The three racer boys, plus the racer girl, were still laughing loudly at what Richard had done, despite it being five minutes ago. Richard just looked at them with a pout after a while. "Can you guys stop laughing at me..." He said.

But after he said that, Swizzle and Gloyd laughed more. Richard grunted embarrassedly and covered his face again.

"How did you even forget we were here?" Rancis asked, looking genuinely confused. "Like, how?" he pressed, chuckling.

Richard sighed. "I just love the theme song of this game, it always is just... makes me want to sing out loud,"

Gloyd and Swizzle exchanged glances before looking back at Richard. "Not gonna lie, that's kinda adorable," Swizzle said.

"A little nerdy-," Gloyd teased.

Swizzle giggled at that.

"All the other characters in the arcade think our song is annoying," Candlehead said. "Like, they always say that, right guys?" She asked her three racer friends.

"Yeah," Gloyd chuckled. "And it's always the 8-Bit idiots the ones to say that. Their music is just like... button presses,"

Richard pouted at that. "Hey, don't diss old game music! Emerald Hill Zone theme is amazing in Sonic The Hedgehog 2,"

Gloyd laughed. "Okay, okay, sorry!" he giggled. "I mean, yeah, some of it is nice."

"I reckon you love older games?" Rancis asked.

Richard smiled. "I love all games. Retro or new,"

"I mean, I guess we can count as retro, eh guys?" Gloyd chuckled as he elbowed Swizzle.

Swizzle tilted his head in confusion. "Huh? How would be retro? We're not 8-bit or 16-bit," He said.

"Retro doesn't mean just that dummy!" Gloyd said as he shoved Swizzle's shoulder. "Our game's company went out of business years ago. We're... technically abandoned ware when you think about it,"

This was news to Richard. "W-Wait... What?" He said, "Sugar Rush's company is... No more?"

The racers turned to Richard. "Uh-huh," Rancis said. "A few years ago a player broke the wheel, and... well... a long story came after,"

Swizzle nodded his head in agreement. "A long story is an understatement,"

Gloyd chuckled. "Saying it's an understatement is an understatement,"

Richard blinked repeatedly. "What... exactly had happened?"

The racers looked at each other, then looked back at Richard.

"Okay, uh..." Candlehead moved a little closer on the bench, to Richard. "You know Vanellope? The racer with the Glitch power-up?"

Richard blinked. "Wait! Yes!" He yelled in shock. "I was just about to ask where is she...? She used to be always on the roster, but then one day she just... vanished," Richard used to always play as her if Rancis wasn't on the roster. If she were on, he'd choose her. You could never go wrong with the glitching power-ups.

"Vanished? Well, that's one way to put it..." Rancis said.

Richard squinted his eyes in confusion. "Huh?"

"You remember when we just said we're abandoned ware? Well, as we said, someone broke the wheel," Gloyd explained. "Mr. Litwack broke the news to the player that Sugar Rush's company is no more, and there would be no way to get a replacement...,"

Swizzle continued with the explanation. "Some random kid found it on... uh," He quickly turned his head to the rest of the four. "What was it again? Eboy... Eber?"

"Ebel?" Rancis shrugged.

Richard blinked. Why did it sound like they were trying to say...

"Are you guys trying to say Ebay?"

"Yes!" Swizzle yelled turning quickly to Richard. "That was the name!"

"Yeah, Ebay. I remember now," Rancis said. "Vanellope and Ralph went to the Internet to get to eBay, to get the wheel,"

"Yeah," Candlehead said nodding.

Richard had a slow, growing look of confusion on his face. "W-Went to the internet? To... Ebay?! Wha-What are you talking about?"

Gloyd giggled at Richard's expression. "Your face!" he laughed more.

"Ah, I forgot you're a player. You don't know these things," Swizzle said.

Richard sighed. "Okay, but explain to me... How did she... exactly get there?"

"Mr. Litwack connected a Router to our surge protector, so... we're able to get to the internet," Rancis said.

Richard nodded slowly. "So... Just like how Sugar Rush..." He looked out at the candy landscape beyond the track. "Is... like this-... A giant world for you to explore... The internet is the same way?" He asked. He turned his head back to them to see what they were going to say.

"Yes, basically. We just got the information from Ralph," Candlehead said.

"Wait, Ralph? And not... Vanellope?" Richard asked. He was still confused about something. It seemed like the candy racer didn't come back. "You all make it sound like... she got lost or something?"

"No, not lost," Candlehead said.

"She just decided to stay. She wanted to be in a new racing game. Slinger Race or something like that," Gloyd said.

"Slaughter Race, Gloyd," Candlehead corrected him.

"She practically game jumped. I don't care what anyways says, she clearly went Torbo," Swizzle said as he folded his arms.

"Wait... game jumped?" Richard asked. "So... she abandoned her game? And... The heck is Torbo?"

Candlehead looked at him. "You remember when we were talking about long stories? Well that one is the entire Harry Potter series written five times,"

Richard had to let out a small laugh at Candlehead's comparison. "Well, that's definitely one way to say something is confusing,"

"Let's just say Torbo... was a game character back then, who... well, took over another game and caused it to crash. They thought he had died, but he didn't. He took over our game... Sugar Rush. As King Candy for years," Rancis said as he took out a lollipop and sucked on it.

"K-King... K..." Richard gasped. "Oh, crap! SERIOUSLY?!" He yelled. "He was a character on the daily roster wasn't he?!"

The racers nodded. "Yep. He took over our game... and messed with our code," Candlehead sighed.

Gloyd pouted. "He brainwashed us to bully poor Vanellope. I mean... I love to prank people... but what we did to her was just... mean and too far," He grumbled.

"Hey," Candlehead said as she lightly shoved Gloyd's shoulder. "Vanellope wouldn't want us to sulk about the past. She and us all know it wasn't anyone's fault but Torbo's. And, he's gone now," she said, trying to cheer her friend up.

Richard blinked. "Wow... There seems to be some... drama behind the screens,"

Swizzle quickly looked up at Richard quickly. "W-Where you trying to make a joke?" He snorted softly, covering his mouth.

"Huh?" Richard asked. He honestly wasn't trying to, he wasn't even aware it could have been a joke. "What exactly was jokeish about what I said?"

"Drama behind the screens... " Swizzle said, then giggled. "'Drama behind the scenes,"

"Really Swizz?" Candlehead laughed.

Richard chuckled. "Okay, I can kinda see how that could be a joke haha," He chuckled. Richard went to rest his hand on his leg, but then he felt something. "Hm?" He tapped his pants, he looked down. He realized something was in his pocket. He slightly gasped, and quickly shoved his hands in there, and pulled out his phone. His phone had somehow got transported onto this game world with him.

"Ooh," Candlehead said. "What's that?"

Gloyd quickly noticed after Candlehead had made her comment. "Oooh is that a phone!?" Gloyd gasped. "I always see the players have these!" He snatched the phone from Richard's hands.

Richard gasped slightly. "H-Hey! Gloyd, be careful, don't drop it! I literally just had it repaired too!" Richard had dropped it the other day, and the screen had cracked. Thankfully, his grandfather got it fixed for him.

"Yeah, let's not break our human friend's things," Rancis said taking the phone from Gloyd's hands. Gloyd pouted and crossed his arms. "Hrmf," He pouted.

"Thanks," Richard said, as he took it from Rancis.

"You... use that to talk with other humans right? I've seen you guys do it before," Swizzle said. He stopped leaning on the railing and sat next to Richard on the beach. "Think you can maybe use it to call your grandfather?"

Richard blinked. He looked down at the phone. "And... tell him what exactly?" He blinked. He couldn't just tell him he's inside the games. And even if he'd believe him, how would he be able to get him out? Richard still turned on the phone, but one look service bar told him that wasn't going to happen. "Oh no..." He said. "There isn't any service..."

Rancis tilted his head in confusion. "Service? What's service?"

Richard sighed. "The thing that runs the phone to make it able to call others. It's not active," He looked around, "Probably being inside an actual arcade cabinet has something to do with it,"

He scrolled through the screen. "At least everything else seems fine. My games still seem to be there,"

"Ooh! Games?" Swizzle asked.

Richard nodded. "Yeah, like this," He tapped the Minecraft icon. "Like this one,"

"Minecraft..." Swizzle said leaning closer to look at the screen. "I think I've heard of that before..."

Gloyed hopped from his seat behind them and jumped next to Richard on the opposite side Swizzle. "Minecraft?" He asked as he rested his arm on Richard's shoulder. "I never heard of it,"

"So... You can play games on phones?" Rancis asked, as he now sat in front of Richard, on the bench below.

Richard blushed a bit from how close all the boys were to him. "Y-Yeah," He said. Minecraft on his phone started up, and he touched the load game icon and started up the world he was working on.

"Ooh, it looks... Pixel like. Like our friends in some of the arcades here," Gloyd said.

Richard smiled softly and started to control the character, but then he froze, "Wait a minute..." He said looking up, staring off into the distance.

Gloyd snorted softly at Richard's sudden movement. "What? What is it?"

Richard blinked and looked back down at the screen, "Is... Are all games alive? Or is it just this arcade?"

"All games," Rancis said.

Richard's eyes widen slightly at Rancis's words. His eyes darted back down to his phone. He quickly turned the camera perspective to 3rd person. Richard brought the phone directly to his face- And before any of the racers could say anything, "STEVE!" Richard yelled at the screen. "Can you hear me!?"

Swizzle gasped, and let out an amused sound. "Rich, no! He's not gonna talk to you!"

Gloyd laughed. "Seriously, it's our jobs as games to never talk to the players outside in the real world,"

Richard nodded. "I-I get that! But maybe if Steve sees that you guys are also game characters, maybe he'll also-,"

There was a sudden voice coming from the phone. "What the hell? Are you a human... With game characters?"

Richard let out a high-pitched yelp, and dropped his phone, covering his mouth.

"Oop," Gloyd said, also covering his mouth as his eyes widened.

Rancis chuckled silently to himself.

Richard blinked. "Did... Did Steve just speak to me..." He looked down at his phone on the floor. He quickly picked it up. Once he flipped it in his hands to see the screen, to his shock, Steve was gone. He tried using the touch controls, but nothing was working. He tried switching the perspective camera, but that was also broken.

Swizzle just shook his head playfully. He nudged Richard's shoulder. "You probably made this Steve character horrified,"

Gloyd snorted. "Oh god,"

"W-Where is he?" Richard said, "Steve come back! Let me play you!"

"He's not gonna come back for now," Rancis said. He adjusted himself on the bench. "It hasn't happened frequently here, but ever since the WIFI was added, a lot of us traveled there. And we racers got stories from others. They are these characters called console characters. They said a few of them got caught once, and they had to abandon their game for a while to avoid anything. They just wanted it to be seen as a bug,"

Richard blinked repeatedly. "Wait wait, you can actually physically go into the internet?" They had said to him beforehand that Vanellope had gone there. And that others have gone, but he didn't press on any questions of how it looked like. "You met other... characters?"

"Well, we got this from Ralph. I haven't been personally. None of us kids have," Rancis said.

Gloyed grunted and folded his arms. "Yeah," He pouted. "Surge doesn't want us to. He says it's too big for us! Like, ugh, we may look like kids but that doesn't mean we're stupid," He said with a groan as let his arms fall, looking up.

Swizzle agreed. "Yeah, we drive for frick's sake,"

Richard turned off his phone and slid it back into his pocket. "This just gets more insane for me each minute. I still can't believe I'm here. And... I can't believe the knowledge I have now,"

"Hey-," Candlehead said, butting into the conversation. "If and when we get you back home, don't... and I mean don't try to interact with characters on the screens. We're not allowed to talk to humans. So you doing that could literally break everything," She said.

Gloyd giggled, thinking about something.

Swizzle looked his way. "What's so funny?"

"Everything is funny to him, what's new," Rancis smirked.

"Shut up," Gloyd chuckled as he gave Rancis a light shove. "I was just thinking that maybe we have to wipe Rich's mind. Like some spell from Harry Potter or something,"

"W-What? Okay, well, I wouldn't want that," Richard said. I'll... just try not to make game characters know that I know they're alive, that's all,"

Swizzle smirked. "You just don't want to forget about the fact that you're literally in front of your fictional crush," He teased.

Richard blushed and looked away.

The sound of car engines was coming closer, as one of the racers came by and zoomed past. It was Sticky. She slammed on the brakes, and did a 180, and slowly reversed. "Woo! I won!" She smiled.

Swizzle jumped from the bench and grabbed into the railing. "Good going Sticky!" He smiled jumping up and down, giggling.

Sticky smiled and waved at him. "You guys going to race?" He asked. "You guys should start soon so you can be added to the roster,"

Swizzle nodded. "Yeah!" He looked at his three racers friends. "You guys want?"

The three nodded.

"Ooh!" Swizzle gasped. "We can show Richard our karts!"

Richard had a happy expression on his face. That's something he definitely wanted to do. "I'd love to see them," He said.

Rancis's lips curled up in a smirk, "I'm sure you'd love mine," He placed his hands on his hips. "I have the best kart,"

Swizzle grunted, "Shut up, no you don't," Then, he smiled, "I do!"

"Yours looks like an entire pride parade on wheels," Rancis said.

Gloyd snorted and covered his mouth, but then he laughed loudly.

"Mine is literally just a slice of cake," Candlehead said.

Gloyd quickly looked at her. "Hey! A tasty slice of cake!" He said rubbing his stomach.

"If you think about eating my car again-," Candlehead grunted.

"Guys! You coming or what?!" Sticky called out to them.

"Oh, right!" Gloyd said, grabbed Richard's hands, and pulled him away. "Woah!" He gasped from being yanked in the arm. "Gloyd slow down!"

Candlehead shook her head. "Gloyd is having an actual sugar rush,"

"He always has sugar rushes," Rancis chuckled.

"Woah..." Richard said as looked around the garage. "I never seen this before," He said.

"I don't believe this is shown to the players," Rancis said.

"So... This is where the karts are stored?" Richard asked as he walked over to the candy corn kart. Number thirteen, Gloyd's. He felt it. It felt just like a candy corn. "This is insane," He mumbled to himself as he touched the mellowcreme pumpkin wheels. "So... all the karts fit in here?" Richard asked.

"Yeah," Swizzle said leaning on the side of Gloyd's race car. "It's pretty big as you can see. Sixteen racers. For now, it's just ours in here, the other racers are racing for the roster," He had a smile as he saw Richard looking amused at Gloyd's car. "You think his is amazing? Well, check out mine!" He said with a smile as he hopped from Gloyd's car, over to his. The multicolored lollipop drag car. "The Tounge Twister! Pretty, isn't she?" He smiled, tapping it.

"More like the gay twister," Rancis said.

"Oh my god shut up!" Swizzle grunted.

Richard looked over at it. "I'm fighting back intrusive thoughts about licking it..."

Swizzle let out a snort but then went seriously. "Okay, seriously, don't eat our karts," He said.

Richard then turned his head and looked at his main crush's kart.

Rancis smirked. "And here's mine! Only the best kart in all of Sugar Rush," He stood next to it. "The Kit Kart!"

Richard smiled, hearing him say that name out loud was surreal. He played this kart so many times in the arcade. And he decided to ask the question, that needed to be asked. "Why... Why is it called Kit Kart when it resembles a Reese's?"

Rancis blinked repeatedly. "Uh... That I do not know,"

"Maybe it should be called the Reese's Racer!" Richard smiled.

"That would be copyright infringement," Candlehead said.

"Oh, right," He said giving Candlehead an understanding nod.

They were all on the track now, at the starting line. They weren't racing yet, they were waiting for the other racers to come. Swizzle, Rancis, and Gloyd's karts were all lined up, as most of the racers were standing outside of the karts, leaning on it, and talking amongst themselves. Candlehead looked worried as she saw that Richard was standing with them. "Guys," she said, as she stood up from her car. "I don't think it's safe having Richard on the track with us," she walked over to them.

"Huh?" Swizzle asked as he turned around.

Candlehead pointed to the stands behind them where the fans would sit, "You should sit up there while we race," She said.

But before another word could be said, one of the racers came out of nowhere and plowed down Gloyd. Richard gasped out of shock and blinked repeatedly as he saw Gloyd lying on the ground. He was about to say something, but then Gloyd's body started to flash as an 8-bit sound effect started to play. Gloyd instantly got up, as a ding sound played from him. "Come on Torvald!" He yelled. "Watch where you're going!" He said as he fixed his mellowcreme hat.

He turned around and saw Richard looking at him with his jaw basically dropped to the floor. "I... I thought you died..." He said with a devastated look on his face, from what he thought that happened. "Ar-Are you okay?"

"No, he just regenerated! Or, respawned!" Candlehead explained. "We're game characters; we can do that. But you're human! You definitely won't respawn, so it's best if you get off the track."

Still dazed by what he had just witnessed, Richard nodded. "R-Right," he said, turning to walk away.

"I'm fine, really!" Gloyd called out as he saw Richard walking off. He leaned over to Rancis. "Aww, he looked so scared."

"We should be careful with him," Candlehead said. "We should try to keep him away from the other games. He definitely cannot go into Hero's Duty or that Star Wars game across from ours,"

"Even Sonic's game would be a challenge for him," Rancis added.

Candlehead looked behind her and saw that Richard was sitting on the bleacher. "Come on, we can race now," She said.

The racers climbed into their karts. Richard settled into his seat, still processing what he'd seen. 'So they can't die? I guess that makes sense,' he thought. 'But what would happen if I died here? Would... I respawn too?' He stood up and walked over to the railing for a better view of the racers.

He saw a box white panel materialize behind one of the racers, Crumbelina DiCaramello. "What's that?" Richard tilted his head, confused. "Is that the...?"

It was done materializing. It was a clear window. Through it, was the Arcade. Richard gasped, "The screen..." He said. "Wow..."

The race was about to start.

The racers started their engines and revved their karts.

3... 2...

Just as it reached 1, a loud alarm blared, making Richard jump back in fright. "Whoa!" A pole emerged from the ground beside him, a red light flashing at its top. Looking around in a panic, he saw the lights were everywhere, even along the racetrack.

The racers all gasped when this happened. Just before Richard could question what was happening even more, he quickly heard Rancis yelling his name. The racer boy was running up the steps to the fan seat, and quickly grabbed Richard's arm. "Come, quickly! We only have five minutes!" He yelled.

"Wa-what's happening?!" Richard shouted. "Five minutes for what?!"

"It's a power outage alert!" Rancis explained, pulling Richard down the steps. "It's like getting unplugged, but we have a warning—come on!"

Rancis ran onto the track with Richard, guiding him to his kart. He jumped in, then looked at Richard. "Get in!"

Richard stood there blinking. "U-Uh... Your kart isn't exactly a two-seater,"

"Well try and hop in anyway! Squeeze in! We won't make it in time to our game entrance if we walk it!"

Nodding, Richard awkwardly wedged himself into the tight space between Rancis and the kart's seat back.

Rancis pushed himself up. "Hold on!"

Before Richard could say another word, Rancis slammed his foot on the gas, and sped off. "AHH!" Richard yelled out and warped his arms around Rancis.

Rancis let out a small squeal, "Hey, don't hold me like that—it tickles!" he involuntarily laughed, feeling Richard's hands digging into his sides. But Richard couldn't help it with the position he was in. Plus, the kart was driving up the mashed gram cracker road. It had the bumpiness equivalent to a dirt road, and the kart was bouncing all over the place. Richard tried to stay still, as Rancis navigated the road, with the other racers in front, heading to the exit.

Rancis took a different road than the one they walked on, he turned the kart on a rainbow road, "This will be faster than taking the train," He said as he raced along the glimmering fruitroll-looking road.

Suddenly, the kart jolted. Richard thought they had hit something, but when he looked up, his eyes widened in horror. It seemed like reality itself was falling apart over them, "R-RANCIS!?" he yelled.

"I KNOW, I KNOW!" Rancis shouted back.

The kart zoomed up the rainbow arch, racing toward the exit as the game's environment shattered behind them. "Come on, come on..." Rancis muttered, pushing the kart to go faster. The noise of the arcade cabinet shutting down was louder than the kart's engine.

Richard held onto Rancis, as he was sure they were actually going to die. The glitching had caught up to them, as was just inches from the back of the kart. Then, it stopped. Then everything dimmed. Richard quickly looked up as saw that they were in a tunnel.

He sighed in relief. "Oh thank fuck," He muttered.

Rancis continued to drive until they reached the station.