Chapter 3: Anton The Virus
The man walked away from the hole and started to make his way through Game Central Station. As he walked, he looked at all of the different game ports that led to all of the different games.
The man's name was Anton, and he was a virus. He had been locked up by Surge Protector in 1986 and hadn't been able to get out ever since. However, because the effects of storms made the arcade vulnerable to viruses, and the bolt of lightning had hit Game Central Station and freed him. So now he was trying to find a game to take over.
Anton eventually stopped walking when he came across the Sugar Rush game portal.
"Sugar Rush? Hmm, this game sounds interesting. I might as well go in here and see what it's like." Anton thought.
Anton then entered the Sugar Rush game portal.
Meanwhile, in Sugar Rush, the Sugar Rush racers hopped out of their karts. It was now after arcade hours, and they finished racing.
"Great day of racing, everyone. Now since the arcade is closed, let's hold the Random Roster Race before going on any missions." Vanellope said.
The Sugar Rush racers nodded in agreement, got into their karts, and got ready for the race. The countdown began and all of the Sugar Rush racers sat patiently at the starting line.
3...
2...
1...
GO!
All of the Sugar Rush racers were off, and the fight began for first place. They drove to Gumball Gorge and started swerving in order to avoid all of the gumballs. Sticky, not being the best racer in Sugar Rush, was immediately struck by a giant gumball. Her kart flew through the air and crashed right into Snowanna, knocking her back a bit.
Torvald was in last place, but she managed to catch up to the other Sugar Rush racers very easily. She drove right past Gloyd, who had just gotten a Sweet Seeker. The Pumpkin themed racer immediately fired the Sweet Seeker at Torvald, but Jubileena unintentionally got into the line of fire and her back-bumper was struck by the Sweet Seeker, throwing the Cherriot into the air. Unfortunately for Gloyd, her kart landed right on top of his kart.
"What the cupcakes?" Gloyd asked as his vision was clouded by the Cherriot landing on top of him.
Despite the major setback, Gloyd continued driving, but because he couldn't see, he ended up skidding into Crumbelina. Crumbelina, being the dirty driver that she was, rammed into Jubileena and Gloyd, causing them both to miss the large cliff jump, and they both plummeted into a chocolate lake that was below the Gumball Gorge.
Citrusella gained a Sweet Seeker and fired it at Adorabeezle, blowing the Ice Rocket to bits. Adorabeezle went crashing onto the track and watched as the other karts drove past her.
While the Random Roster Race went on, Anton arrived in Sugar Rush and stood at the very top of the rainbow bridge. He looked around and grinned.
"This place is perfect. I can't wait for this to all be mine." Anton thought.
Anton walked down the rainbow bridge and reached the brown sugar dirt at the ground.
"I wonder if any of this game's characters are here." Anton thought.
Anton made his way to the racetrack. Once he arrived at the racetrack, he stood close to the track, and a blast of wind came towards Anton's direction. Taffyta, Minty, and Nougetsia raced past him on the racetrack, and they didn't even notice that he was standing there.
"I can't wait for this all to be mine." Anton thought, giddily. He then wondered "Now, where would the Code Room be?".
However, because Anton had never been in Sugar Rush before, he had no idea where Vanellope's castle was. Suddenly, he spotted Creamy Buttercap, who was out for a walk. He ran over to her.
"You there, brown girl!" Anton called out.
Creamy turned to him in confusion.
"Yes?" Creamy asked.
"Do you know where the castle of this game's leader is?" Anton asked.
Creamy nodded and pointed at the castle, which was in the distance. Anton noticed it and turned back to Creamy.
"Thank you." Anton said.
Anton then scurried off in the direction of the castle.
Five minutes later, Anton arrived at the castle. He noticed that the Oreo guards were marching in front of the entrance and chanting the same thing that they always did in order to stay in formation and be focused on their job. Anton looked at the Oreo guards and then realized that he could easily defeat the Oreo guards and go in through the main entrance, but he didn't want to let anyone know who he was yet. Anton then noticed a barred window that lead into the fungeon, and he got an idea. He ran over to the barred window, knelt down, and ran his fingers across the bars like someone would play an guitar. The pixels of the bars started to glitch red a little, and Anton passed right through them like they didn't exist.
"Now to find the Code Room." Anton muttered as he ran through the halls of the fungeon and into the castle.
It didn't take long for Anton to find the Code Room. He figured that it would be in an important location, but hidden from view. He made his way into the throne room and looked behind the curtain to see the door to the Code Room. He then walked up to the door to the Code Room and placed his hands on the surface of the door. Like the bars of the window, the door started to glitch red, and Anton passed right through. He started to fall, but then his hands and feet started glitching red, and he started floating in the air.
"Ah, the code. The lifeblood of the game." Anton said.
He floated over to the different codes and headed towards the Sugar Rush racers code boxes. He was planning on latching himself into one of the Sugar Rush racers code boxes and taking over their body before trying to take over Sugar Rush and the rest of the arcade.
"Tracks... karts... ah, the racers." Anton said.
Anton floated over to the Sugar Rush racers code boxes and looked through them.
"Taffyta Muttonfudge... Swizzle Malarkey... Citrusella Flugpucker... Gloyd Orangeboar..." Anton muttered.
He then came across Candi's code box and chose to latch himself to her. He floated above the code box and grabbed the wires that connected the top of the code box.
"You are just a kid, Miss Owens, but you'll be really useful to my plans." Anton said.
Anton then pressed his hands against the wires. There was a red glow before his hands turned into red pixels that got sucked into the wires and traveled into the code box. Soon, the rest of his body turned into red pixels and got sucked into the wires and the code box. The last thing that was heard from him was evil laughter as he disappeared into the code box.
Back at the racetrack, the Random Roster Race was still going on. The Sugar Rush racers that were still in the race had completed the jump from the red velvet cake, and they were now in the Ice Cream Mountains. Candi was in fifth place, behind Vanellope, Taffyta, Crumbelina, and Rancis. Candi was enjoying the race and trying her best to get in first place. However, as she drove, she felt a disturbance running through her code. She looked down at her hands and gasped at the sight of them flickering with a flash of red.
"W-What's going on? What's happening to me?" Candi asked in horror.
Before she could continue to ponder the question, her attitude changed. For some reason, she wanted more power and control. She glanced up and noticed that she was approaching Crumbelina. Candi frowned and sped up so she was now behind the Tiramissle. She then rammed into the Tiramissle's back-bumper. Crumbelina felt a jolt, turned around, and her eyes widened when she saw Candi ramming her.
"Candi, what are you doing?" Crumbelina asked angrily.
Candi ignored her and rammed into her kart a second time, making Crumbelina slam back against her seat. Crumbelina groaned in pain, but continued with the race. She struggled to drive faster, but Candi was still right behind her. The two of them then came across a couple of power-ups. Crumbelina missed one, but Candi got one. She gained an Ice Cream cannon and fired a sundae at Crumbelina. Crumbelina gasped in shock and tried to drive out of the way. However, Crumbelina couldn't react in time and was ala-moded. Candi smirked and drove past her mother.
Candi then approached Rancis. She drove behind him and proceeded to ram into the RV1.
"Hey, stop it!" Rancis shouted.
Candi ignored him and rammed into him again.
"Okay, that's it. She wants to play hard, so I'll play harder." Rancis thought angrily.
With a stunning amount of speed, Rancis crashed right into the side of the Tiramissle II. Candi screamed as her kart spun out, and without missing a beat, Rancis gained a Sticky Slick and dropped it in front of her, causing the Tiramissle II to slide down the track. Candi watched as Rancis drove off, and soon she was fuming with rage.
"If Rancis thinks he can just beat me at my moment of glory, he is totally wrong!" Candi sneered.
Candi started driving again and she drove into another power-up, granting her the Sugar Rush power-up. Her kart speed increased and she zipped the track and was soon right next to Rancis again. Once more, she rammed into him, and this time, the impact made Rancis's kart spin out. Candi smirked in satisfaction and sped off.
Candi then approached Taffyta. Taffyta was having a hard time because the Pink Lightning skidded over the slippery track, and she was trying to prevent Candi from overtaking second place. She saw Candi race through another power-up and a chocolate syrup canon appeared. Taffyta gasped and slammed down on the gas pedal in order to gain more distance and place herself as far away from Candi's firing range as she could. Candi frowned and shot the chocolate syrup cannon. The hot syrup fell on the road ahead of Taffyta, and it rapidly melted the crystal ice track and opened a pit in the middle of the road, leading into the deep abyss of the mountains. Taffyta's eyes bugged wide and she immediately slammed her foot back on the brakes, but the slippery surface of the road didn't allow the Pink Lightning to halt in time, and she fell into the pit with a shrieking scream. Candi avoided the trap and smiled triumphantly as she secured second place.
"Now it's time to get Vanellope." Candi thought.
Candi then reached the rainbow road and drove through it before reaching the end of the tunnel. She sped up and soon reached Vanellope. Candi drove next right next to Vanellope and rammed into her, but unlike with Crumbelina and Rancis, she kept the Tiramissle II locked right next to the Blender.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Vanellope asked angrily.
Candi slammed the Blender even harder, denting the kart door. She then took out a hook that was attached to a rope out of the glove compartment in the Tiramissle II and hooked the Blender with the Tiramissle II.
"Let go of my kart!" Vanellope ordered.
"Not a chance!" Candi shouted.
The two of them then came across another set of power-ups. Vanellope missed a power-up, but Candi got a Sweet Seeker. However, instead of just firing it at Vanellope, Candi literally ripped the Sweet Seeker out of the cannon, jumped out of her kart, and landed in Vanellope's kart. Before Vanellope could react, Candi jammed the Sweet Seeker into the Blender's engine, and leaped back into her kart and released the hook from the Blender. The Sweet Seeker lifted the Blender clean off of the ground. In the stands, Timothy, Ralph, Felix, Tamora, Turbo, Captain Kaiser, and Cinndon had stopped by the racetrack in order to watch the Random Roster Race. Their eyes widened in shock as the Blender was sent rocketing towards the stands that they were sitting in.
"Take cover!" Ralph shouted.
Ralph scooped Timothy, Felix, Tamora, Turbo, Captain Kaiser, and Cinndon up in his arms and leaped off of the stands as the Blender collided with the stands. The stands exploded on impact and went toppling onto the track, and the candy citizens went tumbling onto the track. Timothy, Ralph, Felix, Tamora, Turbo, Captain Kaiser, and Cinndon all went crashing to the ground. Felix was the first to get up, and he gazed upon the ruined track.
"Jiminy jaminy." Felix said in awe.
Meanwhile, Candi simply went on driving as if nothing happened. In a few minutes, she crossed the finish line, and the other Sugar Rush racers that were still in the race followed. Candi got out of the Tiramissle II and skipped towards the Sugar Rush racers that had crossed the finish line, the Sugar Rush racers that had died during the race and had regenerated, Timothy, Ralph, Felix, Tamora, Turbo, Captain Kaiser, and Cinndon.
"Some race, huh?" Candi asked triumphantly, expecting to be praised for what she had done.
Instead, Ralph turned to face her, his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Y-You nearly got us killed." Ralph said, trembling as he realized just how close he, Felix, Tamora, and Turbo had gotten to being permanently terminated.
Candi just shrugged.
"Yeah, so? Now, are you going to praise me or not?" Candi asked, failing to grasp the danger that she put everybody in.
"Candi, you were as reckless and destructive as any Cy-Bug that I've fought during game time." Tamora replied scoldingly.
Vanellope made her way over to everyone, thankfully having survived the crash. Wynchel, Duncan, the Oreo guards, and the CLAW officers also showed up. Vanellope glared at Candi.
"Candi, what you just did endangered many lives. I'm afraid that you are under arrest for awhile." Vanellope said.
Two Oreo guards ran towards Candi and slapped a pair of chocolate handcuffs onto her arms. The Oreo guards then put Candi in a police van before driving towards the castle. Once the police van was gone, Crumbelina turned to Timothy, the other Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Captain Kaiser, Ralph, Felix, Tamora, and Turbo.
"I'll go to the castle and talk to Candi. Maybe I can find out why she acted like that." Crumbelina said.
"Do you need me or Timothy to go with you?" Vanellope asked.
Crumbelina shook her head.
"No, this is something that I need to do with Candi alone." Crumbelina replied.
Crumbelina then got into the Tiramissle and started driving to the castle.
"Candi, what's wrong with you?" Crumbelina wondered.
Meanwhile, inside the Code Room, a new code box started to form. Many pieces of code formed the small blue box, which crackled with electricity. After the box was created, a name appeared on the box. The name on the code box read 'Candace Aaron.'.