As expected, the first couple of levels weren't so bad. Ralph did his thing, the Nicelanders did theirs, and Felix arrived to save the day. Typical workflow. One of the perks about being the NPC bad guy was that Ralph wasn't connected to the controls in any way; the joystick didn't command his actions, nor did the buttons. They were only wired to Felix. Therefore, he had complete control of what he broke and how much damage he actually caused. This made it simpler to not destroy the apartment building to its full potential, so that his coworker wouldn't end up straining himself in the fixing process.

It wasn't until the late afternoon that the wrecker began to feel his fatigue spike up a few notches. Not only that, but it was getting progressively harder to do his job when his muscles were starting to ache and his vision was starting to blur; he was getting sicker. If that wasn't bad enough, he nearly lost his balance a few times and fell off the ledge of the building without anyone tossing him over. Luckily, he'd manage to right himself just before he toppled to the ground.

Much to his relief, the players weren't all that focused on him, aside from the occasional fleeting glance they offered to see where he was in order to avoid the falling bricks. This granted him a tiny, practically nonexistent opportunity to rest. If he were able to, he would have traded places with Felix, just to give him a break (which was something the hero couldn't take - not even for a split second). Ralph wasn't sentimental or comfortable with voicing his concern for the wellbeing of others, but he sincerely hoped that Felix was doing okay.

Because he sure wasn't, and he was lucky enough to catch his breath every now and again.

And sure enough, by the time the last quarter was deposited, Felix was absolutely exhausted. His head was swimming with an awful pressure, his ears were ringing, his vision was blurring, and much to his horror, the incoordination he had felt earlier that morning was beginning to return in violent waves. He could only hope that no one had noticed. It was a miracle he hadn't slipped off of one of the ledges the entire day, though that was probably due to adrenaline - or whatever substituted for it.

When the game finally ended, and Felix was pretty much running on auto-pilot as he stood atop the roof to accept his medal. He had 'spaced-out' more than once during the course of the day, and that along with many of the other symptoms, only seemed to be increasing in frequency and severity.

He snapped out of it when Ralph was being lifted from his position on the roof, unable to hold the smile he usually kept on for the gamers as this happened. The Nicelanders themselves seemed to be struggling, and they had distinctly displeased looks on their faces as they hoisted the wrecker up, and tossed him off of the building. It was like a cold fist of fear closed around his 8-bit heart at that. Poor Ralph. After all that, being tossed off a building and into a puddle of mud was not something he would want to go through…

Down on the ground, Ralph hoisted up his torso and wiped the gooey filth off, but just as he began to get to his feet…something snapped within him.

"Hng!"

His head exploded with that awful ringing noise, causing him to reach up and cradle his skull in his hands. He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut to keep himself from screaming - mostly because the sensation wasn't abating. He stumbled backward and slammed into the side of the building, breaking a window; the rest of the tall structure shook from the impact.

Just when he feared that he couldn't take anymore, the white-hot screeching disappeared. He opened his eyes and slowly lowered his hands from where they'd taken to firmly clutching his scalp. Completely drained from the agonizing experience, Ralph sat on the cement that stretched beneath the foundation of the building. He leaned back against the brick, panting and pale, while looking far less intimidating than he usually did.

Everything hurt.

As soon as the title screen had popped up onscreen, did Felix rush down to the ground to meet him. Pushing open the front doors and turning the corner, he spotted him and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you alright?" The concerned fixer questioned, trying to keep his own vision from blurring as he looked up at him. They needed to get help.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Felix," he said, willing his eyes to open. He glanced at the smaller character and then reached up, swiping at the sweat that was beaded across his wide forehead; his skin felt hot to the touch, making him wonder if he had a fever. Whatever 'having a fever' meant, anyway. "How're you holding up?"

From what he could see Felix was still hanging in there, but he wasn't nearly as energetic as he usually was. The fixer was a fidgety person by nature - whether that entailed twiddling his thumbs, rocking on his heels, or just smiling a lot. He was far too still, and that bugged Ralph.

"Sorry about the building, by the way…"

"That's your job." The fixer chuckled, managing a grin. "And I'm alright. But we should probably check on the others..." He said, referring to Tamora and Vanellope. A thought came to him, and he sat up a little straighter, glancing up to the larger man again with worry. "You don't think we'd get them sick or anything, do you?" He wondered. The last thing he wanted to do was to spread whatever this was around the arcade. If that was how whatever they had worked. Though he wasn't seeing any options other than going out and trying to figure out whatever this was.

Felix's words brought fresh concern into Ralph's expression. He looked away for a second and thought, his brows furrowing in whatever concentration he could muster around his horrible headache. Like Felix, he hadn't considered the possibility of them being contagious and spreading their virus.

Both Vanellope and Sarge couldn't afford to get sick - not with the crucial roles they played in their respective games.

"I…really don't know," he eventually replied, glancing back down at Felix. "I hope not." But there would be no guarantee unless they went out and saw for themselves. "I guess we don't have a choice either way."

If they stayed in their game to avoid contaminating the arcade, they wouldn't have been able to see if other characters were experiencing the same symptoms that they were. If they left to investigate, it was unknown if they'd infect their loved ones.

"I guess not." Felix sighed, resting his arms back on his knees and casting a glance towards the tunnel leading out of the game. "Things certainly aren't getting better with us just sitting here." He said, and after a moment he pushed himself up from his sitting position and back onto his feet, if not a little unstably. "Are ya comin', brother?" He looked up to his friend with a smile and gestured for them both to head towards the tunnel. He already knew Ralph's answer though. Ralph wouldn't miss out on a chance to help his home. He'd seen the lengths the wrecker would go to protect the things he cared about.

"Right behind you," he said, pushing his palms onto the ground to support him while he stood up. He slowly got to his feet and spent a beat steadying himself; he used the building as an anchor until his head stopped swimming. Then, nodding at his companion, he headed in the direction of the tunnel.

The walk there, which usually didn't take very long at all, felt like it took ages. The path occasionally distorted in front of him, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut and then open them again. Perhaps striking up conversation would distract him from how horrible he felt.

"This kind of reminds me of the virus we had a few years after we were first plugged in," Ralph reminisced, thinking back long ago. "Do you remember that?" They had all still been relatively new to their programmed careers when Fix-It Felix Jr. encountered its first virus. Granted, it was nowhere near as brutal as the one they presently suffered from. It was much more comical, actually, now that he thought about it.

He'd never forget the expression on Dr. Mario's face when they'd all piled into the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital, looking more out of place than a Fire Flower in Arctic Thunder.

"Yes, I do. I remember that!" He answered, a little of the enthusiasm returning to his voice. "Boy, I don't think I remember ever seeing everyone so worried," And that was saying something, "But that Dr. Mario; what a guy." He remembered fondly, how the Mushroom Kingdom doctor had been able to help all of the Nicelanders. It was a great relief; and though the actual Dr. Mario game had been unplugged some time ago, he knew Mario was still around. Maybe he shared some of the knowledge. "Maybe it's like that again." He suggested as they exited the tunnel and entered Game Central Station. That brought a little bit of comfort, at least. They had been able to cure it that time.

The sudden brightness and noise-level of Game Central compared to the quiet and quaint night-time scene of their game was enough to make Felix's headache spike again, and squint his eyes a little to reduce the amount of light that was getting to them. Had it always been so loud there? The fixer gave a light groan and shook his head to focus back on the bustling center that was Game Central Station.

"Jeez," Ralph groaned, placing a large hand on his head and closing his eyes.

"So, where should we go first?" He asked his larger companion, "… I kinda wanna check up on Tamora." He told the wrecker with a light grin as he glanced towards the sci-fi shooter.

"You do better in that place than I do. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm banned from Hero's Duty forever, so go check on her," Ralph stated, nodding towards the portal. Since his initial game-jump he'd only returned once, and that was for Felix and Calhoun's wedding. Even then he'd been personally escorted to the chapel by at least ten soldiers. "I'll head over to Sugar Rush in the meantime. We can meet back up later."

He didn't want it to be public knowledge, but he was actually quite anxious to check on his best friend.

"Alright. See you soon, and be careful!" Felix pointed towards his companion in a sort of amused-warning as he began making his way through the crowd and over to the familiar entryway of Hero's Duty, while Ralph made his way over to Sugar Rush.