Chapter I

The Girl with Golden Hair

"Ugh...what happened…?"

Vanellope slowly rose from her brief slumber, rubbing off the snow from her pale cheeks. She shook her head, bringing her eyes to an immediate focus as she glanced at her surroundings.

"Where the heck am I?" Vanellope murmured.

The once colorful and vibrant sweet landscapes of Sugar Rush are nowhere to be found— what remains is a dark, gloomful landscape full of freezing cold snow. Crater holes filled the ground like a moon. The sky appears dark and gray, a depressing contrast to the vibrant pink sky she was familiar with.

"This isn't my game!" Her eyes were wide as teacups upon realization.

"Ralph…? Felix? Calhoun!? Rancis!? Are you out there?" She frantically called out, only to be answered by a wistful of wind blowing around her.

She stood up from the freezing cold snow, taking her first steps as she struggled to move through the snow sinking around her feet. A grim reminder of the reality she found herself in.

"This can't be real…This can't be real…" Vanellope repeated the words inside her head. Gone are the sounds of the cheerful candy crowds waiting for her arrival at the finish line— only silence and the occasional booms in the distance meets her ears.

"Okay…just relax Vanellope…stay focused…the first thing I gotta do is to find my kart…Right! Where the heck did my kart go?" She turned her head around, hoping to find her beloved kart.

Her eyes scanned through every land feature in the distance, hoping to catch the recognizable, 4-wheeled silhouette until her eyes finally laid on a wreckage in the distance.

She slowly approached the wreckage that looked to be the result of a disastrous crash. What remained are the jumbled mess of broken cookie pieces half-way buried in snow, a puddle of frosting, and a mess-full of sprinkles on the ground.

It was her kart!

"My kart!" Vanellope yelped as she ran to examine the damage.

"No….no…" She knelt onto the ground, tears running down her cheeks as she mourned at the current sight of her kart. She couldn't fathom the idea of her kart in pieces again since her hulking best friend had smashed it with his gigantic bare fists when Turbo was around.

"It's just like that time again…all alone." Vanellope lamented. First, she had her life taken by a narcissistic, egomaniac from a distant 8-bit racing game for fifteen long years— now she finds herself stuck in a strange, new world.

Her family…Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, Rancis…are nowhere to be found within, as if her life had decidedly revert when all was settling down. Her mourns were short-lived however, as she was sent flying from a nearby explosion.

"AAAAH!" Vanellope lets out a short, but loud scream as she dove onto the snow head first. Her eyes still blurry from the explosive concussion as she raised her head off the ground.

WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR—!

Vanellope quickly turned to her left as a distinct whistling was heard from a distance, followed by the sounds of deafening loud bangs tearing into her ear drums before a barrage of explosions erupts around her.

Acting on instinct, she dove to the fallen tree trunks to protect herself from the bursting barrage.

Cowering onto the snow with her arms around her ears— she took a quick glance upon the nightmarish sight. She witnessed hundreds of strangely-dressed men with weird pots over their heads rising off from the ground below before collapsing hard, motionless.

Overlooking the other side of the charging men are rows of strange, fire-spitting contraptions spewing lead projectiles out from their sides, sending the men down to their frozen graves where they pointed. The sounds coming out of those machines were an uncomfortable combination of rattling steel and loud bangs.

"Aim for the machineguns!" One of the nearby men shouted before a hail of fire blasted a terrific hole through his skull, sending bone fragments, brain matter and blood out from below his neck. He collapsed onto the ground immediately.

Vanellope's eyes began to tear up as she ran aimlessly in the opposite direction of the charging men. Her eyes were still closed shut as her legs instinctively ran as fast as she could.

"Ralph! Where are you!?" She cried out, only for her efforts to prove fruitless as her cries were overshadowed by the chaos all around her.

She kept running, until a powerful gust of wind sent her tumbling onto the ground. Wiping off the tears and snow from her face, she turned to look into the sky to see what had hit her.

A shocking sight had hit her as she saw figures piercing through the clouds above her, sending a hail of fiery explosions in the direction they're facing. She quickly got up on her feet and sprinted, struggling to maintain her balance through the snowy terrain whilst the barrage exploded near here.

"Somebody please…help me…Ralph!? RALPH!?" She cried out.

An unfortunate flip of a coin happened as one of the falling shells had found its new target: Vanellope was sent flying into a long, man-made entrenchment. Her body didn't have the time to register the jabbing pain happening all over before she fell unconscious. Tears flowed out of her sockets as it dribbled down onto the wood pavement.

"This is it…I'm going to die…alone." Vanellope thought as if the end was inevitably near.

Her vision began to blur when she heard footsteps approaching around her corner before a brief exchange was heard in her still conscious ears.

"WHAT!? A little girl? How did she get here?"

"Oh—Major! We found this little girl lying dead here. What shall we do?"

"Ugh… where am I?" Vanellope's eyes opened her to the sight of a gray ceiling.

"Am I in heaven?" She murmured as she rolled her eyes around to gaze at her new surroundings. She had been laying in a quiet, dusty blue room for quite some time. A stark contrast to wherever she was before.

She felt a sharp pain striking across her body like a whip when she raised her torso up from the mattress— She looked down to see herself covered in bandages underneath a rather plain gown.

"Sheesh…whatever it was back there had beaten me to a near pulp…" Still holding onto her usual-self.

Her time to wonder was cut short as voices were heard through the nearby wooden door.

"Hello? Anyone on the other side?" She yelled out.

No response— aside from a few sentences she could make out from the other side.

"Yes, Colonel…she's up." A voice of a man is heard through the door.

"Step aside, I'll give her a good talk…"

"Be careful in there, ma'am."

The door flung open before Vanellope's eyes. The lights from the hallway reveal a figure roughly about her height standing by the doorway.

A little girl…?

Vanellope's eyes continued to gaze as the girl came strolling in.

Golden blonde hair with shining blue eyes. Her face is rather doll-like and pale for what is supposedly a human girl. She strolled into the room dressed in a gray uniform adorned with various decorations. A gigantic red gem is seen worn around her collar.

Despite her beautiful appearance, she has a fierce look that's seemingly plastered on her face. Her shining blue eyes gazed through Vanellope's as if she was staring into her code. The girl silently sat on the chair that was positioned to face Vanellope.

The two girls silently stared at each other. Vanellope was beginning to feel uneasy seeing this fierce "doll" staring at her with little shown on her face. Vanellope was about to break the iceberg when the girl started speaking.

"I must say...you have the nerves to wander into the battlefield alone…Now..." the girl paused briefly.

"...Who are you? And who are you working for? You don't seem to be from around here."

Taken aback by the fierceness displayed by this girl. Vanellope struggled to come up with an answer until her usual, talkative-self zips back in. Her eyes went from a fearful wide to a neutral disinterest.

"Look doll-face, I don't know where to start or why I'm here at all, so why don't we start with you first?" Vanellope said with a forced smirk on her face.

"Very well…" Tanya sighed "Lieutenant Colonel Tanya Degurechaff— Leading commander of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. That good enough?"

"Pffffffffft...I have no idea what you're talking about, fancy-medals! What even is this air mage thing you have going on here? BHAHAHAHA!" Vanellope laughed.

"Playing games with me, huh?" In a flash, Tanya yanked Vanellope closer by the collar as her other arm swiftly reached into her holster beneath her abdomen— drawing her pistol on Vanellope's face.

A wide, evil grin appeared on Tanya's face as she stared intensely into her eyes.

"I take pride in great care of my guests. With your mouth running like that…" Tanya slowly wraps her finger around the trigger. "...it'll be a tragedy if my finger pulls…"

"I'm giving you one last chance to cooperate with me. Keep running your mouth— and you'll have a brain full of lead."

Vanellope''s eyes widened upon the sight of this grinning doll in front of her. Her threat is enough to make her teeth grit— knowing she wouldn't be able to respawn after death.

"Well? Do we have an understanding?" Tanya's pointed her pistol closer to Vanellope's face

"Alright! Alright! I'll tell you everything I know! I'm sorry for calling you names!" Vanellope regretted loudly.

In that moment, Vanellope felt the force around her collar relieving as Tanya retracted the barrel of the pistol away from her face.

"Good. Let's get to business then." Tanya said in a resolving tone as she reinserts her pistol back into the holster before unveiling a notepad from the breast pocket of her uniform.

Vanellope readjusts the collar of her gown as she straightens herself up for the interview.

"State your name." Tanya asked.

Vanellope let out a brief sigh before answering.

"Vanellope."

"Your full name, fraulein." Tanya pushed for more.

"I don't have one."

"You gotta be kidding…don't have a family back home?" Tanya gazed at Vanellope with suspicion.

Vanellope shook her head in response.

"That can't be right…" Tanya said. "Next question— Where are you from and what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a racer from a game called 'Sugar Rush'…"

"...Y-you're totally playing with me…" Tanya's eyes twitched, her finger trembles as her grip loosens around the pencil. "Sugar Rush? What kind of country is that?"

"It's not a country— it's a game! I lived there." Vanellope answered.

"You—what? How could a person live in a game? Are you daydreaming?" Tanya lowered her brows.

"Do I look like someone who daydreams?" Vanellope left a smug look on her face.

"Bah! Nevermind— next question." Tanya awkwardly changed the topic after being dissuaded by Vanellope's cockiness.

"What's your purpose here?"

"Nothing—that's all. Dunno how I ended up here to begin with. The last I remember was driving down this special track my friend smashed through only to zip through a wormhole or some kind…and now I'm here."

"Racing...wormhole…huh." Tanya rolled her eyes to Vanellope as she wrote on her notepad. "Funny story you have there, fraulein. You're quite creative, I'll give you that…"

"What? No! I'm being serious here!" Vanellope retorted.

"Who is this friend of yours? And why did he build this track that led you to MY world?" Tanya pushed for more answers.

"Typical Ralphie…I was in the game with the players when he decided to jump into my game and smashed through a candy wall just so I could have a shorter route to the finish line."

"What a friend…" Tanya remarked. "That explains the colors stuck on your hair…They're looking tasty."

"Hey, don't you say nothin' about my hair, alright?" Vanellope snarked.

"Alright— that's all I need to know. Thanks for your cooperation." Tanya stood up from her seat as she slowly turned to leave.

As the door closes behind her, Vanellope could hear faint whispers coming from the other side.

"How did it go, Colonel?" A voice of a woman is heard.

Tanya is heard letting out a brief, but long sigh.

"She told me her story…I don't believe every one bit of what comes out of that sweet tooth of hers…"

"What should we do with her?"

"Keep an eye out while I figure out what to do with this new "guest " of ours…keep your guns up, Major."

"Got it, ma'am." The woman said.

The sound of footsteps walking away from the doorway was heard— presumably Tanya taking her leave.

Vanellope lets out a disappointing sigh after hearing that exchange.

"Great…" Vanellope murmured. "Now they're going to lock me up like that nutjob, Turbo did to me…"

She lowered herself down onto the mattress, hoping to sleep away the jabbing pain that's irritating to her muscles.

"Ralph…Rancis…Calhoun…Felix. Where are you…?" She sighed as she closed her eyes.

From within her office, Tanya looked through the various belongings found on Vanellope back in the field— including her bloodied, torn gray sweater. She reached into one of the front pockets to continue her inspection, only to feel something meeting the touch of her fingertips.

She slides the object out of the pocket— it was a crumbled photograph of Vanellope and her friends taken in Game Central Station: Ralph, Calhoun, Felix, and her beloved— Rancis, all together with her in one place.

At the back of the photograph is a handwriting, presumably Vanellope's, written in red marker.

"My family."

A certain mood lingers within Tanya after taking a glance at the photograph— A mix of sadness and regret.

Deep down, she knew people were either scared, or driven away by the way she currently is— had she changed her ways back then…maybe she wouldn't end up in this hellish world full of bloodshed and misery to begin with. In a way, she envied what Vanellope had.

She quickly shook her head out of the trance of lingering emotions.

"No...this isn't the time or the place for this…" She murmured before turning to face a gigantic map that covers an entire wall beside her. The map is drawn with various details regarding terrain, troop movement, supply routes, entrenchment systems and gun placements present in the Eastern Front.

"Victory is within sight," she thought.

She glanced back at the photograph, landing her eyes on where Vanellope once stood. Like a jackhammer hitting a vein of gold— a wide grin appeared on her face as an idea sparked to life.