Richard lurched forward as Rancis slammed onto the brakes, as they pulled through Sugar Rush's entrance. "'Scuse me, sorry!" Rancis said as he navigated his kart around the gathering game characters.

"That's... a lot of people," Richard said, eyes widening.

Rancis stopped the kart just at the Gloyd and Swizzle.

"Rancis! Rich! I thought you two were behind us," Gloyd said as he hugged Rancis. "Oof," Rancis grumbled, then just quickly chuckled. "Yeah, we're fine," Rancis said as he hopped out of the kart, followed by Richard.

All the candy kingdom's characters, the racers, and the NPC's were gathered around. Not only them but other characters from the other games. Richard noticed Sonic, Mario, and a few different game characters. Richard stayed close to the three male racers, and placed his hands in his pocket, not knowing exactly what was going to happen.

"Uhh... So... What now?" Richard leaned to Rancis, as he spoke, but they got interrupted by Ryu.

"There you are, Richard! Was looking for you earlier," Ryu said. Richard turned his head and looked up, and saw the Street Fighter character. "Oh... I-,"

"Rancis brought him over to our game this morning," Swizzle chuckled.

Ryu nodded. "Ah, I see. So you ate candy for breakfast?" He chuckled.

Richard chuckled shyly. "Pancakes, actually," He said rubbing the back of his head. "Was really good,"

Gloyd giggled, jumping up and down, still very happy that Richard loved his pancake recipe.

A blue zap flashed next to Richard and the racers. The Surge Protector, "Okay, okay," Surge said as he took out a notebook. "Oh lordy..." He grumbled shaking his head. "Power outage..." He grunted. He walked forward slightly, then looked up. "Okay," He looked over at Sonic, and the other characters with him.

"Okay... Sonic... Dr. Robotnic, Tails... Knuckles," He said as he wrote something down on the notepad. "All of you accounted for,"

"What's he doing?" Richard whispered to Rancis.

"What does it look like?" Rancis rolled his eyes slightly elbowing Richard's arm. "He's making sure all of us are out of our games safely,"

Surge looked over at Ryu, "Ryu... Chun Li... and Ken... all the Street Fighter characters..." He wrote their names down on the pad. Turning his attention to Richard and the racers. "Okay, all of the NPCs..." He looked at the sixteen racers. "1.. 2... 3..." He started to count the racers.

He got to the last three, "15... 16... 17," Surge nodded and wrote that down. "All accounted for," He then turned his head to Richard. "And the new face, from Reality Simulator,"

Gloyd let out a little "pifft," as he covered his mouth. Swizzle and Rancis did the same, softly snorting and trying not to laugh. Richard had an embarrassed look as he covered his face. "Oh god..." He muttered to himself.

Ryu had his arm around Ken, then, he blinked in confusion, then looked down at four boys. "What-?" He muttered quietly.

Surge heard the snickering behind him, lowered his clipboard, and turned to the racers and the human. "Is something funny?" He said sternly.

"No Sir," Rancis said, normally.

"N-No!" Gloyd quickly said as he stood up straight, and stopped laughing.

"N-Not at all!" Swizzle added, though he let out a brief snort before regaining his composure.

Surge eyed them, then shook his head continuing his routine. "Kids," He grumbled.

Richard glanced at his friends, who were still suppressing giggles. Suddenly, a loud zap echoed through the room, and the station's lights flickered. Sparks flew from the outlets, followed by a loud booming sound. Everything went dark.

Startled, Richard instinctively grabbed onto Rancis, who let out a surprised squeak.

"Annnndddd there goes the power," Surge's voice grumbled from the darkness. "All of you are accounted for,"

Richard blinked repeatedly. "W-What?"

The only light remaining was the faint blue glow from Surge. In the dim light, Gloyd and Swizzle noticed Richard clinging to Rancis and burst into laughter.

"Richard, what are you doing?" Swizzle teased.

Richard gasped, quickly letting go of Rancis. "Oh, sorry!"

Richard gasped once he realized he had held onto Rancis like a stuffed toy out of shock. "O-Oh, sorry!"

Rancis rolled his eyes and playfully shoved Richard off of him. "Why had to grab me like that?" He giggled. "Your finger like.. impaled my belly button..." He said, rubbing his stomach. "Like, ow..." He said.

Richard blushed, "S-Sorry," He chuckled nervously. He looked around but then he saw Surge disappear, right before his eyes. "Uhhh..." He said as he had his finger up. "Where did he go?"

"He'll be back once the power comes back on," Gloyd said as he slid down the wall, and sat on the floor.

"Yeah," Swizzle said, as he did the same.

Following their lead, Richard sat down as well. "Oh, I get it... He's the surge protector, so when the power goes out, he disappears."

Gloyd nodded, "Yeah," He said. "We'll just have to wait until the power comes back,"

Swizzle sighed, "I hope it's soon... Remember that one year when the power was out for 3 whole days?"

"Ohhh that was a nightmare," said Candlehead, close by them.

"Geez, how did you all cope with that?" Richard asked.

"We almost didn't," Swizzle said. "We never planned for something like that. It's why now we have this alarm system, and characters that have food in their games, bring food in case," He responded to Richard. "Sonic over there had brought some chilly dogs in case we're trapped here too long,"

"And I brought extra candy!" Gloyd smiled as he took out some candy corn, licking his lips. He took one and popped it in his mouth.

"Then why are you eating it?" Rancis rolled his eyes. "You just said you brought them for an emergency,"

Gloyd grumbled as he put the candy back in his pockets.

Richard was watching Rancis talking. Just staring at him. That part in his brain just started to sink in. He... he was next to his animated crush. Despite it being dark, Rancis saw Richard staring at him.

"Why are you staring at me?" Rancis asked.

Richard gasped and looked away.

Gloyd made a soft laugh hearing Rancis saying that. "Why do you think dork? He likes you~," he teased.

Rancis rolled his eyes. He looked back over at Richard. "I mean, I know I'm pretty good-looking, but how did you end up liking me like that when I'm sure on the screen I look low-poly?" He asked, folding his arms.

"Uhhh..." Richard blushed. He remembered how he ended up liking Rancis. It was never from the game. It was from the TV show, called Sugar Kingdom, Sugar Rush's show adaptation. "It... was from the animated series. I liked you... since I've watched it,"

The three boys gasped.

"Wait... Animated series?" Swizzle asked.

"We got a show?! Awesome!" Gloyd clapped.

Richard was about to ask how they didn't know, but the reality of the situation of how these game characters probably only know life in the arcade and nowhere else, set in his mind. They can go to the internet, apparently, but according to the racers, they're not allowed to go.

"So.. Do we look like what we do in that show?" Swizzle asked.

Richard nodded. "Yeah definitely! Not 2D of course, but very very much alike," He looked down at saw Rancis rubbing his stomach, again. "Why are... you still rubbing that?"

Rancis chuckled. "Because you jabbed my belly button, and now it's sore."

Richard blinked and then tilted his head. "Wait... " He then came to the realization. "You actually have a belly button..."

Rancis blinked. "Uhhh... Yeah? Why wouldn't-," Then he nodded in understanding. "Ah, I can see why you're confused," He said. "Yeah, I think our developers gave them for realistic appearances,"

Swizzle heard their conversation. "Actually it's more literal than that. We had a planned track for a beach environment, where the ocean was made out of blue soda, and the sand was made out of gram crackers. So most of us were in swimming gear,"

Rancis nodded, "Ah, right. I forgot," He turned his head to Richard. "Yeah, so that's why we're modeled with them," Rancis said. He pulled his jacket up slightly. "See? Belly button."

"O-Oh," Richard said. He reached over, without thinking, and poked Rancis in his bare belly button. Rancis giggled and shoved Richard's hand away. "Hey, don't do that! It's ticklish..." He grumbled.

Richard's face burned with embarrassment, and he quickly covered his face with his hands.

Rancis chuckled and pulled his jacket back down. "Why are you so embarrassed, human?" He said as a joke and laughed softly.

"What happened?" Swizzle asked as he wasn't paying attention.

"Rich poked my belly button and now he looks like he wants to hide forever," Rancis chuckled, rolling his eyes.

Richard blushed, a little embarrassed, and looked at them.

"I can't see in the dark too well, but I'm sure his face is like, super red," Swizzle giggled.

"Definitely," Gloyd laughed. "Wait! I got an idea!" He said and quickly looked at Rancis. "Maybe today, or tomorrow we can have Richard race with us! Make him a kart and all that!"

Richard blinked. "R-Race?"

Rancis had a look of disapproval. "What? We cannot do that, racing on our track is dangerous for other characters much less a human-... He might get hurt!"

Gloyd sighed, "You're right... It's... it's just that we don't know how long he might be here, and when we open... he'll be stuck out here alone,"

"True," Swizzle said. "But we still can't let him race with us,"

Richard was watching them talk. Now he was wondering how long would he exactly be here. "I wouldn't want Grandpa to worry..." He said to himself.