Chapter 44
"Ralph!" Vanellope shouted to the Bad Guy, who was tussling with Calhoun. The sergeant had resorted to physical combat; she ran out of ammo in her rifle. Tamora was blocking primal barrage of punches, but Vanellope noticed signs of exhaustion in the Hero's Duty lead. The wrecker still didn't listen to the princess, who was having a difficult time fighting off T.K. with defensive maneuvers she'd learned from Calhoun. Vanellope still couldn't get her electric ability to function; she was only able to emit sparks that dropped at T.K.'s feet. But the president had been able to barely skirt past the succubus' whip attacks, glitching away from the strike of the spiked weapon. Vanellope was also growing tired just from dodging and playing defense.
Sora wasn't faring well, either, looking more exhausted than both the lead racer and Calhoun. The witch had thrown barrage after barrage of silver energy at T.K., who'd taken only minimal damage. Sora also tried a paralysis attack, but Takeru had broken from that as well, continuously whipping at Sora, who narrowly dodged every blow.
Both women panted, worn down from T.K.'s forceful, overwhelming attacks, while the succubus herself didn't show signs of exhaustion at all. She neared Vanellope and Sora, smirking and snapping her whip.
"I'm going to try something I normally don't use unless it's a dire situation," Sora decided. "It's powerful, elemental, and not to be taken lightly or used sporadically."
"This is sort of a dire situation," Vanellope said, nodding to T.K.
"I want you to keep her still for a moment while I work my magic. Can you do that?"
"I'll try." The princess nodded, as she glitched toward T.K., using the force of the glitch to tackle the succubus to the floor. She threw a punch at T.K., this time connecting with her face and also powered by more powerful sparks from her new ability. "They finally responded!" Vanellope grinned.
But her brief celebration was cut short when T.K. threw her aside, recovering from the impact and looking down at her reflection on the floor. Bruises were present around her cheeks, with one of them swollen red.
"You saccharine bitch!" The succubus slapped Vanellope across the face, nearly knocking her to the floor.
Vanellope glared at the succubus, blue sparks now crackling around her body. She'd never felt so much anger, and when she glanced at Ralph, who now pinned Tamora to the floor, the angry sapphire sparks matured into bolts coursing through her arm. The princess fired the bolts at T.K., who shrieked upon taking the attack full force. The succubus fell to her knees. Vanellope looked at her hands.
"I really need to learn how to control this," she said, looking up at T.K., who for the first time had difficulty recovering. The demon's glare burned into the princess. Suddenly, flames lit around Takeru, biting at her attire and skin. The flames closed around the succubus refusing to allow further movement. Vanellope looked to her left to notice Sora, whose crimson eyes glowed even more scarlet, and body was surrounded by similar-colored energy.
"Go to Ralph!" the witch urged.
Vanellope glitched over to the wrecker, who had Tamora immobilized on the floor.
"Cavity..." Calhoun managed, worn down.
"Ralph, let Sergeant Smiles go!" the princess pleaded. "Don't you remember her? And me? Come on, Ralph!"
The Bad Guy still didn't listen, continuing to squeeze the sergeant's limbs, emitting groans from her. Even Ralph couldn't make Calhoun scream. Vanellope didn't want to hurt Ralph. She couldn't; he was her best friend, and as she neared him, she realized she cared for him beyond that. She'd give Ralph one last chance to fight Takeru's spell, then attack him to save him and Calhoun.
"Stinkbrain!" Vanellope shouted.
The Bad Guy froze, looking back at Vanellope, still retaining that empty gaze. Hope welled in Vanellope at that moment.
"Ralph, that's is." The princess moved closer. "Don't you recognize me?"
However, T.K.'s whip across Vanellope's head cut her rescue short, as the entire hub of Game Central Station blurred and the din of the battle fell silent. As Vanellope collapsed, she managed to turn her gaze to see that Taffyta, Candlhead, and the other racers were subdued by the infected characters. She looked up to see T.K. standing over her with an unconscious Sora, who looked paler than she actually was. As her world grew black, the last things she saw were a few characters having pushed through the melee, subduing Ralph. One figure Vanellope guessed was Bowser pinned the Bad Guy while three other characters, two of whom looked like Snow and Gretel, hoisted Calhoun on their shoulders and carried her out through the battle zone. Finally, Vanellope realized more characters retreating outside the brawl, heading toward one of the tunnels, before she blacked out.
...
"We're finally out." Tails dragged an exhausted Surge out of the code chamber into Game Central Station, followed by Kohut carrying a tied-up Erholtz. The fox then froze to what he saw in the hub. "What's going on?"
The four stopped to find Game Central Station in ruins, with its lights out. Cages hung from the ceiling, with flying characters adding more to the count. Some flyers included Paratroopas, flyers from Sonic, some from Kirby, and other games that contained flying characters. And one instructed them.
"No, I wanted the lollipop bitch away from her friend," a feminine, seductive voice ordered.
The crew noticed a blonde, hypersexualized woman standing in the center of Game Central Station near an under-construction throne that replaced one of the informational pillars displaying Sonic and other motivational advertisements. Her blonde hair reached her waist, her large bat wings folded against her sides, and her emerald glare burned into one of the infected Paratroopas. She cracked her spiked whip against the Mario foe.
"That's...T.K.," Surge recognized the woman. "But she's different from before. She looks improved." The arcade guardian's eyes widened with realization as he stared at T.K. and her unrealistically-sexual form. "She must have the key."
"You said that was the heart of the arcade, right?" Tails asked. "So it keeps the arcade stable and working."
Surge nodded slightly. "But Takeru has it now, meaning the arcade's under her control and she's powerful."
"We can't stand a chance against that," Tails whined.
"Tails is right," Kohut agreed. "She'll kill us before we can even get close."
"The best we can do now is to sneak to my office so I can research her virus and hopefully come up with something to combat it," said Surge. "Even I can't fight her, especially in this condition. Even if I wasn't in this condition, I'm a guardian, not a god." Surge pointed across the hub to a wall in the right corner. "My office is through the wall over there."
"More rebels." The characters and Surge heard a startling voice before they took one step. The four turned to notice the Mario trio approaching.
"Luigi?" Tails noticed the player-two plumber clumsily running up to them.
"And Princesses Peach and Daisy." Surge recognized the two women.
"I brought them here!" Erholtz called, craning his head.
"Shut up!" Kohut ordered, shaking the angel. He and the others fled along the outside of the prison zone, but the weight of Surge and Erholtz rendered them too slow, allowing Peach to pull a turnip from the ground and hurl it at Kohut and Tails' legs, tripping them. "Damn," the second-in-command cursed as the three infected characters caught up to them. He tried to regain his footing, Tails and Surge doing the same not caring about Erholtz, but had something hard land before them. Looking up, they noticed a turnip with a stitchface fixed in the floor.
"I wouldn't even try if I were you." Daisy stood over them, a smirk playing along her lips. Peach and Luigi joined them, arms folded. The Sarasaland princess pointed at Surge. "Especially you; the mistress might have some use for you, maybe speed up the process a little."
"What process?" Surge inquired.
"You'll know once she claims you.. Peach, Luigi, let's drag these new toys to the mistress. That includes the vain freak." Daisy nodded to Erholtz.
"But I brought them to you." The angel's voice grew high-pitched like a boy singing opera.
"Yeah right." The flower princess scoffed. "We saw you get carried by these fools like a sack of mail. You're starting to turn useless, so yeah, you'll meet the same fate for your fuck-up." That encouraged a dramatic cry from Erholtz, a melody to Daisy's ears.