Here it is, I'm sorry to say. The final chapter. I hope it doesn't end too abruptly for you guys; I tried my best. Once again, thank you to all my dedicated reviewers. I'd also like to thank everybody who favorited or followed this story. I really hope you guys enjoyed it. And yes, I am thinking of writing a sequel, though I'm not sure when I'll start it. I need to think up a plot first, and right now I have absolutely no ideas. I will accept any ideas you guys decide to put in your reviews.
Please let me know what you think about this chapter! Even if you've never left a review on this story before, I would love it if you could. And maybe in your review you could tell me how you happened to find my story and why you decided to start reading it. Did you read the description and just decide to give it a shot? Or did you find it in the Favourites of one of your other favourite authors? This is something that's kinda been on my mind lately. I can't wait to read what you have to say!
I don't own Wreck It Ralph or the characters, just my OC Lemona Lime. (Wow, I can't believe that's the last time I'll be writing that in this story. Crazy!)
Chapter 14
Weeks later, Lemona had adjusted to her new life in the game. Though she found herself unable to hold back her glitches, she had quickly gotten used to her new job in the supposed to be deleted mini games. Luckily, none of the gamers that came to play had any idea that the games weren't supposed to be there; they just enjoyed playing them. As a result, Sugar Rush became a much more popular game, even more so than Fix-It-Felix Jr.
Vanellope couldn't remember a time they had been more popular, which was a good thing, because being busy made the other racers quickly forget their anger and poor attitudes towards Lemona. There had been a few issues on the day of the banquet, but once Lemona had proved that she was no longer sour, tensions had started to slowly die down. Now the racers seemed quite fond of her, often coming once the arcade was closed to request cart pieces made with specific types of candy.
Gathering and building really were what Lemona was programmed to do; she wielded a hammer even better than Felix did. Her days were spent out in the different lands collecting what she wanted, while her nights were spent building. Any spare time she had in between was dedicated to racing.
Since the day Lemona had returned to normal, she had not missed a Random Roster Race. She had wanted to take any opportunity she could to get used to racing again. At first she hadn't even been able to enter a cart without painfully glitching like the very first time she had tried to drive. But gradually she had improved, and now she was actually a decent racer. She wasn't as good as she had been when she'd been working with Turbo, and as a result, she was never able to make it into the top nine that would be on the game's roster the next day when the arcade opened. However, she knew what to do to ensure that she wasn't always stuck in last place, though sometimes things went wrong, as things tend to do from time to time.
Last night had been different though. By some miracle, Lemona had been able to pull ahead of Jubileena Bing-Bing at the last moment, crossing the finish line in ninth place and confirming herself a spot for the first time. She hadn't even realized it until Vanellope tore over to her excitedly, engulfing her in a hug and squealing the good news. Even then, she hadn't believed her until she'd looked up at the scoreboard and saw her name in the ninth place spot.
Now Lemona was standing in her very own square, staring out past the console's screen, where a bunch of kids were standing around watching as a girl with square glasses and short blonde hair navigated the steering wheel, trying to decide which of the lucky nine she would use to drive her way to victory. Lemona sucked in a nervous breath as she saw the squares around the other Sugar Rush characters light up one at a time. Would her square do the same? Or would she be ignored, considered inferior to the others, whom had been up on the roster numerous times before? Hoping the kids wouldn't notice, she quickly shot a glance at her yellow and green racing outfit, hoping that she looked presentable. She had decided to ditch her black cloak, as she had felt it didn't really go with her citrus themed personality and look.
"Hey, look Moppet," one of the other children pointed to the screen, and Lemona felt her face pale as she realized he was pointing directly at her. "That's the girl in the new mini-games!"
Moppet Girl's gaze followed her friend's finger. "Oh yeah," she said. The look on her face made Lemona feel as though she was being inspected inside and out. "Mr. Litwak must have found some way to make her a playable character!"
Suddenly Lemona's bright yellow box with green trimming was all aglow, and she felt herself being pushed by an invisible force. It was not powerful enough to make her fall down; instead her body stiffened and she felt electricity flying from her body. "Oh no," were the only two words in her brain as she felt herself quickly change into blue pixels. Now she wished she had rethought not wearing her cloak. She lost her vision momentarily, but when she got it back, she saw all of the kids staring at her quizzically. "Huh? What just happened?" One of the other kids asked.
Moppet Girl scratched her head. "I'm not sure. I hope the game's not busted. It's one of my favourites."
"Now I've done it," Lemona's mind was running at a million miles per minute as she stood frozen in place. Even though she couldn't see them, she knew that everybody else was in the same position, wanting to show off their panic, but knowing that they had to stick to their sweet and happy personas. Her glitches had always been something that she'd been wary about, knowing that having one at the wrong moment would cause problems. But they'd been so good before this, only occurring when the gamers weren't playing her mini games or when the arcade was closed. Now on her very first day of actual racing, she was probably about to put the game out of commission.
As she stood feeling helpless, wondering what she could do to fix the problem that was quickly arising, Moppet Girl fiddled with the control, moving the invisible pointer off of Lemona and her box and to the one above. Still under the control of the pointer's touch with no black liquorice to devour, Lemona let out a silent gasp as her arms flew up into the air and she involuntarily jumped.
"Huh?" Noticing the movement, Moppet Girl pulled down, forcing Lemona to bend over as though she was touching her toes. "What's going on?" Trying to figure out what was going on, she continued to move her controls around, and Lemona was forced to move in each direction each time. However, because the thing that had touched her was not alive, she found that even though she was forced to move up and down and from side to side, she could control her facial expressions, and even move her arms and legs a little bit. This had been something she'd discovered once she'd started playing in her mini games and completely forgotten about until now. Before she knew it, an idea was bubbling inside of her head.
Praying that it would work, Lemona started wiggling her fingers and toes and as she moved, she tried to make each movement look as fluent and graceful as she could. Soon it had become a sort of dance, and she found herself grinning vividly, hoping the Moppet Girl wouldn't find this unusual.
Sure enough, the Moppet Girl cracked a grin too as she spoke to her friends. "Oh, I get it! It's the special effects in the game! It's the game's way of trying to make me choose her as my avatar. You know, like how when that Vanellope chick gets ignored, she cries and when she gets chosen, she jumps around with that goofy smile on her face? That's pretty clever."
Eight little gushes of wind could then be heard by Lemona as the other racers on the roster unleashed their bound up breaths. That had been a close call; that was obvious enough. It had been good that she'd been able to use her quick thinking to fix the problem, but Lemona knew as the Moppet Girl clicked her box and confirmed her to be the chosen avatar that she would have to be extra careful. The stress and worry were definitely two emotions she hadn't wanted to feel the first time she got chosen as an avatar, but they bubbled up anyway.
As the screen changed and went to the racetrack, Lemona took the few seconds she had without being seen to take a couple of deep breaths. "Here I go," she whispered to herself, trying to sound reassuring. "This is it. The moment I've been waiting for. You can do it Lemona. Just don't glitch. Whatever you do, DO NOT GLITCH. Otherwise, you'll be the cause of the game going out of order and making thousands of people who live here homeless." As soon as the words had come out of her mouth, she heard herself give a snort. Yeah, that was reassuring. She tried to think of something that would counteract the pressure she hadn't meant to give herself, but before she had time to, the scene had finished changing, and it was time to start racing. As the countdown began and the engines began to rev up, Lemona leaned as far forward as possible in her seat, gripping the steering wheel as though it was the very thing keeping her alive. Even though she knew there was no hope of her actually winning the race, she felt her eyes narrow in determination the way they did during every race.
3. 2. 1. GO! As soon as the bright green letters appeared on the screen and the little light that hovered above the racers changed to the same color, Lemona let out a cry of "Woohoo!" as she felt her foot plummet onto the accelerator. With her engine roaring and exhaust pouring out of her cart's pipes, she started to fly, kicking up brown sugar dust. Expertly twisting her steering wheel left and right she managed to manoeuvre her cart, putting her in fifth place as she entered the Gumball Gorge.
The first time she had ever gone racing on the main track, Lemona had not known what to expect, and as a result, when she'd entered the ravine she'd been the first to get beamed by a gigantic gumball. Now however, she was used to dodging the rolling confectionery, so when she saw a bright blue ball of destruction headed her way, swerving her way around it was easy. However, she and the Moppet Girl hadn't counted on another ball to roll down the ravine ahead of her and into her cart's path. With a squeak, Lemona felt her body jerk uncontrollably to the right. Unfortunately, they hadn't moved quickly enough, and Lemona's cart got clipped, causing it to spin out of control. Luckily, the Moppet Girl knew not to stomp on the brakes, so Lemona allowed her cart to slow down on its own until finally it stopped on one side of the track.
Needing a few seconds to recuperate, Lemona watched as Snowanna Rainbeau passed her. Snowanna was an expert at driving in the Gumball Gorge; it was almost as she could communicate with the balls and know their every move. Which is why Lemona had to gasp when a purple gumball collided head-on into her bowl-shaped cart. However, she had no time to think about it, as the Moppet Girl had stomped on the game console's accelerator again, forcing her to move forward, leaving the groovy chick in the dust.
Lemona exited the gorge with no other incidents, still in fifth as she made her way to her favourite part of the game: the cake themed ramp and jump. Spinning around and around as she climbed the ramp, she passed Candlehead and was soon neck and neck with Rancis and Taffyta. Her joy was strong enough to turn her head and make her blow a raspberry in their direction, which made Taffyta sniff. Chuckling, Lemona turned her head back to the track ahead. They were just entering the tunnel which led to the jump, and her heart started to climb in her chest as she got closer and closer. Finally her cart went over and up, sailing in the sky momentarily. Lemona loved the thrill of no longer being on the ground; it was almost like she was flying. And then, just as quickly as it had started it was over, and her cart crashed back to earth. But where were Rancis and Taffyta?
Turning her head, she saw that Taffyta was now behind her, getting further and further away, and Rancis was no longer in sight. "He must not have made the jump," she thought, only confusing herself further. This race just kept on getting weirder and weirder. But once again, she couldn't think about it; the most difficult part of the entire race was approaching, which meant she had to put all of her concentration into it.
Entering the winter themed section of road, a chilly wind hit her face with all the force of a thousand punches, reddening it and causing her eyes to water profusesly. Forced to slow down a little so that she wouldn't lose control on the icy road, she blinked furiously, trying to bring back her visibility. It wasn't easy in the terrain, but eventually her programming kicked in and she was able to see clearly, though she was more than grateful when she finally made it out of the snow and onto the final section of road.
The finish line was straight ahead, a dot in the horizon, and now that she could see again, Lemona could see Vanellope's cart in front of her. Once again pushing on the gas pedal with all she had, Lemona managed to catch up with her. Noticing her, Vanellope got a surprised look on her face, but quickly erased it as she pressed forward, staying just a bit ahead of Lemona. Now it was even more apparent to Lemona that she was not going to win. No matter what she did, Vanellope would still win. All it would take was a simple glitch and she'd cross the finish line first, like she always did. But surprisingly, Vanellope didn't do it, and as a result, the carts switched places more than once. Who was in front? It was Vanellope. It was Lemona. It was Vanellope. It was Lemona again! Now the finish line was only seconds away, and Lemona turned her head towards Vanellope, waiting expectantly for her to suddenly disappear and reappear in front of her. But it never happened, and Lemona flew across the finish line in first place.
"Huh?" Confusion now clouding all of her other thoughts, Lemona watched as her cart stopped and she was lifted out of it and placed on the top of a podium made of dark chocolate and covered in multi-coloured sprinkles. A trophy appeared above her and fell into her arms, and all Lemona could do was gape as she stared at it. To say she was shocked would have been a cruel understatement. She was almost afraid to look away from it or blink, thinking that if she took her eyes off of the thing for even a second it would disappear and she would find herself in a dream. Finally her body's urges took over and she had to blink a couple of times, and the joy inside of her intensified when her eyes opened to find the trophy still gripped in her sweaty hands.
Holding it even tighter then she had held the steering wheel of her cart, she finally got the courage to break her gaze away from it and look at the gamer who she saw giving one of her friends a high-five. "Yes!" she heard her say, and the look of accomplishment on her face only made Lemona feel happier.
But how had this been possible? Sneaking a look down at the second-place spot on the podium, she saw Vanellope staring up at her proudly. There was knowledge in her eyes, and when she noticed Lemona staring, she gave her a thumbs-up, almost as though she and the other racers knew something that she didn't.
Looking back at the Moppet Girl, Lemona suddenly felt a light bulb turn on in her brain. "Wait a minute…They were all going easy on me!" The entire purpose of the game of Sugar Rush was to allow the gamer to make it as far as possible, and it had been clear to everybody that if Lemona became the chosen avatar, which was very likely because she was a new playable character, there was a good chance that she wouldn't be able to do that. So everybody had gone easy on her, making simple mistakes that they wouldn't normally do to allow her to fulfill that purpose. There was a good chance that they had done it to make her happy too.
Now that the events in the race were making sense, Lemona's eyes darted down, meeting Vanellope's. "Thank you," she mouthed humbly, and Vanellope nodded once in acknowledgement, smiling softer than usual.
"Look guys!" The sound of Moppet Girl's voice again made Lemona turn back to see a grin of astonishment on the child's face. "She said thank you! Almost as if she was thanking me! These are some incredible graphics!"
As Moppet Girl continued to go on about the game, Lemona realized something.
She had thanked Vanellope for telling everybody to go easy on her, but there was still one person she hadn't thanked yet.
Once the arcade was closed again and Vanellope had helped her eat and digest a couple of strands of black liquorice, before anybody else could come up to her to congratulate her, Lemona tore off in her cart towards the castle. Entering inside, she took the path that had become so well known to her, down the hallways and a set of stairs until she was in front of the one person she had to and wanted to talk to the most.
"Lemona!" Leaping up off of his seat, the person's surprise was clear in his words and on his face, though it wasn't near as clear as his delight to see her. "You came back!"
"I haven't changed my mind," Lemona responded curtly, holding her hands behind her back. She mentally cursed herself for sounding so rude when she spoke, but she had to make her point very clear. She tried to do so by holding herself up very stiffly and not shuffling her feet uncomfortably, and was thankful that she wasn't stuttering. But she still found her voice lowering, though she made sure to sound firm, to prove her decisions were final. "You know, about becoming sour. I'm not changing the way I am. So don't expect me to come back once I'm done here."
"Oh." The disappointment in Turbo's voice was also clear; he'd practically shouted it out for the world to hear. Lemona was thankful when he lowered his head, because then it made it harder for her to see the glitch proof chain that had been locked around his neck, just one of the many security measures Vanellope had taken to ensure that he couldn't escape again.
When he spoke again, it was as though he was trying to sound like he hadn't been so hopeful. "No, of course not." An awkward silence filled the fungeon, only to be broken when he spoke again. "So what are you doing here then?"
"I came down here to give you this." Bringing her hands out from behind her back, Lemona revealed what she'd been hiding: a golden first place trophy. Though it was quite big, she found a way to squeeze it between the jail cell's bars and into Turbo's chained together hands.
Though Turbo took it, he looked as though he didn't want to. But Lemona started speaking before he could protest. "Don't even think about trying to give it back. I won't take it. It's yours. My own little way of saying thank you."
"Th-thank you?" repeated Turbo, looking up at her with bewilderment in his chocolate puddle eyes. "What are you thanking me for?"
"Look," responded Lemona, trying not to sound too mushy. "You may have taken advantage of me and corrupted my code so that you could take over the game, but you also believed in me. Your teachings allowed me to actually get into a race car even though my driving code got deleted a long time ago. Now that I'm back to normal, I think it's been growing back slowly, though I'm never going to be completely glitch-free. If I hadn't met you and felt the thrills of driving, that probably wouldn't be happening right now. I would have lived my life believing that driving simply wasn't a part of my code and that I had no purpose. So, I figure, now that I can drive, my first first place trophy should go to you."
Once the trophy had been completely pressed into Turbo's grip, Lemona took her hands out of the cell and backed off, now ready to leave. "Good-bye Turbo." By that time her throat felt like it was closing in on itself, and she knew she had to get out of their before the tears started flowing and she looked weak. This was all for the best, she tried to convince herself. The less time she spent down in the fungeon with Turbo, the less willing she'd be to rethink her lifestyle. And that was best for the game and for her. That was what she wanted.
As she turned around and started to leave, keeping her movement to a walk and not a run like she wanted to, Turbo's voice echoed behind her.
"You know, you're not half bad, kid."
Even though she didn't want to, Lemona found her head turning back to look at him one last time. The look on his face was not at all what she had expected. He was no longer disappointed; instead, it looked as though he could read her mind and he understood why she was doing what she was doing. He was upset, there was no doubt about that. But he was also proud of her, and that overshadowed his sadness. He respected her decision. Knowing this allowed the lumps in Lemona's throat to disappear, and she gave him a final small smile before walking out of the fungeon for the last time. And as she made her way out of the castle so that she could meet up with the other racers and her friends from the other games, there was only one thing on her mind:
"Everything is going to be alright."
And that's the end! Sob! Thank you all again very much for all of your support and feedback. Like Vanellope's medal to Ralph says, you're my heroes! Have a great day! I look forward to reading the reviews from you guys, and if you manage to get other people on this site to read this, that'll be great too. Until next time, I encourage you all to stay sweet! Farewell for now!
Sincerely, girlpandagreenlime :D