Author's Note: I've had two strange dreams about "Wreck-It Ralph" recently. The first was a combination of "Wreck-It Ralph" and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Ralph and Vanellope were both like Edmund, being tempted by the White Glitch. Instead of turning people to stone, she set them in a chocolate mould.
The other dream seemed to be inspired by the Goo Growers and Goo Shrinkers in "Disney INFINTY." Some scientists in Hero's Duty made a goo that made things grow. Ralph came into contact with it, and became so big that he couldn't fit in his game and was pushed into the real world. The same thing happened to Vanellope, Felix and Calhoun. Unfortunately the scientists hadn't yet developed a goo that shrunk things, so the characters were stuck in the real world! Eek!
Well, enough of my random ramblings. Enjoy this chapter! :)
Chapter Four: A Party in Full Swing
Vanellope stood on a table covered with a gold cloth. "Are you ready to PARTY?!" she yelled into the microphone.
A great cheer rose from the dance floor.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'!" Vanellope replied. "Now, before we get too excited, you guys all know the drill." A few characters groaned. Vanellope continued, "Someone from each game has to come up here and tell us one good thing that happened to their game this year. Then the party can REALLY get started!"
She plunged her hand into the "Mini Random Roster Choosing Device," which was really just a sparkly pink box full of names. "Uh. . ." She peered at the letters. It occurred to her that she should have picked someone without pixelexia to read. "Pac-Man?" she guessed.
Clyde the orange Ghost was pushed to the stage to tell everyone about how the Bad-Anon meeting room had been refurnished with more comfortable chairs. (Ralph cheered the loudest at this – he'd gone to Bad-Anon more often since the new seats had arrived). More characters followed. Tapper welcomed a new flavour of root beer; the Frogger frog celebrated the great clean-up that had reduced water pollution levels in his game; a girl from Dance Dance Revolution X2 introduced ten new avatars to the rest of the arcade.
Eventually the Mini Random Roster Choosing Device was running out of names. Vanellope took out two pieces of paper at the same time. "We've just got these games left: Fix-It Felix Jr. and Hero's Doody." She sniggered.
"It's Hero's Duty!" someone yelled.
Vanellope ignored them. "Who's going next?"
Felix hopped onto the table with a boing, slipping his cue cards out of his pocket. He cleared his throat. "Um, I'm kind of speaking for both games today. You see, there's this glitch in Hero's Duty which is – oh my land, I'm so sorry!" He should have known that the biggest faux pas in any arcade was to use the word "glitch" in front of a glitch.
Vanellope just shrugged. "No biggie."
Felix took a deep breath to steady himself. "So in Hero's Duty, the Cy-Bugs keep re-spawning when they're not supposed to, and the soldiers can't be here tonight because they have to stay there to guard the place. But Tammy – sorry, Sergeant Calhoun – told me to tell you. . ." He squinted at her spiky handwriting. "Ooh! Apparently one of the players reached the ninety-ninth floor for the first time since the game got plugged in!"
Whoops and cheers filled the room.
"I know!" Felix moved that card back to his pocket. "As for our game . . . uh. . ."
This was the bit Felix had been dreading. He had filled many cue cards with ideas for what to say. So many good things had happened this year that it was hard to pick just one to talk about. He saw Ralph and the Nicelanders standing off to the side. They did nothing to help. They just stared back at him, quietly waiting. In fact, the whole room was silent.
"Uh. . ." Felix repeated. The microphone squeaked.
Did they mind that he was taking so long? He spotted a few smiles, but what were they really thinking? Come on, say something!
His eyes moved back to his notes – and promptly widened with shock.
The cue cards were starting to freeze over!
Quickly Felix garbled the only thing he could still read. "A few months ago, every other brick turned green whenever someone put a quarter in."
A wave of confused murmurs passed over the crowd.
"That's not a good thing," Vanellope said.
"Yes it is," Felix blurted out, "because we fixed it. A-a-and isn't that the best thing of all, triumphing over adversity?"
For an intolerably long moment, the faces in the crowd were blank. Then Zangief started clapping, and pretty soon everyone else joined in. The applause was sweet music to Felix's ears. He hopped off with another boing, shoved the icy notes back in his pocket before anyone could see, and re-joined Ralph and the Nicelanders. Ralph thumped his back. "Good job," he said.
Felix could only sigh with relief.
He'd survived.
Just.
. . .
"S-U-G-A-R
Jump into your racing car
It's a Sugar Rush!
Sugar Rush!"
J-Pop blasted through the Sweet Speakers. The dance floor was packed with people; most of them were either Sugar Rush characters or people who came from dancing games. Other characters watched from the side-lines. Ralph and Felix stood next to each other. Ralph was keeping an eye on Vanellope, who twirled in the middle of the floor with Rancis Whatshisname. She tripped and they fell down together – but Rancis just laughed and helped Vanellope up.
The puppy-love grin he gave her reminded Ralph that he was also supposed to be searching for the Sorceress. He scanned the room, hoping that one of the dancers would have blue skin. But no-one on the floor came close to her.
"You look good," Felix said suddenly.
Ralph blinked. "Who looks good?"
"You." Felix was staring up at him.
Ralph had tried to look smart. With limited resources, he'd basically had to borrow the suit from Felix and Calhoun's wedding, but leave behind the jacket and tie. Even so, he didn't think it was that impressive.
"Oh. Right," he said. "Thanks." He noticed Felix was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a blue waistcoat. He'd got it right – not too smart, not too casual. "You look better," Ralph added. "I mean, more good. I mean, obviously more good because you're a Good Guy, but – yeah. You look good too."
"Thank you."
The men were silent again. They gazed at the dancers.
"So, this is how Sugar Rush does parties," Ralph said eventually.
"The music's not too loud," Felix replied. "I like that."
Ralph sniffed. "What's that smell?"
"Well, this is Sugar Rush, so. . ."
The brothers' eyes met. They said at the same time, "Chocolate!"
They laughed. Felix's eyes returned to the dance floor, but Ralph's eyes did not. There were lots of things that he hadn't said, things it was perhaps too late to say. He didn't know where to start.
So he tried the obvious question: "You enjoying the party?"
"Yeah, it's great. You?"
"It's awesome. It's nice to go out and do stuff together. Kinda like old times."
Felix's smile was small. He hummed. Ralph couldn't tell if it was a hum of agreement or a hum of not wanting to talk or a hum of something else entirely.
"I wish we could do this more often," Ralph added.
"Me too."
Those words made Ralph smile.
Felix lifted an arm as if he wanted to hold Ralph's hand. But he stopped himself. His arm dropped to his side. "But we can't."
Ralph's smile fell. "What do you mean? It-"
"We just can't." Felix turned away as he spoke, clasping his hands together.
Ralph swallowed. "Excuse me," he said. He scooted towards a table and broke off a candy cane from a tree-like decoration. When he looked back, Felix was watching him. Ralph frowned and turned back to the food, crunching his candy cane fiercely. Let him see how it feels.
"Have we met before?"
Ralph gasped. He knew that voice.
He spun around, dropping his food, to see a woman with blue skin and crimson eyes – the Sorceress! True to her word, she had changed her dress. Now she wore a deep purple gown with shorter sleeves and a higher neckline. The skirt was pouffy and frilled, which normally looked better on a two-year-old princess. But the Sorceress still managed to keep an elegant appearance.
Ralph's smile returned. "I think so," he replied. "Oh yeah, we have. I didn't recognise you at first because . . . because you're even more beautiful now than before."
The Sorceress blinked a few times. "Now, how can you be a Bad Guy when you come out with such flattery?"
Ralph shrugged. "I have no idea."
The J-Pop halted suddenly. A 1980s-style electronic tune kicked in. Ralph groaned.
"Isn't this your song?" the Sorceress asked. Her eyes lit up. "Then you need a dance partner! May I. . ." She didn't finish her question.
"Are you sure? People don't tend to like the parts about me."
"Ignore them." The Sorceress took Ralph's hand. "Just focus on me."
She led him to the middle of the dance floor, and the first verse began.
"Wreck-It Ralph is a giant of a man,
Nine feet tall with really big hands. . ."
Predictably, the other dancers circled Ralph and started booing him. The crowd didn't seem to faze the Sorceress – she simply got down to it as if she came from a dancing game herself. As Ralph attempted his own step-shuffle, his did his best to do as she said, to block the others out and concentrate on her. It wasn't hard to do. He was mesmerised by her thin hips as they swayed in time. She noticed this and giggled.
"Wreck it, Wreck-It Ralph, as fast as you can –
You know you can do it with your colossal hands!"
"Show me what you've got!" the Sorceress yelled.
Normally Ralph would never dance, but the strong words of the Sorceress egged him on. He let go for the chorus. He flexed his muscles. He punched the ground. He stomped across the dance floor. The Sorceress whooped in delight and the boos gradually faded out, to be replaced with – screams?
Ralph stopped. Cracks spread up the columns and across the ceiling. "Oops," he croaked.
Perhaps he had been a little too energetic.
But then he heard another noise. Boing. Boing. Boing. A bolt of blue shot around the ballroom. The cracks disappeared.
"You fixed it!"
Felix landed in the middle of the dance floor. The cheers then were the loudest they had been all night.
"Fix-It Felix is a really great guy. . ."
Ralph rolled his eyes. "It's gonna be all about Felix now. Let's get out of here."
He took the Sorceress's arm, and the smoothness of her skin made his stomach flip over. He led her through the door to the castle gardens.
. . .
The ground was coated in swirly pink icing. Trees shaped like lollipops were dotted here and there across the lawn, and the flowerbeds were all the colours of the rainbow. No-one else was around; it was the perfect place for a couple to be alone together.
Ralph and the Sorceress found a white bench to sit on and chatted for a long time. They could talk freely about everything, from the Sorceress's catchphrase (the rather unimaginative "Get them, my precious trolls!") to Ralph's big hands. He told her he'd always been like that, but once dreamt that a troll had cursed him with them. He then panicked, because of course her game was all about trolls, but she laughed it off.
"If you must know. . ." She lowered her voice. "I don't even like those trolls. They're either idiotic or cruel. And my sisters are no better."
"How many do you have?"
"Twelve. Though I never see them all at the same time. When the game were first plugged in, three of them pretended I was invisible – for the next two months."
"That's horrible!"
The Sorceress shrugged. "It's what sisters do."
"And brothers." Ralph sighed. "In my backstory, I was adopted by Felix's family, and Felix and I used to be really close. But one day, he just stopped wanting to play with me. I never knew why."
For some reason, the Sorceress's presence encouraged Ralph to continue talking. "It's kinda sad. And it's in my backstory, so there's no way of changing it."
The Sorceress gently placed a hand on one of Ralph's thick fingers. "You shouldn't let your backstory dictate your life."
"I know, but – it's not nice to be blocked out by your own brother, you know? Well, we're not really brothers, but. . ." Ralph tailed off.
The Sorceress knew just what to say. "I would never want to block you out."
The two Bad Guys made eye contact. In the silence, Ralph thought he felt a surge of warmth rush through his chest. His heart rate sped up. He became incapable of taking his eyes off the Sorceress. Was this the spark that Vanellope was talking about?
There was only one way to find out.
"Can I say something that may or may not be crazy?" he asked.
"Go on."
Ralph inhaled deeply. "Will you go out with me?"
The Sorceress gasped. "Can I answer in a way that may or may not be crazy?"
Ralph waited.
"Yes!"