in progress, then Team Race, which caused the invitation to appear on Holley's screen and the selection countdown to pause.

"You….you want to race as a team?" Holley stammered, "With me?"

"Sure!" The boy agreed, "Competing with others is fun, but I like teaming up with others to beat the computer much better!" As Holley smiled and hit the start button to accept the invitation, the boy reached over and shook her hand, saying, "My name is Tony Matherson, 'though my friends call me Mater!"

"My name's Holley Stillwell," Holley introduced herself, blushing slightly, "but everyone just calls me Moppet Girl."

"Holley," Mater remarks with a goofy grin, "what a pretty name!"

"Thanks!" Holley says shyly, blushing even fiercer. Then Mater highlights and locks in his choice of Rancis Fluggerbutter as Holley does the same for Vanellope von Schweetz.

Back in the underground cavern in Sugar Rush, selection portals appear above both Vanellope's cage and Rancis, and Rancis is teleported away crying "Nooo!" leaving only his spear behind.

As Vanellope's portal fades away, having been unable to transport her out of her cage, Turbo-Bug crows, "Ha! I win!"

"No!" Ralph yells as he turns and smashes Vanellope's cage to pieces. As he manages to wrench her collar off, Turbo-Bug grabs him, slams him to the ground then begins to throttle him.

"Ralph!" Vanellope cries out as she lunges for his hand, then she glitches him out of Turbo-Bug's grasp and through the cavern's ceiling towards the surface.

"No!" snarls Turbo-Bug, "You can't get away from me!" Then he quickly tunnels after them.

Back at the Arcade, Holley and Mater see Rancis appear in his Kart, but Vanellope's Kart shows up without a driver. As they watch, Rancis hops out of his Kart as the others take off around them and he calls out "Vanellope!"

"What's going on?" Mater asks as Holley calls out, "Uh, Mr. Litwak?"

As Mr. Litwak sighs and heads over to the kids, Vanellope glitches beside her Kart and hops in as she calls out, "What are you doing, Rancis? We need to get out of here!" Then Rancis hops in his Kart and the two take off together.

As Mr. Litwak comes up beside the two kids, he asks them with a sigh, "Is your game broken too?"

Although clearly confused by all that's happened, Holley answers, "Uh, no, I guess not. Just a lag, I suppose."

Mr. Litwak smiles and sighs with relief, but stays to watch the kids play. Then all three of them are startled buy the sound of a loud rumbling crash emanating from the game's speakers.

"What was that!?" Holley asked fretfully.

As Ralph watches Rancis and Vanellope take off from where she'd deposited him high upon the bleachers, Turbo-Bug smashed his way out from beside the track and started swiftly pursuing the fleeing racers. Ralph's communicator then went off and Calhoun's voice asked, "Ralph, what's your status?"

Figuring out how to work it, Ralph replied, "I got Vanellope out and she got me to the surface. She and Rancis got a late start in the race, but now Turbo-Bug is chasing after them."

Calhoun grunted then continued, "We'll be up there soon, and I have my men on their way there now. Keep the civilians safe until we arrive, then we're going to put an end to that menace once and for all!"

As Rancis and Vanellope come up to the first row of power-ups, Rancis calls out, "Vanellope, glitch past those power-ups!"

""What!?" Vanellope calls out in disbelief.

"Just do it! Okay?" Rancis insisted.

Knowing they had no time to argue, Vanellope does as Rancis requests and bypasses the power-ups, leaving Rancis the only one to collect one. As the announcer intones, "Sweet Seekers!" Rancis drifts behind Vanellope and says, "I have your six!" Then Rancis enters a flat spin as he shifts into reverse, leaving him and Vanellope driving back-to-back, his newly acquired weapon aimed straight at the pursuing nightmare.

When Mater saw that his character spinning around, the first question that came to his mind was 'What happened?", but when he saw what was behind them, the shock drove all questions from his mind: The monster was bigger and scarier than anything he'd seen in anything his parents ever let him play, and yet there was something familiar about it too.

By the time he recognized where he'd seen the face from, he heard his character Rancis say, "Hey, King: 'Have some candy!' " Rancis then unleashed his entire arsenal of Sweet Seeker shots into the monster's face, who growled in pain as he stumbled back, then he redoubled his efforts to catch them.

Holley, who looked over at Mater's screen to see what's going on, let out a shriek of terror and nearly lost control of her Kart, then asked Mater, "What is that thing?"

Mater, who was equally terrified and fascinated, answered, "I think it used to be King Candy!"

Even Mr. Litawk was taken aback. When he watched the monster's face glitch and, just for a moment, look much like that of Turbo, Mr. Litwak said dully, "I think I'll go and get those out-of-order signs now." As he turned and walked away, Litwak looked very much like he was thinking, What on Earth did I do to deserve having that poltergeist come and ruin my Arcade?

"How are you doing this?" Holley asks.

"I don't know!" Mater admitted, "I've always been good at driving backwards in these things, but never this good! All I know is that this is the most intense game of Sugar Rush I've played in my life!

Back in the game, Rancis had collected another power-up and fired his Ice-Cream Cannon at Turbo-Bug, which temporarily trapped him in a giant scoop of ice cream as the announcer said, "Oooh, a la mode!" Then, as Turbo-Bug broke free, Vanellope spotted another power-up and announced, "Here comes another one!" as she glitched past it to allow Rancis to collect it, accompanied by the announcement, "Ouch! Pop-rocks Slick!" Rancis then spun back around so that he was driving forwards and released his load of Pop-rocks, which spun out across the track like ball bearings. As Turbo-bug stepped on the slick, he either slipped on the rocks, or they exploded under his feet which upset his footing even further.

As they reached the spiral Birthday Cake Mountain, Vanellope spotted Taffeta ahead of her, who was accompanied today by Snowanna and….

"Candlehead!" Vanellope called out.

Turning her head, Candlehead's face lit up as she called back, "Vanellope! You're okayyyyyyyieeek!" her greeting interrupted by a shriek of fear as she spotted Turbo-Bug behind them again, having cleared the slick and once again in hot pursuit.

"Candlehead! Light them up!" Vanellope called out.

"What!?" Candlehead replied in disbelief.

"Light! Them! Up!" Vanellope enunciated.

Candlehead turned back towards Taffyta, who nodded seriously as she said, "You heard our Princess! Do it!"

Candlehead then drifted closer to the edge of the track so that the flames from her exhaust could ignite the stems of the cherries lining it, the stems burning down like fuses as the announcer said, "What's this? Cherry Bombs!"

As the bombs exploded, Rancis and Vanellope were uncomfortably close, but Turbo-Bug was caught directly in the explosions. As he yelled and complained, Turbo-Bug was driven further and further back by the pain and the concussive force of the sequential explosions.

After Taffeta and her group cleared the jump at the top, she said "Alright guys, about face!"

"Say what!?" Snowanna asked in disbelief.

As she spun her Kart around to face the other way, Taffeta explained, "It's time to take one for the team!"

Following Taffeta's lead, Candlehead and Snowanna turned around and jumped back the other way, passing Vanellope and Rancis on a lower trajectory and catching Turbo-Bug low as he tried to follow, spoiling his jump and causing him to land in the cupcake field below with the trio. As Turbo-Bug got back up and climbed up the cliff wall after Vanellope, he called back to them, "I'll deal with you three later!"

Back at the Arcade, Mr. Litwak had two out-of-order signs taped and ready to apply, but found himself impeded from approaching the Sugar Rush Speedway cabinets: A large crowd had gathered around the machines to watch the excitement unfold, including the guys who were playing Hero's Duty earlier and the jerks who had cut in front of Holly.

"Do you know what's going on here?"
"No! I've never seen anything like this before!"
"This game is officially off the hook!"
"Hey! How'd a couple of twerps like you two manage to find such a sick mode like this?" Sykes says both condescendingly and with a sense of awe.

Neither Mater nor Holley pay anyone any mind, as they're both too focused on the game in front of them.

"Do you think that we lost it?" Holley asked Mater.

Mater checked his rear view display as he said, "I don't think….No! Look out! He's jumping!"

They see Turbo-Bug land on top of the sign marking the finish line, crushing it. The racers who haven't yet crossed the finish line swerve and crash into the stands in their panic, while Crumbelina and Pixie (who took first and second) abandon their carts and run for their lives.

Vanellope swerves and slows to a stop then watches in shock as Rancis continues straight instead, accelerating to ramming speed. The massive Turbo-bug has no problems however swatting Rancis and his speeding Kart back the other way, trapping an unconscious Rancis under his ruined machine near Vanellope.

"Rancis!" Vanellope cries out in dismay as she hops out of her machine to run towards him. She is stopped short as Turbo-Bug charges towards her saying, "And now for you, you little…"

Turbo-Bug is cut off as he is peppered by a hail of gunfire. The watching crowd of gamers gasps then cheers as they see the soldiers from Hero's Duty charge around and over the stands, led by Sgt. Calhoun who cries out, "That's it, boys! Light him up!"

"Hey," cries one of the boys whose game was interrupted earlier by Kohut, "that's where those guys went!"

The other boy looks back at the Hero's Duty cabinet and see the same scene displayed through the viewpoint of the FPS avatars, then says to his friend, "Looks like the machine's back online! Come on, Oliver! Let's give those guys a hand!"

"Yeah!" Oliver agrees enthusiastically. Then the duo, followed by a small knot of onlookers, rip off the out-of-order signs, pick up the rifle accessories and join in.

Back in Sugar Rush, the two FPS avatars, who were brought in by Markowski offline moments ago, became active and displayed the faces of the two boys as the bots hefted their weapons and joined in the firefight.

Pinned down by the pressure of the combined firepower, Turbo-Bug let loose an echoing screeching yell that was followed shortly by swarms of Cy-Bugs exploding from the ground in several places. The soldiers, now finding themselves ridiculously outnumbered, switch from focusing their aim on Turbo-Bug to the Cy-Bugs now surrounding them.

"Hey Paxton! Hurry up and get that Portable Beacon set up, will you?" Striker hollers over his shoulder.

"Hey! This thing is extremely delicate and highly experimental, I'm doing the best that I can!" Paxton retorts, "I'd be able to work much faster if someone can keep these bugs off my back!"

"Striker, Hicks, rookies….give him some breathing room!" Calhoun orders, "Kohut, Ralph, Felix, with me!"

"Yes sir!" Everyone chants, including the boys controlling the FPS avatars who follow Striker and Hicks to where Paxton is working while the others race over to confront Turbo-Bug, who took advantage of the divided attention to begin menacing Venelope again.

As Turbo-Bug stalked towards her, Vanellope struggled to get Rancis' ruined kart off of him, promising herself that if they both lived through this she'd get him the best kart her power and influence can buy!

As Turbo-Bug gets close enough to grab her, he's struck from behind by one of the stands lining the track. As he turns angrily, he sees Ralph pick up another of the abandoned stands and hurl it at him. Turbo-Bug swats it out of the way then counters by hurling a jawbreaker imbedded by the side of the road at Ralph, who stopped it in mid-air with his fist, causing it to fall to the ground in two pieces. Turbo-Bug then grabbed one of his Cy-bugs out of the air and threw it at Ralph, and though he was able to catch it, Ralph now had to struggle to keep it from eating him.

Then Turbo-Bug was peppered with shots from Kohut's and Calhoun's rifles. Annoyed, Turbo-Bug picked up the remains of Rancis' cart and first used it as a bat to knock Kohut away, then threw it at Calhoun, causing her to be knocked back several yards and trapping her underneath it.

"Calhoun!" Vanellope cries as she tries to glitch over to her, but Turbo-Bug grabs her as she materialized the first time and says, "That's enough glitching out of you!" Then he takes his glowing orb and slams it into her back.

As soon as it makes contact, a series of images floods her mind; the day her parents, the good King and Queen of Sugar Rush got her her first kart, how they would push her around in it while she steered, the day they gave her permission to join the roster as an official racer, the day Turbo showed up looking half dead from his close call at RoadBlasters, how she'd nursed him back to health; then finally the fateful day when she'd showed him to the secret chamber where she'd modify his code so that he could be an official racer in the game, and he'd repaid her trust by betraying her and locking himself in and her out.

"You…" Vanellope sobbed, "…you deleted my parents, you tried to delete me! I trusted you, tried to help you, and you tried to kill me!"

"Yes, well it turned out your code was tougher to crack than I'd anticipated," Turbo-Bug said unapologetically, "I guess the programmers didn't want their 'star attraction' to be accidentally overwritten during the numerous revisions and additions to the programming. As for your parents, I knew that they wouldn't understand that I needed you out of the way if I was going to be the star, so they had to go. And now, my dear, so do you!"

As Turbo-Bug started to lift Vanellope towards his fanged mouth, he saw Felix out of the corner of his eye glaring at him, looking angrier than he'd ever been before in his life, gripping his hammer so tightly his knuckles were white. "And what are you going to do with that hammer, little man?" Turbo-Bug said mockingly, "You going to 'fix' me?"

"Not….exactly," Felix growled, then he twisted the hammer in his grip so that the claw end was pointed forward.

With a dawning of inexplicable fear in his eyes, Turbo-Bug stammered, "W-W-What are you going to do!?"

" 'Sometimes to fix something, you must first take it apart.' " Felix quoted, then he charged.

With true terror explicit on his face, Turbo-Bug yelled, "Get him!" and a swarm of Cy-Bugs responded to his command. To Felix, however, they were even easier to deal with than the ducks from his own game. Using his own incredible jumping ability, he was able to dodge their snapping mouths and use their heads just like the windowsills at Niceland Apartments. Finally, when he was over Turbo-Bug, Felix dive-bombed him with a war-cry and struck Turbo-Bug in the head with the hammer's claw.

With a cry of "Nooooo!", a flash of light engulfed Turbo-Bug. When it cleared, standing in his place was King Candy and the Cy-Bug who ate him, but Felix wasn't done. As he struck the Cy-bug over and over, with King Candy curled up on himself and watching fearfully, various objects were dislodged from the virus as it reverted to earlier and earlier versions of itself: The Kart that King Candy stole from Venelope, the various candy roots that it consumed, and so on.

Finally, as a ghostly image of Ralph's foot floated up and dissipated, the Cy-Bug reverted to its original egg form. Before the Cy-Bugs could get over their shock at what happened, the Portable Beacon was activated and all the Cy-Bugs were drawn into it, never to be seen again.

"Well I must say, short stack, I'm extremely impressed!" Calhoun said approaching behind him.

Felix spun with surprised delight and saw her coming towards him, using a piece of Rancis' Kart as a crutch. "Honey-glow! You're okay!" Felix exclaimed.

Calhoun smiled wryly as she said, "Yeah, well this armor isn't just for show, babycakes!"

As Ralph approached them and dusted himself off, and Vanellope kneeled down to cradle Rancis' head in her lap, Felix carefully picked up the Cy-Bug egg in his cap and handed it over to Calhoun, asking, "What should we do with this?"

With a huge smile, she handed it over to Ralph, then yelled, "Pull!"

As Ralph threw it into the air, Calhoun aimed her sidearm and vaporized the egg in mid-air without even singeing the brim of Felix's cap. "We have thousands of those things back home," Calhoun said grinning, "Nobody is going to miss one less."

At that moment, Rancis groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "Rancis!" Vanellope squealed in joy as she lifted him up and wrapped him up in a huge hug which had him complaining, "Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Vanellope said apologetically, backing off slightly as she continued, "I'm just so glad that you're alive, that's all!" Then, when she saw Felix, Ralph, her fellow racers, and everyone else looking at her with smug grins, she then tried her best to sound angry as she stammered, "B-B-B-Because I wouldn't want you to die before I had a chance to tell you off, Rancis Fluggerbutter! You threw that Roster Race for me! You never, ever, ever, ever throw a race like that again! You hear me!? I race fair and square, and I want to win that way too or not at all, you got that!?"

"Okay, okay!" Rancis replied, grinning sheepishly.

"And another thing…" As Vanellope continues her tirade, Felix approaches King Candy, who'd been trying to sneak away on his hands and knees and now was cowering curled into a little ball. "Now as for you Turbo…" Felix said as he tapped Candy in the head with his hammer's claw, reverting him to his original Turbo form, "…what should we do with you?"

Though at first Turbo was trembling at the sight of Felix's hammer, he then looked up and got a triumphant smile on his face as he said smugly, "It doesn't matter what you do to me now, because I've already won!"

Looking up at the displays that show the player-controlled racers, Felix and the others saw what Turbo was referring to. The display that showed Rancis' side flickered in and out due to the damage done to his cart, but they were able to see an out-of-order sign attached to the player's side. However, they also saw what Turbo apparently didn't: though he was close enough to do so, he had not yet placed the sign on Vanellope's side. He was hesitating, being barraged by the pleas of the gamers surrounding him.

"Please, please, please don't, Mr. Litwak!"
"That was totally amazing!"
"I've seen action movies that weren't half as exciting!"
"How did you access that secret mode, Moppet gi….I mean Holley?"

Then Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun shared a cunning smile.

"That was when we came up with the idea that would guide us for the months to come!"

Ralph was sitting in his latest meeting of Bad-Anon, telling the story of his latest adventures to the others in attendance, including newcomers Mario, Wario, Cranky Kong, King K Rool, Giovanni, and Gannondorf.

"After repairing Rancis' cart so that they could cross the finish line and reset the game to repair the damage that the latest Cy-Bug attack had done," Ralph continued, "We took Turbo off to convince him to explain to us how he'd modified the game to insert himself into it. Well, actually Felix and Calhoun did most of the 'convincing', and while I personally thought that Calhoun was the more intimidating, I'm pretty sure that Turbo was more frightened of Felix's hammer. Then we consulted extensively with the girls over at DDR, who are well familiar with 'add on content', and with the guys at both Area 51 and Cruisin' USA, who know all about hidden modes and characters."

"With that knowledge in hand, we set to work on recreating the scenario in Sugar Rush as a hidden mode called, 'Turbo-Bug attacks!' " Ralph continues his narrative, "Now I know what you're all thinking. 'Turbo nearly killed you and your friends, and you made it possible for him to continue to try and do so!?' But that's the thing: In this scenario, he literally can't! If the player manages to find the weekly randomly generated sequence to activate the scenario, then Turbo only is modified into his bug form during the course of the scenario, and he always reverts and is placed back in his cage once the scenario is done, either by the player winning or failing it. And since everyone who participates is programmed into it, anyone who may lose a life, including the soldiers who are called over or yours truly, would regenerate. All the players love it, even the ones playing Hero's Duty. I think that they love killing bugs more in that scenario than they do in the regular game: I guess having somebody to protect makes it more exciting than fighting on a dead planet."

"Of course, we couldn't let the Sugar Rash players control all the fun," Ralph added, "We added a hidden scenario into Hero's Duty as well, where Calhoun's husband Felix is grabbed by a Cy-Bug and it's up to me, Vanellope, and the player to rescue Felix before the Cy-Bugs overcome his erected barricades and eat him. As for what happens in our games while we're away on these side trips, we've made it so our game either pauses or, in Vanellope's case, she's unavailable as a selectable character, and a message appears on screen stating we'd be back soon. Of course the players don't seem to mind waiting: They're just as entertained watching these particular events. I was even asked to appear in a few other games as well, and while I love being a hidden playable character in Street Fighter II, I politely declined on appearing in Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct."

"Of course, even though she was programmed back with abilities similar to those she had back when she was a glitch, Vanellope spends most of her non-racing time with the three of us, and she insists on visiting a new game every night. Also as predicted, Felix and Calhoun adopted her and named me her godfather. What little downtime she doesn't spend with us she says she's training Rancis to handle her old royal cart, which they renamed the RV2 (although she gets real defensive whenever Felix, Calhoun or myself refer to it as 'Date Night')."

"I tell you guys, our arcade has never been more popular!" Ralph proudly announces, "People come from all over the world just to visit this little corner of nowhere. The new scenarios are so popular, and the demand is so high for them, that even the developers of the home console versions of the games came here to experience it and determine how they could be made into….I think it's called 'downloadable content'? And get this: While they were here, I even heard them talk about making a retro-style sequel to Fix-it Felix, Jr. staring me as a hero! Can you believe that? You totally called that one, Mario! Thankfully, they didn't go an make Felix a villain or anything: this would be a co-op adventure were players could use my strength to bash enemies or destroy structures, or they can use Felix's abilities to take things apart and put them back together! I've yet to see any playable versions of this game yet, but I did see a few spoiler episodes on You Tube."

"But even if the game does make it into homes and arcades, even if players begin to always think of me as a hero, I'll never forget where I came from! I'll always be proud of my time as a bad guy!" Ralph finished to a loud chorus of applause.

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, Turbo sits in his cage muttering, "They think they've beaten me, that I am tamed? But I will rise again! I will regain my former glory! And I will make those who dealt me my humiliation suffer and beg me to end their miserable existence!"

End of story