P.S. This story takes place 2 years after the movie.

Chapter 2

A New Hero Part 2

"Hello?" Ray answered his phone a bit groggy from his sleep.

"Happy birthday, dude!" Chad yelled through the phone.

"What time is it?" Ray asked kinda irked.

"Like 7:05 I think?"

"7:05?! I gotta go!" Ray hung up the phone and dashed to the bathroom to get cleaned up for his 1st day of work.

After washing up he ran downstairs into the kitchen to grab a granola bar, but on the way back he felt a draft.

"Clothes!" Ray booked it upstairs towards his closet and pulled out a black t-shirt, a black 'Nerd 4 Life' hoodie with black baggy shorts that went a little past his knees and some Nike gun-metal dunks with the triforce on the side of both of them. He ran outside to the garage and pulled out a huffy with a motor attached. He started it up and sped off towards the arcade.

Ray pulled up 7 minutes later right next to Litwak as he was opening up shop.

"Am I late?" Ray asked in a hurried tone.

"Right on time and happy birthday."

"Thanks."

Litwak gestured for Ray to come in as he walked the bike to his office, but while Ray's back was turned, the games were eyeing him as if he killed someone.

When Ray entered the office, Litwak asked him to give him a minute to set up. Ray agreed and Litwak closed the office door.

"You guys need to show Ray the same respect you'd show me. That means no glaring at him or doing weird stuff behind his back. Understand?" All the characters nodded except for one.

"Where's Ralph?" Litwak asked Felix.

"He walked off when Ray walked in. He looked kind of red in the face." Felix explained.

"Do you think he needs a day off?"

"I'm good!" spoke Ralph from offscreen.

"Just give me a minute." He replied.

"Ok. We open in 20." He informed the wrecker as he left the games to get ready.

Litwak entered his office to find Ray eyeing a picture.

"Whatcha got there Ray?" Litwak inquired as he sat behind his desk.

"Just a picture of me from the first time I came to Litwak's, but I noticed something odd."

"Like?"

"In this pic, Ryu and Ken are in Tapper's, but they're Street Fighter characters."

"Are you sure that you're not still half asleep?" Litwak retorted skeptically.

"Your probably right." Ray stowed the picture in his wallet and leaned against the wall.

"So what do I have to do?" Ray queried.

"All you have to do is work the snack bar from 8 to 12 on weekends and 4 to 6 on weekdays and patrol the floor from 1 to 5 on weekends. Fair enough?" Litwak explained.

"Sounds good!"

"Welcome aboard!" Litwak shook Ray's hand as he led him out of his office and over to the snack bar.

Meanwhile, in Fix-it Felix Jr...

Ralph was sitting on his humongous bed, face in his hands and thinking out loud.

"I do not like him like that. I do not like watching him play my game. I do not put up more of a fight because it makes him smile. I do not think his smile is amazing and wonderful and... damn it. I think I do."

"Ralph! Gametime!" Felix called from outside.

"I'll worry about my feelings later. It's wrecking time!" Ralph pumped himself up and got ready to greet the gamers with flying fists and bricks aplenty.

The morning passed smoothly with Ray selling out of snack by 11 allowing him to take his break early. All the while he was thinking about his dream and if anything that guy said was true.

"He did say that the games were more than games, so maybe Ryu and Ken went to Tapper's? But how would they get there? This is brain-wracking!"

Ray decided to scrap his thoughts as he played Fix-it Felix Jr. for the first time that day. Seeing Ralph for some reason always made Ray smile. If only he knew.

As the arcade closed, a group of super villains from several games in the arcade met in a secret server in GCS to enact their plot to overthrow order in Litwak's.

"We all know the plan. So who goes first?" one voice inquired.

"I will and I'll send my general to make sure it all goes smoothly." another voice added.

"Is everyone ready?" a third voice queried.

"Yes. Let's get started!" a fourth person barked and as they disbanded a shadowy figure emerged from the darkness.

"Shall I begin Master Heihachi?" the figure spoke.

"Yes General M. Bison. Begin your attack on Game Central Station and show no mercy. Heihachi replied as he dismissed his general to carry out his task.

"Later Ray! I'll be back before senior year's over!" Chad shouted as he left the arcade.

"Later Chad! You better!" Ray shouted as he closed the door.

"Good job today Ray! I could barely tell it was your first day."

"Thank you sir. I'm gonna head home now."

"Wait. I got you something."

"You didn't have to..." Ray started but was cut off by Litwak.

"This isn't from me. It's from someone we both know." Litwak held out a silver box with a red ribbon on top.

"Okay." Ray opened the box and saw a futuristic brace about the size of an iPod touch with a touch screen and a card-sized slot on the side.

"What is it?" Ray queried but before he got his answer he heard a call from the Fix-it Felix Jr. game.

"Mr. Litwak! We're in trouble!" Felix voice shouted from the console.

"Is it the league?" Litwak inquired as he walked towards the machine.

"Yes sirree! The barriers to the games have been activated but Sonic, Mario, and Ralph stayed behind to help those who didn't make it back to their games."

"I thought we'd have more time... We're on our way!" Litwak dashed for a door next to his office marked 'Employees Only' and went in.

"What's going on?" Ray inquired as he stared into the room. It was a plain white room like the one from his dream, but with a computer terminal on the right and a translucent pad in the center.

"I assume you had a dream about a room similar to this one?" Litwak inquired as he entered some digits into the computer.

"How did you know?" Ray inquired as he entered the room.

"The man from the dream was the first Codemaster. He's the one who gave you the gauntlet. I'll explain in more detail later but first put it on and hop on the pad." Ray complied by tossing the gauntlet on his arm and stepping on the pad.

"So the games are real?" Ray queried as he stood on the pad.

"Yes."

"And from what I gather, the league is bad?"

"Yes"

"Who's in the league?"

"Well, for now that question will have to wait. TRANSPORT IN 3... 2... 1!" A flash of light erupted from the pad and the two disappeared into thin air.

Ray felt like he was falling, but as his mind played tricks on him, his clothes changed.

His hoodie became a silver muscle shirt, his shorts grew into silver pants, and his shoes just turned silver. As he broke his trance, he was getting used to the new clothes.

"Why'd my clothes change? Not that I mind."

"No time! We've gotta take out the general they sent." Litwak rolled up his sleeve to reveal a gauntlet of his own.

"It looks like they sent M. Bison. I thought as much. Come on!" Litwak opened the door and ended up in a giant train station where video game characters were running from a battle happening on the other side of the platform.

Sonic, Mario, and Wreck-it Ralph were holding off these weird robots that looked like M. Bison.

"You've gotta get in there!"

"How am I supposed to survive that? I don't have any special powers like they do." Ray rebutted as he stared down the army of robots with mock fear.

"Just shout Codemaster go into your gauntlet and your armor should appear. Now go!"

"Alrighty then!" Ray barked as he dashed towards the fight.

"A little help?" Sonic and Mario said simultaneously as they fell back to back.

"I got 'em!" Ralph shouted as he scooped them up and ran towards Ray.

"Get them to safety, big guy. I can handle this." Ray shouted as he flipped over Ralph.

"Right!" Ralph ran towards the group of frightened game characters as Ray stared down the robots.

"Codemaster GO!" Ray barked as rings of code surrounded him and his armor uploaded onto his body. It was silver and the helmet had a retractable visor.

"Whoa... I feel stronger. No holding back now!" Ray thought as he got used to the transformation.

The bots charged him but he was ready. He ducked a punch from one and backhanded its head off. Two more tried to trip him but he jumped up and kicked both of them across the room. He continued the onslaught for about 2 more minutes before he ran up to the last one and punched a hole through its chest.

Ralph and Litwak just watched this massacre with open jaws and wide eyes.

"I had no idea he was that strong. The gauntlet is only used to unlock potential, but this is ridiculous!" Litwak thought to himself as they saw M. Bison walk towards him.

"You've defeated my duplicates. Either Wily's gotten soft or you're hot stuff!" He spoke as he took a fighting position opposite Ray.

"Why would you want to destroy your home?" Ray inquired as he charged the uniformed soldier.

"My only goal is to serve my master." he replied as he deflected Ray's punches and kicks as if they were pillow-soft.

"Ray! He's being controlled! You have to defeat him before he'll go back to normal!" Litwak shouted from across the station.

"OK then!" He replied as M. Bison punched him into an archway.

"Damn it! There's got to be an easier way..."

All of a sudden, codes began to sprout from the ground and download into Ray's helmet.

"I understand. That's the solution." Ray reached into a box on his side and pulled out the only card inside.

"Code Card! Thunderblade!" He swiped the card through the slot on his gauntlet and crushed it in his hand converting it to code. Then, the code became a legendary sword filled with electricity.

"Thunderstrike!" He barked as he ran up to M. Bison and slashed through him with the blade.

"Stop! What are you doing?!" Ralph exclaimed as he ran over to Ray. "He could die forever if he dies outside his game!"

"Relax, buddy. He'll be fine." Litwak spoke from behind him. "Most code cards can't actually kill characters unless they don't have a game."

"Oh. My bad." Ralph apologized sheepishly.

"It's okay. No harm done. And thanks for the help. Your not a bad guy if you know what I mean." Ray replied as his armor disappeared and was replaced with the muscle shirt.

Ralph went cherry red at the compliment and tried to play it off.

"It was nothing. All in a day's work, but what about the station? It's trashed. And M. Bison's still unconscious."

"I got this." Litwak pressed a button on his gauntlet and codes began to flood across the floor and fix benches and broken bulletins and putting them back where they belong.

"I've gotta learn that." Ray gawked in awe.

"I'll teach it to you later, but now we've gotta get you home."

"OK. Later Ralph! Top shelf?"

"Top shelf." Ralph replied as they bumped fists.

Litwak led Ray back towards the door and started up the teleporter while Ray thought about what just happened. Things here are getting interesting. I can still see Ralph's blush after I complemented him. That was cute. Wait... What?

As Ray left, a mysterious figure wearing a blood red gauntlet stared at the station from a support beam on the ceiling. "Looks like I've got some competition in this world now." the figure whispered to himself as he teleported back to Earth.

Thanks for reading! Next Chapter Soon!

Preview: Litwak closes on Sunday so he can use the time to tell Ray the story behind The Codemasters and The League Of Shadows. Meanwhile, Ray and Ralph's feelings for each other grow stronger. While Ralph can go to Vanellope for advice, Ray is stuck working things out for himself. During that time, another general gets his shot at a game. They just happen to choose Sugar Rush. Ray's journey through Game Central Station has only just begun!