Chapter 7: Hero's Duty
Ten minutes later, Candi arrived in Hero's Duty. She immediately started heading to the tower so she could find the Cy-Bugs. It took her fifteen minutes, but she finally arrived at the base of the tower. She was about to go in, but then one of the Hero's Duty soldiers, a private named Ross Gamgee, appeared.
"Hey!" Gamgee called out.
Candi turned around and groaned.
"What?" Candi asked.
"What do you think your doing? Why are you going into the tower?" Gamgee asked.
Candi froze. She hadn't thought about what she would say if someone stopped her before she found the Cy-Bugs.
"What could I say to him?" Candi pondered, rubbing her chin.
After a short bit, Candi thought of an answer.
"Um, I heard a report that said that someone escaped to the tower, and I'm checking it out." Candi replied, nervously.
Candi was relieved when Gamgee nodded, and she was also astonished that she was able to pull her cover off.
"Alright, then. I'll let you in." Gamgee said.
Gamgee then walked away. Candi sighed.
"That was a close one." Candi whispered.
Candi then entered the tower. She made her way to the elevator, got in, and pressed a button that would take her to the top floor. The elevator brought her to the top floor, and Candi got out. She made her way over to the section of the room that was covered with Cy-Bug eggs. She picked one up and concentrated. A red glow made its way out of her hands before covering the Cy-Bug egg. When the red glow had faded, the Cy-Bug egg had a tint of red. Candi then did that to some of the other Cy-Bug eggs before putting them in a pile.
"Now how do I get them out of here?" Candi wondered.
Candi looked over to the wall and noticed an escape pod. She got an idea and smiled.
"Perfect." Candi muttered.
Candi picked up the pile of Cy-Bug eggs, walked over to the escape pod, opened the escape pod's door, and put the eggs in the escape pod. However, when she was done, she looked outside of the window and noticed that the Sugar Rush racers and Cinndon had arrived in Hero's Duty and had reached the entrance to the tower.
"Oh, great. It's them. Now they'll ruin everything." Candi muttered.
Candi then looked to her side and saw an intercom system that was by the escape pod. She tapped her chin as though she was in deep thought and then she grinned mischievously.
Meanwhile, the Sugar Rush racers and Cinndon entered the tower. After leaving Sugar Rush, they had decided to check Hero's Duty and see if Candi was there. Once they entered Hero's Duty, they came across Gamgee, who told them that he had seen Candi enter the tower. They thanked him and made their way to the tower and entered it. However, as they made their way through the hallways of the tower, the intercom activated.
"Hey, guys, do you hear me?" a voice asked on the intercom.
The Sugar Rush racers and Cinndon froze when they heard Candi's voice on the intercom, and they glanced around in confusion.
"I see you, guys. This is a nice little view of you guys that I have up here from the top." Candi said.
Gloyd gasped in realization.
"Candi's at the Ceremonial Stage!" Gloyd said.
Gloyd, the other Sugar Rush racers, and Cinndon ran to the elevator. Minty pushed the button rapidly, and she almost ripped the door open when it finally arrived. She, the other Sugar Rush racers, and Cinndon piled into the elevator, and Minty began to impatiently jam the button that would take them to the top floor.
"Nice try, guys. But your too late to stop me. I already have what I came here for." Candi said from the speaker that was inside of the elevator.
Candi shut off the intercom system and placed her hand on the intercom system. It turned to a cookie intercom system before it crumbled to the ground. Candi then jumped into the large driver's seat and started rummaging around in the glove compartment. Eventually, she found a driver's manual
"Ah ha, a driver's manual!" Candi exclaimed, snuggling down in the seat and propping her legs up on the steering wheel as if she had all the time in the world.
She started reading the driver's manual. After five minutes, she was done reading, threw the book behind the seat, and started playing with some buttons that would start the engine. However, as she did, the door to the top level opened up, and the Sugar Rush racers and Cinndon ran in. Candi looked back and noticed them. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, the engine of the escape pod humming loudly.
"Looking for me, racers?" Candi taunted loudly.
Vanellope became angry because she knew that a virus was infecting her friend, and she ran the perimeter of the room in order to avoid crushing the Cy-Bug eggs. Candi slammed the escape pod's door shut in order to prevent the president from entering the cockpit, and she started getting ready for take-off. It was actually rather easy. The voice commands told the driver almost everything that he or she had to do. Candi prepared to fly away, but then she felt the whole shuttle shake when Vanellope glitched onto it just in time for them to take off.
The wind stung Vanellope's face like a thousand tiny knives as she tried to crawl along the top of the pod. She was not going to let Candi get away and do who knew what to the arcade, thanks to her being virus infected. Meanwhile, Candi was having quite a lovely time in her new toy, surprised that it had been so easy. She had just started lowering and directing the escape pod towards the portal entrance when the sound of beating glass made her look up. The determined face of Vanellope was enough to make her jump in the oversized seat that she was in.
"I'm not letting you get away, Candi!" Vanellope shouted, her voice muffled.
The escape pod zipped along the tunnel at high speed, and Vanellope hanged on to the escape pod for her life. Eventually, the escape pod zoomed into Game Central Station, and Candi made sure to steer it clear of the walls. She grinned when she saw the Sugar Rush game portal and aimed right for it.
She thought that she was home free... that was, until the unmistakable sound of shattered glass reached her ears and she looked up just in time to see Vanellope reach her arm into the cockpit. Vanellope grabbed Candi by her jacket and attempted to pull Candi out of the escape pod. However, Candi put the escape pod on auto-pilot so they wouldn't crash, and then she held onto the seat. She then grabbed Vanellope by her hoodie and punched her in the face. Vanellope almost flew off of the escape pod from the blow, but she regained her balance and turned back to Candi. However, Vanellope gasped as Candi pulled out an antennae from inside of the escape pod.
"GET OFF OF MY POD!" Candi screamed.
Candi swung the antennae, but Vanellope glitched out of the way. Candi swung the antennae again, but this time, Vanellope managed to grab the other side of antenna, and she began pulling on it, trying to yank it from Candi's grasp.
"Stop it!" Vanellope shouted, glitching violently.
During the struggle, Vanellope's pixels seemed to travel along until reaching Candi. She began glitching too, becoming a blob of red data.
"I'm not going let you undo all of my hard work!" Candi shouted while glitching.
Candi continued glitching as she and Vanellope struggled over the antennae. Eventually, Vanellope managed to pull the antennae out of Candi's grasp, and Candi stopped glitching. But when the glitching all settled down, Candi's avatar was gone, replaced with Anton. Vanellope was shocked and confused at the same time.
"What the heck! Who are you?" Vanellope asked.
Anton looked down at his appearance, surprised by the change, but then he looked back up at Vanellope and grinned.
"I'm Anton, the greatest virus EVER! And I did not take over Candi's body and come all this way to let you and those dumb little brats ruin my plans!" Anton replied.
Anton then glitched back to Candi, set the escape pod back on manual, and flipped the escape pod over so it was upside-down. Vanellope couldn't hold onto the escape pod anymore, and she slipped off and fell to the ground. Anton glitched back to himself, smirked, and then steered the escape pod through the Sugar Rush game portal.