Ryu and Ken just sat there, still staring at Richard. Seems they didn't understand this. Who would?

Ryu leaned in closer, studying Richard's face intently. Richard blinked, noting the stark difference between Ryu's animated, cartoon-like appearance and his own realistic look. Ryu shook his head slightly. "That explains why you look more realistic than Calhoun," he murmured.

Ken grabbed his root beer, took a sip, and then set it back down on the table. "This doesn't make any sense," he said, leaning forward to peer past Ryu at Richard. "You're a player... an actual human being," he continued, his voice tinged with disbelief. "And yet... here you are."

Richard didn't know what to say. It felt like way too much happened to him in a matter of a half hour. All he had wanted to do was plug the power cord back in, and now it felt like he was on some trip—and not the good kind.

"I'm with game characters... In... the arcade?"Richard asked, blinking repeatedly as he tried to make sense of it all. "I'm actually in the Tapper's game in my granddad's Arcade?"

Ryu and Ken exchanged a glance.

"Yes," Ryu replied, turning back to Richard. "You are."

Richard let out a sigh and looked forward.

"Look-,"

Richard turned his head to Ryu, who pointed to the right. "Over there, just look up."

Richard followed his finger and looked up. He blinked.

'Tapper's - Start Game' was displayed on what seemed to be a clear glass screen, but backward.

Richard's eyes widen a little bit. He got up from the table, walking over to it, "Oh shit..." He said looking up. "That's the screen?"

He could just about make out the other arcade machines of the building through the screen. But only a few, with how Tapper's was positioned, you couldn't see much. "I was... Just out there..." Richard said to himself. He looked back to Ryu and Ken, who were just watching him. He made his way back over to the two.

"How do I get back?" Richard asked as he neared the table again.

Ryu shrugged. "I don't know kid," He said.

"We don't know," Ken added. "We don't even know who could help in this situation. This has never happened before."

"How did you even get here? How did this happen?" Ryu asked.

Richard sat back down at the table, feeling overwhelmed. "I don't know," He said. "It just happened all at once, and I'm a little dazed by it all,"

"Hell, I'd be dazed myself," Ryu said, "One minute you're here, then the next you're there,"

"To be fare, that happens to us daily, Ryu," Ken pointed out. "When players choose us, we're teleporting all over the place during loading screens."

"Well, yeah," Ryu agreed, nodding. "But for Richard, he wasn't aware, and now he's stuck here with no way to go back."

Richard just sat there with an expression that was a mix of deadpan, and light shock as he listened to Ryu and Ken's conversation. He was about to say something, but then he heard the racer's the table over, talking again. They weren't exactly quiet talkers.

"Why was Richard even at the Arcade anyway?" Gloyd asked. "Why would Mr. Litwack do that? He never let someone stay late. That would completely throw us off guard,"

Candlehead shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was lucky to have been there to let him at least pick a racer. Totally took me by surprise. He was more upset about not being able to pick Rancis than him seeing that we are alive," She said rolling her eyes.

Swizzle snorted.

Candlehead rolled her eyes. Then, did an impression of Richard when he saw that Rancis wasn't on the roster. "Ohhh I wanted to play as Rancis! Not stupid Candlehead!" She said, mimicking his pouty voice.

The other racers burst out laughing, except Rancis, who looked unamused.

Richard's face turned bright red, and he slowly slid under the table.

Ryu blinked and then looked down at Richard.

"Did you even see what happened to him? What if he went to play another game? Totally not safe, none of the characters are going to be in the games at all!" Jubileena pointed out.

"Nah," Candleheadreplied. "I heard him mention something about thunder, and I felt the wheel loosen. That's how I know he got out of the seat. I waited, and he never came back. So, I just decided to take over the wheel. Then... I... well, I heard a loud zap. Don't know where it came from. Haven't seen him since,"

"Hmm," Jubileena said, "That's weird,"

Ryu chuckled, as he watched Richard under the table. "Got the hots for one of the racers, hmm?"

Richard gasped, then tried to stand up, completely forgetting that he was under the table. "OW!" He yelped as his head slammed into it.

Candlehead, Gloyd, and Taffyta heard the thump and turned to look at Ryu and Ken, though Richard was out of their sight.

Ryu looked up and noticed the three looking their way. "Want to go meet them? Might as well make a friend in the time you're here... however long that may be,"

"N-No..." Richard muttered.

"Who are you talking to?" Candlehead asked Ryu.

"Probably to himself. All that punching he gets in Street Fighter made him go insane," Taffyta said before licking her lollipop.

Ryu gasped. "Hey, now wait just a damn minute!"

Taffyta snorted.

Ryu sighed. "Someone is under the table, and they want to meet you kids,"

"And... Who would that be?" Swizzle asked. "The one game character from Dig Dug trying to dig the ground?"

Canldehead let out an amused sound and covered her mouth.

Ryu looked back down at Richard. "Come on Rich, go say hi,"

Richard took a deep breath. 'Okay,' He said to himself.

He put his hands on the table and pulled himself back up to the seat. Once he sat down, Taffyta tilted her head. "Who's that? Dang, he looks like he belongs in a PlayStation 5,"

"Did Mr. Litwack connect a PlayStation 5 to the outlet? We really don't need more games at the moment," Goyld said shaking his head.

"No..." Candlehead said, blinking. "Wait a minute," She spun her legs around to the other side of the bench, and got up, then walked over to Richard's table. She got closer, and her eyes widened. "Ri-Richard?!" she screamed in complete shock.

The other racers were completely clueless and had thought Candlehead had meant something else.

"Richard?! Where?!" Swizzle yelled, looking up at the screen of Tapper's. "Is he about to play us?!"

"Crap he's about to play Tapper's?!" Minty yelled, nearly dropping her root beer.

Even Tapper was getting confused, as he was cleaning a cup. "What? W-Who's about to play my game? At this hour?" He asked, looking up at the screen. "Kids, there's no one there," He said blinking. "What's all the ruckus about?"

Candlehead slowly looked from Richard back to her friends. "Guys..." she began.

They all looked at her. "What? I thought you said Richard was there?" Rancis asked.

Candlehead stepped aside, making Richard fully visible.

The room fell silent. Everyone, including Tapper, who had stopped cleaning the cup, stared at Richard in shock.

The racers had their eyes widen as they watched Richard from their table.

But then, Snowanna broke the silence. "WHAT THE HECK!?"

They all started talking at once, and Richard felt even more bashful. He slowly began to slide under the table again.

Candlehead whipped back around and just caught Richard going under. "Wait!" She yelled.

Richard gasped and looked up at her. Candlehead had a confused expression. "How are you... How...?"

Richard could only just shrug.

"We don't know," Ryu asked.

Candlehead gasped and looked at the Street Fighter star. "Y-You know?"

"Just found out like ten minutes ago," Ryu said.

The other racers were talking amongst each other. "Um..." Candlehead blinked. She looked back down at Richard, then at the other kids. "What do I say?" she asked, clearly at a loss.

Richard sighed, then decided to sit back down on the table bench.

"Oh god he's back again," Gloyd said.

Richard got on his feet, but then to his surprise, all of the racers were up to the table, looking at him. He gasped at the suddenness of this, "How are you here? YOU'RE A PLAYER!" Jubileena yelled.

"Yeah, how?! This breaks reality!" Taffyta added.

"You're a human being!" Swizzle exclaimed.

Richard was at a loss for words, just as confused as they were. "Listen, I don't know, okay! I'm just as shocked as all of you!" he said. "I don't—" Richard froze, his eyes locking onto Rancis, who was unexpectedly close. Like, just... maybe three inches away. Seeing his Toon-detailed face this close in reality made Richard's face turn a deep shade of red. Rancis stared at him with a deadpan expression.

"Oh-," Swizzle said with a little giggle. "Uh oh... We got something going on here~"

Gloyd looked confused. "What? What do you mean? What... Oh..." Realization dawned on him, and he snorted, covering his mouth. "Oh god, I forgot this dude likes Rancis..."

Taffyta gasped. "Oh right! He does!"

Swizzle burst out laughing. "This is probably the best day ever for him!"

But Richard couldn't take it anymore. He felt lightheaded, and he felt his body going limp.

"Woah woah woah woah!" Ryu yelled and caught Richard before his head slammed onto the table.

"Did he just faint? Is he the cartoon, or us?" Gloyd said.

"Well," Ryu said as he adjusted the knocked-out Richard on the table bench. "When you jump into our world from the real world, I'd question you if you wouldn't faint eventually. We'd definitely faint if we went to the real world,"

"Ew, no. Keep me here," Taffyta said.

Tapper finished cleaning the last of the cups and came over to the table. "What's all this talk about 'real world' and players, and moreover, about Richard, the owner's grandkid?" The racers parted from the table to let Tapper in.

"This is him," Ryu bluntly stated, gesturing to the knocked-out Richard, lying forward on the table.

Tapper squinted his eyes and came closer to look at the player. "I'll be..." He said. "It is the kid..." He blinked. "A player... is in our world," He looked around at everyone. "Now, how is that possible?"

"I'd like to know the answer myself," Ryu said. "But I don't think even Rich here knows,"

Ken crossed his arms. "What are we going to do with him? Humans act differently than us. They eat more, they use the restroom more. They sleep differently... They... well, they frankly do everything differently," Ken said. "What are we going to do with him? How is he going to sleep? Where will he sleep?"

"Or eat?" Taffyta said.

Gloyd's stomach growled. "Speaking of eating, I'm starving," he said, rubbing his stomach. "Maybe I'll go visit Sonic and snag a chilly dog from him,"

"How can you think of eating at a time like this?!" Candlehead snapped.

"That's it... He can eat chilly dogs," Ryu said.

"Well, he definitely cannot eat those all day and everyday. You know how weak some humans are to too much sodium," Ken said.

"Hmmm..." Ryu said scratching his chin. "Maybe for tonight we can just let him get those, then we take it from there, how's that sound?"

"We can try," Ken said.

Swizzle smirked. "Then after, we can set up a date between him and Rancis~," he said, looking at Rancis, clapping his hands lightly.

The peanut butter cup-dressed boy had a little blush on his face but tried to hide it. "Ugh, I don't want to go on a date with some human," He said rolling his eyes.

"Don't deny you never dreamed of this moment," Gloyd giggled. "I always see your blushing face every time he gushed over you in the car, when he was behind you on the 3rd person camera!"

Rancis folded his arms, "He can't take his eyes off my beauty, that's it,"

"Ugh..." There was a slight mumble coming from Richard, as he was slowly getting up. "Ahh... What's happening-," As soon as he got up, Swizzle slammed his hands on the table, coming up to Richard's face.

"You're going on a date with Rancis tomorrow!" He yelled with a huge grin.

"AHHH!" Richard screamed, falling backward and landing on the floor.

Ryu gasped, "Ugh, Swizzle why would you do that to him?" He looked down at Richard. "You okay?" He asked as he helped him up,"We were just talking about how to... make you feel comfortable here for the time being, at least, until we can figure out how the hell we're going to get you out of here. You need to eat and sleep, so, let's get the eating part taken care of,"

Candlehead smiled. "Yeah, how does Chilly dogs sound for tonight?"

Richard blinked and looked over at her. "Chilly dogs?"

She nodded, "Mhm-hm! You know, Sonic's favorite food?"

Richard blinked for a moment. "Y-Yeah... Sure..." He said.

"Don't stress yourself out too much, okay?" Ryu said as they left Tapper's and entered back into the station. "I'm sure you're in a rush to get back home, but we'll do what we can," he added, hoping to calm Richard down. The Sugar Rush characters had gone back to their game, while Ryu and Ken planned to ask around for Sonic's location.

"I hope you aren't stressed out too much. Are you?" Ken asked.

Richard looked up at him. "Well, stressed to get back home? No, not really. But stressed about being in a place that I wouldn't have expected to be real? Yes,"

Ryu blinked. "You don't want to go back home?

"No, no. I do. But... I... uh..." Richard said, looking around.

Ryu sighed, seemingly to catch on. "Bad home life?"

Richard blinked and looked up. "How did you know?"

"Trust me. Just because I'm a game character, doesn't mean I don't study how some of the players act," Ryu said. "What's wrong exactly?"

Richard sighed. Should he really tell Ryu? Maybe a game character would understand more than a real person. "I live... with a foster parent. Who... could care less about me," Richard said, as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "The only real family I have left is Grandpa. Who, sadly cannot take me in instead of the foster parents, because, well, he's getting to old,"

Ryu had a soft expression. "I'm sorry," He said.

"Yeah," Ken sighed, "Mr. Litwack has been seemingly slowing down. Not like what he used to be,"

Richard kept his hands in his pocket as he continued to talk. "I don't have many friends at school. It's like no one at my school appreciates video games. They all make fun of me for playing them," Richard said. "Call me a nerd and dork and all that,"

Ryu blinked. "Nerd? Dork? What are we? Back in the 80s? I've been here since 87' in my game and I've heard the whole thing. Kids in the arcade used to tell others how much they got bullied for coming to the arcade. It died down around in 05'," Ryu said, "What, your school stuck in the past or somethin'?"

Richard looked up at him, then made a silent snort. "Wow, that made me feel better," He chuckled. "You totally dissed them out. Yeah, my classmates are... weird, to say the least,"

"Well, you won't get judged here. If we judge you, we're hypocrites. Since we are the games themselves!" Ryu smiled.

"What were you even doing in the arcade so late anyway? We never had anyone stay so late,"

"Yeah... Well, Grandpa is going away for the weekend. And he wanted me to stay in the arcade? A storm is brewing and he wanted me to stay here and reboot the circuits in case the power would go out," Richard explained.

Ken nodded. "Ahh, well, that makes more sense,"

"What I still don't understand is how you came here," Ryu said.

Richard shrugged. "I tripped, then I all of a sudden appeared at... well, that entryway," He said pointing at the doorway to Pac-Man.

As they were walking, Richard got a thought. And, he didn't know how to actually speak it, because he figured he had done bad. His grandfather told him to stay to make sure the building didn't stay too long without power if the lighting would strike. This is why. This is so why. The arcade machines are alive. The game characters are making and breathing. That means his grandfather knows.

And now, he's not outside to fix the breaker if anything happens.

"You okay kid? You still look stressed," Ken said.

"No... I-I am okay," Richard said.

Ryu stopped. "Let me call out to that stupid blue man. Hey! Surge Protector!" Then, a flash of blue light simmered on the ground and that blue glowing man appeared once again.

"Yes?" They asked In a deadpan voice.

"Do you know where Sonic is?" Ryu asked.

"Why do you want to know?" They asked, taking out the clipboard.

"You know, just to... say hi," Ryu said.

"Hmm, well," He said looking over the clipboard. "He last went into Fix It Felix Jr." He said. "You'll find him in there. I'm sure he's still in there, unless he zipped past me and I didn't know. You know Sonic. Fast as sound,"

"Right, thanks," Ryu said. "This way Rich," He said.

Richard started to walk off with Ryu, then looked at the Surge Protector. They both stared at each other for a moment, then the blue man stopped them.

"Hold up," It said.

Ryu and the rest of them froze. "...Yes?"

"What game are you from?" The Surge Protector asked. He jotted something on the note book. "Litwack doesn't own any game with graphics like yours. I'd say Hero's Duty, but judging by your attire you don't come from that game,"

Ryu pointed randomly to the Moon Patrol entry away. "I just saw someone go into that doorway without your permission!"

The Surge Protector quickly looked behind him, "You did? Thanks for the tip,"

"Come, quickly!" Ryu said grabbing Richard's arm.

"Woah!" Richard exclaimed.