Chapter 36
"Snow?" A voice was heard from a distance. "Snow...are you okay?"
The sherbet racer mumbled something incomprehensible, followed by, "Is that you, Creator?"
"Snow, can you hear me?" another voice called.
"You sure sound...like Minty." Snow opened her eyes to see a green blotch hovering over her.
"She's coming to, guys." The voice grew more audible this time, as the sherbet racer's vision became clearer along with the blotches that formed into her friends.
"You are Minty," she said as she slowly sat up with the help of Sora and Gretel. "What happened?"
"That patch in Vanellope fried you alive and knocked you out," Taffyta explained.
"I remember that." Snow recalled the excruciating pain she'd endured when the lightning patch electrified every inch of her code, sapping what little strength she had left.
"And you're cured. It worked," added Citrusella.
"What?" Snow looked down at her hands to notice they returned to their dark complexion, then her clothes to see that they were also restored to their vibrant lavender color.
"Here's a mirror if you want to see your face." Sora pulled out her hand mirror to give to Snow, who took it and looked at her reflection. Instead of a sickly young woman, Snowanna was staring at a racer with vibrant hair back in its full position.
"The patch did work!" Snow jumped to her feet. "Pres is a hero!"
"Or will be once we connect her patch to everyone else," reminded Candlehead. "Including us."
"Unfortunately, the patch alone can only do so much," Sora said. "We're going to need a massive dose to make it work continuously. And considering that the panel works and purifies the infected, Vanellope should have the power to do it herself. And the lightning on the box explains the sparks we saw earlier."
"That meansth Vanellope musth actually have a power other than her standard glitching," King Candy concluded. "Two powersth."
"In any case, we've gotta find her," Candlehead decided. "And tell her; she doesn't know."
"I'll go with you and Taffyta," Citrusella offered. "It's the least I can do for how I acted like a bitch before this mess all started."
"Gretel, the hag, 'King Candy,' Adorabeezle, Snow and I will just stay and monitor the room in case we find anything new." Minty shot the trio a thumbs-up as it exited the room. "Have fun."
"Far from fun." Taffyta scoffed.
…
"This broker you're talking about lives in an alley?" Calhoun asked as she, Zangief, Dyne, and Aika followed Chun-Li out of Street Fighter II. Along the way, they had endured more infected characters and bystanders, picking up Dyne and Aika on the way out. Chun-Li had also described a broker living in an alley near the game.
"He's right in this alley," Chun-Li explained as they approached the mentioned alley. "At the very end. He's not a sketchy as the others I've seen, and he knows me well."
"Then getting him to help us shouldn't be a problem," Aika said.
The group entered the alley, gawking and snickering at some of the graffiti decorating the walls. Tamora criticized most of them, shaking her head at the wasted talent that could've been used in a productive manner. They all knew the underaged characters had a hand in most of the "masterpieces," Bowser Jr., a repeat offender in the activity, and Dark Pit when he visited from Outlet Central.
"Surge gives these brats too many warnings." The sergeant sighed.
"You're telling us," said Dyne. "If my son were to do unproductive nonsense like this..." He trailed off, leaving what he'd do to Vyse up to the others' imagination.
"What the heck?" Chun-Li and the others froze when they reached the end of the alley. More graffiti adorned the walls, along with monitors that showed static.
Everyone's attention, however, was on a young man lying in the middle of the floor, with brown, shoulder-length hair and matching eyes that stared emptily at the ceiling.
"Taiki!" Chun-Li ran to the man, kneeling to his level to check his pulse. When she felt no heartbeat, her own heart sunk.
"Hee'z dead?" Zangief inquired, earning him a nod from his coworker.
"There goes our lead to the fixing that virus." Aika groaned. "This is great."
"And you'll be joining him," a familiar voice was heard.
Tamora cursed, then noticed two red eyes glowing in a corner of the room. Their owner stepped out in his blue-clad glory and ivory hammer in hand.
"Short Stack!" The sergeant readied her rifle in case of a sudden move from the Good Guy.
"Did you kill that guy?" Aika asked, nodding angrily at the motionless Taiki.
"You tell me," Felix retorted, grinning psychotically. "He didn't put up too much of a fight; he must not have been programmed for fighting, but I enjoy it all the same."
"You sadist! You just feed off of everyone's pain!" Chun-Li shook her head in disdain. "You are far from the Fix-It Felix, Jr. I remember. That Felix would never kill anyone."
"Well, he's not here." Crimson sparks danced around the corrupt handyman, signaling that he refused to listen to reason.
"Fix-It, I don't want to do this," Tamora cocked her rifle, but her husband's posture and insane expression implied her choices were growing more and more limited.
...
"I wonder what this 'punishment' is?" Swizzle made air quotes. He, Crumbelina, and Jubileena had been waiting for an hour for a few of King Candy's minions to arrive. The former monarch had put in some sort of call, mumbling about "coming to Sugar Rush with some presents."
King Candy said nothing, making the trio wonder even more what he had in store for him.
"This waiting is killing me," complained Jubileena. Once again, the ex-monarch ignored her, as three characters materialized in flurry of red code. One was blonde, another had reddish-brown hair, and the third donned a green, L-monogrammed cap. The racer recognized the three characters. All were armored, each tugging a Cy-Bug on a chain.
"Princesses Peach and Daisy?" Crumbelina raised a fine eyebrow.
"Luigi, too?" Swizzle was just as confused.
"And I don't like their pets." Jubileena's throat constricted like an anaconda was squeezing it. "They look pretty hungry."
"More than pretty hungry," Swizzle said,watching as the three viruses struggled against their leashes.
"No, my darlingsth," Candy chastised. "Not them. The three in the cell are your meal." He nodded to the racers.
"Should we take them off their leashes?" Peach asked, crimson gaze on the king.
"Let me open the cell firsth," King Candy unlocked their cell.
The Mario Bros. characters unhooked the chains from the Cy-Bugs, allowing them access to the three racers.
"Peach, Daisy, Luigi, what in the hell are you guys doing?" Swizzle asked as he glanced over the viruses at the Nintendo characters, namely their crimson glares implying they were under someone's control. Candy's control.
"Following our master's orders," replied Daisy.
"And that's this asshole?" Jubileena questioned. "You guys should be hating his guts."
"They can't hate me," said Candy. "They're connected to me. Stheemsth Red hasth done her job."
"Red?" Swizzle repeated. "Who the hell is that?"
"Are you talking about the girl from Fairytale Speedway?" Crumbelina inquired.
"Never mind who she isth. You three already have a fight on your handsth, hoo hoo hoo." King Candy indicated the three Cy-Bugs that were now on top of them. "You'll sthoon be working completely for me without the back sassth. Have fun and enjoy, petsth." The ex-monarch left the Fungeon, laughing maniacally. Peach, Daisy, and Luigi following, leaving the racers to their struggle with the viruses.
"When he said it would be worse than death, he was not kidding." Jubileena realized as she backed toward the back wall.
"Back off, creeps!" Crumbelina swatted her attacker away, with no success. She even willed one of her arms into a hammer to try to subdue it, but the caramel hammer broke, returning to an arm. The Cy-Bug moved closer until its maw was in her face.
Jubileena hurled her cherry bombs at her Cy-Bug, with Swizzle summoning a tornado to blow away his. Like Crumbs, neither had luck.
"Crap, we wasted our energy on those last idiots." The cherry racer stomped her foot in frustration. They had never felt so useless before, and one of the arcade's most feared creatures strengthened that fear. They were tired, having fought to the skin of their teeth through sneaking around and defending themselves. The three racers could only face the danger looming over them and hope that someone would hear and save them.
...
"Everyone's gone," Lucina said. She, Deanna, Rosalina, Mary, and Shulk entered Fix-It Felix, Jr. The arcade game was an empty auditorium. No one roamed the Niceland neighborhood, not even the bonus level critters like Q*bert.
The crew entered the building to see that it shared the game's status. No one walked the first floor or the stairs. Rosalina sent a few of the Lumas found weakened in Super Mario Bros. to check upstairs, and they all had said the same thing when they returned ten minutes later.
"Everyone's evacuated," Deanna guessed. "Maybe everyone found out about the virus in Felix and left."
"Gene must have checked, saw it, and warned everyone," Mary assumed. "But that would mean the virus is doing more than just infecting Felix. Surely it's not going to destroy the entire game like the others we heard about.
"At this point, just about anything can happen," Shulk said.
"Considering what happened in Super Mario Bros., it wouldn't surprise anyone," added Rosalina. Suddenly, she felt a conk in the back of her head, dropping to the floor.
"Mama!" The group of Lumas crowded around their unconscious mother.
"Ros..." Shulk was cut off by a smack across his own head, knocking him out. Mary collapsed after him, followed by Deanna.
"Okay, where are you?" Lucina surveyed the room. "Come out of hiding and cease this cowardice!" The princess from a doomed future reached for her sword, but only managed to unsheath it a few inches before the unknown assailant handed her the same fate as the others.
…
"Is it clear?" Taffyta asked.
"Yep." Candlehead looked both ways before she, Taffyta, and Citrusella stepped into the throne room to search for Vanellope, who went upstairs to check on Ralph.
"You guys seriously did a good job with the place, Cit," the pink-clad racer praised.
"It wasn't like we had a choice," the blueberry recolor said.
"I figured. The pompous douche put you up to a lot of stuff, didn't he? Or shall I say, the impostor."
"Not a guard around," Citrusella pointed out as they reached the main hall with the stairs. "We've been down an entire hallway and no guards."
"Those two singing sisters probably did the business on them," Taffyta guessed as they started to turn the corner, but stopped when they saw a bat-winged woman walking toward the stairs from another hallway.
"Who's that?" Candlehead wondered as the trio stopped and hid beside the staircase.
"She's hot," Citrusella said, hazarding a peek at the woman. "Get a load of those knockers."
"That's the T.K. Sora mentioned," Taffyta realized, remembering the profile the witch had shown to her, Candlehead, and Vanellope in Tapper. "She's heading upstairs, and neither Vanellope nor Ralph knows. We gotta follow her."
…
"Ralph!" Vanellope scampered down the hallway after she had checked the room where she'd left the wrecker. When she found that it was empty, a lump of anxiety formed in her chest. It had been what felt years since she'd seen him. The princess hoped he was fine.
Vanellope stopped when she saw Ralph in one of the large rooms, normally reserved for monarchs like herself and King Candy, who had owned the room during his reign. She had snuck around several times while she's still been a glitch, and when she'd been offered the room after the game was reset. She'd declined it in favor of her own. It looked different, though, compared to the salmon setup it once had. Purple now dominated the room, as with the rest of the castle. But that was hardly an issue right now.
"What the heck happened to you, Stinkbrain?" The president entered to notice that the Bad Guy was completely naked. His muscled body was visible to her still-innocent gaze, and when it moved down to the Bad Guy's sack, she covered her view. "Ralph, mind covering that up? I wasn't expecting a show when I came to check on you. Seriously, what are you doing going commando and in King Butthole's room at that?"
However, Ralph didn't answer. Instead, he only stared at her.
"Um, is Stinkbrain in there?" Vanellope aske, closing in on the Bad Guy to see that his eyes were blank as if he were in a trance. She waved her hands over his face and snapped her fingers, but Ralph still kept staring forward, unaware of Vanellope's presence.
"T.K..." Ralph mumbled.
"T.K.?" The princess raised an eyebrow.
"Who in the hell are you and what are you doing to my Ralph?"
Vanellope turned away from Ralph to notice a woman standing in the doorway, none too pleased at the princess's arrival. Vanellope stared at her to realize that she looked a lot like the T.K. Sora described in Tapper.
"Um, lady? Ralph is my friend. You're the one who's trespassing. The question is who are you?"
"I see you haven't heard of me, candy bitch. My name is Takeru Nightrose or T.K., to the general public. Now step away from my wrecker and I won't have to test my power on you to force you. Trust me, I can."