Turbo looked at his hands. By all means, they should not be that shade of blue. By all means, he should have been dead.

He knew he should have been dead. After all, he was eaten by a product of another game and then vanquished in a geyser of hot fizzy cola, all while in someone else's game. By all means, that should have outright deleted him. So why was he still here then?

"I figured you'd still be here, King Candy." A young voice, girlish by the sound of it, caused Turbo to turn around. "Or should I call you Turbo?"

"You!" Turbo ran towards her. "I'll tear you to-"

He fell through her. Baffled, Turbo tried to pull himself up using the kart the girl had brought with her. He fell again.

The girl only looked down at him as he puzzled out these things. "As President of Sugar Rush, my first duty was to re-examine the codes to see if there were any changes that remained. To my surprise, a part of your code still remained."

Turbo blinked. "You say...I survived...because I'm part of the game?"

"Given time, you would have probably gotten well enough to jump into someone else's game." The girl admitted. "That's why I want to keep you here. I have a deal for you."

"Really?" Turbo looked at her with suspicion. "I was King. I was always first. What makes you think you can offer me any better, President?"

"You won't be first." The girl told him. "You'll be the best."

Turbo blinked. He was pretty sure first and best went together like ice cream and chocolate. "...Go on."

"Well, after we kicked your molasses, Ralph and the Hammer Guy decided to add a bonus stage to their game by changing the code. Of course, I didn't have any plans to change my game, but after the gamers loved me, glitch and all," She paused, letting that little tidbit sink in Turbo's head. "I decided that there should be a second way to let the racers find out who is the best. Have you every heard of a time attack?"

Turbo scoffed. "Of course not. What is this time attack? You race against a clock or something?"

The girl giggled before she remembered who she was talking to. "In a sense. What happens in a time attack is that the gamer chooses one driver. There are no other drivers. No other items. Just a driver pulling out all the works just to have the fastest time."

"And where do I fit in all of this?"

"Wow, you are pretty old." The girl pointed out a kart that he hadn't noticed earlier. It was the same blue as him, and it felt rather familiar. "Some of these time attacks have what is called a 'ghost'. The ghost is a racer who holds the track's best time. Gamers use them to study up on how to beat the current track record. And guess what you are?"

"..." Shuddering, Turbo let out a laugh, one that wasn't sinister in any way. "So, I get thrown away into a mode where I have to defend my position? What do I get out of this?"

"For one, you won't go game-jumping." The girl replied. "And two, now that I know you're here, I could tell the others that you survived, and I'm pretty sure your next takeover won't go as smoothly."

"Hm, very, very well played." Turbo admitted. He stuck out his hand. "Fine, but you'll be the first I'll face. It'll be...Turbo-tastic."

Vanellope grinned as she "shook" Turbo's hand. After all, the gamer who was going to control her bragged about his runs on a game called Initial D.