Chapter 37
"You're the T.K. White Hair was talking about?" Vanellope asked.
"I see you haven't heard of me except from that old crone Sora," said the succubus, closing the distance between herself and the princess. "I'll admit that my game predates yours." Their faces were mere inches from each other. "And besides, I don't care. It just means that you'll hardly give me trouble." Takeru conjured her whip, wrapping Vanellope up in it and threw herself into an armoire.
The splintered wood from the piece of furniture hurt, as Vanellope carefully regained her footing, grateful no splinters punctured her skin, and tackled T.K., her glitch amplifying the force. Vanellope pinned her to the floor, refusing to let the bat-winged bitch run off with Ralph. The princess balled her fists and threw a flurry of punches at her face, courtesy of the basic self-defense Ralph and Calhoun had taught her and the other racers.
"You little shit!" T.K. shoved Vanellope off, sending her sliding into the side of the bed. The princess's head made contact with the wood, causing a small cut to form in the side and several candy pieces to crumble off.
Vanellope managed to lift her head to see Takeru standing over her, whip in hand. Her vision blurred as she tried to move, but the princess's equilibrium was skewed. She screamed when she felt the succubus' whip make contact with her torso, making a rip in her hoodie. T.K. followed with another one, this one deepening the wound in her head and causing more candy pieces to fall. Three more cracks followed across her legs, with another on her torso and shredded bits of her clothes. The pain felt like she'd been burned by the Diet Cola Hot Springs, except that T.K.'s whip made the pain thrice as worse. She also felt like she was suffering a flurry of bee stings with every impact on the whip. She couldn't move. She couldn't even crawl out of the room.
"Ralph!" The princess screamed, followed by more blows from Takeru's whip.
"He can't hear you, little cavity!" T.K. straightened her whip for another round of attacks.
But her whip met sparks of electricity surrounding Vanellope, coursing from the president to T.K. through the whip. The succubus shrieked as the bolts fried every inch of her code. T.K. pulled her whip away and stepped back, now staring at Vanellope in confusion.
"What the hell?" T.K. backed away slowly. "How did you...?"
"Vanellope!"
The princess managed to turn to see Citrusella, Taffyta, and Candlehead bursting into the room.
"You were the one disguising yourself as King Candy," said Taffyta. "We know it's you, Bat Bitch, so don't act like..."
"So you fools know the truth. And there's more of you? Where the hell do you guys come from?" T.K. swore. "No matter. I'll deal with you all when I'm prepared a bit more." She grabbed Ralph and glitched away.
"Are you okay?" Taffyta helped Vanellope to her feet.
"What the flying fuck happened to you?" Citrusella asked, surveying the princess's wounds. "You look completely fucked up."
"Is it that obvious?" Vanellope retorted. "T.K. did this to me."
"I figured," Taffyta agreed, throwing Vanellope over her shoulder by the arm. "If we'd gotten here earlier, that bitch would've been toast."
"Doubt it, Taffyta," Vanellope rebutted. "She's strong. Especially when she has Stinkbrain now." Anger coursed through her code as mentioned the last part, causing a glitch to shudder through her body. It was the same feeling she had at Tapper, when she'd first heard about Takeru's history with Ralph before the succubus decided to kill him after his purpose was finished. "And I need to find her."
"Not in your condition," Cit said, taking her other side. "You go out there now, she'll kill you faster than that blue hedgehog."
"For now, we need to get you to the code room," Taffyta said.
"We found some stat there that you should check out and help us with."
"Like T.K.'s taking over of the 'real' Candy's avatar." Candlehead made air quotes.
"'Real' Candy?" Vanellope repeated.
"Candlehead!" Taffyta and Citrusella darted the birthday glares.
"What?"
"We were waiting until we made it into the code room to tell her," said Taffyta.
"Look, guys. I'm the president of this game," Vanellope reminded. "Stop keeping me in the dark."
"But..." the strawberry racer began.
"She's not wrong," Citrusella interjected.
"Now, what about this 'real' King Candy?" The president made another attempt. "The only Candy was Turbo and we kicked his sorry butt."
"Not according to what we found in the code room, and T.D. has a lot to do with it," explained Citrusella.
"What?" Vanellope asked.
"That's not all we found," added Candlehead. "We found something in your code, too. Something that can save our game and the arcade. And that." She pointed at Vanellope's hands.
Vanellope glanced down at her hands to notice that they were still sparking from her contact with T.K. It had happened twice in a row, the first time being at the entrance. She realized that it was probably more than just a minor glitch side effect.
"Let's go, guys!" Taffyta cut into the princess's thoughts. "Sore needs us. We'll explain everything on the way."
…
"Fix-It, I'm telling you. Stop!" Calhoun called out to her husband while keeping him at bay by firing at him. She, Chun-Li, Dyne, Zangief, and Aika had been fighting the relentless Felix while trying to reach out to him. The combined efforts of them had not been enough, for the Good Guy had ifred crimson bolt after crimson bolt at the crew, who had dodged every blow but had taken the aftershock.
They were exhausted, weak, and out of ideas on how to help Felix remember his old self, while the handyman hadn't grown tired.
"Sarge," Zangief panted. "I don't zink hee's giving us a lot of choices here anymore. Hee's grown stronger."
"Yeah, he's not tiring or anything," Dyne agreed.
"I can't kill him," Tamora said. "I refuse. And I love him. I know he's still in there."
"Sarge, listen!" Chun-Li demanded. "This thing is no longer Fix-It. That's a monster that has killed people. A lot of them. He's not leaving us a choice."
"I've seen your fighting so far," said Aika, "and you were unfocused."
Tamora hated to admit it, but the female pirate was right. She hadn't been at her best during this battle, having fired rounds past him in order to scare him and hopefully regain his cowardly self and making him realize he was wrong. However, it wasn't going as well as she wanted.
"We need to kill him, Sarge," Dyne suggested. "I understand that he's your husband, but you've got to consider the arcade and others' lives."
The Hero's Duty lead stared at Felix, who smiled wickedly at her. His crimson eyes fixed on hers. Two decisions warred in her mind. She knew killing Felix would equate to killing Brad all over again, but she'd pay with the entire arcade if she allowed Felix to live. The last time she's made a decision like that was at her wedding in her programmed memory.
"We need to stop him," Tamora decided. "But we need to keep him still. Can you guys help me?"
"Damn right." Aika nodded, as she rushed toward the Good Guy with her dagger. Chun-Li, Zangief, and Dyne followed.
"You never learn." Felix chuckled, as he fired larger streams of scarlet energy.
"Not this time." Aika and the others rolled out of the way. The female pirate hurled her dagger at the Good Guy, scoring a direct hit and causing his stance to slacken.
Chun-Li, Dyne, and Zangief charged in next, with Zangief delivering a punch at the Good Guy and Chun-Li and Dyne grabbing his arms to immobilize him.
However, Felix glitched out of the duo's hold, wielding his hammer. His body crackled once again with the corrupted energy.
Aika swore, realizing that even keeping Felix still was difficult. They were going to add to the casualties and suffer the same game over as the other victims.
When the four characters looked up, they noticed Felix collapsing, with Calhoun behind his unconscious form.
"That's one way to stop him," Chun-Li pointed out.
"We need to get Fix-It to Surge before he wakes up," said Tamora. "Who the hell knows how long he'll stay asleep."
…
"Wake up, foolsth!" A lisping voice demanded.
Mary slowly regained consciousness as she noticed a red and white blur in her face. As her vision came into focus, she realized she was staring into Turbo's pale, weakened face.
"Turbo?" she managed, then tried to back away, but found that she couldn't. She couldn't move at all, feeling squeezed against her four comrades in a crimson net outside of Fix-It Felix, Jr. Lucina's blade rested only inches from her stout throat, forcing Mary to refrain from moving her head.
"Again, don't wear it out. And sthince you're the only one awake, maybe you can ansthwer a sthimple question."
The Nicelander raised an eyebrow, wondering what question Turbo had. It was enough that he'd been the one who'd knocked her and the others out and tied them up. Why would she want to answer a question? Maybe Turbo would ask something like how the weather was or about how Litwak was doing. But Mary knew better, and Turbo's sinister, though a little desperate, stance implied that.
"Consthidering that you've been in Game Central Station sthince the eightiesth like me..." Turbo began, "maybe you know where sthomething that I want isth."
"What do you want?" Mary inquired. "And you sound desperate."
"Damn right I'm desthperate," Turbo hissed. "None of the other foolsth know what I wasth talking about. Fucking late bloomersth! I should've come to you firsth."
"What is it?" The Nicelander was anxious to know.
"The key to the arcade," the ex-racer finally said.
"The key?" Mary repeated.
"Yesth, runt. The key. It'sth an artifact of the arcade. The heart of the arcade that'sth been here sthincthe it opened. I've been sthearching for it, and Mr. Candy hasth, too."
"What do you want with it?" Mary asked. "Not that I know what it is."
"To take over and recreate thisth arcade in my image. Everyone will follow me and sthee me asth the hero." Then Turbo's glare narrowed. "And I'm pretty sthure that you know what I'm talking about, midget."
"I don't. We were never told about a key. If it exists, Surge would've told us."
"I doubt that; he'sth like the god of thisth dump." Turbo's face twisted into a grin. "Stho Sthurge knowsth."
"No!" Mary blurted out.
"What's...going on?"
"Deanna?" Mary heard her friend's voice from below, though she couldn't move herself because of Lucina's sword.
"Mary? Why are we...?"
"Turbo knocked us out and he's talking crazy about a key to the arcade."
"A key?" Deanna repeated, then her eyes widened. "Oh...that."
"Stho you don't mind telling me about it." Turbo focused on the other Nicelander, reaching through the net to grip her chin so she was facing him. "Finally sthomeone knowsth what I'm talking about."
"Deanna, if you do know, don't tell him!" Mary pleaded.
"Shut up!" Turbo kicked her, nearly pushing the blade into Mary's face.
"Leave her alone!" Deanna shrieked, a frightened look in her eye.
"Then tell me what I need to know," the ex-racer demanded.
"I don't know about a key or where it is!" Deanna made another attempt to tip him off.
But Turbo refused to buy it. "You do know. I can tell. I can infect your game with the virus inside of me."
"You can't," Mary interjected. "You're damaged right now.
"I've done it to those three Sthuper Mario foolsth and that stholdier. I can do the sthame to the resth of your game. All it takesth isth one touch of your game'sth core. Either weaken, make you sthubmissthive, or both. I have justh enough energy to do that and with each sthecond we sthay here, I recover. I'm stharting to regain sthome of my strength, stho it would be besth to cooperate."
"Deanna, he's not serious," Mary pleaded. "Don't listen to him."
Part of Deanna wanted to believe that Turbo was bluffing, but the other part was fearful of the possibility that the evil racer was telling the truth. She didn't want to spill the secrets of this "key" to Turbo; that would endanger the arcade, but at the same time, she'd put Fix-It Felix, Jr. at an even bigger risk if she didn't.
"I know where the key is," Deanna finally said. "And we'll lead you to it, but please leave our game alone. We've been through quite enough."
"Deanna..." Mary's tiny heart sank.
Turbo's grin widened, his yellow teeth glowing. "Finally, we cooperate."
…
"Turbo must not have hit this game yet," Tails said as he exited Celestial Wars to join Surge after the fox had searched the combat game for Turbo, who had escaped their clutches after Tails' mishap. He had asked several characters in the game, hoping that any of them had seen the former racer, but nobody had. However, the fox instructed them to keep their eyes open and not allow any non-fighting characters to leave the game. They had searched Burger Time before this one and received the same result.
"As long as he's loose like this, it's dangerous out here," Surge added, then noticed a pair of guards and a white-haired angel character entering a wall next to Kirby. "Did you see that, Miles?"
"See what?" Kohut caught up to the two. "This was another blank, apparently."
"We know. And while you were on your way out, we saw two unknown figure go through a wall by Kirby," explained Surge. "Like a false wall."
The trio headed over to the Kirby port, where Tails reached out to the wall next to it and noticed his hand penetrating it.
"This wasn't installed when the arcade opened," Surge pointed out.
"So someone probably built it recently," Kohut guessed.
"That is what I'm thinking, and my next one is that must be where Mr. Candy or Turbo has been hiding out."