Author's Note: I just need to mention that because Vanellope is in her twenties, so are the other Sugar Rush racers. It would be weird otherwise. Keep reading and reviewing!

Chapter Five: Good Guys Give, Bad Guys Take

Vanellope sat down. She stood up again. She walked in a circle. She sat down again. She tapped her feet on the ground. She stood up again. She stretched out her arms and yawned. She sat down again. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

Even while she was doing this, Ralph didn't arrive.

This was unnatural. He would never leave it so late to visit Vanellope. He was normally here by noon at the latest. It was now quarter to one, and her patience was about to snap like a candy cane branch.

"Waiting for your boyfriend?"

Vanellope turned to see Taffyta Muttonfudge, her rival both on and off the racetrack. She was standing with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

"So Ralph's a little late," said Vanellope. "So what?"

Taffyta flicked back her blonde hair, as if the answer to the question was obvious. "Why don't you just admit that he's not coming and get back to the castle?"

"He IS coming!" Vanellope snapped. "There's probably just some last-minute thing that popped up. Paperwork, maybe. You know how it is."

"Yeah," Taffyta said, inspecting her pink nails. "Speaking of paperwork, we really need you back at the castle. Torvald checked out that tree and she's pretty sure there's some sort of fungus eating it-"

"Yeah, okay, I'm on it." Vanellope was distracted. She leapt to her feet. "Right after I go and look for Ralph."

As she walked away, Taffyta called out, "Do you want me to sort out the tree thing?"

Vanellope paused to look back at the strawberry-themed racer. Her pose was so relaxed, so confident – the opposite of how Vanellope felt.

"I mean," Taffyta continued, "it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm gonna be the next president anyway, so . . . I might as well get used to the paperwork now."

Vanellope carried on walking.

Her mind was elsewhere.

. . .

No trains ran on Sundays, so Vanellope had to walk all the way to Fix-It Felix Jr. At Game Central Station, she passed Surge Protector, who was busy writing something in a notebook. "'Scuse me," she asked, "have you seen Wreck-It Ralph pass by here?"

He looked up. "Sorry, kid, I haven't. And if he did, I would have checked him out first. You never can tell with those types."

Those types?! Who does he think Ralph is, the Bogeyman?

"That's okay," said Vanellope, although it wasn't.

She continued through the tunnel. She wasn't used to such darkness – Sugar Rush didn't have a night cycle, so she had never experienced the terrors of night-time. Here, she tried to focus straight ahead to her destination, thinking about what she would say when she got there.

'Why didn't you turn up?' No, I can't just jump into it. I need to build it up. 'Hey, Ralph! Great to see you, chump! I just came round here because you didn't. What were you doing?' Hmm, is that too rude? Okay, if he asks what I'm doing, I'll say I'm doing someone a favour – then I'll just run around looking like I'm doing someone a favour!

It didn't work out that way.

As she approached the light at the end of the tunnel, she could hear voices – two of them – having an argument.

"I just don't get it."

"Me neither. Hey, did you try the hammer again?"

"I've tried it a million times already!"

"Okay, okay, I'm just looking for solutions here!"

"Well, all your solutions are terrible! In fact, they – no, I can't say that, this is a kid's game."

There was a low growl, and then something flew past Vanellope's ear, so close she could hear a whoosh in her hair. She froze until she heard the clatter as it fell to the floor. She waited. When she was certain that no more projectiles were on their way, she walked backwards and picked up the object.

It was Felix's hammer – but not as she knew it. Instead of being shiny and gold, it was dull and grey. It felt heavy in her hands, and she was sure she was going to drop it.

She stepped forward. "Uh, Felix? Do you need this?"

"What do you think?"

Again, this was not the Felix she knew. His clothes had changed colour from bright blue to dark red. He wore grubby dungarees, and one of the straps had been torn off. His t-shirt was stained with mud. He wasn't wearing his signature hat, so Vanellope could clearly see that his mousy-brown hair was slick with grease. That didn't scare Vanellope. What scared her was his face, which was set in a scowl. His eyes seemed to be drilling into her.

"I think . . . yes."

Felix stretched out a hand. "Give it here, then."

Vanellope slowly stepped into the game, but this obviously wasn't quick enough for Felix. He snatched the hammer away so fast that his arm was a blur. Vanellope blinked.

"Um, Ralph?" she asked. "Is Felix-"

She gasped.

"-OKAY?!"

Ralph, who was standing quite a distance away from Felix, looked completely different. His messy clothes had been replaced with new jeans and a clean sky-blue shirt. His enormous feet were concealed in shiny shoes, and his hair hidden by a baseball cap. He still had freakishly big hands. That hadn't changed.

"Wow!" Vanellope took a step back. "You look . . . good!"

"Thanks," said Ralph. Was he blushing?

Vanellope kept glancing from Ralph to Felix and back again. Her tampering had certainly changed their appearances – and Felix's mood. But what else had been changed?

"Say, Ralph?" Vanellope asked carefully. "How are you feeling?"

Ralph shrugged. "Confused, mostly. Everything's different."

"Uh-huh," Vanellope nodded. "I can see that."

"We can't get out, for one thing," Ralph continued.

Vanellope frowned. "Weird." It was probably not so bad that Ralph couldn't leave. Otherwise, he would most likely yell at her for messing with the programme, and then march her back to Sugar Rush and kill her – lots of times and in many ways. For now, she had to pretend she knew nothing.

"And there's this one thing-" Ralph shuffled past Vanellope. "Hey, Felix, would you smash something for me?"

"No," was the immediate reply.

"Please? I have to show Vanellope something."

Felix marched over to the penthouse, grumbling, "What am I, a performing monkey?" When he reached the penthouse, he swung his arms and bashed the hammer through the wall, leaving a large hole. The rest of the penthouse started to tip – towards Vanellope!

"Look out!" Ralph cried.

For a second, time slowed down. Vanellope's eyes widened as the bricks approached. Then she came to her senses and glitched just as most of the penthouse crashed to the ground.

Felix regenerated above the rubble. "Happy now?"

Ralph cleared his throat. "I was gonna suggest just breaking a window, but your way is good too."

Vanellope pointed a trembling finger towards the mish-mash pile of bricks and glass. "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

"Nope." Ralph took a big step forward. "I wanted to show you this." He plunged his hand into the rubble.

It was one of those blink-and-you-miss-it moments. Within about half a second, the penthouse was rebuilt. Golden sparks burst from the fixed windows, and an onomatopoeic ping echoed through the game.

All Vanellope could say was, "Whoa."

Ralph nodded.

"But wait, how – I mean – now I'm confused too. How did you do that? And how could Felix . . . why is he so . . ."

. . . bad?

With that unsaid word, a memory slotted into place. The black cable in the gold box . . .

Oh, sugar.

She hadn't even checked for a name. And now her mistake had come back to bite her in the butt.

"Vanellope?" Ralph's voice cut through the storm of frightened thoughts swirling in her mind. "Are you all right?"

For a moment, Vanellope was frozen. She shook her head.

Then she turned and ran.

. . .

Sargent Calhoun was just entering Game Central Station when Vanellope rushed over and almost collapsed in front of her.

"Thank code you're here! Something's wrong!" Vanellope almost yelled.

"Hello to you too," said Calhoun, smirking at her own joke.

Vanellope clutched her chest and tried to get her breath back. Calhoun's smirk disappeared. "Boy, this must be big. What the heck is going on?"

Vanellope pushed the soldier back, into a dark corner of the Hero's Duty station. "Okay, you have to let me tell you the story before you say anything."

Calhoun nodded silently.

And so Vanellope told her everything – the disastrous party, changing the codes (at which point Calhoun nearly butted in, but stopped herself), Ralph's absence, what she saw in Fix-It Felix, Jr. – everything.

When she had finished, Calhoun's face was blurry. Vanellope blinked. Now she clearly saw that Calhoun's eyes were a little harder, her mouth a little thinner. "You know what happens next?" Calhoun finally asked.

"Nuh-uh." Vanellope swallowed.

"When the arcade opens, the game's gonna be different, because their roles are gonna be different. And the kids are gonna notice because kids notice everything."

Vanellope hadn't thought of that.

"Old Litwak might think there's something wrong with the game – which, to be honest, there is." Calhoun paused. "You know what happens after that?"

Vanellope said nothing. Her legs were shaking.

"The game gets unplugged. The characters are homeless – except Ralph and Felix, who can't leave. When Litwak pulls the plug-"

"No," Vanellope whispered.

"They'll be out faster than a light bulb in a thunderstorm."

The tears spilled over then. Vanellope spun away and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie. Calhoun never liked to see anyone cry. Vanellope's voice wobbled as she asked, "What can we do?"

"First, you tell Ralph what you did."

"I can't."

"You have to. Then we go back down the basement and fix the codes."

"Can't we do that without telling Ralph?" Vanellope tried for a smile.

Calhoun shook her head, slowly, deliberately. "No can do. A good relationship needs trust. You ought to know that."

"I do."

Vanellope took a deep breath to slow her frantically beating heart. She would do it. She would tell Ralph what she just told Calhoun.

This is gonna be tough.