A tight knot of anxiety twisted in the fixer's stomach as he watched his wife and friend ascend the colourful mountain. It was getting to be too much. Being the bearer of bad news wasn't in his programming – but they had no choice. He knew that Tamora was not going to like the news. Neither of them were; but Tamora's reaction specifically was what he feared.
"Jiminy…" He sighed. He was starting to feel a little lost; another thing he wasn't used to. "Tammy is not going to take this well." He told his friend, the panic he had been feeling that day began to overflow. "She has a past, Ralph!" The fixer fretted.
Tamora's history had actually been one of his main concerns when it came to telling her. He didn't even want to think about the turmoil that would go on in her head if she thought that she was in danger of losing more people she cared about.
This wasn't something a magic hammer could fix; and that was becoming increasingly obvious.
Felix leaned forward and sighed, "Sorry for the outburst."
This wasn't the first time Ralph had witnessed one of Felix's 'freak-outs'. They were rare for the little guy, but boy, they had an awful tendency to completely frazzle him. It might have been funny in another circumstance, but the large male could sense how truly nervous his friend was about revealing the true nature of their condition.
Ralph's fingers reached out and hovered, unsure, before they lightly patted the short hero on his narrow shoulder. "Don't worry about it," he said, retracting his hand. "If you ever need to…uh…have more outbursts, it's okay." Felix smiled up at him gratefully. He knew it was hard for Ralph to express his emotions sometimes, so that meant a lot.
"Thanks, Ralph. I couldn't tell her without your help."
The wrecker just nodded; and because he didn't trust his balance at the moment, and was beginning to feel another unwelcoming wave of dizziness descend over him, Ralph seated himself on a giant sprinkle that was lodged in the ice cream. It bent slightly beneath his weight, but it held up impressively.
"We'll tell them as soon as they win." He said, leaning forward on his knees. It's not as if they would lose. Not with personalities like Tamora and Vanellope's working together.
Felix's line of sight returned back towards the girls. "And knowing them, that shouldn't take too long." He replied, hugging his arms together in front of himself.
Nearby, the familiar face of Adorabeezle Winterpop surfaced from behind a collected pile of ice cream, where she'd been playing with Minty Zaki. "Hey, Vanellope!" she greeted, waving at her fellow racer as she and Sergeant Calhoun trekked towards the frozen slide. It hadn't been too far back when Adorabeezle and Minty wouldn't have hesitated to bully Vanellope and make her feel like the inadequate glitch that she was, but since their memories had been rightfully returned they were genuinely friendly toward their president now.
"Adorabeezle! Minty!" Vanellope turned from the Sarge to give her two new-found friends a smirk and a wave. "You guys remember the Sarge, right? Sergeant Calhoun!" She introduced, holding out both hands in presentation towards the woman in question. "She helped us out with all that… bug stuff, ya know. So she's cool!" The president nodded, holding her grin. "We were just about to go for a ride. Do you guys want to join us? We could race down the hill." At this suggestion, her eyes took on a more competitive glint.
The very instant the word 'race' was thrown into the equation, both Adorabeezle and Minty abandoned whatever they'd been doing and trotted over. "Count us in!" the wintery racer exclaimed, speaking for both herself and Minty. Now that the two were closer, they seemed somewhat intimidated as they regarded Tamora, but that was probably because she was quite large in comparison to their tiny selves.
That and they'd witnessed what the woman was capable of when it came to firing a gun and destroying those gross and scary bugs. Still, they didn't seem too put off by her presence. At least, not enough to back out of Vanellope's indirect challenge.
Likewise, the no-nonsense sergeant was ready to take them on. "First pair to the bottom of the slope takes it all," she announced, handing over the donut she'd been carrying to the other two girls and then retrieving a new one for herself. "I don't wanna see any sore losers either. Got that, ladies? Chins up and game faces on. Now, forward march!" With that, she led the three kids up towards the slide so they could begin their race.
"Yeah! Alright!" Vanellope cheered in delight, jumping up into the air and pumping her fist upwards in excitement. There was no way they would lose! Not with the Sarge on her team. She considered herself to be quite the skilled racer on her own, but with Sergeant Calhoun's tactical insight, Adorabeezle and Minty didn't stand a chance. "Lets do this!" She cheered, happily following after Tamora as she led the way up the hill.
Soon afterwards, both teams had reached the top of the hill, and stood looking down at their track. There wasn't much in the way of obstacles, apart from the other characters that were having their own fun on the slope. But there was nothing as far as 'power ups' or 'hazards' went, or any of that fun stuff. At least, none that were obvious. But she was sure both her and her new partner could get creative, if they wanted to.
Prior to takeoff, Tamora had made sure that the racer was comfortably (and safely) situated at the front of the donut. Then, wedging in behind her, Cal waited for the countdown, because she'd be ready to push them off at full-force.
With a mischievous glint in her eye, she spoke. "Ok! You guys know the drill. countdown from three, and we take off." She said, her more competitive side already taking over. "It's pretty much a straight ride down, so don't be afraid to try and slow us down - That is… if you can catch us." The tiny president snickered, and hopped into the large donut with Calhoun, readying herself for 'takeoff' as both Minty and Adorabeezle did the same. "On one!" She began, settling down lower into her 'seat' as they prepared to push off down the slope. "3 - 2 - 1 - GO!"
And with that, they were gone. Calhoun wasted no time in kicking powerfully off of the ground and propelling them forward over the slope of the hill.
Tamora Jean Calhoun never once saw herself racing down a slope made out of vanilla ice cream on an oversized donut. Some things you just never imagined when you were in the military. Knowing how much it meant to Vanellope, though, after all the crud she'd gone through was the deciding factor in her choice when it came to participating in these ridiculous reindeer games.
The speed in which they slid was only amplified by the angle of the slope. The ice cream was deceptively slick, so that helped as well. A fleeting glance was offered to their opponents, who were cheering while attempting to pass them. Not that they could, of course. Then they'd have actually stood a chance.
At the bottom of the incline, Ralph watched. He didn't have it in him to cheer as wildly as he usually did, but not even a virus would stop him from encouraging the kid and Sarge. He lifted up his enormous hands and framed either side of his mouth, calling out: "C'mon, guys! You've got this!" And 'got this' they did. Both pairs were so close to the finish line that it would just be a few more seconds before they―"Sweet Mother Hubbard…"―before they crashed into the piled ice cream at the bottom. Ralph only wished he'd made that connection sooner and been able to scramble out of the way.
SLOOOSSSHH!
An unavoidable tidal wave of ice cream washed over the two that were waiting for Sarge and Vanellope at the bottom of the slope. The wrecker shot up from his seat to shout out a strangled noise in unison with Felix, both of them lifting up their arms. Unsurprisingly they were both now covered in the frozen substance.
Maybe that wouldn't have been so bad, but it wasn't just vanilla flavoring that met his taste buds. "Augh, chocolate? Really?" the wrecker grumbled, swiping the gooey mixture off of his clothes with a grimace.
Vanellope, who had been hooting and hollering the entire way down the slope, was silenced when the oversized donut came crashing into the giant mound of ice cream. Though the silence was only momentary, as shortly after the cheerful figure of Vanellope, covered head to toe in vanilla and chocolate ice cream hopped right out of the ice cream pile with yet another loud cheer.
"YEAH! We did it, Sarge! We creamed 'em!" She laughed in delight, hopping around in excitement from their newfound victory. "Ya know, you're not a bad racer!" She stopped suddenly in her celebration when she noticed the two nearby figures of both Ralph and Felix. Ralph trying desperately to get the flavour of chocolate out of his mouth, and Felix just blinking in shock. "Pffft! You guys look like you just had a run-in with an ice cream truck!" She pointed and laughed, completely ignoring the fact that she was just as covered as the rest of them. "Do you want cones to go with that!?" She fell backwards onto the pile of ice cream and held onto her cream-coated sides as she laughed uncontrollably.
It wasn't the most graceful finish, but things like that didn't matter when you took home the gold. Tamora retracted herself from the cold, gooey ice cream and reached up to push aside some of the longer pieces of her blonde hair; the golden strands were sticking together and would definitely need a good washing later, but for now she had no trouble basking in she and Vanellope's shared victory. They'd earned it fair and square and no amount of bellyaching would prove otherwise.
The miniature president's abrupt outburst of laughter (combined with Adorabeezle and Minty's laughter as well) had her glancing at Ralph and Felix who, admittedly, looked pretty darn hilarious. Kneeling beside Vanellope, the sergeant reached out and scooped the little one into her arms prior to standing up; she settled the girl onto her shoulders and held her small legs as they dangled on either side of her collarbone.
"I think we've earned ourselves some victory drinks, Schweetz," she stated, heading towards the other two members of their close-knit quartet. "What do you say, men? Up for another visit to Tapper's?"
When the last blasted remnant of chocolate was unhappily spat out of Ralph's mouth, he looked at Sarge and Vanellope and then gazed down at Felix – who was also trying desperately to get the gooey treat off of himself – and nodded wordlessly. The race was officially over, so the beans needed to be spilled. Pronto. With a 'here goes nothing' mentality firmly embraced, the wrecker held up a hand.
"Wait. There's something Felix and I need to tell you guys," he announced. "It's…pretty important."
At this, Felix stopped any attempts to clean himself off and looked up to Ralph with worry.
Tamora's footsteps came to a crisp halt a few steps short of reaching them. She didn't seem bothered by the statement. Just interested. "Keep talking, Wreck-It. We're listening."
Ralph hesitated for a beat, but it wasn't because he was at a loss for words, or even because he'd suddenly frozen up with anxiety. An ill-timed and horrible coincidence made itself known right then and there: The shrill ringing in his ears amplified far beyond the level his feigned control could tolerate, coaxing him to bring up his fingers and press them into his temples. He looked down, hissing in discomfort, before he stared back at the girls again; his eyes were glazed with notable pain, and his face looked as pale as the vanilla ice cream they stood on when he uttered two final words.
"We're bugged."