Bugged. Why did he have to say 'bugged'?
Felix shrank down a little at Ralph's words, and his wide eyes flicked back and forth between both the girls and Ralph, as he awaited their reaction.
Vanellope actually took on a look of genuine concern when her friend had shown obvious signs of pain; and was silent for a moment as she simply tried to make sense out of what he was saying. "Bugged?" She repeated,"What do you mean 'bugged'? Like, a glitch?" She asked, leaning forward slightly on Tamora's shoulders.
"Now, hold on - we can explain this." Felix raised his hands in a preemptive calming gesture. "There may be a tiny little virus running through our game…" He brought his thumb and forefinger together to accentuate the word 'tiny' as best as he could. Though with Ralph's recent display of discomfort, he wasn't sure how effective that would be. "But it's nothing we can't fix!"
It took one word to wipe whatever smile had been on Tamora's lips clean off her face. It took one word to have her reaching up to grab onto Vanellope. It took one word for her to set the girl down as she filled in the remaining distance between herself and the two men. And it took one word for her to transform into the unfeeling, merciless, cruel sergeant that she was on the battlefield.
"A virus?!" she echoed, her tone elevated into something far more clipped and unfriendly than it had been in quite some time. "Do you realize what this even means?"
Ralph knew that Felix would be far too nervous to bother with defending them, so he did his best to reason with Sarge, even though it was crystal clear that she was beyond livid at being kept in the dark. "Look, we're trying to figure this out, so getting worked up about it won't―"
"I seriously don't think either of you understand the consequences of what may or may not happen while you're both infected," she snapped, growing more irritated by the second. "Did you two even consider the fact that you're contagious?"
"Well, yeah, but it doesn't look like―"
"It never looks like anything at first!" she fiercely interjected, stepping even closer to them. "There's no telling what kind of filthy bug is eating its way through your codes right now, or what it may do when it's done with you."
Though she seemed drastically upset over the affair, it was merely a defense mechanism in response to the deep offense she felt by not being informed straight away of the virus. This especially applied to the one person she trusted above all else…the one person she'd married…the one person she now looked at. Though her eyes were glaring quite threateningly, there was an undeniable layer of hurt hidden beneath all of the boiling anger.
Felix had broken his promise.
With a huff that sounded far too emotional for her taste, Tamora looked at Ralph again. "Did you two good-for-nothings bother to see if any other games were affected?"
"We were going to, but we wanted to make sure you two were okay first," Ralph replied, glancing at Vanellope. He seriously hoped the kid wasn't as mad at him as Sarge was. He could handle the cold shoulder from the blonde, but from his best friend? He'd feel even more awful than he currently did.
"There's no time for sentimentalities when a virus is involved," Tamora remarked, reaching for her cruiser. She tossed the device and then mounted without any intention of asking Felix to board with her. In fact, she made it a point to ignore him entirely as she prepared to depart. "Go back to your game and remain there until I get there with my men. And Schweetz," she paused, looking down at the nine-year-old. "You stay far away from these two until we know what we're dealing with."
With that, the cruiser took off and Tamora headed back towards the entrance of Sugar Rush. Soon enough she'd have her men suited up and ready to take charge against whatever it was that may have been attempting to ruin the arcade.
As she departed, Felix's hands were clamped tightly together in front of himself, he was shaking like a leaf, and all he could do was stare at her retreating form with wide, worried eyes. He hadn't even been able to get his mouth to work so he could offer Ralph some backup.
He had never seen her so upset - well, not at him anyways; and it tore him up. The brief look that the two had shared was enough to make him go still with dread. It was a look that was entirely unfamiliar on her face. Fear. Under that anger, she was afraid, and they had done that to her. He had done that to her; and at that realization, an overwhelming sense of guilt overcame him.
He was supposed to help people, not hurt them… and especially not his own wife.
Vanellope on the other hand, was still trying to process what had just happened. Just a moment ago, they were all having fun! Everything had been fine! And now, she had no clue what was going on. Sarge wanted her to stay away from them?
She turned back towards her two friends, an unmistakable expression of worry on her face as she stared up to Ralph in particular. "You guys are okay though, right?" She spoke after a moment of silence, her hands moved to grip the fabric at the front of her hoodie.
"We're fine," he told her, forcing his lips into a smile. "And we're gonna stay fine. Nothing bad will happen." There was no guarantee behind the wrecker's words, which was why he didn't promise her anything. For all he knew he and Felix could have up and… No. He shook away those negative thoughts.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Her voice suddenly spiked in pitch, and her little hands closed into determined fists at her sides as a glitch rippled through her. She sparked out of her place in a blue ripple of code, before reappearing next to Ralph a fraction of a second later and latching onto his leg. He hadn't left her during the Sugar Rush incident, when by all rights he should have, and because of his unwillingness to leave her behind, he had saved not only her - but her entire game. He was her best friend, and the thought of leaving him now was simply out of the question.
"Kid…" For all of her belligerence and smart alec-y ways, Vanellope was still just a little girl at the end of the day. It was easy to forget that when she was giving him a hard time, but circumstances like these reminded Ralph how fragile she actually was.
Exhaling a deep breath, he knelt down onto one knee in front of her. She weighed close to nothing as he took her in his arms, cradling her against his shoulder in the most delicate hug he could muster, her own hands closing into tight fists on the fabric of his shirt. "I know what Sarge said bothered you, and I know that you don't want to stay away from us, but I think it may be better if you listen." As much as it pained Ralph to say such things, he didn't want to risk Vanellope somehow contracting the virus. She meant far too much to him for that.
He pulled away from the embrace though kept her situated in his hands; his cupped palms served as a seat for her to sit. "We're sick, kid. We don't want you to be, too."
"No way." She spoke, looking up with him in disbelief. Why would he even suggest something like that? She couldn't just leave! "I'm not leaving, and you can't make me, Ralph!" Her voice rose again, though this time it was more in an angry desperation, than just basic concern.
"You were fine. Both of you." She looked from Ralph down to Felix and back up again with glossy eyes, but still she was too stubborn to allow herself to cry. "You were fine yesterday, and you were fine a couple minutes ago! And I don't care if I get sick!" She said with narrowed eyes, jumping up into a standing position in Ralph's large hand and looking up towards him with determination. "You didn't leave me when I told you to, so why should I leave you now, huh?!" She demanded to know. She was visibly shaking, thought she kept herself rigid in an attempt to hide it; though it was fairly obvious that she was simply more freaked out than anything else.
Ralph had attempted to get some words in, but there were few breaks in the little racer's passionate monologue. By the end of Vanellope's tirade, and when it was clear that she was three shakes short of bursting into tears, he knew that he couldn't push her away. He'd quite literally wrecked something that she once wanted more than anything, and he wasn't about to do it again. Even if it resulted with another verbal beating from Sarge, even if he was inadvertently dooming them all, he couldn't leave her behind.
Virus or no virus, she was coming with them.
Ultimate defeat came in the form of a crooked smile. "Yunno, that nerve of yours is gonna get you in some serious trouble one of these days, kid," he said, shaking his head. "But fine. You win. You can stick with us." Carefully, Ralph stood back up with Vanellope still standing in his palms.
The little racer instantly relaxed in her rigid position at these words and let out a sigh of relief, a small, victorious smile spreading on her face. Now that the whole 'leaving them' thing was thrown off the table, she was able to focus all her attention onto the problem at hand; though, not without throwing a bit of snarkiness in, just to save face after her 'freak-out'.
"Yeah, and like you're not just as stubborn as I am." She said with crossed arms and a smirk, but an underlying sense of happiness and relief was evident behind those words.
Ralph's gaze now targeted Felix, who still appeared seriously unnerved by what had happened with his wife. But unfortunately, that wasn't something they could help him with.
"I have a feeling Sarge went to round up the troops, so we'd better get back to our game," he suggested, looking towards the bridge in the distance. It wouldn't be long until Game Central Station was flooded with soldiers filing into each and every portal, checking to see if the other characters were affected. They were better off returning before they got caught up in all that hullabaloo.
"Geez, did Sarge have to take the cruiser? That's a long walk… I wish I had my kart here." The girl was quick to sink back into her previous disposition as they began their trek towards the bridge.