AN: Special thanks to Kairi and Waffley for their support. And to Alex: yes, it was originally something like Zanelloppe, but that sounds extraordinarily girly. But a fun fact: did you know Zane can be either a boy or a girl name?
Outside of said candy castle, two lines of black and white sandwich cookies guarded the doors. They marched back and forth, chanting, "O-re-o. O-reeeee-o. O-re-o. O-reeeee-o."
They stopped and parted to the sides to allow Nuckal, Kruncha, and Cole (in the shape of a huge mound of cupcake and taffy) through the doors. As the gates closed, the Oreo guards resumed their chanting.
The donut police rolled the Cole-cupcake-ball into a dark, purple and gray throne room. King Candy drove his kart right into the room and backed it into his throne, parking and hopping out.
He stood on tiptoe to be eye to eye with Cole. Or rather, the king and the crusher would have been eye to eye. As Cole had been rolled to the castle, more candy had gotten stuck on his head and covered his face. All King Candy could see was strands of sticky black licorice and clumps of taffy.
"Sour Sam, de-taffify this monster so we can see what we're up against here," King Candy commanded.
Samukai looked up from the king's kart (which he had previously been trying to climb into) and sighed deeply. "Mmmm-kay."
He trotted over to the king's side and jumped as high as he could, pulling off a giant glob of taffy.
With a ripping sound, Cole's face appeared, pink and splotchy from the quick candy-mask removal. He worked his jaw and let out a quiet "...Ow."
"Milk Duds and Mars Bars!" King Candy gasped as Samukai backed away. "It's the bad guy from that Fix it game."
Cole blinked rapidly, getting his bearings. "Yeah. That's me. My name's Cole, Crush it Cole. Who are you, the guy that makes the donuts?"
"Please," the king chuckled. "No, I'm King Candy!
"The king?" Cole raised an eyebrow skeptically, looking around. "I guess this does look like a castle. Seems you're a fan of purple?"
Kimg Candy nodded. "Yes, and grey, specifically dark- You're getting me off topic. What are you doing here?"
"Look, this is a big misunderstanding. Just let me out of this cupcake, I'll get my medal, and I'll be out of your way," Cole explained patiently.
"YOUR medal? Pft," King Candy said scornfully. "Bad guys don't win medals."
Cole frowned. The bad guy stereotype was going just as strong in the this game as all the others. "Well, this one did. I earned it over in Samurai's Duty."
"WHAT?!" The king screeched and Cole pulled back as far as he could, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid flying spit.
"You game-jumped?" King Candy continued, voice rapidly increasing in volume and speed. "Cole, you're not going Garmadon are you?"
"What? No, no, no," Cole protested.
The king didn't seem to have heard. Pulling himself up to his full height (which admittedly wasn't very much) and almost shouting now, he said furiously, "Because if you think you can come in here to my kingdom and take over my game, MY game, you've got another think coming!"
"Whoa there, Puffy Pants," Cole cautioned. "Calm down. I don't want to take over anything. The only reason I'm still here is because one of your Children of the Candy Corn stole my medal."
King Candy frowned, quietly confused. "Children of the Candy Corn? Who would've- OH."
Realization had dawned and the king began to pace, talkimg feverishly to himself. "The glitch! The coin it used to buy its way into the race."
Cole raised an eyebrow. 'It'?
"That weird coin, that was your medal?!" The king exclaimed.
Nodding, Cole agreed, "Yes, and I need it back."
"Well, I'm afraid I can't help you," King Candy confessed. "Your medal's gone, it's nothing but code now. And it'll stay that way until someone wins the cup at the end of the race."
Cole sighed. Of course things couldn't be that easy. This was his life, after all. Not even realizing it, he said aloud, "Maybe I'll just have to have a little talk with the winner then."
"Is that a threat I smell?" King Candy protested. He wrinkled his nose pointedly. "Beyond the halitosis you so obviously suffer from."
"Listen, Vanilla Wafer, I'm not leaving without my medal," Cole explained with no small amount of exasperation.
The king gave him a disapproving look. "Yes, you are. Nuckal, Kruncha, get him out of that cupcake and on the first train back home. And if I ever see you here again, Crush it Cole, I'll lock you in my fungeon."
"Fungeon?" Cole repeated.
"Fun Dungeon," King Candy clarified. "It's a play on words, and... Never mind. Now, I've got a glitch to deal with, thanks to you. Goodbye, Crush it Cole. It hasn't been a pleasure."
With a nasty look backwards, King Candy hopped into his kart (shoving Samukai in as well in the process) and drove out of the room, nose stuck snobbily in the air.
Nuckal knocked on the cupcake. "This thing's hard as a rock."
Krincha frowned. "I can see that. I'll get the tools."
"What tools?" Cole asked.
Nuckal hit him with the baton again. "Quiet, you."
Kruncha went over to a small treasure chest and pulled out a chain-saw, revving it up loudly.
"What? No! Hey! Stay away from me!" Cole protested. He tried to scoot away.
"Oh, take it easy," Kruncha soothed. It wasn't all that soothing, as the donut was slowly stepping towards him with a roaring chainsaw.
Cole began rocking back and forth. He rocked himself right onto his feet and started hobbling towards the door.
"He's getting away!" Nuckal said obviously, pointing. Kruncha hit his fellow cop and they started after Cole.
The Oreo guards realized what was happening as soon as Cole burst through the doors. They blocked his way and pushed him back in, still chanting, "Oreo."
Cole backed up and glanced back to the donuts who were barreling towards him. He looked forward again at the Oreos lowering their spears to charge. Finally, he turned to his left and eyed two giant colorful windows.
Outside the castle, all was quiet and still. It was almost peaceful.
Then Cole, still encased in the cupcake, burst through the window and fell crashing to the ground. The cupcake shattered around him and Cole stumbled to his feet, running away as best he could.
Nuckal and Kruncha peered out the window high above, frowning.
"Quick, we'd better call out the Devil Dogs," Kruncha realized. He gave a loud whistle.
A few moments later, the two donuts ran out the castle door lead by devil dogs on long leashes. The dogs bounded through the trees and down the ravine, barking fiercely. They skidded to a stop by a chocolate stream surrounded by pixie stick weeds. They sniffed around for the scent and promptly lost. One in the front gave a mournful howl then ran off along the edge. The rest of the dogs followed, quickly disappearing from sight.
In the river, one hollowed-out pixie stick moved. Cole broke the surface, gasping and spitting out the pixie stick (which he had been using as a breathing straw).
"Argh, I hate chocolate," Cole moaned. He scrambled onto the shore, brushing off caked-on chocolate and panting over and over, "I've got to get my medal back. I've got to get my medal back."
He stepped onto a road, flicking one lat bit of chocolate off his shoulder. Suddenly, the path began to rumble and a cloud of dust appeared on the horizon as engines roared louder and louder. Cole dove off the road as a line of karts speed by, the leader crossing over the exact spot he had just been standing.
Cole stood and watched as they drove away over a hill and the engine noises began to fade.
"The entry fees go to the winning racer," he said loudly, trying to hear himself over the karts. "One of those kids is probably going to win. And kids are normally nicer than adults, right? Right."
Cole ran after the racers, shouting, "Hey, kids! Can I talk to you for a second?"