A/N: Oh, lookit, it's not the oneshot I thought it'd be!

Darkness.

Horrible. Soul-sucking. Darkness.

One might have thought that it was some sort of crashed game, or the product of an empty outlet (or perhaps someplace in the depths of Mammoth Cave during that part of the tour where they turn off the lights), at least from this creature's perception.

From the outside, however, it was quite clear it was a code room. Thousands upon thousands of boxes glowed in purple and pink hues. A few dull, gray boxes were dispersed through it, boxes for content that had been dummied out, like Diet Cola Mountain.

And in one corner, shining in an unassuming off-white, a cluster of code boxes sat, seemingly inactive. These were for code that was yet to be unlocked. And at the center of it sat four recolored racers: Sticky Wipplesnit, Torvald Batterbutter, Nougetsia Brumblestain, and Citrusella Flugpucker.

Though imprisoned as code in the confines of the box, these racers still felt some modicum of sentience. Their world was dark and they could feel little. They could not truly communicate, and their worlds were simultaneously quiet and deafeningly loud. They were privy to just about everything happening around Sugar Rush, but lacking access to any sort of higher thinking process, they couldn't analyze or single out any one piece of information, so it all came across as a sort of unintelligible background noise, like a fan or a buzzing bee.

There the code boxes sat, seemingly inactive, waiting to be brought to life.

Vanellope sped her kart forward, but Taffyta and Rancis pulled off their usual maneuver of getting their karts close together, rendering the space in front of them inaccessible to anyone directly behind them.

The three crossed the finish line, resulting in a placing order of Rancis, Taffyta, and Vanellope. Soon after came Jubileena, Snowanna, Minty, Swizzle, Candlehead, and Adorabeezle.

"Great roster race, guys!" Vanellope cheered. "And I'm sure you two will be on there tomorrow!" she smiled at Gloyd and Crumbelina who soon returned her smile with their own.

Life couldn't be any better in Sugar Rush since the cybug incident. Vanellope made a great president, no one person was held up as more important than anyone else, and all eleven racers were safe and well-adjusted.

It seemed that nothing was missing to the racers and citizens. The world was their oyster.

But to anyone from the outside who had looked for more than two seconds at the racers before the incident, something was indeed missing.

Moppet Girl walked with a bounce in her step to the Sugar Rush cabinet just as a little girl was walking away from it, complaining about how she hadn't seen her favorite character, Batter-something-or-other, on the roster in ages. Moppet Girl eavesdropped, more out of force than choice, before sitting down in the racing seat. She didn't share any of the same qualms as the girl, but then again, she hadn't played that long and had perhaps missed a few racers here and there or something, though she had thought she'd seen each and every one of the racers.

She paid her fee, pressed start, and moved the selector to her favorite racer, Vanellope. She was about to select her when something made her change her selection to a certain red racer.

"JUBILEENA BING-BING!" The girl onscreen jumped excitedly, screaming "Oh, yeah!"

Moppet Girl and Jubileena were a magnificent team as they tore through the tracks. They demolished the Sweet Ride, Cakeway, and Frosty Rally tracks. Sped through Haunted Hollow, Snow-Cove, and Peanut Butter Paradise. Crushed the competition on Tiramisu Turnpike, Emmareld City, and Twisted Swizz-ster. Wiped out anyone who dared race on Jubileena's own track, Cherries Jubilane. Now all that was left was the game's namesake track, Sugar Rush.

Meanwhile, deep within the recesses of the code, a code box began to tremble, showing a bit of its sentience, yearning to reach out to the world above.

"Last game!"

Moppet Girl was on fire, and she and Jubileena had conquered the Sugar Rush track. And just when Moppet Girl had thought she'd played every track, about to get up at the "last game" call, the game loaded up a track claiming to be Vanellope's, Royal Raceway.

She stared for a few seconds, confused. The name made sense, but she'd always thought Sugar Rush was Vanellope's track, though it never said so in-game. This "Royal Raceway" wasn't selectable at all from the main track selection.

In reality, she'd triggered a rather rare event. Royal Raceway, the longest track in the game, the one used for roster races, was only open for races in certain circumstances. And the player for that session beating every track with no continues was one of them.

Moppet Girl's confusion started to melt away as a short cutscene played of Vanellope spinning to change out of her hoodie and into a white racing suit, as if this were some special occasion. She skipped over to her kart, and the cutscene ended.

The race started, and Moppet Girl and Jubileena were off.

Within the confines of the code vault, a single code box began to glow just a bit brighter than the others…

A very long seven minutes later, with a few kids and Litwak gathered around the game, Moppet Girl and Jubileena crossed the finish line. The kids cheered and Litwak congratulated the girl as the trophy descended, Litwak ushering the kids who had been lingering toward the door. Moppet Girl watched Jubileena's winning animation before getting up and heading toward the door, herself.

The black pit where the programming resided illuminated itself in shocking pinks, electric purples, and stark whites. A far corner of the room was seeing much more activity than it ever usually saw, one box within it shining a blinding, pristine white. The other boxes around it expressed concern, their limited feeling giving them an unclear picture of what was going on. The concern turned to worry as the light died down, a now purple code box migrating into the throng of active code, drifting away and disconnecting from the other boxes' small circle.

Mr. Litwak had just locked the door when the game announced its news.

"NEW RACER UNLOCKED!"

A/N: Was it a good idea to continue this? Do you like it? Do you wanna criticize it? I'd love a review, whether you liked it or hated it.

Jubileena's track name courtesy of flyingpochama948 on Tumblr.