Chapter 46
"I'm not in love with Ralph!" Vanellope continued to rebut Wendee's, Koji's, and Aika's jeers. "We're just friends, that's it! I may be a woman now, but Ralph is still way older than me!"
"Stop kidding yourself and making excuses." Aika waved the president off. "You know you're in love. Admit it!"
"But..." Vanellope attempted another protest, but her heated cheeks silenced it. She looked down at the cage floor, not knowing what to believe. She continued to claim she wasn't in love with Ralph, but her blush said otherwise. On top of that, whenever Takeru teased her with the wrecker, she was angry, and whenever anyone mentioned Ralph, feelings for him welled up within her, warming her chest and cheeks. She slowly started to realize how much she loved Ralph, and his current situation drove that fact even closer to home. As she sat in the metal cage, watching the infected guards storming the Game Central Station floors, and T.K. moving from cage to cage, Vanellope began to come to terms with how much she cared about Ralph. But she didn't know if Ralph loved her back; he was too infatuated with the witch owning the arcade thanks to her spell.
But Vanellope did notice something when she'd last called out to him. Ralph had stopped his attack to look at her, hinting that some of the old wrecker was still in there, fighting to break free. From that, the princess knew there was hope for him. Ralph just needed a push. A stronger push, electrifying, even, if she had to use her new power. And she didn't want to let it come down to that.
That part had to wait, for breaking free of her cage was her first step. Then she'd worry about how she'd go about freeing the Bad Guy from T.K.'s control. That meant learning how to get a handle on her electrifying ability. Like it or not, the trigger was her feelings for Ralph, considering the built-up anger whenever she saw T.K. with Ralph.
"So, what's your history with Wreck-It?" Koji asked with a smirk. "We'd like to know, and who knows? That may help you will your powers to listen."
"My history?" Vanellope raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Wendee replied. "Like when and how you and Ralph first met and such. You should start here."
"Good idea," Aika agreed. "Probably along the way, your powers will respond and you'll be shocking a whole bunch of shit in no time."
"I'd say give us the abridged version, but we don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon." Wendee motioned to their cages. "We want you to be able to use your powers voluntarily, so give us the long version."
As unusual as Wendee's quip was in their current situation, the pink-haired siren was right. Besides, Vanellope's telling the history between herself and Ralph might touch the correct spot within her. The one that managed her second gift.
…
"You want a full-on attack on T.K. and her pod freaks?" one character, Mega Man X, questioned Bowser, who had suggested they charged into Game Central Station and trample the infected characters, with Calhoun "shooting up" T.K. and Bowser burning the succubus to a crisp. Mega Man X, along with everyone else, disagreed with that plan.
Arguments had sprung from all sides of the part of the tunnel the characters used as the meeting room. The train station's tunnel was empty, but everyone sat around the center in a circle, Calhoun and Bowser among them. Characters threw ideas in all directions, rejecting each one. Nobody had come to an agreement; every idea had led to more arguments and shouting. And Bowser's idea didn't help tame them.
The shouting and discord ensued, nearly leading to people standing up and getting in one another's faces. "Enough!" Calhoun borrowed King Dedede's hammer and slammed it to the floor. That brought everyone to attention. She wished she had her rifle and pistol, but they were both empty and she'd lost them in the fight with Ralph and T.K. But the Dream Land King's hammer was enough to capture everyone's attention. "Fighting will get us nowhere! You ladies have been arguing for the past fifteen minutes while I thought we'd have a civilized discussion! I thought you were all better than this, but none of you are any better than a bunch of schoolgirls! Now, we need to shut up, calm down, and input suggestions on plans one at a time." She looked pointedly at Bowser. "And no more dumb ideas."
The other occupants stared at Calhoun intently, some nodding, some scowling, and some wanting to say something but closed their mouths out of fear Tamora may use them for target practice. Even without her rifle, the sergeant could do some serious damage with Dedede's hammer if she wanted.
"Sarge!" Ness' voice echoed from behind the Hero's Duty lead. The Earthbound hero, followed by Lucas and Mega Man Volnutt, ran in on the discussion, with Lucas panting.
"You three were supposed to be on watch," Bowser reminded. "What gives?"
"Marth and Lucina relieved us," said Volnutt. "They're watching T.K. and Surge. I thought we had a schedule set up. They have the night shift after us."
"Right." The Koopa King nodded. "I knew that."
"Yeah, right," Takuya muttered.
"We're headed for bed," said Lucas, yawning. "Hopefully Dark Pit and Bowser Jr. didn't hog all of the space in the sleeping area."
"Or littered it with Jr.'s artwork," added Volnutt. "He vandalized my armor with hearts one time and short-circuited it. We should be careful." The most human Mega Man let out a louder yawn.
"Want Ginger to sing you to sleep?" Bowser nodded to Takuya, who glared in response.
"No thanks, I think we can reach Dream Land on our own." Ness waved in protest. "We're like, nine years old. Maybe Volnutt needs a lullaby and he's fourteen." Lucas snickered at Ness' quip.
"I do not!" Volnutt's face grew beet red at that, and Bowser and some of the bad guys in the circle chortled. Grabbing the two Earthbound boys, he ran off.
"Hey, Walu, we-a know who we're-a targeting tonight," Wario, who was sitting next to Bowser opposite Takuya, said with a grin.
"He'd-a better sleep with-a one eye open." Waluigi chuckled, twisting his mustache in an uncanny way.
Takuya sighed, shaking her head.
"Okay, enough fooling around." Calhoun ceased the small talk. "We need to brainstorm an effective battle plan against T.K. No, charging in half-cocked is not one of the choices, and let's discuss it like civilized people this time."
…
T.K. was standing by her throne, with Ralph on one side and Surge chained to the piece of furniture on the other. She smiled at her almost-finished throne, which was black and adorned with spikes outlining the exterior, bat wings on either side of the back of the throne. Purple jewels decorated the throne's arms. T.K. nodded as her dutiful workers – a Shy Guy and a Waddle Dee – laid a few final touches on her throne.
"You two may stop for the day," the succubus instructed. "Go relieve someone of guard duty."
The two foes nodded and headed off to one of the game ports.
Surge watched them, along with the other hundreds of infected characters serving Takeru. He'd never felt so helpless in protecting the arcade; Daisy and the others had tackled his group quickly, killed Kohut and Erholtz, caged Tails, and dragged Surge himself to Takeru, who claimed she had plans for him. The arcade guardian wished he could do something to try to regain some control over the arcade from T.K...or at least a little.
"Here are the viruses, mistress."
Surge watched two infected angel-like characters carrying a crate of what looked like Takeru's viruses to the succubus herself, who smiled gratefully, took the crate, and sent them away.
"Now I can start my next plan." She turned to Surge, green eyes fixed seductively on the weakened hologram. "This is where you come in. You're going to do a little something for me using my malware."
"I refuse," Surge said, keeping as firm a tone as possible without breaking down. "I'm not letting you destroy this arcade further. Isn't having the key enough? You have control."
"That may be so, but with you, my power can increase even further." Takeru knelt to the arcade guardian's level until a valley of cleavage faced Surge. "Don't tell me you refuse. You don't want me to kill you, and trust me, my having the key will allow me to pull it off."
The hologram couldn't take his eyes off of the sight before him, flickering in and out. But one look at Takeru's spiked whip in the corner of his eye implied that she didn't care if she had to kill him. He knew T.K. would find a way to incorporate those viruses without him. She'd gain complete control with or without Surge, and without Surge, the arcade would be in worse shape and vulnerable to anything. The arcade guardian couldn't allow that.
Sighing, Surge finally asked, "What do you have in mind?"
That encouraged a satisfied grin from the succubus. She had him. Both Surge and Game Central Station were hers.
…
Snowanna laid on her back on one of the conjured up pallets in the makeshift common areas of the tunnel. Robin and Tharja from Fire Emblem managed to produce blankets for the escaped characters for warmth, but couldn't do more than that; they wanted to salvage their magic for T.K.
The sherbet racer understood that, but it still didn't change the fact that the concrete floor was hard and cold, and had trouble sleeping. She'd made several attempts to close her eye and at last drift off for a few minutes, but couldn't even sleep a wink. And it wasn't just the Warios' snoring on either side of her. Too many events flashed in her mind like a movie projector from her being infected then purified and finding the antivirus in Vanellope to her inability to save her president. She wished she could've saved Vanellope from T.K.'s torture, but the succubus would've killed her along with Vanellope. And who'd save her and Sugar Rush then? Rancis was already dead, and unless there was a plan in the works, Vanellope and the other prisoners would be next, followed by the escapees. But all they had ever succeeded in so far was arguing and talking over each other, helping nobody's case. Snow sighed, wondering if things would ever go back to the way they were. Would the sherbet racer ever dance again to the beats from Dance Dance Revolution? Would she even see it again?
"Snowanna?"
Snow sat up, glancing around for the owner of the voice. She looked on both sides of her. The Warios were still asleep, so she knew neither of them had called...unless they were dreaming. But she doubted either knew her name let alone mispronounce it.
"Over here."
The sherbet racer crawled from between the two pranksters toward the front of the common area, where Takuya was waiting with no signs of sleep deprivation on her. Snow wondered if sirens needed to sleep at all.
"What is it? Why are you up?" the sherbet racer asked, voice low so as not to awaken the sleeping characters. "I don't have time for your bitching tonight."
"You don't have to worry about that anymore. That was what I wanted to talk to you about. I also have a plan to save the arcade but need your help."
"Look, girl. I don't want to deal with your ass right now, okay?"
"I knew you'd say that." Takuya sighed. "But please hear me out."
Snow rolled her eyes at this, knowing she was going to get a kick out of whatever the cold-hearted siren had to say.
"I'm sorry."
Snow's eyes widened and she raised a brow. Did she just hear Takuya correctly?
"I really am sorry," the siren said again. "I was a total bitch to you, and you didn't deserve it, especially when you were infected yourself...which you're not now." She scanned Snow's purified form. "How did you get healed, anyway?"
"That ain't your business," Snow snapped. "And it's nice of you to apologize and make nice with me, but I'm not taking it. You're faking it."
"No, I'm not," Takuya pleaded. "I'm truly sorry for my behavior. You don't have to believe me, nor do I blame you if you don't."
"How do I know you're not acting?"
Takuya sighed again. "Because I was not always this way. To be honest, I didn't know how to talk to people and followed my sisters around, doing what they wanted. I wasn't y own person. We all sucked at seduction back then, driving my inexperience in communication closer to home. It got worse when we met her." An edge crept in Takuya's voice at that word.
"Why do I get the feeling the 'her' is Bat Bitch out there?" Snow inquired.
"It is," the redhead confirmed. "And she was pleasant when the five of us met, teaching us how to pull in some suckers. I found it helpful; I was able to get a few dates...and sex out of it. I even made friends with T.K. But she had restrictions on who to seduce. And one of those people was apparently Wreck-It Ralph.
"You had a thing for Wreck-It?"
"Yeah, I met him at a New Year's party," said the siren. "I found Ralph by himself at one of the tables. Keep in mind it was before your game came and when bad guys were still underappreciated. I went to him and asked him to dance. He protested at first, but on the tenth attempt he broke down. He may have sucked at dancing, but we both enjoyed ourselves. And looking at him, I knew I liked him, even though he liked me for a friend, which was okay with me." Takuya's pale cheeks burned crimson. "We even attended Bad-Anon together."
"You did have a thing for the big guy." Snow folded her arms, grinning. "But what the hell does all that have to do with your bitchy behavior now?"
"Lots. Takeru didn't like it. She was pissed. I used to be weak-willed and shy all the time, so Koji normally fought my battles. Apparently, I crossed T.K., which showed when we returned to her place in Red Moon Racing." Takuya clenched her fists.
"You don't have to tell me anymore." Snow lightened up a little. She sensed the other woman's uneasiness. "I forgive you now."
"Thank you, but I feel that I need to tell you. I've disrespected you because of T.K., and you didn't need that." Takuya trembled.
"What did she do?"
The siren was at the point of tears. "She slapped me around and even whipped me across the back. All because I made friends with Ralph."
"That's a dumbass reason," said Snow. "All because you made friends with Wreck-It?"
"Not to her. Even talking to Ralph was crossing Takeru. She deemed him completely off-limits. So I avoided him because I was scared of T.K." Takuya burst into a sob.
Snow watched the siren, wondering what she could do to help. She had a hard time believing the ice queen Takuya was actually a scared, self-conscious girl who wanted to be her own person. And her change was due to Takeru's abuse.
"After a while, I had enough, so I stood up to Takeru, using my telepathy. I reminded her of her cruelty and how wrong it was. I called her a bitch and a dictator and I threatened her." Takuya continued her sobs, harder this time.
"What did you threaten to do?"
"Okay, it wasn't really a threat. I really taunted her about Ralph, how he probably liked me more and not sluts like her. And T.K. didn't take that well and slapped me again. I held my defiance; I refused to let Takeru win against me, and she slapped me once more. I was tired of following her and her abuse. My sisters were, too, especially Agnes. She stood up for me, but now she's dead." The redhead calmed down a little. "She always held us together and supported us, being the rock. Now she can't do that anymore and it's all Takeru's fault. I need to go out and do something about it. Mignogna's asleep, which is good thing because she'd never let me go out there. We had an argument earlier about going out to fight T.K., and she wasn't letting up on keeping me here. But I'm not sitting around her another minute, and I want you to come with me to stop her and her virus."
"What?" Snow jumped back.
"You heard me. I want you to back me up. Together we can take out Takeru. Besides, I want to be friends with you if you give me the chance."
"I'm all for being friends, but there's no way we're going out there by ourselves with no plan," Snow protested.. "I'm not doing it and neither are you. We'll get ourselves killed out there."
"Snow." Takuya gripped the sherbet racer's shoulders and gave her a hard stare. From that, Snow knew she wasn't going to win this argument, just like she hadn't been able to win any with Vanellope sometimes. Takuya reminded her somewhat of that part of the president. The siren clearly wasn't backing down until Snow caved in.
Snow sighed. "Okay. We'll do it. But if it gets too dangerous, we come back. We need to scope out the place first, at least."
"Alright. And don't worry. My plan only involves your camouflage and my singing. We sneak out to Game Central Station using your camouflage ability and then I can sing a few guards over to our side and have them free some prisoners, including your Vanellope. Afterward, we can gang up on Takeru and get her to reverse what she's done."
"Sounds like a good start," Snow said.
"It's going to work," Takuya assured her, but Snow couldn't help but have a bad feeling about the entire strategy, namely how prone it was to backfire, which could mean their deaths. And she didn't want to face a game over any more than she wanted to back out of the siren's plan.