Wreck-It Ralph - Life Unplugged - Chapter 5

Vanellope, Felix and Ralph were both greeted by Sour Bill as they arrived at the castle. Felix and Ralph went somewhere to talk, whilst Vanellope and Sour Bill drove their karts to the garage.

"Our personalities have gotten more fiesty because we got younger, Ralph! I wasn't expecting that!" Felix said to Ralph, adjusting his hat again.

"Yeah..." Ralph wasn't paying attention.

"Hey!" Felix nudged Ralph in the side. "Quit daydreaming about her, will you?"

"I-I'm not daydreaming about her!"

"You are, you're blushing again. Maybe the transformation of ourselves has increased the strength of your love?"

"Maybe..."

Meanwhile, the the palace garage...

"Rancis came calling for you whilst you were out on your walk..." Sour Bill said. "He was really disappointed when he found out you weren't in..."

"He... was?" Vanellope narrowed her eyes. She clearly remembered the times Rancis was mean to her for being different along with the other racers... but that was 5 and a half years ago. Yet she still didn't feel like she could forgive him fully. Rancis had never acted like this, so why was he being so... clingy... now?

"I don't think you remember... but back when you were Princess, you two were the best of friends. No one could separate you. You saw each other every day. The others used to joke about you two being a couple."

"I told you, Sour Bill... I'm nothing like I used to be, even if I can''t remember my past. I'm not even sure if I like Rancis as a friend or not, because every time I see him, bad memories flood my head." she sighed. "Even a friendship with him seems impossible." she parked Ralph's kart and jumped out, along with Sour Bill who parked Felix's kart.

"Maybe you could give him a chance? He obviously remembers the old times he spent with you, that's why he won't leave you alone. He wants to try and trigger your memory, not like that is ever going to happen, but still..." Sour Bill pressed on.

Vanellope leaned on Ralph's kart. "Even so, I don't have time. Ralph and Felix don't even have time to practise, so they will have to take part in the Random Roster Race with no experience. That's too bad for them, because I doubt they would make it very far without the practise. After all, the race starts in half an hour. Is everyone informed?"

"Yes... everyone is gathering at the track now... I'll go and find Ralph and Felix and bring them here..." Sour Bill droned as he made his way out of the garage to find the new racers.

Vanellope sighed again. She already knew that Ralph would be hopeless, because he had never drove before. She wasn't sure about Felix, but she assumed that it would be the same situation with him as well. They would be going against herself, Rancis, Taffyta and some of the best racers...

Sour Bill arrived with a very flustered Ralph and a nervous Felix.

"So, you two have to enter the Random Roster Race... luckily for you, since you are both new, you don't have to pay to play for the next 5 races, so hope you win then, otherwise it might be your turns to steal medals." she chuckled.

"I can drive... I've drove the bulldozer that clears up the mess Ralph used to make of the building in our old game." Felix said. "But I'm still nervous."

"Yeah... I might be in trouble when I race..." Ralph face-palmed. He didn't want to look like a loser in front of Vanellope, but it looked like he had no choice anyway.

"... Take your karts and park them amongst the other cars. I'll be with you all shortly." she said as she went into the main part of the castle. Ralph and Felix both drove their karts to the starting line, where the other racers were.

"Hey, aren't you two the guys that the President let stay here? Nice to meet you!" A red haired girl called Jubileena Bing-Bing greeted them. "I wish you two luck, I still remember my first race..." she shivered. "It wasn't a good one!"

Taffyta was looking at the racer board. She didn't look too impressed to see that Rancis was beating her by 30 points.

"Hello you two." Rancis Fluggerbutter walked up to Ralph and Felix. "I'm guessing the President let you make up your names, huh?" he said, reading the board. "Good luck on the race, the President hasn't been beaten yet. But if you both get a final position of 1st - 9th, you'll be one of tomorrow's avatars, and you will gain points and move up that scoreboard. I'm sure that will please her." he said as he walked away.

A droning voice sounded around the track. "All hail the ruler of Sugar Rush, President von Schweetz."

Vanellope walked forward to reveal herself to everyone on the podium. "Hello fellow racers! It's that time again, the Random Roster Race! I hope you all have your coins, because this event is still pay to play."

Ralph looked up shyly at the President, heart racing. Rancis couldn't take his eyes off the girl.

"We have two new racers here, who you can see on the board. They are, Felix Fixfudge and Ralph Rocky-Road! Don't get too excited, they might even beat you on the track. Now, everyone, pay to play! I'll go first." she said, throwing down her coin into the trophy on top of the starting line.

"Vanellope von Schweetz!" the voice over echoed. The other names soon followed.
"Taffyta Muttonfudge!
Crumbelina Di Caramello!
Gloyd Orangeboar!
Adorabeezle Winterpop!
Citrusella Flugpucker!
Torvald Batterbutter!
Nougestia Brumblestain!
Sticky Wipplesnit!
Minty Zaki!
Snowanna Rainbeau!
Rancis Fluggerbutter!
Jubileena Bing-Bing!
Swizzle Malarkey!
Candlehead!
Felix Fixfudge!
Ralph Rocky-Road!"

The last two names were automatically uploaded to the board. Ralph shivered with anticipation. This was the first time his name had ever been read out so loudly and proud.

Vanellope glitched down to her kart and got into it, starting the engine. Everyone else took this as a hint for them to do the same. Ralph and Felix started up their engines with nervous glances at each other. A countdown started.

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

The rumble of engines sounded as everyone raced away from the finish line and zoomed into the distance. Sour Bill was keeping a close eye on the board.

Felix sped past quite a few racers in the first heat, but it wasn't over yet. There were 3 laps to do around the track, and he didn't even know where he was going, so he was following the track around. He hadn't seen Ralph yet, so he was in front of him.

Ralph was right behind Felix. He wasn't completely inexperienced, as he was the one who taught Vanellope how to drive in the first place. He zoomed past a few other racers as he drove up a ramp and over a gorge. His kart slammed onto the floor on the other side, but he heard the faint yells of failure behind him. A few of the racers didn't make the jump, and they regenerated onto the sides of the track along with their karts. They lost.

Sour Bill watched the electronic board in awe. 3 racers were out of the race, leaving only 14 racers behind. Felix was in 8th position, Ralph in 9th, Rancis in 4th and Vanellope, of course, in 1st.

Felix drove past two other racers, Ralph still on his tail. He could make out the faint outline of Diet Cola Mountain and the 3 leaders in the distance. He drove into a power-up box and a gun appeared on the back of his kart. He aimed, and he hit one two out of three racers. He was now in 4th position.

Ralph was struggling to keep behind Felix. The number of total racers left was now 11, so his chances were getting better, but with every corner he felt that his control of the kart was slipping. They drove around Diet Cola Mountain and back towards the start line.

Sour Bill looked at the approaching karts in the distance, and looked at the leaderboard.

1st - Vanellope von Schweetz
2nd - Rancis Fluggerbutter
3rd - Taffyta Muttonfudge
4th - Felix Fixfudge
5th - Jubileena Bing-Bing
6th - Snowanna Rainbeau
7th - Swizzle Malarkey
8th - Adorabeezle Winterpop
9th - Ralph Rocky-Road
10th - Candlehead

Vanellope zoomed past the starting line, about 3 seconds before everyone else did. She managed to take a quick look at the board, and it was obvious that Ralph wasn't doing that well. Hey, at least he was in the top 9.

Ralph was having major trouble keeping his kart steady. He was getting closer to the side of the track with every turn of the tyre, until the point where Candlehead overtook him as he crashed into the side. He regenerated at the starting line with his kart, along with all the other failed racers. He looked up to see his avatar on the board have a red cross over it. He had lost. He had made a fool out of himself.

A racer called Minty Zaki came over to Ralph and tapped a hand on his back.

"It's okay, you did amazing for a beginner." she said with a smile.

Ralph smiled his thanks and looked at the board again. Felix had, surprisingly, taken over Taffyta and had pushed his way into 3rd place. Candlehead was now out of the race, but it didn't matter anyway, because she finished 9th. Her name on the board simply turned darker as it was set in 9th place and she regenerated at the side with her kart.

The racers zoomed past the start line again, indicating that everyone was on their final lap. Adorabeezle and Swizzle were now out of the race as their name plates were set and they regenerated again. They were soon followed by Snowanna and Jubileena.

It wasn't long before the starting line changed to the finish line and the remaining racers crossed it, screeching their karts to a halt as they stopped to catch their breaths.

The players who were below 9th position were removed as the 9 avatars appeared on screen.

1st - Vanellope von Schweetz
2nd - Rancis Fluggerbutter
3rd - Felix Fixfudge
4th - Taffyta Muttonfudge
5th - Jubileena Bing-Bing
6th - Snowanna Rainbeau
7th - Adorabeezle Winterpop
8th - Swizzle Malarkey
9th - Candlehead

"No way..." Ralph said to himself as he ran over to Felix's kart. "You did it, Felix! You finished 3rd, and you are one of tomorrow's avatars!"

Felix smiled as he sighed. "I'm glad I took my hat off for that, the wind has made my face numb!" he said as he got out of the kart, legs shaking as he recovered from the adrenaline rush. Ralph helped him to the side of the track, where he was given congratulations from all the other players.

Vanellope looked over at the crowd around Felix and Ralph. She looked up at the board and was shocked to see that Felix had been 2 places behind her the whole time. Ralph wasn't on there, though... did he fail? What place did he come? Vanellope nodded to Sour Bill who pressed a button on a remote to reveal the final positions of all the players.

1st - Vanellope von Schweetz
2nd - Rancis Fluggerbutter
3rd - Felix Fixfudge
4th - Taffyta Muttonfudge
5th - Jubileena Bing-Bing
6th - Snowanna Rainbeau
7th - Adorabeezle Winterpop
8th - Swizzle Malarkey
9th - Candlehead
10th - Ralph Rocky-Road
11th - Minty Zaki
12th - Sticky Wipplesnit
13th - Citrusella Flugpucker
14th - Torvald Batterbutter
15th - Gloyd Orangeboar
16th - Crumbelina Di Caramello
17th - Nougestia Brumblestain

Vanellope looked sadly at the board as she realised that Ralph had only just missed out on being an avatar.

"Hey, President!" Rancis shouted as he ran over to Vanellope from his kart. "Nice racing today! I'm surprised that one of the new racers came 3rd, though." he grinned. "Still didn't beat me!"

"Don't be so proud of yourself. I'm so surprised because Felix overtook..."
Vanellope looked around for Taffyta, who was sitting by herself next to her kart. Vanellope walked over to her.

"Taffyta... what happened?"

"I... I don't know. At the last minute he just..." it was clear that Taffyta herself didn't believe it.

"Maybe it was just beginners luck." Vanellope said, hoping to raise her spirits a little. It worked a little bit.

"Yeah... anyway, good job today..." she said as she drove away to the Racer's Village that was west of Diet Cola Mountain.

Vanellope turned around to see Ralph looking almost pleadingly at the board. She raised an eyebrow as Ralph looked around frantically and ran after Felix into the castle. She followed them, Sour Bill trailing behind her.

"Good job today, everyone!" she shouted as she walked into the castle to to see the nicelanders congratulating Ralph and Felix. "Felix, woah, man! I never knew you were 2 places behind me!"

"Why thank you, friend!" Felix beamed.

"Ralph..." Vanellope walked up to the sad boy who was hanging his head. "It's okay Ralph, Felix had beginner's luck, that's all. At least you get a day off tomorrow."

Ralph smiled a little. At least Vanellope didn't think that his racing was completely awful.

"Anywho, it's getting late. I'm calling it a day, see ya!" she said as she walked up the stairs to her wing. The rest soon did the same until the last light went out and everyone fell asleep.

(The next day...)

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Ralph woke to the annoying noise of his shortbread alarm clock. He hit it with his fist in order to break it, but it didn't work because he didn't have big hands anymore. He sighed as he picked it up and threw it across the room. He stretched and looked out of the window. He had a perfect view of the track, but soon noticed that every one of the avatars were out there racing. The electronic board clearly showed that Vanellope was first, and Felix was 5th. Ralph wondered who the kid who was playing the game was controlling.

Ralph got up to hear a knock at the door. He opened it to see Minty Zaki and Crumbelina Di Caramello standing there.

"Good morning, Ralph! How are you this morning? We came by to show you around the castle." Minty said cheerfully.

"Yeah..." Crumbelina had clearly not woken up yet.

"But first, Sour Bill wants a talk with you. Find us after, okay?" Minty said as she walked down the corridor and down the stairs.

Ralph scratched his head. Why was everyone being so nice to him all of a sudden? He adjusted his hair a little as he walked into the throne room where Sour Bill was waiting for him.

"I heard you wanted to see me?"

"Yes... I'd like to show you something..." he said as he went behind the throne curtain and down a pipe. Ralph followed him. He immediately recognized it - this was the way to the coding of the game.

Sour Bill opened the vault and tied a piece of liquorice around his middle, and did the same thing with Ralph. He tied the other ends to a sturdy bar that was on the wall.

"Don't tell the President this... but you need to see and understand something..." he droned as he grabbed Ralph's hand and pulled him into the coding. They floated along until they got to Ralph's code block.

"Wow, I have an actual code block now, do I?"

Sour Bill ignored him. "You see this wire...?" he asked, pointing to a pink and purple wire that was shining the most, extending from Ralph's code to somewhere else in the vast darkness.

"Yes?" Ralph didn't know where Sour Bill was going with all this.

"This, is a love one-way cable... It's easy to notice, difficult to hide... just like the feeling itself."

Ralph guessed that Sour Bill was talking about love.

"You know where this leads, don't you..."

Ralph's eyes widened as he let out a gasp. So Sour Bill knew. "But... that's..."

Sour Bill started to follow the love one-way cable, travelling past other code blocks until he reached the ending point. Ralph stared wide-eyed at the distance this code block was away from the others. Sour Bill held the code block with two firm hands, keeping the name facing away from Ralph.

"You ready for this...?" he said, not waiting for an answer as he turned the code block around...

Vanellope von Schweetz

Ralph covered his face with both hands.

"She didn't tell me that you love her... I figured it out myself..." Sour Bill went on. "But because of the impatience of this girl, she only realised when she came here to reset your codes... She saw the cable, but has said nothing about it..."

"And what exactly does that mean?" he said impatiently. "What does this suggest how she feels about it?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, Ralph, but... I don't think she cares... If anything she is trying to see how your feelings towards her are getting stronger... she kept a good eye on you when the race finished yesterday..."

"She... did? But... how do I find out the truth?"

"The coding... is the only real way to tell. But, if we go back to her code block..." Ralph and Sour Bill floated back to Vanellope's code. "See here? There is a little wire poking through her code... but it doesn't lead to anywhere yet. And, look at the colour of it... it's bright red. That means that it's a love cable. But it isn't going anywhere... yet."

"So she might be in love with someone, but she, nor the code, knows yet?" Ralph looked at the little, cut wire. "It looks like it's been cut."

"It hasn't... it simply has nowhere to go. This is why I called you here. I also want to know where this will eventually lead, and if it will grow out towards someone's code. Which means... Ralph, you need to hint to her more that you love her."

"What?! No way. I can't! I'm too shy, and besides, what will she think of me after? Nah uh, sorry Sour Bill, but I can't do it."

"Even if you can't do it now, she will notice soon enough. Soon your emotions will become uncontrollable, and then you can't do anything about it."

"How long have I got until the arcade closes and they stop racing?"

"About... 2 hours. Why?"

"Urgh... Sour Bill, I just don't know myself anymore! I've been transformed into a 9 year old, lost my real name, lost Felix's and my game and become a part of this game in the space of 3 hours! And what's worse, I've fallen in love with someone I know I shouldn't!"

"Calm down, Ralph. Let's go back inside. There you can talk with yesterday's losing racers and get to know them a bit better. Come on." he said as he floated back to the vault. Ralph followed him, and for the next 2 hours he, Minty and Crumbelina became good friends, joking with each other, walking around the candy palace gardens and showing each other their karts. They were in the middle of discussing who they thought would be tomorrow's avatars before the palace door opened and Felix, Vanellope and the avatars walked in.

"Ralph!" Felix shouted in delight as he saw his friend and ran up to him. "How has your day been?" he looked very wind-swept.

"Good thanks Felix, just made good friends with 2 of the other racers. You?"

"Jiminy jaminy, don't even get me started! Every single player picked me to race as! They were crashing me into the walls, down gorges and making me lose all the time! I don't want to do that again!" he shivered.

"Well, the next Random Roster Race is coming up later, so you might be out of luck."

"Oh my land! I don't know if I like being in this game! It's too stressful! I need to take a shower... see you later, buddy." Felix said, hurrying upstairs to his wing. Ralph put his hands on his hips and tutted. This game really got to people.

"Get out!" someone shouted from near the entrance to the castle. "Why in the name of monkey milk would you just randomly crash into me during the race?!" It was a very angry Vanellope shouting at a very flustered Rancis.

"B-But...! I didn't mean to... I was trying to-"

"I don't want to hear it. Get out of my castle. If I feel nice then I might forgive you." she said, stubbornly crossing her arms.

Rancis walked out of the building, head hung low.

Vanellope stomped towards her throne and sat on it, to see that everyone in the castle was looking at her.

"What are you all looking at?!" she said angrily as everyone stopped staring and continued with their own conversations. She sighed as she sank deeper into the throne.

"What's the matter, President von Schweetz?" Sour Bill asked, worried that Rancis might have done something to hurt the girl.

"Rancis... during one of the races he came up right behind me. He shouted my name and when I didn't reply, he crashed into the back of my kart." Vanellope bunched her fists.

"I wonder why that is..." Sour Bill thought back to the second one-way love cable he had seen going into Vanellope's code block. Could that have been... Rancis's code block that it came from?

Ralph looked over at Vanellope to see that she was really annoyed at whatever Rancis had done. Minty and Crumbelina saw this, however.

"Ooooh~! Is Ralph taking a little look at the President?" Minty cooed loudly.

"I think Ralph has his eye on her~!" Crumbelina joined in.

Vanellope heard this and looked over in that direction. So did everyone else. There were a few mumbles and no-one moved, until Taffyta shouted:

"Ralph Rocky-Road has his eye on the President!" she laughed. "Why, isn't that cute!" she smirked in two different directions at once.

Conversation then started in the massive room, with looks at Ralph and Vanellope alike. Vanellope faintly smirked as she saw Ralph's cheeks start to turn red again. But she couldn't let him be embarrassed this easily.

"Hey, everyone be quiet, will ya?" she shouted. Everyone shut up. "Look, unless you have a legitimate reason to be here, get out!"

Everyone then left the room apart from Ralph, who simply sighed and went to open the door to his wing. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Ralph..."

"President..."

"What was that all about? Why did everyone set off like that?" Vanellope turned Ralph around, looking into his eyes to search for anything. Ralph simply looked over at Sour Bill, who was watching the two with interest.

"Sour Bill, leave us." she said, not taking her eyes off of Ralph.

Sour Bill nodded and went upstairs somewhere.

A silence followed.

"Well?"

"I... I don't know. I looked over at you to see if you were okay from that rowl with Rancis and then... everyone started saying...that..."

"That you had your eye on me."

Ralph's shoulders sagged.

"Look, Ralph, I know what goes on. I know about all the relationships and how everyone feels towards each other in this game, thanks to the code. The code never lies. So... why do you try to hide it?"

Ralph finally met Vanellope's gaze. "I...It should be obvious why." he said as he turned around and ran up the stairs to his wing.

Vanellope didn't even bother to run after him. "It should be obvious?" she paced around the throne room for a bit. Ralph had admitted his love for her, but not in the way that she thought he might. She glitched up to Ralph's room and knocked on the door. "Hey, stinkbrain! I need to ask you something, totally unrelated to the conversation we were just having!"

The door creaked open. "What..."

"We're going to Game Central Station. You, me and Felix. Tell him that this would be a good opportunity for him to meet up with Calhoun. Meet me downstairs in 10." and with that, she walked downstairs.

10 minutes later, a clean Felix and a depressed Ralph came downstairs.

"Right, lets go!"

Ralph, Vanellope and Felix got onto the train to Game Central Station. On the train ride, Vanellope was having serious trouble with glitching.

"Hey kid, what's happening to you?" Ralph asked as he too, glitched. So did Felix. What was going on?

"What's happening to us?" Felix said as he looked at his transforming body. His legs grew taller and everything seemed more grown-up. Ralph's hands were getting much bigger, as was his whole body. Very soon, Felix and Ralph were back to their normal selves. But what had happened to Vanellope?

Nothing much had changed, apart from that her legs were a lot longer than they previously were. She was now slightly taller than Felix, but not by a lot. Her eyes had changed from the usual hazel to a bright green colour.

"Woah, why do I feel so tall?" she asked no-one in particular, looking around her. She saw that Ralph and Felix were back to their old selves. That only meant... "No way, I'm older?" she gasped.

The train pulled to a stop at Game Central Station. When Vanellope stood up, it felt so weird to her being taller than she was in Sugar Rush. She was walking around in circles, testing out her new height.

"Come on, we need to meet Calhoun!" Felix said as he walked into the station with Ralph. When Vanellope walked in, however, a siren sounded and the electronic man appeared next to her.

"Excuse me Miss, random security check." he said, not looking up from his notepad.

"Erm..." Vanellope looked at the man in confusion.

"Name?"

"Erm... President Vanellope von Schweetz..."

"Game you are coming from?"

"Sugar Rush..."

"Did you bring any sweets with you?"

"No..."

"Anything to declare?"

"No..."

"That is all. Enjoy your day." the electronic man zipped away.

Felix and Ralph were stood laughing at Vanellope.

"What are you jokers laughing at?" she asked, frowning.

"The look on your face was priceless." Felix grinned. "Now come on, Calhoun said she would meet us in Tapper's."

Vanellope, Ralph and Felix got on the train to Tapper's. Once again, Vanellope glitched and she was back to her old height again. She sighed as they got off the train and went into the bar. Characters from all games were gathered here, and Vanellope stood gawking at some of them. She saw heroes, villains, good guys, bad guys, dinosaurs, mad scientists, the lot!

Ralph helped Vanellope up onto a bar stool and sat down next to Felix at the bar.

"I wonder where she is..." Felix said, looking around.

"Hey! Fix-It!" came a familiar voice from the other end of the room. Calhoun had arrived. She walked over to where everyone was and sat down next to Felix. "Hello again Wreck-It. You too, kid."

"I'm not a kid..." Vanellope said under her breath as Ralph smiled. She will always be a kid whether she liked it or not.