A/N: Here's the Swizzle and Minty story I promised back in Violin's Song. I have hinted this pairing in almost every one of my Wreck-It Ralph stories and I had so much fun writing it! This story does follow the chronological order of my others (the complete list can be found on my profile), but only minor references are made to them, hence you can go ahead and read this one on its own without any context from the others. It does contain spoilers for the movies however, so you better watch them first! (But really, that goes without saying…except I just did. Whatever.)

All the racers play roles and get some dialogue in this story, as do Felix and Calhoun, who play larger roles in later chapters. Ralph and Vanellope have supporting roles, though the latter will be used as a plot point later on.

Extreme Hearts

March 21, 2020 –

Part 1 – From Humble Beginnings

Before Rancis Fluggerbutter and Candlehead had struck an emotional chord with each other, and before Gloyd Orangeboar and Crumbelina DiCaramello had developed a rather odd and unexpected friendship, the first couple to exist in Sugar Rush were none other than Swizzle Malarkey and Minty Zaki. Yes, Sugar Rush's very own extreme thrill-seekers had developed a very close relationship with one another and now happily lived as a young kid-crush sort of item. But this was long after Wreck-It Ralph had first set foot into Sugar Rush, after King Candy's defeat, after Ralph had accidentally caused the unplugging of their game, after Felix and Calhoun had taken the kids under their wings for adoption, and about a year after Vanellope had taken leave of the game to live in the internet.

Swizzle and Minty's story finds its roots from humble beginnings. Their romance, of course, had to start from somewhere. And this was not something that had been programmed in the code; this was a special chemistry that had sparked all on its own and brought two extreme hearts together as one.

22 years ago (15 years before Ralph met Vanellope):

Swizzle Malarkey stood on the sugar-dusty terrain upon a low cliffside of Sour Patch Gulch, overlooking a small gorge where his kart stood waiting for him. He breathed in the sight before him. It was early morning and the only sound to be heard was the wind whistling through this unique environment. The Gulch was a wide expanse of narrow gorges, rolling walls and caverns, and treacherous ravines, all shaped out of hard rock candy as far as the eye could see. This was his favourite spot in all of Sugar Rush, for it was here where he could test out his death-defying stunts and try to break his own daredevil records. Swizzle was an artist, or at least that's what he liked to call himself. Everything he did, he made sure that he did it with skill and precision. He was a master at conquering all the go-kart tricks that had ever been invented and was also notorious for pushing himself beyond the limits. If there was a book that documented and kept track all of the world's greatest records ever broken, there would be an entire section bearing the name 'The Swizz' and listing every single record he has successfully defeated and crushed to the ground.

Sugar Rush was fairly new, having arrived to Litwak's Family Fun Centre and Arcade maybe a couple months or so ago. Even from Day 1, Swizzle had felt his adrenaline pumping the moment his body had zapped into place on the character code board. He was ready to roll with the need for speed vibrating the very fibers of his programming. He couldn't wait to start racing! Before heading out with his 14 fellow-racers to the Kart Bakery so they could each build a racing kart, their ruler, King Candy, had given them all strict warnings to not make sort of interaction with the mysterious Glitch that was lurking somewhere in their game. According to the king, doing so would ultimately arouse suspicion from the players in the human world and thus put their entire world at risk of being unplugged and destroyed for good. This information alone had been enough to spook the young kids, and from that day on, each had vowed to never let the evil Glitch race or so much as go anywhere near one of them. Swizzle felt this duty running through his rapid bloodstream as Priority #2 in his mind. Priority #1, of course, was to show off and perform every daring stunt he could think of when he wasn't racing during quarter alerts.

He inhaled a deep breath of the sweet-smelling air, letting the wind play with his long locks of dark green hair that fell to his shoulders beneath his swirly beanie. "Oh yeah," he breathed to his companion. "I tell you, Carl, this is the place where you just feel alive."

His only company that morning was one of the marshmallow techs from the racetrack. He wore a standard Sugar Rush Speedway cap and was holding a stopwatch in one of his floating hands and a green flag in the other. Carl shrugged as he hovered next to the boy. "It's cool, I guess," he said easily. "You going to give it another shot or what?"

"You know it, dude!" Swizzle said enthusiastically as he then sprinted down the low slope to the bottom of the gorge where his signature go-kart was waiting: a psychedelic, multi-coloured rainbow swirl ice pop with swirly lollipop wheels that was none other than the famous Tongue Twister. He had loved this girl since the day he build her. Her mixture of bright vibrant colours helped The Swizz to stand out from everyone else's karts in comparison. His fans and the players just couldn't get enough of these tasty colours that made him look like a streaking rainbow. And who on earth didn't love rainbows? Then again, he did feel a little sorry for Crumbelina, who didn't have any splash of familiar colours in her racing theme, and as a result, not many players seemed to want to choose her as their racing avatar.

He leapt into his driver's seat and fired up the ignition, taking a minute just to listen to the loud rev of his laser-sharp cruiser of colour and speed. He then pushed his helmet overtop his head. "All set, dude?" he shouted over the noise.

Carl bobbed his body as a nod; it's rather difficult to nod when your head is your entire body.

"Let's see what you got, kid!" he shouted back and then waved his green flag. Swizzle Malarkey took off with a roar, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of sparkly sugar particles. Down into the canyons he sped like the wind, dodging boulders and low hanging ledges with ease. Sometimes he ran right along the sides of the steep cliffs and sloping walls themselves to literally tilt his world near-sideways. He streaked across many wide, angled slabs along the ground, treating them as ramps to perform some awesome jumps and taking advantage of these cool leaps to gain even more distance. And the whole time, giant clouds of sugar dust were kicked up at their wake behind him.

Not once did he spin out or have need to jerk his motions with frantic reflexes, for he was skilled and smart when it came to burning rubber (or in his case, lollipop swirls). He treated every racetrack – whether the official speedways that could be selected by the players, or improvised tracks that he adopted for himself such as this one in the Gulch – like his own baby, giving them respect and the 'Swizz' treatment.

With the wind in his face and the sun shining down on this glorious racetrack that he had all to his own, he had only one thought on his mind as the sounds of his engine blasted all around the canyon in deafening, satisfying echoes. This is it, he thought with a wild grin plastered on his face with excitement. THIS is why life is worth LIVING!

He didn't stop until he had completed a whole circuit around the little loop he had found when he had first discovered this place. He soon came to a screeching halt at the exact spot he had sped away from only seconds ago. Just how many seconds that was, well, that's why Carl was there.

"Thirteen seconds. Not bad, kid."

"Awesome!" Swizzle whooped as he leapt gracefully from his kart. He ran up the slope again to meet the marshmallow. "Another record smashed to bits and punched to the ground!"

"More like obliterated to smithereens!" called an unfamiliar voice.

Swizzle's instincts sparked and snapped his hands in a karate defense position, ready to meet his intruder and secretly fearing that the nasty Glitch was in his presence. He had never actually seen the Glitch before, but King Candy had described it as being capable of destroying their entire game. And if a monster could do that, who knew how terrifying it looked like up close? Swizzle was fearless, but he still didn't want to encounter the Glitch on his own. But when he and Carl both turned around, they saw someone that was definitely not the Glitch or a monster. Minty Zaki, another of Sugar Rush's elite racers, was standing just a few feet away with her kart parked just behind her. Swizzle immediately dropped his defense mode.

Now, Swizzle had made a unique name for himself within the little community of racers. Aside from King Candy, the only boys among the population of girls were Rancis, Gloyd, and himself. Rancis was a very reserved sort, mostly keeping to himself and never socializing with anyone except for the guys. Heck, Swizzle couldn't remember him ever chatting to Taffyta or Candlehead, whom he stuck around with as the former's most trusted minions. Rancis was truly the definition of the snooty, stuck-up character, but Swizzle was totally fine with that, since the peanut-butter-themed blonde racer usually loosened up whenever it was just the three boys hanging out. Gloyd was even more antisocial than that, but he mostly viewed those around him as his targets for his infamous pranks. Occasionally, Swizzle would help Gloyd with his funny tricks, but far more often than not, he usually let Gloyd handle them on his own. Nothing wrong there, but most of the girls ultimately hated the pumpkin-bearing racer because of that. Gloyd didn't seem to care at all. Pranking was basically the main core of his code.

Swizzle, in complete contrast, was actually very much the opposite of his two best friends. While Rancis and Gloyd tended to avoid contact with many others, and their arrogance often shunted potential friendships away, he himself secretly enjoyed socializing, despite holding a high sense of pride, a bit of a cocky attitude, and his trademark cool-dude reputation that was often a mixture of the first two traits. Nevertheless, he was friendly with anyone he came across, and as a result, all the citizens in the game seemed to like him, not because of his status as one of Sugar Rush's 15 famous racers, but because he was generally a nice guy. Even the grouchy Taffyta Muttonfudge once admitted that she 'didn't mind hanging around' him. His approachable character was the reason why he had made friends with Carl; no one else had ever made any sort of contact with the marshmallows. Additionally, Swizzle's laid-back, easy-going personality had unexpectedly shaped a side to him that was generally more chivalrous and sometimes rather flirty towards the girls, not exactly gentlemanly, but at the least more polite than how Rancis or Gloyd would ever behave.

Surprised as he was to see Minty pop out of the blue, he smiled grandly as she walked up to him. "S'up, Minty? You come here to check out The Swizz?"

Minty smirked when he uttered his catchy nickname. "No, I was not. I was heading off to the racetracks, but I heard a lot of noise coming from this gorge, and then saw you wizz through those rocks like shooting rainbow. That was pretty cool."

The boy in blue swelled with pride. It was already awesome to have beaten his own speed record today; it was even more awesome that someone other than Carl had seen him do it. Especially since this someone was Minty Zaki. Ever since their first day of racing, he had taken a liking to the green girl's distinct quirks and habits. The cool backflips and somersaults that she performed on a daily basis always stuck out in his mind whenever he thought of her. None of the other girls dismounted her kart by hurling her entire body 360 degrees in a horizontal rotation twice, maybe three times, before landing on the ground on both feet like Minty did. She was certainly less girly-girl than everyone else, that was for sure. In many ways, she reminded him very strongly of himself, possessing a number of impressive moves and acrobatic skill, and always showing them off to the crowds of spectators. She had strong cravings for life on the fast lane, just like he did. While he didn't know her all that well, he could see it whenever he quietly observed her: she had a wild, upbeat attitude and didn't hold back from doing things defined as crazy and awesome. And to top it off, she sported a wicked curtain of green hair like him.

"Well, I'm not The Swizz, for nothing, my dear Mints!" he declared proudly, puffing up his chest. "Lover of adrenaline and doer of all daring-dos! That's me. I accept nothing less."

She laughed in response. "You are so full of yourself, you know that?"

Without waiting for an answer, she spoke again. "Well anyways, since you're so famous all of a sudden, how 'bout sharing the glory a little? Mind if I give your fun little track a spin?"

That caught Swizzle off-guard. No girl he knew had ever dared to top his records. "Uh, no, not at all. Go for it," he said, trying to maintain his suave demeanor. "But I doubt you can even come close to my time. No offense."

"Thirteen seconds is going to be hard to beat, missy," Carl said helpfully.

The girl shrugged as she backflipped herself into the air, landing directly into her Veloci-Wrapper in a perfect seating position. "I'm not necessarily trying to beat it," she breezed. "I'm just seeing how fast I can go."

The picture of the bow-wearing girl flipping so gracefully into her kart was still playing in Swizzle's mind, that he almost didn't answer right away. "Yeah, totally," he said quickly. "Um, whenever you're ready, we'll time your speed."

Minty saluted and drove her kart down the bumpy slope and stopped right next to the Tongue Twister. Just like for Swizzle, Carl raised his green flag and the moment he dropped it down, Minty was off. Swizzle watched her zip off in a green blur, impressed by her speed so far. She turned the corner and disappeared from sight behind all the jagged rocky ledges, yet the sounds of her roaring engine still echoed throughout the canyons. They grew fainter, but quickly picked up again in volume, and almost before he realized it, Swizzle saw Minty's kart racing into view again, completing the loop. She rocketed past them and screeched to a halt. Carl stopped his stopwatch. Swizzle looked over at it anxiously.

"Fourteen and a half seconds," the marshmallow reported. "Impressive!"

Swizzle felt relieved, yet he had to agree with Carl. That was impressive.

He watched as Minty did no less than three frontflips out of her kart and jogged up the slope to rejoin the pair. She pumped her fists up high when Carl gave her the time duration. "Sweet! Well, Swizzle, you're still the holder of the speed record. But you better watch out…someday I might just decide to snag it from under your nose when you're not looking!" She grinned at him devilishly.

The beanie-boy laughed, partly from her playful threat, but mostly because she looked so funny when she had flashed him her smug look. It bore a strong resemblance to her official promo profile. "Yeah, well you should be the one on your guard, dude," he retorted. "I might just have to break a few more records to stay one step ahead of you. Because…" Swizzle let out a low whistle. "…that was pretty gosh darn amazing! I had no idea you were that fast."

She grinned at him and then punched his arm playfully. "You're not so bad yourself, hotshot," she said, actually making him blush lightly; she had a surprisingly strong fist.

For a moment, neither of the kids said anything; they just looked at each other while the marshmallow hung back, watching the pair with mild interest. Minty was smiling; it wasn't her trademark smug grin of confidence, rather it was…a smile. And she was smiling at him. Across from her, Swizzle was matching her smile, for his was also not his cool and confident trademark smile. It was a friendly smile with a hint of nervousness laced in its features.

It was most unusual for him to feel nervous. Why he was feeling this at all, he wasn't exactly sure.

Before he could say anything back, the three of them all heard the familiar Sugar Rush announcer voice intoning loudly for all of the game to hear:

"Attention! The arcade will be opening in 20 minutes. Racers, please report to the racetrack."

Minty flashed another grin at him, and before he could give one back, she proceeded to perform several somersaults and a backflip down the rocky slope and right back into her kart. As she fired it up to life again, she looked up at the boy. "See ya at the track, Swizz!" she hollered before zooming away towards the border of Sour Patch Gulch.

Swizzle said nothing as he watched her disappear.

"Swizz? You alright there, kid?" Carl asked him. "We gotta get goin'."

But Swizzle didn't seem to hear him. He just stared off in the direction that Minty had rushed off in a green flash. There was literally only one thought on his mind as he folded his arms and smiled, both inside and outside.

Man, she's hot.

He had no idea this was only the beginning of something really cool and really weird.