Into Wreck-It Ralph
Dawn stepped out of the portal into a world that was as different from the jungle as night is from day. It was a digital world and Dawn could feel how artificial the world was.
Around her was dark metal was lining the corridor with LED lights and a haze of smoke. There were dozens of men wearing thick metal plated, high-tech armor carrying high-tech rifles and other weapons. She did not fit in at all. Dawn quickly made herself invisible and stole a dark body suit from a locker room. The outfit had to be resized to fit her via magic but then it fit like a glove and Dawn did the same with hodgepodge pieces of armor lying around which resized to fit her body.
A weapon was quickly grabbed from the arms room when an alarm rang out “Quarter Alert! Quarter Alert!” and yellow warning lights began flashing.
A dozen men all dressed in armor and ready to go lined up at a doorway while one more man, whose armor did not seem to fit him very well, ran up to the formation. The man then tripped and dropped his rifle as he ran, not seemingly able to see where his feet were placed. He had to scramble to catch it which placed him in the middle of the formation where he called out “Rootin’, tootin’, ready for shootin’.”
Awesome music was beating in the background just covering up the words someone was speaking over in the overhead speakers about scientists and labs. Dawn could not quite hear what was going on as the music was loud, the alarm was loud, and everyone clanked around in armor while stepping on metal grating. She did not know what was going on, but this seemed to be where she was placed.
“Alright,” a serious voice called out and all the soldiers stood to attention with a hoo-ah. It was an armored female, beautiful and serious. “Now listen up because I’m only going to say this once. Fear is a four-letter word ladies. You wanna go peepee in your big boy slacks? Keep it to yourself. Its make your mommas proud time!”
The one odd soldier called out, “I love my momma!”
Dawn wanted to shake her head. This man did not fit in at all. She had never been to such a militarized world before, but even she could fit in better even with her short stature in comparison to this man. Though her watch from back in wonderland by the white rabbit showed her body age to have finally hit twelve years old.
“Heads up, first person shooter comin’ through!” called out a soldier from the back of the formation.
A robot came forward with a massive screen of a head which showed a human girl with glasses holding the plastic gun attached to the game console.
The sergeant in charge of their formation pulled out a weapon a slapped on her helmet. “We are humanities last hope. Our mission, destroy all cy-bugs. You ready rookie? Let’s find out.”
All the other soldiers in the formation gripped their weapons in preparation as the massive airlock doors opened.
Dawn gulped in terror. There were hundreds of massive rhino-sized flying bugs everywhere surrounding a massive tower on this weird planet. Smoke billowed from massive smock stacks off in the far distance which had ash flurrying from the sky on the road Dawn and the other soldiers were running towards.
The sergeant in charge, the female that seemed to be guiding the first-person shooter, was out front while the other soldiers fanned out to shoot the bugs around the sides of the road. Dawn decided to stick with the female and took a deep breath to bring up her rifle to use the scope for more difficult targets coming near.
“Cy-bug! 12 o’clock, take it newbie!” The female sergeant called out while pointing towards some easy to shoot bugs for the first-person shooter. Dawn stuck back, guarding the first-person shooter’s back. Dawn was shooting bugs that were a little out of view from what the first-person shooter could easily see, especially because Dawn deduced the first-person shooter seemed to be on predetermined path.
Unfortunately, Dawn’s line of sight was broken, and she was nearly smacked into by the panicked flailing of the out of place man who was screaming and shooting randomly into the sky.
“Watch it rookie, these monsters become what they eat!” The sergeant called out to the first-person shooter. Dawn felt the blood draining from her face as she watched that same idiot run into a cy-bug. The idiot lost his gun to the bug and Dawn watched the bug’s forelegs transform into guns. The gun-bug began shooting after the idiot, but the first-person shooter had great aim and surprisingly good reflexes because the gun-bug was soon shot down.
The sergeant pointed out a cy-bug a little to the right of the flailing idiot, “Shoot the eggs before they hatch.”
“No no no! Somethings coming out of their bottom!” The idiot cried out while stupidly pointing to the freshly laid eggs that the first-person shooter was destroying. Some of the goo from the eggs got on the idiot and he began flailing some more to wipe off the substance. “Oh gross!”
The sergeant stomped forward smashed her arm against the idiot to through him back. “Markowski, get back in formation.” She looked straight up pissed off as she pointed back behind the first-person shooter. “Alright ladies, the kitten whispers and tickle fights stop now. The entrance to the lab is straight ahead.”
Without pause the idiot cried out “I’ll meet you guys inside!” Then, he began frantically running forward to get to the blast doors.
The female sergeant cried out “No!” and reached out to the idiot as if to stop him.
The idiot had zero thought for anything else, “Oh! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!”
Then, as if triggering a proximity alert line, the blast doors opened. From those doors crawled dozens of neon acid-green colored cy-bugs who seemed to burst from the confines as if they had been packed in no room to spare.
The idiot halted at the deluge of cy-bugs and then bolted back towards where the first-person shooter was at the front of the formation of soldiers. “I thought this was going to be like Centipede! When did video games become so violent and scary! Please, get me out of here!” Then a cy-bug came down onto where the idiot was grasping at the first-person shooter’s screen and gave a girlish scream before thrusting the robot screen forward towards the cy-bug and yelled, “Take her!”
The cy-bug took no time in eating the first-person screen and an announcement came out with a deep voice, “Game Over.”
Everyone continued shooting for a little, banding together against the cy-bugs while the idiot was barely holding one off from trying to eat his face. Ah! Get off me”! It’s game over! Stop it!”
Then a tall light emitted from the tower and random soldiers began calling out “Beacon up!”
Dawn felt her heart pounding, it felt as though there was more adrenaline coursing through her veins than blood. She watched in a detached manner, glad but emotionally wiped out, as the cy-bugs all turned to the light and were wiped out.
Higher ranking soldiers from around the battlefield began calling out, “Cease fire! Cease fire!”
Dawn holstered her rifle on her back, placed onto a magnetic holder that allowed her to have her hands free for a few moments. She then listened as an announcement was called. “Attention! Return to start positions.”
Dawn shuddered and tried to calm her breathing as she turned around to follow the first-person shooter robot that the idiot tried helping after causing its destruction. The soldiers on the battlefield who had died during the hectic fight seemed to blink out of reality before blinking back into existence on their feet alive and well.
“Markowski!” Yelled the female sergeant. Dawn couldn’t help but look back at the angry yell given by that sergeant.
The idiot looked around, “Who? Whoa! Oh, yeah, me. I’m Markowski.”
The sergeant, helmet in hand, smashed it with full force into the idiot’s head. “What’s the first rule of Hero’s Duty?”
“No cuts, no butts, no coconuts?”
The sergeant hits the idiot again with her helmet. “Never interfere with the first-person shooter. Our job is to get the gamers to the top of that building so they can get a medal, and that’s it! So, stick to the program, soldier!”
The idiot seemed to be dumbstruck by the dressing down given to him and gave a lackluster, “Right. Right. Aye, aye.”
An announcement sounded off, “Quarter alert! Quarter alert!”
The sergeant looked around and gripped her helmet firmly, “All right, pussy willows. Back to start positions!” As she walked away, she smacked the idiot again to get him out of her way.
Dawn followed along with the sergeant who finally seemed to take in the fact Dawn was tiny especially in comparison to every single one of her soldiers. “Who the hell are you?”
Dawn gulped and then thought up a lie to get her through, “I am a program that shadows the first-person shooter. Statistics have shown this game is too difficult for the average player in this area, so I play as a hidden protector. The longer the players last in the tower, the more they play, and the lower the chance of our game getting unplugged.”
The sergeant nodded; Dawn’s lie made sense. They had only been plugged in for a week, yet no player had yet been able to get past even the first level. “I’m your team leader, Sergeant Calhoun. Make sure to stay out of the player’s viewpoint, half-pint.”
“Roger, sergeant!” Dawn acknowledged with a salute.
~~oOo~~
Dawn breathed out in exhaustion; they had traveled across from their base to the tower dozens of times today. With her help, she had managed to get the first-person shooter to survive past the first floor. Even though the player had died not long after entering the second floor, all the soldiers in the unit celebrated having finally made it past what all of them thought as impossible.
However, Dawn was exhausted and was ready to fall asleep. Adrenaline had long since stopped flowing through her body and she was worn down by battle fatigue. Every noise made her jump, skittish at the thought of a cy-bug popping out having hidden from the beacon.
Without noticing it, an entire day had passed, and Dawn was startled to hear an announcement, “Attention! The arcade is now closed.”
The rest of the soldiers were laughing, relaxed. A few had taken off their helmets, holstered their weapons or were simply chatting with each other. Sergeant Calhoun, the lead female sergeant that Dawn had practically shadowed the entire day, was surround by a cohort of soldiers who guarded her back.
“Did you get a load of Markowski?” Dawn overheard one of the soldiers laughing as they walked back to the bunker doors leading to the base.
Without warning, Sergeant Calhoun crouches and raises a fist, “Shut your chew holes!” They all begin hearing a weird beeping noise. “Cy-bug.”
Dawn pulled out her rifle and took a knee behind one of the tank soldiers. He would be able to take some serious damage while Dawn could be protected by his bulk to perform some fast shooting if needed. They all looked around warily, on guard for the cy-bug as the beeping noise just grew louder and louder.
“Taste it!” Sergeant Calhoun yelled as she whipped around along with Dawn and the rest of the soldiers to begin firing in the direction of the bunker doors. One of the cy-bugs must have been able to get into the base and had not been drawn in by the beacon. Weapons fired following the oddly agile cy-bug as it bounced around the opening to the bunker.
Suddenly, some of the rounds cause a minor explosion knocking the figure behind their backs. Sergeant Calhoun kicks the figure with a low sweep into their weapon sights. “Slick tiddlywinking, pint-size.”
“I’m Fix-it Felix Jr., ma’am. From the game Fix-it Felix, Jr.” The figure, now identified as a comically square and tiny man, was holding up his hands while shaking like a leaf. Suddenly, he seemed to calm down and grabbed Sergeant Calhoun’s weapon to lean his chin against it. Then he gazed up adoringly at Sergeant Calhoun, “Jiminey, jaminey. Look at that high definition, your face! It’s amazing.”
“Flattery don’t charge these batteries, civilian. Now state your business.” Sergeant Calhoun drew back her weapon and rested it against her shoulder, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
Felix stood up from the ground but clutched his hat to his chest, “Oh, I’m looking for my colleague, Wreck-it Ralph?”
“Never heard of him.”
“Well, Q*bert saw him come in here.”
Dawn gave a little gasp which drew everyone’s attention to her.
“Corporal!” Sergeant Calhoun barked. “What did you see?”
“That idiot everyone calls Markowski! His uniform didn’t quite fit properly and he held himself with no military bearing!” Dawn stated. She had thought it was normal since no one else really took too much notice and then Dawn had not seen him again after the first battle. “I had assumed he might have had a mental break down and had been taken off the battlefield to calm down and get back in the game.”
Sergeant Calhoun scowled and turned to one of her men and snapped, “Check out where Markowski is! I wanna know what happ-”
A clanking sound echoed through the area cutting Sergeant Calhoun off as she was speaking.
One of the soldiers looked at the sergeant with horror, “That came from the tower.”
“Everyone, weapons hot and head to the tower!” Sergeant Calhoun called, already running with her rifle up and ready to shoot. The rest of the soldiers were hot on her heals while Dawn kept pace with the bouncing Felix who was just behind the sergeant.
Suddenly, almost halfway across the roadway to the blast doors into the tower, and the sound of rocket boosters flares from the top of the tower and everyone looks up to see an escape pod jettisoning from the side of the building. It performed a few loops as if there was no one in control, and then it dived down. “Incoming!” yelled a soldier as everyone dived out of the way of the out of control pod. The escape pod flew right past Sergeant Calhoun, Felix and dawn right at eye level and into the base.
As it disappeared, only leaving a trail of exhaust smoke, Dawn turned to Sergeant Calhoun who was gripping her hair in horrified shock, “Cy-bug!”
Dawn shuddered, there would be no beacons wherever that escape pod had gone off to, that cy-bug was going to multiply and destroy everything it could. Sergeant Calhoun began racing towards the bunker and Dawn could do nothing but follow. They raced through the military base, filled with soldiers relaxed after a day of fighting but quickly getting up and ready at the sight of Sergeant Calhoun running with a team of soldiers behind her.
The team jumped onto a cable cart that made its way through a cable pipe way and into what looked to be some sort of subway station. Dawn felt stupid. She had thought there was nothing in this world except for those cy-bugs to fight off. She could have explored some more and gone to a safer area to explore. She had only stayed in the area she was in because the hype of it all had her thinking it was the only choice available to her.
Suddenly, a blue man with some sort of wiring atop his head appeared in a surge of electricity. “Surge protector here.”
“An escape pod from Hero’s Duty came through here. Where did it go!” Sergeant Calhoun barked at the officer.
The surge protector nodded and pointed around as he spoke, “Yeah, he banged around in here like some kind of hot shot, then he went barreling down into that sweet little game like a crazy person.” The surge protector pointed to an entry way labeled with ‘Sugar Rush.’
Sergeant Calhoun stepped forward and put her hands on her hips, looking absolutely done with this entire mess already. “Sugar Rush. Cy-bugs would chew up that game faster than a chicken hawk in a coop of crippled roosters.”
Felix looked confused, “What was that, now?”
Sergeant Calhoun turned around angrily, “What are you, thick? There was a cy-bug on that shuttle! Do you even know what a cy-bug is?”
Dawn winced as she saw Felix seemed to be flinched back and nervous, “I can’t say that I do, ma’am.”
“Cy-bugs are like a virus. They don’t know they’re in a game. All they know is eat, kill, multiply. Without a beacon to stop them, they’ll consume Sugar Rush. But do you think they’ll stop there?”
“Yes!” Felix said with a big smile and fist pump.
“Wrong!” Sergeant Calhoun barked in Felix’s face. “Viruses do not stop! Once those cy-bugs finish off Sugar Rush, they’ll invade every other game until this arcade is nothing but a smoking husk of forgotten dreams. Kohut! My cruiser.”
The other soldier that had followed them to the central station area threw Sergeant Calhoun a bag that the sergeant caught and walked away with.
“Jeepers. Is she always this intense?”
The soldier looked forward with worry in his eyes. “It’s not her fault. She’s programmed with the most tragic back-story ever. The one day she di-.”
Dawn coughed loudly; this was Sergeant Calhoun’s private information. No one other than the sergeant should be gossiping about. Yeah, Dawn was also curious, but she hated when people talked behind her back about any dark memories of hers. So, she would not let others gossip about anyone else. The soldier quickly shut up and Felix understood the gravity of the situation before jumping after the sergeant.
“Lance Corporal Kohut, we need to gather all of the soldiers so we can try and deal with the cy-bug. Sergeant Calhoun has left for advanced reconnaissance. If she can kill the cy-bug before it lays eggs, that’s great. If not, we need all hands on deck to deal with the infestation. We’ll need volunteers to head into Sugar Rush to help the sergeant and plenty of men to guard the entrance to stop any cy-bugs from getting into the station.”
Lance Corporal Kohut gave a quick salute, deferring to Dawn who had apparently conveniently grabbed a suit of armor denoting her as a corporal.
The lance corporal ran off back to Hero’s Duty with all due haste. Dawn turned to the different games around her and began looking for shooting type game characters. A group coming from Virtua Cops was perfect. “Officers!” Dawn ran forward, calling the attention of the oddly armored and armed police officers.
They, as a group, turned to face her.
“There’s been an emergency. A game character from a different game came into Hero’s Duty and brought a cy-bug from there into Sugar Rush. We need all personnel to guard the entrance to Sugar Rush. Any creature looking like a bug must be destroyed or this entire arcade is done for.” Dawn stated with as much seriousness as she could muster.
The police officers laughed, thinking it was a joke until they saw the literal platoon of soldiers rushing from Hero’s Duty fully armored and carrying dozens of weapons towards Sugar Rush. Then, the police got serious. A pair rushed back into their game to grab other police officers while the rest of the group followed the platoon of space marines towards Sugar Rush.
Dawn grabbed the attention of every other shooter game character that she could find to get them to go towards Sugar Rush. Any melee fighter Dawn had prepared as either a last line of defense or as help for evacuation of the people of Sugar Rush.
Finally, Dawn had gotten everyone in the arcade as serious as possible. Next, she began working on setting up barricades from the first entry point and throughout the tunnel leading to the tram area into Sugar Rush. As preparation, a platoon of space marines guarded the area around the tram tunnel. The walkway tunnel into the central station was guards by groups of space marines mixed with other shooter characters from different games. Dawn wanted to try and spread as much experience about fighting the cy-bugs across the different game characters as possible to be able to weather the storm against the cy-bug attack. If the cy-bugs multiplied and ate the game, the shooting characters had to hold out until the owner of the arcade came in the morning and was able to unplug Sugar Rush.
“Alright team, we’re going into Sugar Rush to try and find either the cy-bug or to help Sergeant Calhoun. The station is as prepared as we can get it right now, especially since explosives are currently being lined upon the tram tunnelway. Let’s head out.” Dawn stated with great solemness. She activated a cruiser, brought to her by one of the space marines that had gotten supplies from Hero’s Duty. The two dozen space marines following her also activated cruisers and they flew in formation towards Sugar Rush.
The entrance was immediately noticeable because it turned into a rainbow road made of some sort of soft candy, the clouds were literally made of cotton candy, and the smell of sugar pervaded into their sealed helmets despite the filters.
“Team one, head towards the candy town. Team two, head towards the crash site of the escape pod. Team three, with me.” Dawn ordered and the three teams easily split off. The first team was heading to the candy citizens to start the evacuations while the second team was trying to find the cy-bug or Sergeant Calhoun. Dawn had a feeling the cy-bug had not been destroyed and so had a team with her to find and destroy any cy-bugs they came across.
Dawn pushed her cruiser forward; it was a neat piece of machinery which Dawn was determined to keep from this world to the next. Dawn had a tracker in hand but followed her gut in the direction she felt was most needed. They came upon a small clearing near a candy cane forest and Dawn had a feeling there were cy-bugs underground. The ground was made of chocolate dirt, literally everything was made of some sort of candy, so Dawn knew it would be easy to eat through.
Unholstering her weapon, Dawn fired at the soft ground. Chocolate dirt sprayed up into the air, but the single shot created a fairly large impact site. A few more shots and the ground opened into a tunnel.
“That’s been made by a cy-bug.” One of the soldiers following Dawn stated pointing towards the drill like bite marks on the sides of the tunnel.
“Weapons hot, radio the other teams. Tell them we have evidence of cy-bug activity and to begin a rapid evacuation of the citizens.” Dawn jumped from her cruiser and secured it to her back while keeping her rifle up and ready. One soldier pulled out a massive radio antenna, needed to get through the sugar particle interference to get in contact with the other teams.
Once the information was sent up, Dawn entered the tunnel. They needed to figure out numbers. They crept forward as silent as possible. A cy-bug came down the tunnel, but it was shot before it was able to give off a warning shriek.
They kept on creeping forward down the tunnel until they came upon a massive open cavern. Down at the bottom, there were thousands upon thousands of cy-bug eggs ready and waiting to hatch while being watch over by a few dozen free roaming cy-bugs.
“This place is fucked.” One soldier whispered.
Dawn felt faint, this would destroy everything. Even with all her preparation at the entry into Sugar Rush from the central station, they might not be able to hold back the flood of cy-bugs before the owner of the arcade came in the morning. “We need to get back. We need to get back right now!” Dawn whispered, feeling panicked.
They raced as fast as they could back to the entrance they had made into the tunnel system. They had only seen one cavern, who knows how many other nests there were hidden underground in this candy world.
“Call this up right now, there is no time to waste. This world has only hours left, if that. We need everyone evacuated right now. Radio General Hologram.” Dawn ordered.
The rest of the soldier kept up a guard while the radioman prepared the antenna and radio. “It’s up Corporal.”
Dawn grabbed the radio transceiver. “General Hologram, this is Corporal Dawn, over.”
The radio crackled for a moment before a voice came through only slightly masked by static. “Corporal Dawn, this is General Hologram. Go ahead.”
I am sending a report of thousands of cy-bug eggs in Sugar Rush. My team saw a single cavern filled with thousands of eggs however I report there were dozens of tunnel offshoots that we did not explore. I will head back to the central station to prepare for the attack. Corporal Dawn, out.” Dawn hung up the transceiver and simply pulled her cruiser from her back. “Alright men, help team one with the evacuation. I’m headed back to the station to set up more preparation against this horde. From what I just saw, we aren’t nearly prepared enough.”
The soldier gave their salutes and whipped out their own cruisers to head of to the candy town.
Dawn turned back to the entrance into Sugar Rush and pushed the cruiser as fast as it would go. Once through the tunnel, she began barking orders. More barricades were set up while a team set up explosives to line the rainbow taffy road that came up to the entrance in Sugar Rush. More explosives were set at the entry way into Sugar Rush, Dawn hoped that the entryway collapsing could hold off the cy-bugs for a little while and give them some breathing room.
Then, for further prep, a supply line from every shooting game in the arcade was set up to get ammunition to the shooters. Sonic would be a great help since he was the fastest game character in the arcade and could shuttle ammunition for the shooters as fast as possible. Barricades were then reinforced, and more were erected to block the entry into every single game in the arcade that did not already have their characters helping with the fight.
Regardless of being a bad guy or good guy everyone in the arcade was coming together to deal with a threat that would end the arcade.
Hours passed as candy citizens began getting evacuated from Sugar Rush into some of the barricaded games such as Fix-it Felix Jr. and Tappers.
A crackle of static sounded in the station as a radio sparked to life, “Cy-bugs spotted! Open fire!” Shots could be heard on the radio. “This is team one, cy-bugs have erupted from the ground by the thousands! We are evacuating the last of the candy citizens. Some of the citizens didn’t get notice of the evacuation and there are currently racers out on the track. We’re holding ground with Sergeant Calhoun but we’re retreating shortly!”
The radio cut off and the tension in the station went up by several degrees. Dawn could hear many people gripping their weapons harder as they prepared to defend the central station and their games with everything they had. Humanoid children dressed in various candy items came rushing into the station terrified out of their minds, these must have been the racers Dawn speculated as the children were rushed behind the barricades.
“Fire team! Let’s go!” Dawn yelled as she gripped her rifle and flew down the tunnel with a fire team of space marines that would guard the entrance to sugar rush until Sergeant Calhoun and the other teams got through.
They rushed to the entryway and set up at the barricades set up there. They didn’t need to hold out forever, because there were explosives everywhere around them. The fire team led by Dawn was only there to help the last people cross. A few straggling candy people were running to the entrance and Dawn spotted a hulking figure of a man carrying a little girl running to the entrance as well. However, a blue electric barrier appeared and the little girl glitched off the man’s shoulder to the ground, blocked from the exiting the game.
“Kid!”
“Ralph, I told you I can’t leave the game.”
Dawn scowled, she could not do anything and could only order the candy citizens to continue evacuating. She honestly did not want to watch this heart-breaking scene. This little girl with candy dirt in her hair was going to die in this game because the cy-bugs would eat her since she could not exit the game. Suddenly, Sergeant Calhoun came flying towards the entrance on her cruiser with Felix standing at the front.
“All right, Fix-It. That’s everyone.” Sergeant Calhoun jumped from her cruiser and turned towards Dawn. “Corporal, we’ve got to blow up this exit.”
“Already on it, sergeant. We’ve got explosives lining the rainbow road as well as a few hundred pounds of explosives taped to the tunnel exit.” Dawn replied.
The big man Ralph, and the little girl were having a heart-breaking conversation while Felix looked up to Sergeant Calhoun, “But what about this game?”
Sergeant Calhoun shook her head, “Nothing we can do about it. Without a beacon, there’s no way to stop these monsters.”
Dawn got her soldiers prepped to retreat, even if none of them wanted to leave behind that little child. The girl was smaller than Dawn and every soldier’s heartstring was plucked at seeing her unable to exit the game. Then, the big man seemed to perk up and call to the little girl, “Stay with Felix.”
The big man then took a running jump and landed on Sergeant Calhoun’s cruiser, “Let me borrow that thing, lady.”
“Ralph! Where are you going?” the little girl cried out, chasing Ralph who was already starting to fly off.
“I got some wrecking to do!” He looked back trying to look confident, “I’ll meet you at the finish line!”
Felix called out, but Dawn didn’t hear what he had yelled out as Sergeant Calhoun pulled out her weapon in response to the shots fired by the fire team at the crawling cy-bugs already dominating the rainbow road.
The fireteam pushed forward, firing at the cy-bugs. They had to be careful, they were already rapidly running through their ammunition since every cy-bug killed just allowed for a new one to step forward. Felix pulled the little girl back with Sergeant Calhoun emptied her rifle into the cy-bugs and then emptied her pistol as well.
The fire team pushed the barricades forward and covered the two civilians and their sergeant. “Get someone to blow the road!” Dawn yelled out.
“Roger!” one of the soldiers cried out and fumbled for a remote control. He pressed the button and Dawn could hear the small pop of a micro explosions that began taking out the bridge from the bottom and made its way up. The explosions lined the bottom of the road and were just strong enough to wipe out the road and anything hanging out on the surface.
This gave them a few seconds of breathing room and to allow for one of the soldiers to throw a spare rifle at Sergeant Calhoun. This also gave the little girl the opportunity to see Ralph being flown up into the air but a very oddly mutated cy-bug above the cola bottle shaped mountain. “Ralph!”
Then, they all watched the man escape from the cy-bug to fall to the top of the bottle mountain. The little girl panicked and ran forward and jumped from the edge of the broken rainbow road with a blue burst as she performed a controlled glitch. Then, a loud thud sounded as a plume of white powder flew up from the top of the mountain in an impact explosion.
“Soldiers, fall back to the barricades!” Dawn called out. There were cy-bugs crawling on the walls of the cliff face towards the exit to Sugar Rush and more were flying over as well. They sprayed bullet everywhere, cy-bugs dropping by the dozens. However, there always seemed to be five more cy-bugs for every cy-bug killed.
Only a few seconds after the impact explosion happened at the top of the bottle mountain, another explosion erupted. This time, a glowing hot eruption of hot cola erupted from the top of the bottle exactly in the shape of a beacon.
All the cy-bugs they were fighting turned around with data blue eyes instead of the angry acid green. Then, those cy-bugs flew off towards the makeshift beacon towards their deaths.
Fighting for their lives, and now it had ended. Hundreds of thousands of bugs all flew to their deaths within the span of a few seconds.
“You did it, Ralph! Way to go, brother!” yelled Felix in excitement before he did a weird little jump and kissed Sergeant Calhoun on the cheek.
Sergeant Calhoun gasped in surprise and reached down to grab at Felix’s shirt in her fists. Dawn expected her to punch his face in but could only roll her eyes when the sergeant kissed the little man and cartoon hearts popped up everywhere.
Dawn simply turned around to the soldiers who were now hollering and shooting their guns into the air. They were ecstatic for the sergeant as well as the fact that they would live another day. “Go inform everyone in the tunnels of the all clear! Quite wasting your ammo!”
Felix and Calhoun separate and Sergeant Calhoun coughed before turning towards Dawn, “Corporal, we need to head down to get the finish line fixed. When that little pipsqueak crossed the finish line, this game will reset. All the left-over cy-bug eggs will be erased, and all the damage restored. Go back and get everything put away.”
“Roger, sergeant.” Dawn nodded and turned around to get on her cruiser to get back to the central station. It would take some doing, but all essential equipment and characters relevant to individual games would be back where they belonged before the arcade opened in the morning. They would have to wait for the next night to undo all the makeshift barricades and explosives that lined the tunnels from Sugar Rush to the central station.
~~oOo~~
Dawn woke up with a start. She had fallen asleep without even realizing it. The battles in Hero’s Duty yesterday and then all the preparation to fight the cy-bugs last night had exhausted her. It did not matter that she was way older than her body suggested, her body was still only twelve.
This entire world she had landed herself had been a high-strung, intense, adrenaline rush adventure. She had been here for little over a day and she was wiped out. However, this was a world filled with dozens of games. So, once she had recovered, Dawn explored the different games. She had kind of disappeared on Sergeant Calhoun and was a bit nervous to go back and have to explain she was not actually a program that was a part of Hero’s Duty. Not after getting an explanation for ‘Going Turbo’ from all the game character throughout the arcade after Ralph’s little breakdown.
It took a few weeks to make her rounds through all the games in the arcade before Dawn finally made her way back to Hero’s Duty. She was honestly extremely nervous about going into that violent game. She still found herself flinching at the sound of gunfire and the weird beeping sound iconic to the cy-bug. Every time she heard the sound resembling that of the cy-bug had Dawn pulling out her rifle and aimed at the source of the noise.
With a deep breath, Dawn entered the game.
Hero’s Duty was still darkly lit, and the bunker was filled with smoke. The soldiers were all marching to get somewhere and crates of ammunition were piled high along the walls near the weapons room.
“Sergeant!” Dawn called out, grabbing the attention of Sergeant Calhoun.
“Corporal. Where have you been?” Sergeant Calhoun barked. This woman was tough as nails, not even getting married seem to soften her edges when she was at work.
Dawn had witnessed the lovely wedding, was even a bridesmaid standing at the side of President Vanellope Von Schweetz. Dawn had half expected it and so had been completely unsurprised when the entire half of the wedding hall filled with space marines in their dress uniforms had pointed heavy weaponry at the stained window of the church. Dawn had only stuck around long enough with the sergeant until the wedding and then had gone exploring into the other games.
“I apologize, sergeant. However, I don’t belong to Hero’s Duty.” Dawn sighed and turned in rank attachment that had been on Dawn’s armor. “This rank doesn’t actually belong to me.”
Sergeant Calhoun laughed, “You think I didn’t figure that out eventually, Corporal?” Sergeant Calhoun brought her arm around Dawn’s neck and brought her fist down on Dawn’s to give her a painful noogie with her knuckles.
“Stop! That hurts!” Dawn cried out and began struggling to escape the sergeant’s grip.
“You helped this arcade. If Wrecker hadn’t figured out that beacon idea of his to destroy the cy-bugs, you would have created the only line of defense this arcade had.” Sergeant Calhoun let go of Dawn and knelt to look her in the eye. “You have my thanks.”
Dawn felt tears welling up in her eyes and had to sniffle to keep from being over emotional. “Thank you.”
“I know you’re probably leaving again, so thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to grab some extra ammunition for that rifle I don’t know you still have. As well as extra ammo for a pistol I didn’t forget to leave within easy access on a bench to your left.” Calhoun gave a shark like grin towards Dawn.
Dawn gave her own grin as she looked and saw the shiny gleam of a well maintained pistol sitting on the aforementioned bench. “I’ll try to visit again someday.”
Sergeant Calhoun gave a single nod before turning away and pulling out her rifle. “Alright you pussy footed lackwits! Listen up because I’m only going to say this once. Fear is a four-letter word ladies. You wanna go peepee in your big boy slacks? Keep it to yourself. Its make your mommas proud time!”
Dawn nodded to herself and swiped the extra ammunition boxes sitting on the group beneath the bench that previously had the pistol resting on it. Then, finished with this world, Dawn opened up a portal and stepped through without looking back as Sergeant Calhoun and the team of space marines ran forward through the blast doors to fight the thousands of cy-bugs.