Hello there!

I'm back in the Wreck-It Ralph fandom, and have decided to turn my previous story, Life in 16 Flavors, into a new universe for all my theories and musings to flower in. And first up is this story, starring one of my all-time favorite game franchises.

This story takes place before, during and after the events of Life in 16 Flavors. So if my writing is new to you, I highly recommend that you check out that story first. Otherwise welcome back to this universe, and I hope you enjoy :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Wreck-It Ralph or Sugar Rush, as they belong to Disney. I also don't own the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as that belongs to SEGA.

Present Time

Wreck-It Ralph was unaccustomed to praise from others.

It probably had to do with 30 years spent as a feared bad guy suddenly upended by his heroics in Sugar Rush. The whole thing made the perfect story: a lonely bad guy meets with a miserable glitch, an evil plot by a monster long thought dead came into light, and the two risk their lives to save the glitch's game. The princess revelation was icing on the cake.

Still, he mused as he made a trek through GCS towards Sugar Rush, it was all pretty weird. Once the story broke out everyone was wanting to be his friend, apologizing for the years of standoffish behavior, and that paired with the Nicelanders being, well, nice for once, made him feel really good inside, like after eating one of Mary's pies. This particular night was only a day after Turbo was destroyed once and for all, so he figured all the attention would die off after a few weeks. He was just happy to have helped his friend.

Quick footsteps headed in his direction, and he turned to see two blurs materialize in front of him. "Oh hey Sonic! And...erm, Sonic!"

He didn't know the two heroes very well, mainly seeing the older and newest Sonic through his public safety messages that played periodically. The younger and veteran Sonic rarely ventured outside his game; Ralph hadn't seen him since Sonic the Fighters was plugged in and gave that Sonic a new home.

The older Sonic, or Modern Sonic to be more specific, grinned at Ralph. "Sorry to bother you, but the lil' guy just wanted to say something real quick."

Ralph had to bite down a snort; "Classic" Sonic was mute. But the little hero grinned and waved at the much larger villain, before hugging him around the middle. Ralph was too shocked to do much except awkwardly pat the hedgehog on a thin shoulder. C. Sonic pulled back and saluted him once more, before nodding at his larger counterpart and bailing towards his own game, careful not to disturb a passing turtle. "What..."

"Yeah, he's not the most outgoing thing but he's a sweetheart." M. Sonic shrugged before extending a gloved hand. "Anyways, I just wanted to thank you."

Ralph shook his hand, still reeling from the hug. "W-What are you thanking me for?"

A sigh left the green-eyed speed demon, and he turned towards Sonic the Fighter's port. "Between losing his first game and still dealing with two sets of game data being programmed into him, he hasn't been doing so well. But after you saved Sugar Rush, well let's just say you gave him a lot of hope for a lot of reasons." M. Sonic checked his wrist as if there was a watch there, then shrugged. "I gotta be heading back—I promised to help Tails with his turning. Still weird being in a car, but what can you do." He flashed Ralph a grin. "But if you ever want to go out for a root beer or just wanna talk, hit me up. I owe ya one."

Ralph waved bye as M. Sonic sped off for his own game, blinking slowly. Sitting down on a bench, he stared at the port for TRON, mind drifting off back decades.

Sega Sonic Arcade used to be there, a rare deal that Mr. Litwak had made with a fellow arcade owner in exchange for his busted Asteroids console. C. Sonic had come then and his game was a pretty decent hit with his game franchise's fans, other gamers drawn in by the unusual trackball control. But his friends Mighty and Ray had been the adventurous types—Ralph once had to chase them out of his game after they were nearly pecked to death by a swarm of birds. But that hadn't stopped them from exploring a shoot 'em up, and one day they didn't come back.

Before then no one had died outside of their games, and it was a lesson paid very dearly. Sega Sonic Arcade was unplugged and C. Sonic joined the other homeless characters who lost their homes in the great Arcade Crash back in the 80s. But then Mr. Litwak came in with an even rarer game, Sonic the Fighters, and C. Sonic went barreling in to his new home.

Of course there had already been a Sonic programmed for that game, so the two had merged, keeping the old memories but adding the new physics. Ralph couldn't imagine how wonky that must be, dealing with two lives fused into one; his game was based off of Fix-It Felix, but at least that game had entirely different characters, keeping him safe from dual programming.

M. Sonic had come with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, making instant friends with his classic counterpart, and was the new spokesman for telling characters to stay safe or doom their games with their deaths. Ralph now knew that M. Sonic was a pretty ok guy and C. Sonic wouldn't be out of place in Sugar Rush, and made a note to take the elder up on his offer for a root beer.

Stretching, he ambled off towards Sugar Rush, his excitement to see Vanellope after her first day of racing pushing the dual Sonics out of his mind.

16 Years Ago

He didn't know where he was, only that it was dark and his head still hurt from memories that he would rather forget. He slid his hands across the ground, finding a seam for a trapdoor. Pulling the door upwards, he was blinded by a stark white tunnel, falling in and taking that troublesome golden cartridge with him.

He landed with a thud next to a giant SEGA Genesis controller, his ears ringing from the fall.

'Oh Sonic, they must've nerfed your footing when they gave you all that speed!'

Biting his lip, he mentally shoved away Mighty's voice. He was gone, Ray was gone, and now he had a new home with new friends and they didn't need to know that he was one button mash away from breaking down in tears.

Sniffling, he picked up the cartridge. Every game must have one, since back in the (no, don't think about that place, it's gone forever and there's nothing that crying will do about it)...other game he had found one too. It was one of those Game Genies, used when someone fell through the wall and needed to go into debug to get out or something. He had found it when running through the different arenas of the game, in a dark sliver that he hadn't noticed before. Then he had fallen through the crack, weird music had played and then he was in that dark room and now here.

His ears twitched in pain as he willed his headache to lessen. It had been present ever since...well, Q-Bert said it was the stress of being homeless. Sometimes he wish he could talk so he could've thanked Q-Bert and his friends in their own language, but he was stuck pantomiming his thanks for all they had taken of him.

Eventually the buzz died away, and he looked at the words flashing across the Game Genie. A thought took seed in his mind, and he turned towards the Genesis controller. Debug could do anything in a game—it could beat the story mode instantly, it could give him all the powers of the programming, and maybe it could take his memories away.

And that's it for now. I will indicate when the story makes time skips, and note that the story begins in the first chapters of Life in 16 Flavors and follows the plot through and past that story. Hope fully it makes sense. I hope this interests you :D