I was planning on making this a one-shot, but it started getting really long, so I figured I'd split it up into chapters. I hope that you all enjoy this little story. It won't be as long as my other stories, but I'm hoping it will be just as good. But I won't know until people review! So if you read this story, I'm begging you, PLEASE review and tell me what you think. I really value your opinions.

I don't own Wreck-it-Ralph.

Chapter 1: A Flash and a Dream

The second the little raven haired girl opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong with her memory. It was as though someone had locked it up into a chest and thrown away the key forever. She could remember nothing about what had happened before she'd awoken. She didn't even know how much time had passed before then. After reaching up to rub her hazel eyes, she opened them as widely as she could and glanced around to see what should have been familiar surroundings.

The ground was soft and the air smelled of cotton candy. Right behind her was a tall brown mountain in the shape of a bottle of soda, and in front of her there were nothing but gigantic gumdrops and jawbreakers sticking out of the ground. The sound of silence was all around her.

The little girl would have continued to just stand around looking lost and confused had it not been for a loud roaring sound that suddenly ripped through the air far ahead of her. The sudden noise startled her, and before she could do anything else, she felt her body suddenly ripple. She got that tingly feeling one gets when a body part is not moved for a long time and falls asleep. For only a couple of seconds, all she saw was blue and the numbers 1 and 0. Then, just as quickly as the flash had occurred, it ended. It hadn't caused any harm, but when the girl looked around she noticed two indentations in the ground. Wiggly lines inside the indentations told her that they were her boot-prints. Somehow, she had moved from that spot to where she was now standing a couple of feet away. But as far as she knew, her feet hadn't left the ground. She hadn't planned on moving.

The child decided to start walking towards the sound she was hearing. But she'd only gotten a couple of steps in when suddenly she saw the flicker of blue and numbers again. When her eyesight returned, she had once again moved against her will. Now getting a bit concerned, she lifted one foot up and took a step. Nothing happened. She took a second step. Still nothing happened. Gradually, she started to pick up the pace, until she was running. For the longest time, nothing happened and she started to relax. But then, just as she was getting to the top of the hill she'd been trudging up, she saw the electrical blue and the numbers again, and by the time they had vanished again, she was standing at the very top.

The only thing she could really do with this trick she'd somehow developed was marvel over it. Somehow, her code was allowing her to teleport short distances instantaneously. It wasn't something she could control at the moment, but the idea of possibly trying to do so seemed promising. It would be nice to be able to jump from place to place without lifting a toe. But before she delved too deeply in her thoughts, she heard the roaring sound again, and she looked down at what looked to be some sort of track or road. Eyes widening, she watched as a gigantic bowl raced down the road in front of her. After crossing a thick red and white line the bowl screeched to a halt and the watching girl was able to observe more features. Four perfectly round spheres of snow-cone material, the two in the back immense compared to the ones in front, could be seen, and to the girl's surprise, another little girl hopped out of the bowl. She gave it a couple of pats affectionately before turning and noticing the spy. She began to advance, hollering angrily. "Hey, why are you pinning me so hard? Jealous of my righteous threads? Or perhaps my keen cart?"

The questioning should have frightened the little girl, or at the very least startled her. But instead, she gave her response rather quickly, including a rather sharp quip with it that she felt quite proud of. "No. I'm sure I would be jealous of all those things if I wasn't so busy staring at the scoop of multi-colored snow on your head that you call hair. And what's up with the stick? Did you walk into a Popsicle tree or something and get it stuck there?"

Instead of getting insulted or raging some more, the retro girl let out a sharp laugh and came closer, holding up her hand for a high-five. "Nice one!"

Sensing that this girl was no longer angry at her or going to yell, the sharp-tongued girl returned the gesture, and the slap of their palms made a loud, satisfying sound. Once it had died down, the girl with the afro spoke again. "I'm Snowanna Rainbeau. Who are you?"

The response came quickly again, which was surprising to the little raven-haired girl because of how much she wasn't able to remember. "Vanellope. Vanellope von Schweetz."

Now that Vanellope knew this girl's name, she felt more comfortable in asking her burning questions. "So, you call that thing a cart? What is it used for?" she asked, pointing at the bowl, which was still sitting at the bottom of the hill.

"You mean you don't know?" the shocked look on Snowanna's face told Vanellope that she had expected everybody to know what a cart was and what it was used for. "You use it for racing. This is a racing game after all."

Racing. For a reason she couldn't explain, the word sent an excited, wonderful shiver through Vanellope's code. It didn't take her long to realize that she wasn't just shivering inwardly. In an instant, her code flashed again, and by the time she was back to normal, she'd learned that Snowanna had seen it happen. Her jaw dropped open, and Vanellope took that as a sign that Snowanna had never seen anybody do that before. Before she could start asking questions, Vanellope tried to give her an explanation, based on what she knew, which was very little. "That's my…flash," she explained, the name coming to her relatively quickly. It made her ability sound cool, like a super-power or something. "Sometimes it allows me to move short distances. It doesn't hurt or last very long. I just feel a quick shiver, and for a couple of seconds, all I see is the color blue and a bunch of numbers. But then it goes away for a while until it decides to come back. I'm not sure how I got it or what specific things can set it off. It's kind of random, and I just discovered it like, ten minutes ago."

Even though the explanation was rushed and there wasn't a lot to it, Snowanna nodded as though she understood perfectly. "Righteous," she murmured, then decided it was best if she changed the subject, which Vanellope was grateful for. She may have been proud to display her new talent, but she was much more interested in the idea of carts and racing at the moment.

So when Snowanna asked if Vanellope wanted to sit in her cart, she almost jumped out of her skin with excitement. Yet another flash coursed through her, but she barely acknowledged it. Instead she cried out, "Sweet mother of monkey milk! Are you serious?"

After receiving a nod of confirmation, Vanellope took off at the speed of light down the hill. Every couple of steps she would flash, making the trip take less time than it normally would have and leading her to conclude that when she got excited or stimulated, it caused the flash to occur. Briefly she wondered what would happen if she got too angry or upset, but she was too thrilled about the idea of sitting in the cart to actually want to continue thinking about it.

When she finally got to the bottom of the hill, she jumped into the cart like a hockey player leaping over the bench. She landed in the padded leather seat with a satisfying 'thump' and a wide upside-down rainbow of a smile on her face. The instant she was seated in the cart, she felt comfortable, as if it was the place she'd been born and raised. Gazing at all the pedals, joysticks, buttons, and the big, beautiful wheel in front of her, she felt as though they were all calling out to her, asking for her to operate them. Asking her to race. Both her body and code were burning with intense desire. But she managed to keep herself from listening to her body's instincts, knowing that unfortunately, she had no idea how to race. If anything were to happen to Snowanna's cart, she may lose the very first friend she'd ever made. However, that didn't stop her from knowing that she wanted a cart of her very own so that she could learn.

"This is incredible!" she hollered to Snowanna, who was walking down the hill towards her. When she was close enough to hear better, Vanellope spoke again. Her curious hazel eyes spoke the question on her mind, but just in case Snowanna didn't understand, Vanellope decided to ask it. "How can I get one of these?"

"If you want a cart, you need to get into the bakery," Snowanna answered, pointing off into the distance. Vanellope's eyes followed her finger until they landed on a green building quite far away from where the two were. It was hard to see details, but streams of puffy, colourful smoke were noticeable flying out of smoke stacks.

"Thanks!" Vanellope chirped, hopping out of Snowanna's cart so she could head to the bakery, fully prepared to do whatever it took to get her cart as soon as possible. Now that she had been inside one, she didn't think she could live another second without having the chance to race. It may have seemed a bit obsessive, but Vanellope didn't see it like that. Racing was simply something that she knew she wouldn't be able to live without. She could feel with every digit in her code that she was meant to be a racer.

"Hold it!" Snowanna suddenly ordered.

Surprised, Vanellope paused with her foot in mid-air, ready to be put down. "What?" she asked, turning and flashing as she did so.

"There's an old man called Beard Papa at the gate's entrance," explained Snowanna. "He's really sweet, but he only lets people in if they have one of these." Finishing her sentence, she dug a hand into one of the pockets of her violet-purple jacket. She didn't remove it until she'd found what she'd been searching for: a sheet of paper a light shade of ecru with gold trim and words written in fancy cursive that Vanellope couldn't read.

"A piece of paper?" she questioned, shooting Snowanna a funny look. She had no idea why she would need such a useless thing to enter a bakery of all places.

Snowanna barked out a laugh before explaining herself. "It's not just a piece of paper. It's like a permit or a license. All you've gotta do to get one is head over to the Palace over there." She pointed in another direction, and Vanellope saw another building. This one was white and sparkled like a gem in the programmed sunshine that fell on it. Even from such a far distance, Vanellope could see it was a grand building, perhaps even fancier than the bakery. For a moment as she stared at it, she thought she felt recognition. But as quickly as the feeling had come it vanished as she reminded herself that she'd woken up in a field and the castle had no significance in her life. Yet. Snowanna was still explaining how to get a permit, so Vanellope put her other thoughts out of her head so she could continue listening. She decided that was the most important thing for her to do at that moment. Without instruction, she would have no idea how to get the one thing she really wanted at that moment.

"King Candy'll give you one, you fill it out, he looks it over, and then, if he decides it's safe for you to race, he'll stamp it," Snowanna finished explaining. She hadn't noticed the way Vanellope had looked at the castle.

"King Candy?" Vanellope repeated, a hint of incredulity in her tone. She had never considered that there would be somebody living in the castle, but she supposed it made sense to have royalty in a game with a castle. So she asked what she thought was a very important question. "Is he nice?"

"Is he nice? He's got the word 'candy' in his name; of course he's nice!" exclaimed Snowanna, throwing her hands up in the air with excitement. A glimmer of joy appeared in her violet eyes, and the chestnut skin on her cheeks darkened, and Vanellope assumed she was remembering when she'd been given her very own permit to enter the bakery. She started to point out that not all candy was nice and sweet, but stopped herself before the words could come out. She didn't want to anger the first person who had spoken to her.

"He's hasn't rejected anyone from racing so far, so I wouldn't worry about it if I were you," advised Snowanna, clapping Vanellope on the shoulder in a friendly way. "I wish I could go with you, but I promised Taffyta and Candlehead that I'd have a practice race with them so we can get used to the terrain around here. I'll see you later though! Once you get your cart, we can all have a race together. Good luck!"

The idea that there was many other kids in the game to meet was thrilling, but Vanellope knew it was best to meet them after she'd gotten her cart. That way they'd all have something in common to talk about and she'd be able to take part in their games and races. She thanked Snowanna, and then watched as the diva jumped into her cart and revved it up. The roaring purr of her engine was music to Vanellope's ears, and she shivered and flashed as Snowanna took off across the terrain. The slight breeze that the cart had created caused the hair in Vanellope's ponytail to fly up, and when it settled again, it was messy and her bangs were sticking up slightly. She ran a hand through her hair to get it to settle down again, and then took a deep breath.

The excitement was growing in her, and suddenly she felt like she was going to throw up. She could feel her stomach grumbling, as though telling her to get going, and her heart felt like it was stuck inside of her throat instead of sitting in her chest where it should have been. A bitter taste from her stomach's contents rose into her mouth, but it didn't bother her. Instead it fascinated her that vomit and burp could come together and work in perfect harmony with each other in her excited state.

"It's a vurp!" she proclaimed, proud of her word-creating skills. But she didn't stop to dwell on the idea. Without further ado, she forced her stomach's contents and her heart to return to their proper places, and started running as fast as her feet could carry her in the direction of the building that would change her life forever. There would be time for vurps and thinking up new terms and quips later. Right now she had a mission. She needed to get to the castle, obtain a permit, and build her own cart or die trying.

Besides, she had a feeling that there would be plenty of vurps and quips in her future.