Okay, yeah. I have become what I said I wouldn't, and have totally dropped the ball on this story. I feel guilty about it. I know this is a pretty suspenseful story, and I hate to make everyone hold their breath for so long.

But thanks to my co-writer, Feesh, the story's been picked up again! And now I've got all except for the last chapter ready to be posted! I'll post them one a day, so I don't keep anyone in suspense for too much longer!

So, so, so SOOO incredibly sorry. I'm a hypocrite, and a lazy bum, and a total dick.

Now enjoy!

The sudden shaking of the platform beneath his feet disorientated Felix, and he looked up at the hulking wrecker with terror. The grip he had on his hammer tightened subconsciously, but what good the tool would do him in this situation was beyond him.

Taking a step back, he held his empty hand out towards the angry antagonist in an attempted gesture of peace. Though deep down he knew that Ralph couldn't be reasoned with. That much was made clear when he showed no signs of slowing; and with a surprised shout, Felix dove out of the way of the oncoming attack and onto a separate ledge.

Ralph was going to destroy the whole building!

His line of vision snapped up to follow the wrecker as he continued on his non-stop path of destruction. There was no stopping him. Everyone had to leave. There was no choice now. He turned to look at the terrified faces of the Nicelanders through the windows. This was too much.

"Get out of the building, everyone!" Felix shouted, hopping from ledge to ledge to get away from the destruction-bent man. He hoped that they would all heed his warning in time before they suffered an unnecessary death. At least Gene had already been thrown out of the building.

Finally, he reached the bottom floor and hopped from the shaking building back onto stable ground, looking back up to Ralph - his friend - as his massive fists continued to mercilessly pummel everything into pixilated dust. They desperately needed help.

Ralph didn't seem to notice that Felix had moved out of the way, for he kept smashing up whatever part of the building he could: Windows, ledges, the balcony of the penthouse - he didn't and couldn't discriminate. And really, any hopes of him regaining control of himself were useless. He was unreachable now that the virus was fully uploaded into his code, using him as its puppet.

Down below, the Nicelanders started to file out of the building as fast as their tiny, stubby legs would take them. They might have been hindered by the virus as well, but they were quick as they toddled away from the danger.

"Oh, dear! He'll destroy everything in Niceland!" Mary cried, watching as Ralph continued to demolish their poor home.

And it was the truth, for when the building had taken enough damage and had collapsed on itself, the destruction machine headed for the other structures in the distance. This included the houses that were built for their friends, and even his own shack. Along the way, trees and bushes were uprooted as though they were frail weeds.

Nothing was safe from those ruthless hands. Nothing.

Felix bit his lip in an attempt to hide his nervousness – though he was sure the Nicelanders would be indifferent to it at that point – and watched as Ralph continued along his destructive path. He really was a master at his craft. But this was not the time to sit back and admire Ralph's wrecking. They needed help, and fast.

"I'm going to go get help. You folks stay here and try to be safe!" He told them, taking a step back away from the group and towards the tunnel. He hated the idea of leaving the Nicelanders alone while Ralph was like that, but at least here, if something were to happen, it wouldn't be permanent. They would regenerate.

When he was reassured that no one would be leaving, he turned and bolted through the tunnel; not even taking the time to wait for the tram.

Almost as soon as he hit the entrance to Game Central Station, he came skidding to a halt and gripped his head in his hands as a particularly strong jolt of static coursed through it. The sensation filled his entire head, and left him blinking back as blue flecks of light trailed across his vision. He reached for his hammer - but snapped back to reality a moment later and shook himself of his daze.

There was only one person he could think to go to for help: Tamora. His stomach twisted in anxiety at the idea, but they had run out of options a long time ago. So with a nervous gulp, he took off running towards Hero's Duty without a clue as to what he might find there.

The insanity had spread faster than any disease ever could.

Soldier after soldier lost their mind, resulting with more sedations and general commotion in the infirmary. But throughout the day, and as more men went haywire, the medical ward became too overrun with an unending stream of patients, which led to its inevitable demise. It wasn't long before the crazed characters began overpowering the medics with brute force, and when the weapons came into play…they didn't stand a chance.

There were more deaths and regenerations than ever as the unresponsive males charged through the facility, firing away without remorse or realization of what they were doing. It very quickly became "every man for yourself" within the unit, since working as a team was useless when the number of sane soldiers was laughably inferior to the number of insane soldiers.

Few remained among the coherent, but Tamora Calhoun was one of them. She herself could feel her mind slowly slipping into orange chaos, and while she wasn't running around shooting at everything that moved, she was suffering from her own personal horrors. Terrible images taunted her brain, causing her to see things that weren't there. She saw a swarm of Cy-Bugs tearing away at the base when there was no such thing, but even more gruesome than this were the far-too-real hallucinations of Brad Scott.

His face plagued her as she tried to fight off the virus-fueled Space Marines, even though they were members of her troop - members that she would have risked her life for.

Though tough and determined, even she knew when she was outnumbered. The option of 'falling back' wasn't available, just because there was nowhere else to go. She'd been lucky enough to open the hatch and let the infected soldiers take to the barren lands and tower. At least if they were out there and not inside the base they had more room to run and kill as they pleased. She could only hope that they wouldn't come across the tunnel that fed into Game Central Station.

And just to ensure that they didn't find the tunnel, the sergeant had positioned herself nearest to the terminal. She stood guard with her gun, making sure that no one passed her and headed into the passageway. She leaned against one of the pillars for support, since her physical state was presently suffering. Her golden bangs were damp with sweat from the virus' raging fever, and her breathing could have sounded better, but she refused to budge.

No one was leaving Hero's Duty. They would have to get through her first.

Soon enough, the barrier between reality and her hallucinations began to waver. Tamora did her best to snap herself out of it whenever she felt as if she were slipping, but not knowing what was real and what was imagined made it hard for her to resurface. What eventually managed to put her back at full attention were the sound of footsteps. Instantly, she was rigid and ready, gun pointed and finger on the trigger.

Though, a blur of blue was the only thing she managed to see before there was nothing at all.

But…but wait. She knew that blur of blue. Panic flooded her thoughts as she lowered her weapon and screamed out: "Fix-It!" He was already so far that she doubted he could hear her. He wasn't slowing down either. He was heading straight for the battlefront, where he'd be slaughtered in seconds.

Pushing herself away from the wall, she hightailed it after him, going as fast as her long legs could take her. The exertion had her head spinning, which coaxed another painful memory to ignite within her mind. She tried to fight through it, to convince herself that what she was seeing was only a side effect of the virus, but when Brad was literally ripped apart in front of her eyes…it was hard to keep going; her stomach lurched ominously as nausea constricted her esophagus.

Miraculously, she overcame the spurt of paranoia just as she finally reached her husband. He had barely taken more than six steps into the game when she forcefully grabbed onto the back of his shirt. "Stop right there, soldier!" she barked, rounding him and preventing the little guy from going any further into the war zone. "No time for questions or smalltalk. You need to leave. Now."

The handyman had given a startled yelp as he was spun around, and his fear-stricken blue eyes locked onto hers. "Tamora-!" He sprung forward and locked her in a tight embrace before her words registered, and he pulled back to look up at her with a frown of concern. "I came for help!"He exclaimed in a panic, "Ralph's gone screwy! He's destroying everything! And we can't talk any sense into him! " He told her frantically as everything that had happened earlier that day replayed in his mind's eye, "He glitched… I saw him. And we-" he stopped at the thought of the bright orange sheet of paper that had been placed on their game, and reached forward to hug her legs again.

He didn't exactly want to tell her, but the memory of keeping the virus from her in the first place convinced him to just spill it.

"- we're out of order," he managed to choke out, clinging onto her more tightly. The utter hopelessness of their situations was beginning to catch up to him, because by the looks of things, she had her hands full there too. "I don't know what else to do," he told her fretfully, pressing his face against the leg of her armor. He told her both in the hopes that she could offer some assistance, and so he didn't have end on the previous point.

As Felix clung to her leg and spilled his guts, Tamora offered a wary look at the wasteland around them through the opened hatch. She couldn't see any of the manic soldiers, but she knew they were out there; she could hear their sadistic screams and gunfire in the near distance. Thus, she carefully took them back over the ramp and inside the departing zone, just to be inside. Once there, Tamora reached for her communicator and held it up to her mouth.

"Kohut, state your location," she ordered, speaking to the one other officer she knew hadn't lost his mind yet.

There was a pause before a deep voice replied: "East perimeter."

"Pack up, soldier. Head over to the tunnel and take over watch there. I have some business I need to take care of."

Unlike another soldier, who would have questioned Sergeant Calhoun's strange demand in a crisis, Kohut knew better and simply agreed without hesitation. "Affirmative. I'm coming over now."

She drew the communicator away from her mouth and then looked down at Felix. "Wreck-It won't go down easy. He needs to be stunned and then contained somehow. I doubt there's anywhere that can hold those fists, but it's worth a try." They didn't need Ralph - or anyone who posed a serious threat - getting into Game Central Station and finding themselves in other games, where they'd be able to do unspeakable damage there. "Come on."

As gently as her harsh mind-frame would allow, she ushered her companion back towards the tunnel. She was by no means 'fit for duty', but she wouldn't abandon her responsibilities when it came to protecting the general public. "As soon as Kohut relieves my position, we can―"

The sudden sound of heavy footsteps stopped Tamora from continuing. Nearest to where the train arrived stood a swaying soldier - one who was quite clearly infected with the virus. He was more zombie than man, really, with his sluggish, jerky movements and glowing orange eyes. Worse of all, though, he had his gun pointed not at her, but at Felix instead. Even a virus couldn't stop him from trying to fight off a foreign enemy rather than his own kind first.

Tamora felt her entire being freeze. In the time it would take her to shoot the man down, he would have already fired at his target, and since Felix wasn't in his game, he wouldn't be able to…

"NO!"

She hadn't been able to save Brad, and she'd be damned if she couldn't save Felix now.