Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Hearts Route B ❯ Litwak's Arcade ( Chapter 16 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any of the Disney/Square Enix characters that appear in this work. Please support the original releases.

 

 

 

Chapter 16: Litwak's Arcade

 

 

 

Sora pressed his forehead against the cold wall of the castle. The shapes beyond the thin white wall were still blurry but, if he concentrated hard enough, he could see dark red spots outside of the castle. He looked down. There was a road leading out of the castle, but it didn't look like the strange, silver platform they had walked on before.

Donald and Goofy stood behind him in silence, but Sora didn't need to ask what was on their minds. Locke hadn't been in Atlantis, which meant that he was still in the castle somewhere.

Or so Sora hoped.

He turned around to stare at the dimensional door and pressed his teeth together in a grimace. There was still the risk of opening a door to the realm of darkness. The king of Atlantis had said that the wielder of the keyblade brings ruin. If he opened the door to darkness and let a sea of heartless escape into the worlds, then he would be doing just that.

Sora felt as though he were standing between two traps. He held the ropes that stopped the axes from falling. On one side was the fate of all the worlds, and on the other were his friends and comrades. There was no way to save one or the other without letting go of one rope.

Donald and Goofy's concerned faces caught his eye and Sora blurted out all his worries.

"Since when did you become so responsible?" Donald said.

"What does that mean?" Sora growled.

"I think he means that he's proud of ya."

"Yeah, what he said."

"Proud of me? All I'm doing is standing here without making a decision."

"But you're facing a tough decision, right?"

Donald tapped his flipper on the ground. "That means that you're becoming stronger. King Mickey has to make hard choices all the time, but we stick by those choices, right Goofy?"

"Yep. Because we know that whatever he decides to do, he thought it through to the end and we know that whatever you decide to do, you thought about it with all your heart."

Sora covered his eyes.

"You guys."

He snorted.

Donald and Goofy winked.

"I don't want to leave Locke behind," Sora admitted, "but-"

"Jeez louise, enough with the pity party. I'm going to be sick. Isn't it time you get your caboose moving? Or is talking the only thing you would be heroes can do?"

A ripple of shock zipped down Sora's spine. He knew that voice.

Donald and Goofy readied their weapons.

Like water spilling into a sinking ship, smoke leaked out of the floor in front of the castle's dimensional door. It swirled and stretched, rising higher, until it obscured the door completely. Out of the black fog, a tall man floated out. His black lips stretched, revealing a row of shark teeth, and his yellow eyes narrowed at the trio.

He floated down the stairs to stand in front of Sora, Donald and Goofy, and quirked a thin eyebrow when the trio pointed their weapons at him.

"What? Did you forget your manners? Is that how heroes say hello nowadays?"

Donald was gripping his staff so tightly, that feathers were turning red. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"Hades," Sora growled, "didn't we knock you back into the underworld where you belong?"

"Pu-lease kid. You really thought getting punted by a trio of shrimps was going to keep the Lord of the Dead down?"

"He's gotta be working with Doctor Facilier," Goofy said.

"Bingo. You know for suck a dumb looking dog, you figure things out pretty quick eh?"

"Hey! Keep your opinions to yourself!"

"Calm down, kid." Hades leaned to the side and then his entire body was floating in the air as though he were lounging on an invisible bed. "You see, I'm here to give you guys some help."

"As if we'd want any help from you!"

"Can it, unless you want to become roast duck."

"I'll show YOU roast duck!"

Donald's staff glowed a deep blue. He threw a spear of ice toward Hades' head. The Lord of the Underworld vanished and the ice shattered against the castle wall.

Hades voice echoed in the camber.

"You see, shrimps, the good doctor still needs you to do a few more things for him. And since I love a good round of revenge, I thought I'd lend him a hand."

Sora felt something grainy and cold on the back of his neck. A blast of hair slammed into his back. He went flying across the room with Donald and Goofy right behind him. The castle door opened and they were swallowed by the light.

"Enjoy the ride, kiddos!"

 

 

 

Sora landed face first into mud. He was about to open his mouth and spit out the dirt when he realized that the mud tasted sweet. Sora licked his lips. Chocolate?

He stared at the ground. The warm, spongy material under his hands made Sora's jaw drop. Either he was re-experiencing his six year old fantasy, or the ground was actually made out of vanilla cake. As he stood up and walked around, his head whirled in what he could only describe as the scents of every single bakery known in existence hitting his nose all at once.

Just looking at the world made Sora's teeth ache. Pink cotton candy clouds floated in the mint green sky. Chocolate egg mountains rose up in the distance and he swore he saw a forest made of lollipops just beyond the audience stand.

Audience?

Tiny, stupidly adorable, lollipop, biscuit, popcorn, mint and hard candy people were waving desperately at him. He was standing on a yellow and pink fondant paved road between what looked like spectator seats made out of candy boxes.

A pair of voices shouted.

"GET OFF THE ROAD!"

Sora turned around and stared, wide eyed at the pair of walking, talking donuts that were waving desperately at him from between the audience stands.

His fantasy was quickly turning into a nightmare. The donuts pulled out some kind of pistol and a pair of pretzel police batons from their pockets. They moved toward Sora, but the moment they put their feet on the road, something pink and glittery flew by so fast that they fell back on their non-frosted behinds.

The audience screamed, several of the mint candies covered their little, black eyes. Something purple flashed by Sora, nearly crashing into him. He watched as the purple thing careened out of control before it crashed into one of the candy audience boxes.

Racing toward the accident, Sora stared down at a go-kart made out a hodgepodge of sweets. The kart was smoking, the hood of the cart had completely collapsed, and the wheels had fallen off. A little girl in a green hoodie lay by the kart, whimpering.

Sora leaned down. "Hey! Are you okay?"

The little kid turned over and stared up. Her eyes were spinning in her head.

"Stop in the name of the law!"

The two donuts were crossing the road. Sora turned toward the girl.

"Sorry about that! Curaga!"

Green bellflowers floated over the girl, healing her bruises. The second after he had uttered the spell, Sora ducked between the audience boxes and bolted into the candyland beyond. Stopping under a candy cane tree, Sora took a moment to catch his breathe. Then a candy cane branch fell into his hair.

"Hey Sora! Get me down from here!"

Donald was hanging off a branch of the candy cane tree by the back of his shirt. He wriggled in the air, quaking angrily. With a sigh, Sora began climbing. Once Donald was free and back on the ground, Sora spotted a pair of legs sticking up from a chocolate puddle in the floor.

Donald grabbed one leg, and Sora grabbed the other. They pulled and Goofy popped out of the ground like a carrot. He whipped the chocolate off his face with his sleeve.

"Hey fellars, is it me or are we in the most delicious looking world ever."

He picked up a candy cane brach from the floor and crunched it between his teeth. A lollipop was growing like a dandelion by Donald's feet. He pulled the lolly from the ground and began munching.

"Guys!" Sora huffed. "We don't have time for sweets! We've got to find the door back to Castle Oblivion and beat information out of Hades."

"You three! Stop right there!"

"What now?" Sora groaned, turning around.

The donuts had caught up. They pointed pink pistols at the trio.

"You three are under arrest!"

"For what?" Sora smirked. "Have I robbed a bank? Stollen some dough?"

Donald and Goofy wheezed with laughter.

"Ah-yuck! Good one!"

"Sora, are you trying to get us thrown in the fryer?"

"Hey, I don't want to go to jail. It's cold in there. I don't want to get frosty."

"Yeah, Donald. Donut worry."

The tall, eclair cop with brown glaze adjusted his aviator glasses. "Oh you think that's funny? Duncan?"

The ring-shaped donut had a mustache made of frosting. When he smiled, the frosting cracked a bit. "I hope you three like sticking together."

He raised his pistol and fired. A blob of sticky, pink, strawberry scented goo slammed into Sora, Donald and Goofy, covering every part of their bodies but their heads. Sora wriggled, which turned out to be a bad idea. The goo pressed on him and seemed to get more solid the more he struggled.

"What is this stuff? Taffy?"

"Yep. Criminal proof taffy. Let's roll boys."

Eclair cop kicked the ball of taffy and Sora, Donald and Goofy yowled as the world spun.

 

 

 

Sora had been on some wild rides since he had left the Destiny Islands. He had surfed on some jungle vines, he had driven a space ship through fleets of heartless, he had even learned how to fly, but nothing had ever made him feel as sick as being rolled to the dungeon in a taffy ball. Wynnchel and Duncan, the two donut police officers, had thrown them into a jail cell.

Sora looked around the chocolate brick walls and door. There was a window with pretzel sticks for bars. He pulled and stretched in the taffy, but the candy had hardened. It was like being trapped in a jawbreaker.

"Give it up, Sora," Donald moaned, "it's not use."

"We can't stay stuck like this. We have to get back to Castle Oblivion as soon as possible."

"But we don't know where the door is," Goofy said.

"Stupid Hades," Donald seethed, his face turning red, "stupid taffy!"

There was a chuckle.

"Aw, poor diaper baby. Having a tantrum?"

Sora looked at the cell window. A little girl was lying down behind the bars. He recognized her. It was the girl that had almost crashed into him on the race track.

She looked completely relaxed, with her jaw in her hands and her legs kicking up behind her.

"Who are you calling a baby, you baby," Donald snapped.

The little girl rolled over, giving them an upside down smirk.

"You guys aren't from here, are ya? What game are you from?"

"Game?" Sora repeated.

"Yeah, game? You know, the world we live in? Duh. Are you usually this much of a space cadet, or are you just programmed this way?"

"Listen, kid-"

"The name's Vanellope, spike-boy."

"Spike-boy?"

"Yeah, cuz your hair looks like it could pop a balloon."

"Okay. Do you know a way to get out of this pink, taffy, thing?"

"Sure do."

"Really? How?"

"I mean I could tell you, but then what would I get out of it?"

Sora grit his teeth. He resisted the urge to retort and ask why she was so freakishly annoying, but he decided to take a deep breathe instead.

"Uh, I don't know. We'll just owe you a favor."

"What are your talents?"

"Magic," Donald said.

"Defense," Goofy added.

"And I can open pretty much any lock."

"Bingo, we have a winner!"

Vanellope rolled back over onto her feet and ran away from the window. Sora heard her muffled voice in the distance.

"Hey, ham hands! Help me with a jail break, will ya?"

A giant fist smashed through the window. Pieces of the pretzel bars and chocolate walls, scattered all over the cell. Instead of dust, powdered sugar filled the air, making it smell dizzyingly sweet and salty. Sora, Donald and Goofy's taffy ball rolled over to the side.

The dust cleared and Vanellope popped into the cell. A giant of a man entered the room behind her, making the jail cell feel incredibly small. His huge feet appeared in front of Sora's eyes as he lifted the taffy ball up onto his shoulder.

With his free arm, he smashed another hole through the cell wall, and out they went. They stopped in a field of cake pop dandelions. The big man put down the taffy ball and then pulled his arm back.

Then he lightly punched the taffy ball and it splintered into a billion pieces.

Vanellope clapped. "Nice job."

"Ah, it's really no big deal," said the big man, "they don't call me Wreck-it-Ralph for nothing."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy stretched and rotated their joints.

"Man, I've been in some tight spots before, but nothing like that."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Enough with the puns, Sora."

It didn't take long for the two of them to start a glaring match, and while they were staring each other down, waiting for one or the other to make a wrong move, Goofy went up to Vanellope and Ralph to thank them for busting them out of jail.

"Ah, don't sweat it. Those two dough-heads will throw anyone in jail these days. Just want to feel like their doing their civic duty and all that."

Ralph frowned. "You know, kid, as president, shouldn't you have a talk with them and tell them not to abuse their power like that?"

"Yeah, I really should." Vanellope shrugged. "Aw well, maybe later. We've got a factory to bust into, remember? Hey spike-boy and duck!"

Sora and Donald stopped glaring at each other in favor of glaring at Vanellope,

"We've got names you know."

"Yeah, yeah, save the introductions for later. It's time to talk terms."

Sora squinted at Vanellope. Everything about her screamed sweetness. Her black hair was up in a ponytail and was tied with red licorice. Her hair accessories were gum drops and sprinkles. Her mint-green hoodie had strawberry string tassels, her skirt was made out of peanut butter cup wrappers, her stockings looked like green candy canes and even her boots had red frosting on the soles. So how did such a cute little girl have so much sass?

When she stood next to Ralph she looked even smaller, but Sora had no problem believing that Vanellope was a force to be reckoned with, even with Ralph standing nine feet tall next to her. He was big and beefy, with freakishly big hands and feet. His brown hair stuck up on his head. His wore a plaid, red shirt with ripped off sleeves. He seemed too big for his burgundy overalls, because one of the straps was broken.

Vanellope moved around the trio, sizing them up.

"So, you said you can pretty much open any lock? How?"

"With this!"

Vanellope stared at the keyblade and then at Sora with a look that said, "really?"

"I've seen some dumb video game weapons before. A sword that is way too long to reasonably exist, a shark gun, even a guy that uses a water pollo ball as a weapon. But a sword key? That's new."

"Keyblade! Wait, video game?"

Ralph and Vanellope exchanged looks.

"Did you hit your head there, professor?"

Ralph gestured to the world around them. "You know, the games in the arcade. Where we are? Did you guys just get plugged in or something?"

"Wait, you're saying we're actually in a video game? Like one of those black and white hand-held electronic toys?"

"Ah-doi there, Captain Obvious."

"Could you excuse me?"

Sora called Donald and Goofy in for a huddle.

"Okay, first off all, on the one hand, this is crazy cool! There are no games this amazing on my island! On the other hand, are there worlds within electronics?"

Donald shrugged. "The universe is huge. Anything can happen, I guess."

Goofy shrugged. "I mean is it really that strange? We've seen all kinds of crazy things on our adventure."

"This isn't the time to worry about that though." Donald said. "Remember Hades?"

"Oh yeah. We should look for him after we finish helping out Ralph and Vanellope. There's no telling what kind of damage he could do."

The meeting was over. Sora leaned down so that could look Vanellope in the eye.

"Okay. What do you need?"

 

 

 

Kairi wheezed. Each breathe felt as though she were inhaling fire. Across the castle throne room, Mary sat in one of her portable silver chairs, reading a book. Without looking up from her page, she waved her conductor's baton and a ball of light flew through the air. It rushed toward Kairi, ready to crash into her.

Kairi rolled to the side and felt the comet fly past her. She scrambled to her feet and chanted the spell she had been practicing.

"Thundara!"

Lightning attacked the orb of light, making it vanish.

More comets appeared, circling around her. They all attacked at once and there was no time to dodge, and no spell to counter the attack, except one.

"Reflect!"

A sphere of magic glass surrounded Kairi. The orbs hit her shield, and bounced off. Kairi let the shield drop and fried the remaining orbs with a lightning spell. She waited for another round, but instead of orbs flying at her face, she heard clapping.

"Well done, Kairi."

Mary put away her conducting baton, waved gestured for Kairi to come over.

Catching her breathe, Kairi sat down across from her teacher. There was already a cup of ice tea waiting for her. Kairi stared into the sweet, berry tea that was swirling in her mug, resisting the urge to put her head on the table and relax. She was used to waking up early, going to school, and then spending the rest of the day doing homework, or lazing off with Sora and Riku (when they were around), but Mary's teaching was nothing like going to class.

Her first lesson had nothing to do with magic. Mary had simply taken Kairi to a world inside one of the castle's paintings. There, Kairi and Mary had taken in a stroll in the country side. When Kairi tried to ask Mary what walking had to do with magic, there was a sudden rainstorm.

A few children had been out on the road, playing in the rain when a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree. The children panicked. There was another lightning strike on the road, as though the storm clouds were specifically targeted the kids. Mary opened her umbrella, flew toward the children and guarded them with a reflect spell, but one of the children was too far away to be shielded.

Kairi leapt forward, grabbed the child, and waited for lightning to strike, when, to her surprise, the lightning bounced off her own reflect spell. After that, the storm vanished, and then it was just practice, practice, practice until Kairi could perform the reflect spell without even thinking about it.

It was nearly impossible to say "no" to Mary Poppins. Despite the sneaky way she taught her lessons and the hours of training she put Kairi through, she was always pleasant. There was always a break that involved treats and tea, or a moment to play a game, like flying a kite, or going horse back riding in one of the castle paintings. She even tricked Kairi into learning how to do the lightning spell by taking her out for a picnic by the lake.

Mary, Minnie, Daisy and Kairi spoke about how to contact Yen Sid, the castle's day to day activities, magic and elemental properties, and bla bla bla. After stuffing her face with picnic food, Kairi was so full, and the idle talk had gotten so boring that she had stared out into the lake water in a daze. She would have fallen asleep if it weren't for the giant crocodile that suddenly broke through the surface of the water and tried to take a bite out of their picnic.

Kairi was in such a panic that she screamed the first spell she could think of, which happened to be the last spell she had heard Minnie and Daisy talking about before she zoned out. The thunder spell smacked the crocodile across the face and it slithered back into the water.

A hand on her forehead brought Kairi back to the present.

"Hmm, you aren't ill. Well then, is there a reason you are out of sorts?"

Kairi took a sip of her tea. "I was just 'reflecting' on my lessons."

Mary didn't laugh, although her smile had a sneaky quality to it, which made Kairi wonder what kind of lesson she had planned for her next.

"So have I, and I must say you are advancing quite nicely."

"Really?" "Yes dear. You are agile and can think on your feet. Both good qualities to have for magic users." Mary took a delicate sip of her tea and then slammed down the cup in her saucer. "But it is not enough. This will never do."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Not at all."

Mary stood from the table and walked toward the middle of the audience hall. She opened her carpet bag and pulled out her umbrella, as well as a thick, heavy, black book. "Give this spell book to Majesty Minnie, would you? There should be a spell that will allow her to send messages to sorcerers."

Kairi took the book, "So we're finally going to try and contact Master Yen Sid, the man in King Mickey's letter?"

"Correct. Though there is no guarantee we will get a response." Mary opened her umbrella. "While I'm gone, practice your magic with Queen Minnie. I will see you shortly!"

With a gust of air, Mary vanished.

 

 

 

Vanellope and Ralph led the trio through a factory that lay at the base of some ice cream mountains. They stopped in front of a door.

Sora's heart flipped in his chest.

Black smoke oozed from the door, covering the doorknob.

Darkness.

"See behind here, is the kart making factory." Vanellope explained. "Earlier, when you decided to make the dumb decision to walk into the middle of the the race track, you made me completely wreck my kart."

Sora rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry."

"Ralph and I came back here to get a new kart, but this weird black stuff doesn't let us go through. I think the game may be glitching again."

"That's no glitch," Sora whispered to Donald and Goofy.

"We know," they whispered back.

"Do you think it might be Hades' work?" Goofy asked.

"Or the heartless?" Donald added.

"Hey, you three got something to share with the rest of the class?" Ralph said.

Sora shook his head. "No. Anyway, you need me to open this door, right?"

Vanellope snapped her fingers. "That's the plan, key-boy. Come on, bust it open."

"I don't know if this is a good idea."

"Hey, you owe me, remember?"

"Keep an eye out for heartless," Sora whispered to Donald and Goofy.

He raised his keyblade and aimed it at the door. A beam of light disintegrated the darkness and the door opened up. Sora followed Ralph and Vanellope into a dark, circular room where every wall was covered with a red curtain.

Vanellope stepped on a red button in the center of the room and paintings of go karts lit up on the curtain. "Select your kart" was written in rainbow letters over every picture.

"Ready for the minigame Ralph?" Vanellope asked.

"Bring it on, kid."

Vanellope jumped and high-fived one of the paintings. The curtains opened up, reaving a massive bakery beyond. Some kind of long, conveyer belt, factory machine lined the wall of the huge room.

The raspy voice of an announcer boomed overhead. "Welcome to the bakery! Let's bake a car!"

"What is this? A game within a game?" Sora asked.

"It's a minigame," Ralph and Vanellope said.

"Gawrsh, this looks like fun!"

Goofy jinxed it.

A row of go-kart shaped heartless, with yellow eyes for headlights, appeared between them and the game. Above, flying cupcake-shaped heartless were twitching in the air. Sora, Donald and Goofy readied for battle.

"Ralph, Vanellope, take cover!"

A cupcake heartless flew at Vanellope. Ralph jumped in front of her and punched the heartless into nothing.

"You have one minute to win it," the announcer said.

"Ralph? What are you doing? Get her out of here!"

"We can't leave!" Vanellope shouted. "The game's already started!"

Ralph pointed to a steering wheel on top of a platform in front of the minigame. "Vanellope, play the game! I'll handle these guys."

Sora chased after Ralph. "Not alone you won't! Donald, Goofy, help Vanellope!"

"MIXING!" The announcer screamed. "Put the ingredients in the bowl and throw away the trash!"

Cupcake heartless floated over the first section of the mini game. There was a see-saw under a tube that released trash and ingredients onto it. One side of the see-saw led into a trash can and the other led into a bowl. Across the game, Vanellope was using a steering wheel to move the see-saw, trying to tip the ingredients into the bowl.

The heartless pressed down on the see-saw in the middle of the mixer, making it hard for Vanellope to move the steering wheel. One of the heartless threw a pair of underpants and a hairbrush into the bowl.

Ralph and Sora jumped up onto the see-saw. Sora hurled his keyblade at the floating heartless, smacking them away. A heartless car crashed into the base of the game's conveyer belt, making Sora and Ralph lose their balance.

"Keep the game going!" Ralph ordered before he jumped off to thrash the heartless cars below.

"Sora, cupcake at three o' clock!" Vanellope shouted. Sora turned around and smacked his keyblade at the heartless like a base ball bat. It went flying, but the game was still going.

"Oh no!" Goofy pointed. "The milk and eggs! You're going to miss them!"

From above his head, trash and ingredients kept falling. Sora pushed eggs and milk into the bowl, while kicking away fishbones and cans. He managed to get a bag of flour in the bowl as well before a heartless flew at his head and he let a pair of old socks slip through.

The bowl began to move down the conveyer belt of the bakery machine.

"BATTER UP!"

A pair of cake mixers came down and began to mix the ingredients in the bowl. From across the room, Vanellope, Donald and Goofy sprinted to the next section of the game. Down below, Ralph smashed the last heartless and chased after Sora into the next section.

"BAKING! Pump up the heat and hold the perfect temperature."

The cake bowl entered a giant, red oven. On the side of the oven there was a thermometer with markings that read, "too cold, just right, too hot." Across the room, there was a pump that was connected to the thermometer. Vanellope and Goofy worked together to push air through the pump while Donald defended them from flying heartless.

Meanwhile, flying cupcakes were slamming against the oven glass. Sora jumped up onto the oven and threw fire spells left and right, keeping the heartless away from the glass. Ralph caught up and slammed a few heartless into the ground, but he missed one. It hit the glass, making it crack. The temperature of the oven went down from "just right" to "too cold."

The timer was now down to twenty seconds.

"I got this!" Donald raised his staff. "FIRAGA!"

A fireball went through the hole in the glass and the oven dinged. "Just right."

Vanellope raced to the next section of the game. "Come on, guys! Fifteen seconds!"

A baked go kart came out of oven. It was being moved by the conveyer belt. Above it were glass candy dispensers filled with all kinds of candy and frosting.

Across the room, Donald and Vanellope fired gumdrops from a golden gun. The gumdrops hit the targets on the glass dispensers and four cake wheels fell down onto the conveyer belt where they were attached to the kart.

Too bad a bunch of heartless also appeared on the conveyer belt in front of the kart. Ralph and Sora, stood on either side of the kart, protecting it from heartless. There was only five seconds left. The last heartless neared the kart. Ralph punched it and sent it flying. It crashed into the glass candy dispensers above. The glass bottles broke, throwing all kinds of candy, sprinkles, frosting, glaze and jam all over the baked kart.

But it didn't matter. The kart made it to the other side of the conveyer belt and that was when the game announcer called out, "Time's up!"

Vanellope, Donald, Ralph, Sora and Goofy gathered in front of the garage door where the kart was supposed to come out.

"Congratulations, you did it! And here's your kart!"

The door opened up and Vanellope's kart came rolling out. It didn't look anything like the pretty and streamlined pictures they had seen back in the curtain room. Instead the headlight gumdrops didn't match; one was white, and the other was red. The kart was covered in messy, purple and chocolate frosting with sprinkles all over it. The wheels were all mismatched biscuits with gummy worms as the tires.

Donald and Goofy hung their heads. "Sorry, Vanellope, we really tried."

"What are you talking about?" Ralph laughed.

"Yeah! It's perfect! It looks exactly like the kart I had before! I love it!"

"You do?" Sora said. "Sweet!"

Heartless popped up in the air just in time to ruin Sora's good mood.

Vanellope jumped into the driver's seat of the kart. "Get on!"

Sora, Ralph, Donald and Goofy piled up on the kart. Vanellope slammed the accelerator and they sped out of the factory. Ralph sat on the back of the kart, punching incoming heartless away while Vanellope drove.

They escaped out of the factory into the cake hills. More cupcake heartless flew at the kart from every angle. Sora and Donald knocked them back with magic, while Goofy boomeranged them with his shield.

Vanellope veered off toward a vanilla wafer bridge. Across the bridge, a giant cake rose up from the ground. Except it wasn't a cake. It was a heartless, and it's lower tier opened up to reveal a mouth with candy corn teeth. It was just waiting for them to drive right into it so that it could swallow them whole.

"Vanellope! Gun it!" Ralph yelled.

Donald quacked. "Are you crazy?"

"We're gonna get swallowed!" Goofy covered his eyes.

"Just watch! You got this, kid."

"You're dang darn right I do! Hold on!"

Vanellope pushed the kart's stick shift forward and the kart sped up toward the giant heartless cake's open mouth.

Sora fingers dug into Ralph's shoulder. The heartless' long, fruit-ribbon tongue stuck out, and Vanellope grinned.

Sora felt a weird tingly feeling, as though he had just come apart and was put back together in an instant. He patted himself down to make sure he was still whole. Then he looked around. They weren't in the gut of a giant, cake heartless. In fact they were racing away from it at top speed on the other side.

It was as though they had phased right through it.

"Wait? What happened? How did we get here?"

Vanellope laughed. "One minute I'm here, one minute I'm there! I am the greatest racer with best glitch superpower in the game!"

The kart blinked in and out, popping from one area only to reappear several paces ahead, as though Vanellope had made it jump through space. She swerved to a stop and turned around to pin Sora, Donald and Goofy with a grin.

"That was totally awesome! You guys can really fight!"

"You're not so bad, yourself," Donald said.

"Yeah! That was some fancy drivin', ah-yuck!"

Ralph raised his hand high and Sora gave him a high five.

"So," Sora began, "what do you plan to do now?"

"The race you crash landed into was postponed, so I have to go back and teach that Taffida what-for before the arcade opens."

Ralph put a hand on his head. "Oh man! It's that time already!"

"What time?" Donald asked.

"The arcade is going to open in a few hours. You guys better make sure to be back in your game before that happens."

"But we can't leave Sugar Rush just yet," Sora said.

"Right, we're looking for someone."

Vanellope shrugged. "Well, I got time. I'll drive you around."

"Thanks. But I don't want you to miss your race. Donald, Goofy and I will go our separate ways for now."

The trio got off of Vanellope's kart. Before they left, Ralph gave them a salute.

"See ya round boys! Make sure to come by the race track before the arcade opens."

"You got it."

Ralph and Vanellope rode off.

 

 

 

Jiminy's Journal

Hades (First Appeared in Hercules, 1997): The hot-tempered Lord of the Dead, Hades is a manipulative god that who's actions are always self-serving. Sora and his friends teamed up with Hercules to put a stop of Hades' schemes back in Olympus Coliseum, but how and why is he in Castle Oblivion?

Wynnchel and Duncan (First Appeared in Wreck-It Ralph, 2012): Two donut police officers that try and keep order in their sugary video game. Wynnchel is a tall, éclair cop while Duncan is a shorter, ring shaped shaped donut. They seem to get annoyed very easily, especially at sweet puns.

Vanellope von Schweetz (First Appeared in Wrech-It Ralph, 2012): A sarcastic and mischievous little girl that can really tear up the racetrack. She also has a special glitch superpower allows her to teleport through objects and space. When not racing, you can find her goofing off with her best friend, Ralph.

Ralph (First Appeared in Wreck-It Ralphm 2012): A nine-foot-tall lumberjack that can break anything that's unlucky enough to be in front of his massive fists. Ralph is more of a laid back, gentle giant that enjoys spending time with Vanellope in her game. He doesn't seem to mind getting into all kinds of trouble.