Chapter 13: Secrets of Reunions

'It appears that the good guys are winning the war and things are finally on an even kilter! However, something just escaped from the code vault and from the marks on the doors, a threat could bring down what the good guys are fighting for! Does this spell even more trouble for Sugar Rush?'

Chapter Inspiration: Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars

Second Inspiration: Find Our Way by Midnight Kids (feat. Klei)

Previously

Syndey's thought was cut short as he suddenly received a harsh blow to the chest and was thrown back five feet, nearly interrupting the battle that was taking place between Tea and Cindy. Her data reframing her form, Vanellope grinned as she eyed Sydney across from her.

"Apparently, you're not too much for me." Vanellope chuckled in victory. "That's for sure!"

With a deep growl, Syndey climbed back to his feet and was ready to charge at the girl once more, but a tremor that mimicked an 8.3 earthquake not only knocked everyone off their feet, but loosened and brought down a large jawbreaker from the ceiling, cutting off Sydney's path from Vanellope. Having been knocked off her feet, Vanellope looked up just in time to spot a large jawbreaker falling right on top of her! Quickly activating her glitch, Vanellope glitched away just in time as the jawbreaker fell and cracked into several large pieces!

"Ok, these tremors are getting out of hand!" Vanellope voiced as she looked between the jawbreaker in front of and behind her. "That had the biggest one yet! I know I need to bring my dad back in order to stabilize the core, but the game could at least work with me! I'm trying here!"

"That felt like an earthquake!" Tea voiced to Vanellope as dodged a swing from Cindy. "Is the core that unstable?"

"More than you know." Vanellope replied with a sigh. "If we didn't have these clowns to deal with, I'd be in the code room right now trying to figure this out!"

Code Vault

The wire that emitted the king's code into the code vault was now attached to the back of the anti-virus code box, the box now having more life than previously. As every code box hung silently in the zero gravity space, the doors to the code vault looked as if they were forced open, deep claw marks evident on the outside of each door...

Currently

As the shapeshifting virus laid at the minty racer's feet gripping his chest, Minty did not hesitate to deliver a sharp kick directly between his eyes as she stood over him panting from the heavy battle the two were engaged in prior. With a shaky right hand, Garry grabbed the area of his forehead that he was kicked in, feeling yet another area of his body racked with pain.

"You racers!" Garry began as he turned his angered vision to the mirrored angered vision of the racer. "You just don't know what you're up against! You don't know WHO you're up against!"

"Oh we have a pretty good idea!" Minty sternly stated as she delivered another sharp kick to the virus's chest cavity. "You're not what you wanted us to think you were!"

"Ok so would now be a good time to jump in and help Minty?" Jet questioned to his brother as the twins kept their eyes to the fight before them. "I don't think she can survive much longer out there."

"If we step out there to help her, we'll be moving targets." Set calmly replied to his brother. "Once again, we are new avatars with no powers of our own. Vanellope and Taffyta have not had the time to thoroughly program our codes into the game. We are programmed to be avatars and race for now, that is it!"

"But we have to do something!" Jet panicked as he and Set witnessed Garry summon a cherry bomb with his left hand and quickly toss it to Minty. Catching it, the short fuse made the bomb explode in the racer's face and hands before she could dispose of it. The explosion knocked the racer off of her feet and right next to Taffyta, who fell unconscious shortly after the battle between the two began. "And he totally cheated! That was Jubileena's signature move!"

Set did not reply to his brother, but kept his eyes on the battle before them, mentally calculating if stepping in was an option to give the racer the upper hand.

Getting to his feet, despite the pain he was feeling, Garry summoned an ice block in his right hand as he locked his angered vision onto the racer. Sitting up, Minty shifted her eyes between the unconscious racer next to her and the virus that was approaching.

"It's time to put this battle on ice!" Garry expressed in a demented tone as he continued approaching Minty. "You are through! You are finished! You are-"

Keeping her eyes locked onto the virus, Garry suddenly stopped in his tracks as he howled in pain, the ice block disappearing from his right palm. Clawing at the sleeves of his cloak, Garry pulled the sleeves up to reveal mint leaves stuck to his skin that were creating red imprints along the edges of the leaves. Clawing them off in a hurry, searing red imprints of the leaves were left behind on the fair skinned virus.

"Toxic Perilla Mint, the new data in my code box!" Minty voiced to herself as she watched Garry frantically claw at his body, at the leaves. "My new signature move that can disable my opponent when in peril. That upgrade is definitely a life saver!"

"What are these things on my skin!?" Garry raved as he continued clawing at his skin to remove the poisonous mint leaves from his being. "It feels like my entire body is on fire!"

"That's the whole point!" Minty retorted as she turned back to the twins on the castle's walkway. "Guys! Come and get Tafftya right now! I'll keep him busy while you guys get her and yourselves to safety!"

"What about Rancis?" Jet called back.

"I'll think of something, but for right now, she's the closest!" Minty replied as she got to her feet. The sound of Taffyta slightly groaning caught the minty racer's ears, but she kept her attention on the virus before her.

"So do we just run out there and grab her?" Jet questioned to his brother, who did not answer, but grabbed Jet by the collar of his blue and white jump suit to retrieve the racer.

"When I get these things off, you're all done for! You hear me?!" Garry screamed as he clawed at his legs next. "These things feel like they are burning a hole in my code!"

"They have the potential to do that." Minty snidely replied. "I can't thank you enough for being the first guinea pig to test them out."

Scrambling onto the battle field, Jet and Set approached the unconscious racer.

"Ok, you grab her hands and I'll grab her feet." Set instructed. "Once we lift her, we make a run for it and I don't care how tired you get, keep moving! I want to be able to experience Sugar Rush after the system's problem has been solved."

Without a word or question to his brother, Jet nodded as he approached the front end of the racer.

"You better watch my hair and outfit!" Jet swore he heard Taffyta demand, which slightly threw off his concentration.

"Did she just?" Jet questioned as he pointed to Taffyta, but Set holding up his hand stopped his brother's thought.

"Just pick her up and go before we're next!" Set demanded as the two quickly lifted the racer and began making their way to the castle with her just as quickly. Reaching the castle doors, the two quickly scuttled inside and placed Taffyta on the debris ridden castle tiles.

"Ok, she is not as heavy as I thought she'd be." Set commented as he sat on the tile next to Taffyta.

"Hopefully, she didn't hear that." Jet breathed as he took a seat on the other side of the still unconscious racer. "But I could have sworn she spoke to me out there."

"In the height of a stressful situation, we often hear or see things that never occurred." Set calmly stated as he released a breath he was holding in. "But thankfully we're safe for now."

Releasing another sigh as did his brother Jet, a looming shadow overhead caused the turbo twins' breathes to suddenly hitch in their throats. Turning to and eyeing the shadow closely, Jet and Set's pupils shrunk to the size of tiny dots at what the shadow revealed to be. Watching the shadow as it passed over them and out of the castle doors, Jet felt himself begin to shake uncontrollably.

"Ok, tell me I did not see what I thought I just saw!" Jet stammered rather loudly. "Did I just see that? Another virus?! Isn't dealing with Garry bad enough?!"

"I saw it too or we are both experiencing a Folie de deux for sure." Set stated as calmly as he could while doing his hardest to keep his fear hidden. "The best thing for us to do right now is move further into the castle before that or even Garry returns!"

Just then, another violent tremor slammed the castle that knocked more ceiling and floor tiles loose in the hall the twins and Taffyta were in. Thankfully, the tiles that fell from the ceiling were far from the three.

"But what about Minty?" Jet questioned as he and his brother got to their feet. "She can't fight both of those things!"

"I know how you feel brother, but right now, we don't have any choice but to let her handle what's going on right now." Set sympathized with his brother. "Being only avatars, if we try to step in to fight, there is no telling if we will survive. I don't even know if we have any extra lives at this stage. Everything is so up in the air right now, I can't even make sense of it!"

Hearing how his normally calm brother quickly became frustrated with the situation they were in, Jet did not respond, but looked down at the unconscious racer and then to the castle doors.

"Come on, let's get her and ourselves to safety before we really have to wonder how many lives we have in this game." Set stated with a sigh as he bent down to pick up Taffyta's legs. "Ready?"

"Yea." Jet simply replied as he bent down to grab Taffyta's arms.

Grabbing the racer's limbs, the twins began moving themselves and Taffyta deeper into the castle as the landmark shook once more from a slight tremor.

Peeling the last of the mint leaves off his legs, Garry's body horribly shook as the toxins left from the mint leaves continued to burn throughout his body.

"You don't know what you just did!" Garry snapped as his entire body suddenly became encased in ice to relieve the pain the toxic mint leaves left behind. Releasing a strong sigh while encased, the ice quickly melted away as Garry's vision locked back onto Minty. Just seeing the virus before her utilize one of her closest co-horts signature moves more than struck fear into the mint themed racer.

"Beezy." Minty quietly stated while trying to keep a lid on her rising fear.

"Oh that feels so much better!" Garry stated with a twisted smile. "You must thank Adorabeezle for me as that ice bomb of hers really comes in handy in a pinch. Now, where were we? Oh yes, I remember!"

Shifting his attention to Rancis, the peanut buttercup themed racer's body was suddenly broken down into tiny streams of binary that were quickly transferred to Garry, his code now zipping along the avenues of the virus's body. Turning back to Minty, an ice bomb suddenly reappeared in Garry's right hand.

"And now for the grand finale." Garry stated in a taunting tone as he began approaching Minty once more, this time slow and menacing. "I've been waiting to get this show started since our battle began!"

"Then allow me to begin the ceremony!" A deep and determined voice loudly growled as a sudden gust of wind rushed past the racer that threatened to knock her off her feet. Before Garry could locate the source of the voice, he suddenly found himself pinned to the ground and face to face with the owner of the voice!

"Dacian?!" Garry stammered as his eyes widened at the sight of Sugar Rush's own King. "But I thought you were just data and that-"

"And that you and Vlad had the upper hand after scattering my data all over the arcade when he betrayed me!" Dacian growled as he slammed his chest claws into the chest of the virus, causing the snow-white haired menace to jerk from being impaled. "Once I was out of the way, Vlad could destroy my game so his could take its place! Don't worry, I intend to have a word or two with him when I catch up to him as well! But until then, you have something that belongs to Vanellope and I!"

From where the mint themed racer stood, she observed the data of her fellow racers being transferred to the king from Garry, the virus quickly weakening from his source of power being taken away. Transferring the last of the data from the virus, Dacian grimaced at the site of the virus beneath him.

"I don't know how you regenerated here, but I guarantee you that your code will never regenerate in this or any other game ever again!" Dacian darkly stated as he bared his fangs and delivered a swift but deadly bite to the right side of the virus's neck, right into the binary that enabled his code to allow regeneration. The binary was similar to the juggler vein in a human that, if severed, would end one's life. With the binary destroyed, that ultimately destroyed his code's regeneration ability.

"I guess we did have one heck of a run didn't we?" Garry weakly smiled as his body began breaking down into tiny data bits. "You may have gotten me, but Vlad will be twice as tough. I guarantee you that."

With his final words spoken, Garry's body completely broke down into tiny data blocks that disappeared into thin air and upon contact with the ground.

"I'll be the judge of that!" Dacian voiced as he lifted his head and turned his entire body to Minty as their visions locked. The mint themed racer jumped at the site of the king in Cybug form.

"King Dacian Von Schweetz, is that you?" Minty stammered. "Is it really you?"

"Yes Minty, it is I and unfortunately, in this form." Dacian replied as he withdrew his fangs and bared a weak smile. "It is good to see you and Sugar Rush again. Maybe not in the state it is in now, but good none the less."

"Same here." Minty simply nodded. She then noticed the king's expression change to that of a pleading one.

"Minty, have you seen my daughter or Taffyta?" Dacian questioned as he took a step closer to Minty. "I must speak with them right away!"

"Taffyta is in the castle with our new avatars and Vanellope-" Minty began, but stopped herself from revealing where Vanellope ran off to, knowing the king's strict rule about game jumping for any reason. "Vanellope is, she is-"

"Minty, please!" Dacian continued pleading as he took another step closer to the mint themed racer. "Where is my daughter?"

Locking visions with the gentle king, Minty knew she could not hold back the truth any longer from the main ruler of the game. Shaking her head, Minty quickly gathered the courage to state what the king wanted to know.

"She's in Tron Legacy." Minty revealed with bated breath. "She went turbo to retrieve a block of your data there."

Hearing that the princess-president went against one of his highly restricted rules, the king could not bring himself to be furious with Vanellope, especially knowing why she broke the rule to begin with. Cracking a wider smile, the king shook his head.

"She certainly takes after her mother." Dacian replied as his body shook slightly, his code picking up on the instability of the game's core. "Veronica could never listen to reason when necessary and now Vanellope."

"Now that you have the racer's codes that Garry absorbed, when are you going to reactivate them?" Minty curiously questioned. "And what about Garry? Will he be able to regenerate?"

"I will reactivate everyone's codes right after I pay Vlad a visit and no, Garry's ability to regenerate has been destroyed for good." Dacian voiced as he turned his vision towards the castle, seeing the ruins it was becoming due to the severe tremors that the game continuously experienced. "He and I have some catching up to do and once that's over, I'll locate Vanellope so we can get the core of this game stabilized once and for all!"

"Is there anything I can do to help while you're in Tron?" Minty urgently questioned.

"Help out Taffyta anyway you can until Vanellope and I get back." Dacian replied as he spreaded his wings to take flight. "And while you're at it, don't let Taffyta know I'm back. I want to surprise her."

"You got it, your majesty." Minty smiled.

Winking to the mint themed racer, the king took to the skies while Minty began making her way to the castle to check on Taffyta and the Turbo Twins.

Tron Legacy

Being notified of the of the havoc breaking loose throughout Tron Legacy, Vlad began making his way to his office, having cancelled the last two disc battles until the chaos breaking loose was under control. Passing the panicking players and a few prisoners that were released from their cells, courtesy of Gloyd, Vlad made it to his office to find not only Gloyd, but looking to the control panel, his picture of Veronica von Schweetz gone. With the blaring alarm continuing to sound overhead, Vlad did his best to compose himself as he entered and frantically searched his office for both his picture and Gloyd.

"Daisy brought him in here and no one can escape my office unless they are released by someone from the outside." Vlad firmly stated to himself as he approached the control panel to search for any signs of the pumpkin themed racer. "So where could he and my picture of the most beautiful woman in the arcade be?"

Looking to the monitors to see if the racer escaped into the halls of the game or even back to his home game, the center monitor caught the dictator's attention and made his eyes shrink to tiny dots at what was playing on the screen. The one secret he thought was long buried played right before his eyes, causing the dictator's temper to begin bubbling to the surface.

"Are you ready for tonight's raid on Tron?" The character, who wore a red and white racing suit, red boots, a helmet to match, and whose yellow eyes glowed with deviance, questioned Vlad as the villain grinned and displayed his sword to the character.

"As if you have to ask Turbo." Vlad replied back as he brought his sword into view. "That waste of data won't even know what hit him and once he's gone, that game will be all mine to rule! I dare for anyone to try and get in my way! They will be deleted on the spot!"

"As my thoughts are about Sugar Rush." Turbo stated as he looked off in the distance as if he could see the game's outlet from where the two stood. "I know it's itching for a new ruler, which means its time to make a new name for myself after that road blaster's incident!"

"Looks like we both have our work cut out for us huh?" Vlad laughed as Turbo joined in.

The video played back once more which sent the dictator into a silent panic that quickly became an outward panic as his mouth flew open!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Vlad shouted as the video played back for a third time, his voice echoing through the already chaotic halls of Tron Legacy. "He's dead meat! I tried to play nice, but oh no! He was just determined to push it and changed that! No more Mr. Nice Stripes! I'm going to find that parasite myself and when I do, his code is as good as deleted!"

Frantically looking around his office for how the boy could have escaped, his vision landed on the ceiling above to find a tile in the ceiling punched out. A grin appearing on his face, Vlad slightly shook his head.

"Not very smart pumpkin head, not very smart at all!" Vlad menacingly spoke. "Classic move if I do say so myself, but I always loved a good chase and I will certainly enjoy this one!"

Closing his eyes, Vlad's body broke down into simple light bluish green binary that quickly made its way into the ceiling ducts to hunt down Gloyd.

JawBreaker Cove

Having endured several beatings from his cat of nine tails whip during battle, Vanellope's back was harshly thrown against a rocky wall of the hideaway. Before the teen could stand on her feet to dodge what was coming at her, the band of Sydney's whip was harshly slammed against her throat, further pinning the girl into place on the wall! Tightening the hold on the whip, a twisted grin formed on the foe's face at having his prey exactly where he wanted her! The princess-president began trying to force the whip from around her throat as her code appeared on her legs, arms, and torso, indicating that the stress on her body was becoming too much for her code to handle.

"I am done playing games with you Von Scwheetz!" Sydney hissed as his wide eyes caught with the royal's strained vision. "You wildly underestimated me and here I thought daddy's little princess was going to actually pose a threat to me! To me, Sydney Syrupshot!"

Turning her vision to where Tea and Cindy were fighting, Vanellope witnessed Cindy elbow her opponent in the torso while delivering a jaw cracking uppercut soon after! Tea's tired body landed on the ground at Cindy's feet as the female syrupshot stared down at her handywork.

"You and your little friend over there walked in here and just expected this fight to be a cake walk because of the so called special code you inherited from daddy!" Sydney continued as he tightened the grip of the whip once more, forcing the girl to work that much harder to remove the weapon from her windpipe. "Well, I have news for you missy! When you mess with a syrupshot, you're messing with fate! Your own fate!"

"You surely do!" Cindy piped in.

"You know, its too bad you won't get the chance to see the destruction of your game and friends like Vlad wanted." Sydney continued as Vanellope began trying to push herself off the wall despite Sydney firmly holding her in place. "That's something I would have loved to have seen the sight of if I do say so myself."

Feeling herself becoming light headed from the lack of oxygen, Vanellope mustered up what strength she had left to try and fight off her attacker, but soon found herself failing. The beatings she received from Sydney during the fight weakened her and her glitch ability considerably, which put her at the disadvantage she was in.

"You know, I may give you the opportunity to beg for mercy." Sydney stated with a smug grin as he watched Vanellope's movements slow to a crawl, the fight she had in her quickly retreating. "But considering the tireless games I had to endure during this fight, I might just skip that and go right to destroying your code. What do you say princess?"

Feeling her mind shutting down, every word Sydney spoke to the raven-haired teen ran together like one long run on sentence. Feeling her body go limp and her eyes shut due to the extreme weakness, the royal didn't witness what took place next. Sydney was suddenly ripped away from the girl and harshly thrown against the large jaw breaker that fell from the ceiling. A sickening crack of his spine was heard as the male syrupshot landed on the ground unconscious. With just one swipe of a claw, Sydney's code was instantly destroyed and broken down, completely dissolving him from Sugar Rush's game grid. The block of code that was held hostage by him was quickly swept up and before Vanellope's limp body could hit the candy coated ground, she was caught by a pair of claws that held her body afloat.

Across the room, Cindy's eyes widened at the sight before her as fear quickly consumed the girl. Despite being weak from the battle, Tea couldn't believe who she was seeing before her as well, remembering what Vlad told them of his permanent demise.

"Sweet Maple Syrup!" Cindy blurted out as she stumbled backwards. "King Dacian Von Schweetz?!"

"In the fully regenerated code and you're next for what you did to my little girl!" Dacian's voice boomed with vengeance as he turned his vision to face that of Cindy's, who looked as if her fear was weakening her vision. "Gary was just the start, which means this battle is far from over!"

Writing this chapter was as long as the wait you guys had to endure, believe me. One check of my profile will give you the entire story, but I will add one tidbit about the gap between ch. 12's posting and this one. This author has officially earned her title, accompanying diploma, and occupation as Doctor of Neuropsychology, which added to the wait you guys had to endure for this installment. I'm going to do my best to get chapter fourteen out sooner than next year and if "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is as good as the reviews state, there maybe an ending to this that will lead a few favorites to exploring the web on a rescue mission. That's all I'm saying for now lol. But don't forget to,

Read and Review please!