Thanks for the wonderful feedback, guys! It puts a smile on my face! >w<
As always, credit to TootsieRollYumYum for some of the characters and ideas used in the story! Read on, young adventurers!
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Vanellope looked to Peppermark, his blank gaze unchanged. "Pepper, buddy, you gotta let go of me," she said, but he payed no attention, only staring at her mindlessly.
"Peppermark, you can control your glitch! You just gotta listen to me!" At that moment she glitched away from him, her pixels recombining behind him. He lazily turned toward her, arms still outstretched. "Control it, Peppermark, control it!!"
Peppermark suddenly blinked, and his arms fell to his sides. His eyes began to regain thier green color, but soon mixed with maroon again.
"It's no use, Vanellope, he's part of my game, now." Turbo said.
She ignored him, turning to King Sour Gum instead. "Hey, Sour Gum! Turbo's an intruder too, right?" As she said this, Sour Gum turned towards Turbo. Something flashed behind his eyes and he changed course, heading his way rather than to Felix and Calhoun.
"Wait, what are you doing? I'm a part of this game now, attack them!" Turbo hissed, but Vanellope spoke over him, "You may be able to fool the citizens, Turbo, but you cant fool the code!"
Turbo growled and went to work in the boxes again. Vanellope turned back to Peppermark. "Buddy, you gotta listen, alright? You can control your glitch, but you gotta concentrate." Peppermark unclenched his fists, then raised his arms again, shuffling closer.
"No, Peppermark, listen!" She glitched behind him again, and he turned towards her slowly. She was beginning to give up hope.She would have to fight Turbo on her own, unless....unless she could somehow get the control away from him.
"Hey, Turbo, I gotta question." She asked, lazily floating backwards.
"What do you want, you little brat?" Turbo spat at her, batting Sour Gums hands away as he tweaked the code.
"How come you haven't taken control of us, yet?" She pushed off of Peppermark as he shuffled closer, and drifted closer to Turbo.
He laughed, "There's alot you learn when you're a master of the code..."
"Quit saying that," Vanellope said.
Turbo, unfazed, continued, "...For example, if a box has no wires, I can't control it. Change it, yes, to my hearts content, but not control it." He again hit Sour Gums hands away, adding a kick and saying, "Would you get away from me!"
"So," Vanellope glitched over to where Peppermarks box dangled, the few wires attached to it sparking, and continued, "what would happen if I did this?" She procedded to rip the remaining wires from the box.
Turbo gasped and raced over to her, but she shoved the now disconnected box at him and glitched away. "You little sour brat! I'll get you for this!"
Peppermark had regained full control of himself, breathing heavily and blinking until the red was gone. He looked over to Vanellope, an apology on his face.
The others, once they figured out what Vanellope was doing, rushed to help, grabbing Sour Gums box and ripping wires from it, as well, until the last one fell away and Sour Gum had control once more. Turbo looked to them all, each one ready to attack, and giggled, floating up towards his box.
"Ever wonder why you don't come back if you die outside of your game?" He asked, not waiting for an answer as the others neared. "It's because your box isn't part of the code! Once it's gone, it can't respawn, and you're dead for good."
"I knew it!" Vanelope said. She began to glitch then, as her emotions bubbled over, asking him,"So why didn't you kill me, then, back in the Fungeon?"
"Oh, Vanellope, I never wanted to kill you." he said, his face remaining stern and unforgiving, and his smile disappearing, "I only wanted to keep my code in the game. If I'd let you race, you'd disrupt everything I'd worked for, and reveal me." His grin was back, then, and he continued, "But now? After all you've done?" He hit his box three times and Calhoun's gun appeared in his hands, "I'd gladly kill you all."
"No!!" Peppermark was there, suddenly, glitching into Turbo and making him jerk away.
"Ach! Get off!" Turbo kicked him, but Peppermark didn't stay down. He glitched back to Turbo and grabbed at the gun. A few shots went off, and everyone cowered, but the bullets had no target and floated off into the empty, endless world that was the code.
Vanellope helped, also glitching up to him and kicking his helmet.
"You little freaks, get off of me!" Turbo cried, but his gun was knocked from him, floating down and into the hands of Calhoun. He gasped, just as she said, "Nighty night, freak show," and squeezed off a few shots.
"No, wait!!!" Ralph cried, but it was too late. Turbo disappeared, but his box remained.
"Why is he still here?" Sour Gum asked. Ralph answered him,"didn't you hear Turbo? He wired himself into the game! He can respawn here!"
"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Vanellope glitched to the exit, "C'mon! Lets go catch him!"
The others followed, if a bit more slowly, and left the darkened, almost quiet world of the code behind.
