Some Fantastic, Chapter One

By GirlX2

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"It's not a glitch." Felix murmured as he and Ralph passed through the barrier between the game and game central station. "We wouldn't be able to get out if it was."

"One of us wouldn't, anyway." Ralph muttered uneasily. "It's not us Felix. The programming is as solid as ever."

"Then what is it?" Felix looked up at him, face alit with worry.

"I dunno buddy." Ralph motioned to Tappers. "I'm hoping someone in there will."

The last few weeks, something had been happening in Fix-It Felix Jr. The game just wasn't running right. Sometimes Felix didn't get his direction from the gamers, and a few patrons had complained. Luckily, Felix had acted fast when Mr. Litwicki tried it out, and managed to convince the arcade owner that nothing was amiss.

At first, Ralph was worried he was glitching, but there was no pixelated fuzziness, and Felix could leave the game easily.

Which meant something else was wrong.

"What if…what if it's the cabinet?" Felix asked hesitantly. "It is thirty years old, brother. Something might be broken."

"No." Ralph shook his head vehemently. If the hardware was the problem, they wouldn't be able to fix it. Which meant their plug would get pulled. It had to be something else. "We'll ask around."

"Okay, but not a word of this to Tammy. You know how she worries." Felix smiled sadly. "Well, I guess you wouldn't, but she does worry. I know."

Ralph shrugged. "If you say so. I can't see her worrying about anything other than a Cy-Bug eating the troops."

"You said it Brother." Felix scooted off to the 'good guy' corner of the bar. It wasn't an official designation or anything, but good guys tended to drink with other good guys. Ralph sidled over to an empty spot. He'd ask Tapper himself.

"Whatcha drinking, skinkbrain?" A cheerful, grating voice was accompanied by a slight weight on his shoulders.

"Hey Princess Pukerella." Ralph turned his head, and managed a smile. He didn't wanna to worry Vanellope either; she was just a kid, for Pong's sake. "How were the races?'

"Great! I lost the first round because Taffeta got a lucky candy missile, but the next time…" Vanellope bounced excitedly on his shoulders, recapping her day.

Ralph's phony grin melted into a real smile. Vanellope's sheer enthusiasm never failed to cheer him up—or at least remind him that things weren't so dark as they seemed.

He still had friends, after all.

"…And then Gloyd wanted me to make a law about only racing twelve times in a row, but I told him the winners are always random, so he said-"

"Alright, alright, cut to the chase!"

"It was a good day."

"Good." Ralph reached up, grabbed her, and set her on the bar. "Waddaya say, a couple root-beers to celebrate?"

"With a little—"

"With a little nothing. Root beer straight, or I'm taking you home."

She pouted at this. "You get to drink beer."

"I am an adult." Ralph grumbled. "You can drink when you're older."

"But I'll never be older!"

"Cry me a river, why don't ya."

Vanellope crossed her arms, but said nothing.

"Tapper, two root beers." He signaled as the bartender hurried past.

"Comin' up!"

Ralph caught both glasses in his massive hands as they lid down the bar. 'I hope Felix is doing better than me at getting some answers.'

"So, what about your day?" Vanellope sipped her drink.

"Uh, ya know, smash a window, knock Felix on the head with a few bricks, get thrown off, same old same old."

"And the Nicelanders?" Vanellope pressed suspiciously.

"They're treating me just fine." Ralph assured her.

"Good. Because I can get Calhoun to whup anyone I want." She said seriously. "She promised."

"Great." Ralph groaned. "Another reason for her to kick someone's pixels."

Vanellope just laughed.

"Hey, you wanna blow this pop stand? I hear Mario's having a party." Ralph gave up on getting answers for the night; he wouldn't be able to get rid of Vanellope without raising suspicion.

"Nah, that dork Wario will be there. Can we go somewhere new?"

"Like where? There's no new games." Ralph said.

Vanellope smiled knowingly. "Are you suuuuuure?"

"Well, I was, until you did that evil little smile thing."

"There's a new game!"

"What is it? Shooter, platform?"

"A Muhmorpuhguh." She pronounced it slowly, with great enthusiasm.

"What?"

"I don't know, that's just what I heard." She shrugged. "I was sorta hoping you'd know what it was. Guess I shoulda known better."

"Hey, I mighta known."

"Yeah, sure. So, ya wanna check it out?"

"Sure, I guess. Just lemme tell Felix something real quick."

"What?"

"None of your business, viceroy vile." He stood up.

"Fine, got talk to him, captain caveman." She stuck her tongue out and hopped off the bar.

He trudged over to the hero's counter, ignoring the stares. People still weren't quite used to his and Felix's new friendship. It's been only six months, after all. That weighed against thirty years didn't seem like much.

"Felix, I'm going with Vanellope to check out—Felix?"

The expression on Felix's face was one of sheer joy as Ralph approached. He was sitting with Pac Man, who was wah-wahing furiously. Felix wah-wahed something back, and turned to his friend.

"Pac man knows what's wrong! And he says it's fixable!"

"That's great!" Ralph pulled up a stool. "What is it?"

"He says the electronic capacitors in our cabinet are dried out, and Litwicki need's to replace 'em. That's why I haven't been getting my directions; the power's not working right!"

"Whoa, whoa. Litwiki's supposed to replace 'em? You know he doesn't know how to do that sort of work."

"So, he'll get the repairman to do it. We'll just wait in game central station while the cabinet's unplugged for repairs." The joy on Felix's face melted. "My land, I hope that doesn't take very long. It could be a real problem for the Nicelanders."

"You can all stay in the castle." A small voice piped up from below.

"Oh, no." Ralph groaned as Vanellope hopped onto the bar. "Don't you know eavesdropping is rude?"

"Hey, you left a child unsupervised in a bar, don't make me the bad guy." She said defensively. "What's this about needing repairs?"

"It's just a small problem." Ralph assured her. "Very, very minor. Wee, in fact."

"Wee, huh?"

"Yeah. No big thing."

Pac man wah-wahed something, and Felix gasped.

"R-Ralph…we m-might have a bigger problem than the capacitors…"

"What?"

"Pac man doesn't think Litwiki would recognize the problem on his own."

'What about the service guy? He should know."

"Litwiki just changed service guys! The new one hardly knows anything about games older 'n Vanellope's, let alone ours." Felix looked panicked. "Ralph, if they don't know it's fixable, they'll just pull the plug! We'll be homeless! We can't—"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Vanellope jumped to her feet. "Does he always freak out like that?"

"Only when things are really serious." Ralph said quietly. He laid a massive hand on Felix's shoulders. "It's gonna be okay, pal. We'll figure something out."

"How? Litwiki won't know what's wrong, and neither will the serviceman! We'll be unplugged!" Felix's panic wasn't about to be stopped. He hopped up onto the bar with a nervous sproing. "Ralph, we've gotta do something!"

"Like what? We can't tell Litwiki." Felix said.

"Well, what if we left the information somewhere he could find it? Like on a computer screen?" Vanellope asked.

"How could we do that? There's no computers hooked up in the arcade." Ralph clapped his hand back onto Felix, keeping the handyman from bouncing around.

"Oh yes there is. The Muhmorpuhguh—it's an internet game! On a real computer and everything!" Vanellope grabbed Felix's hand in hers. "We can go there, get the information on the screen, Litwiki will see it, and you'll get fixed!"

"D-Do you think that'd really work?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Well…I guess it wouldn't hurt to at least check this game out, and see if there's something we can do." Ralph assented. "We've gotta do something before he pulls our plug."

"You've got that right, Wreck-It." A harsh voice barked from behind them. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like a few words with my husband before we move out."

"Jimminay Jamminy." Felix hunched his shoulders and prepared to face the music. Tammy did not like being kept in the dark…

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To be continued…

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A/N Rich Moore (the director) said the next movie (if there is one) could delve into the world of online gaming. So, naturally, my mind tried to concoct a way to get our favorite foursome into one. More to come, obviously.