AN: Over one hundred reviews? *squeals* You guys!
Half way across Sugar Rush, Cole and Zane snuck past a sleeping guard. They made their way to a magnificent factory shaped like a giant birthday cake. Its multiple 'layers' were different floors and candle-shaped chimneys on the top spouted colorful smoke.
The two outcasts hurried up to an ornate door with a hefty deadbolt on it.
Cole looked at the sign on the door and laughed. A (not very good) caricature of Zane's face was painted on the door with a slash through it and the words 'No Glitches Allowed!' blaring just below.
"What's this?" Cole teased lightly. "You're a full-blown criminal, aren't you?"
"Yes," Zane answered, nodding solemnly.
Cole stared. "Uh, that was a joke."
Zane just looked at him, head tilted to one side.
Shaking his head, Cole balled up a fist and punched the door. His hand busted through easily, splintering it.
"Thank you," Zane said appreciatively. He peered into the dark building, took a deep breath, and ran in.
Cole ducked under the door frame and looked around. "What is this place? Are there even any lights in here?"
"It is the Kart Bakery," Zane explained from somewhere in the darkness. Suddenly, the lights turned on, revealing a small room.
Cole squinted against the sudden brightness. "Is this place motion-activated? Cool."
"No. I found the light switch," Zane said simply, walking up to a large red button on the floor.
"Oh. Duh. Right. Well, where are the karts?" Cole asked, changing the subject quickly. He stepped closer to read the print on the button, which said 'START' in all caps.
Zane stepped onto the huge button. A screen scrolled down from the ceiling and lit up with the words 'Choose your kart!' along with a bunch of cool candy karts to choose from.
"We must make one," Zane explained, walking up to the screen and tilting his head back so he could see and study it.
Cole's jaw dropped and he blinked in shock. "What? No, no no. Look, kid, bad idea, trust me. I don't make things, I break things."
"It looks like we are both stepping outside our comfort zones," Zane said pleasantly. He stretched up on his tiptoes, trying to touch and select an image. He jumped a little, still coming up far too short.
Cole chuckled, walking forward. He tapped the kart picture Zane was trying to reach.
"Oh. Thank you," Zane said again, sounding rather surprised that someone had helped him.
With a grinding noise, the walls pulled up and the room more than quadrupled in size. Colorful levers and pulleys slid into place, followed by striped and polka-dotted bins.
"Welcome to the BAKERY!" An overly-cheery automated voice boomed. Both Cole and Zane jumped in shock. "Let's bake a kart!"
"What is this, another game?" Cole asked incredulously.
Zane tilted his head to one side. "It is a mini-game, so yes, in a way."
The announcer voice cheered overhead. "You have ooooone minute tooooo win it!"
"Only one minute?" Cole protested loudly.
"Go!" The voice screamed happily. A countdown started on the wall, blinking a neon '60', then '59', then '58'.
Zane ran over to a giant steering wheel. In front of it were two shoots and a balancing platform, with a bowl on one side and a trash can on the other.
"Mixing! Put the ingredients in the bowl and throw away the trash!" The announcer cheered.
Things began dropping from the shoots. There were good things, ingredients like eggs and butter. Unfortunately, there were also things that should never be in a cake batter, like soccer balls, flip-flops, and an air vent.
Zane tried to steer the food to the mixing bowl and the other stuff to the trash can, but he was so short he could barely turn the wheel.
"What are you doing?" Cole protested, watching a bottle of milk bounce into the trash and a dirty apron drop into the bowl. "You're getting it all wrong!"
"I am trying, but I am too small to effectively steer," Zane reminded, accidentally tossing a half-used tube of hair gel to the mixing bowl.
"Ugh!" Cole groaned, running forward. "Fine. I got it, I got it!"
He jumped up on the platform and began tossing the ingredients about, throwing the good ones into the bowl and deflecting the bad ones out all over the room.
"No... Sure... Ew, gross..." Cole exclaimed over a tiara, a pack of jellybeans, and a large fake toad in turn.
Zane ducked as Cole threw a newspaper away, narrowly avoiding the flying 'ingredient'.
"Flour, yes!" Cole said triumphantly, holding the bag up high.
Another sack of flour shot out of the chute and hit him squarely on the head. Stumbling, Cole tripped and fell off the platform into the batter bowl. The beaters lowered down and began mix the batter, Cole and all.
"Batter up!" The announcer declared.
The bowl tilted and dumped into a cake dish. Cole jumped out, flinging batter off of himself as the dish slid along a conveyor belt into a large oven.
"Are you alright?" Zane asked, wiping a bit of batter off his face where it had landed from Cole's energetic shaking.
"Doing great, let's keep going," Cole said breathlessly. "What's next?"
As if responding directly to him, the announcer screamed happily overheard, "Baking! Pump up the heat and hold the perfect temperature!"
Catching on quickly, Zane ran over the oven and eyed a platform on a spring in front of it. He tried to jump up to pump the platform, but again came far too short. Jumping again, he caught the edge with the very tips of his fingers. Just hanging there, his weight wasn't enough to pull it down.
"Cole, would you mind providing some assistance?" Zane called, still dangling off the platform edge.
Hurriedly rubbing a last bit of batter off of his cheek, Cole yelled back, "On it!
Cole ran over to the pump and jumped on it as Zane dropped off it and stepped back. CRACK! The pump shattered beneath his weight.
Zane made a small choking noise.
Wincing, Cole said in a rush, "I can fix it, don't worry, just lemme have this thing here-"
He grabbed the hose that had been attached to the pump and blew into it. Miraculously, the thermometer's mercury began to rise.
"It is working!" Zane gasped, watching the thermometer as the temperature hit the exact right point. "Are you able to hold it?"
Obviously, Cole couldn't answer verbally. He nodded, still blowing into the hose. His cheeks began to bulge with the effort. His face turned red, then purple, then somewhat blue.
The oven dinged and Cole collapsed.
"Are you alright?" Zane asked again, helping the larger character back to his feet.
"Yup. Just a little more game to go, right?" Cole panted.
The cake dish slid out of the oven. It tilted and a well-formed but plain and boring kart body plopped onto the conveyor belt.
"Decorating!" The announcer shouted cheerfully.
Cole and Zane ran along side the kart as it came underneath a bunch of candy dispensers filled with everything from cookie 'wheels' to frosting 'plating'.
"We've got to hit those targets on the bins. That'll release the candy inside for the kart!" Cole said quickly. He grabbed a marshmallow gun in front of the conveyor belt. "What first?"
"Wheels," Zane decided. "We will need four of them."
"Got it," Cole agreed. He pulled the marshmallow gun's trigger four times. Four marshmallows flew out at top speed, hitting the target to make four wheels pop out of the bin.
"Now frosting. We require a whole bunch of frosting!" Zane declared.
"No problem," Cole answered, aiming the marshmallow gun quickly. Unfortunately, he didn't aim very well.
Instead of hitting the target on the bin, the marshmallows hit in a random pattern around the target. They smashed the entire bin, which dumped ALL of its frosting onto the kart.
Then the entire bin tipped sideways, knocking into the next bin. The bins began to collapse like dominoes. Every single candy bin shattered, dumping all of every ingredient down on the kart.
Cole voiced what he and Zane were both thinking. "Uh oh."
A final buzzer sounded. The kart, buried in a messy mound of candy, fell down a ramp into a fancy garage.
"Times up!" The announcer's voice boomed.
In unison, Zane and Cole ran to the garage door, a beautiful image of a perfect kart printed on it. The garage door opened and a mass of sweets spilled out.
"Congratulations. You did it. And here's your kart!" The announcer spoke for the last time, sounding very happy.
Something in the candy pile moved and something rolled out weakly. It was an abomination. It was a lop-sided hodgepodge of mismatched pieces. It was the kart.
Cole groaned, unable to tear his eyes from the misshapen cake kart. "Ugh. Look, kid... I tried to warn you, I can't make things, I just break-"
"I love it."
Stopped in his tracks, Cole looked down at Zane, who was staring wide-eyed at the kart. "You what?"
"I love it," Zane repeated simply. He stumbled forward as if in a daze, gently running a hand over the sloppily pasted-on bumper. "Look, it has a real engine, which means no more pedaling. Look at these wheels, these headlights, and this bumper. I have a real kart."
Cole laughed, pleased and relieved. Then a thought struck him. After looking around, he grabbed two small bags of frosting. "Come on."
"What are we doing?" Zane asked, tilting his head to one side.
Cole grinned, gently throwing one frosting bag to the smaller boy. "A work of art like this must be signed."
Meanwhile outside the factory, the guard awoke with a yawn. Rubbing his eyes sleepily, he checked the security camera. Clearly evident on the screen were Zane and Cole. The guard startled so badly that he fell right off his chair.
Getting back up, he grabbed a red emergency phone. Fumbling with the handle, he yelled into it, "This is Beard Papa! The glitch is in the bakery! Get me through to King Candy!"