"Tag, you're it, no tagbacks!"

Adorabeezle Winterpop sprinted away, laughing gleefully, leaving Minty Zaki frozen in her tracks. Her giggles bounced in the air, colliding with the cacophonous merry din of twelve other racers as they transformed the yard next to Niceland Apartments into the biggest game of Freeze Tag that Litwak's Arcade had ever seen. Half the kids tore wildly around the 8-bit grass, their boots kicking up pixelized chunks of earth as they ran; the other half stood frozen, arms outstretched, trying to muffle their laughter and remain perfectly still at the same time.

And in the middle of the playful melee were Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sgt. Tamora Jean Calhoun, both of them trying their best to keep up with the sugar-hopped crowd around them. It had been Felix's idea to instigate the game, allowing the racers to burn off all the excess energy they'd built up from staying inside the apartment all day. While Q-bert and his buddies kept gamers entertained with their dynamite-blasting bonus level, Felix and Calhoun had spent the better part of the last 24 hours trying to put a rein on the Sugar Rush racers' enthusiasm for mayhem. Finally realizing the best method was to just let the kids tire themselves out, Felix had turned them loose in the side yard and encouraged everyone to have some good clean fun.

Gee whillikers, Felix thought as he leapt into the air, narrowly dodging a tag from Taffyta Muttonfudge, this parenting jazz isn't so hard after all!

Just then, a shriek rent the air. Not a playful yelp, but a distressed cry.

"Swizzle, that's not fair! Gimme back my candle!"

"Gotta catch me first! Oh, that's right - you can't! Ha ha!"

Felix and Calhoun whirled around. Swizzle Malarkey was running full tilt across the yard, smirking triumphantly, with a small pink wax candle clutched in one of his tiny fists. He'd just snatched it off the top of Candlehead's hat. Candlehead herself was still frozen in place, as per the rules of the game, but her face was flush with vexation. Tears were already welling in her eyes.

Calhoun darted in front of Swizzle's path, armor-clad arms crossed. She glared sternly at the boy as he stopped dead in his tracks with wide apprehensive eyes.

"Swizzle," she said in her stern contralto that always meant business, "tell me what we discussed earlier about stealing?"

The game ground to a halt as the other racers glared at the scene before them. It looked for sure like someone was about to get punished.

Swizzle tucked his hands behind his back and fixed his gaze on the ground. "Um…" he mumbled. "That it's not behavior becoming of a hero?"

"That's right," Felix asserted with a firm nod. "You know that Candlehead likes her candle very much. Why did you try to take it from her?"

Running a hand through his shaggy green hair, Swizzle swallowed hard. It was awkward to receive a dressing-down from someone who wasn't much taller than he was.

"I dunno…" he muttered. "I just wanted to get her attention, I guess…"

"Well, there's nicer ways to get people's attention than taking things that don't belong to you," Felix said kindly. "Like a handshake, or perhaps a friendly yodel."

Calhoun knelt down to look Swizzle in the eye. "Now, I want you to go give Candlehead her candle back and say you're sorry, and you have to mean it. Understood, soldier?"

Swizzle nodded, then shuffled back over to Candlehead, who was still frozen in place. He handed the candle back to her.

"I'm sorry, Candlehead," he said, his voice cracking slightly.

Candlehead smiled. "It's okay, Swizzle. But, um, don't you have to tag me first before I can take it?"

Felix and Calhoun chuckled, placing their arms around each other. It was hard to believe that just yesterday, Felix was guzzling an entire mug of root beer to cope with the stresses of parenting. Now it was practically second nature…

And speaking of yesterday…

The arcade had closed several hours ago, but Felix still hadn't seen Ralph since he left Tapper's last night. He and Vanellope had taken the incredibly bold step of leaving the arcade, traveling through that shady new "WiFi" whatchamacallit in Game Central Station to find a replacement steering wheel for the Sugar Rush console. Felix didn't know much about this Internet thing, but from what the Surge Protector had told him, it could be a dangerous place. And considering what had almost happened the last time Ralph was out of his game for this long…

Felix tried to ignore the nervous fluttering in his stomach. Surely, Ralph and Vanellope were okay. The Internet was a big place, wasn't it? Maybe it just naturally took this long to get from one end of it to another.

A familiar chugging sound met Felix's ears. His eyes darted to the train station across the river.

The tiny blue train rumbled along the track, coming to a rest against the buffer. And there, in the backmost car, was the unmistakable mountainous form of Felix's 36-year compatriot, Wreck-It Ralph.

"Hot dog!" Felix yelped. "Ralph and Vanellope are back!"

"'Bout dang time!" Calhoun grinned, as the racers all cheered. Everyone stampeded across the bridge toward the train station.

But as Felix drew closer, he realized something was off. Ralph looked very peculiar. His body was slumped, exhausted, as if he'd walked miles to get here. His expression was hard to read - there was a hint of a relieved smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. In fact, Ralph's eyes were the most concerning thing. They were red and swollen, with a glossy sheen. Had he been crying?

And the medal...the little sugar cookie medal that Vanellope had given him years ago, that he wore every day under his shirt like a badge of honor. How did it get broken like that? What on earth had Ralph been through?

Then, with a jolt, Felix noticed who was missing.

"...Ralph?" Felix asked gently. "What happened? Did you guys get that steering wheel doohickey?"

Calhoun put a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with concern. The racers seemed too confused to speak.

Ralph gulped, running a massive hand through his unkempt brown hair. When he spoke, his voice was surprisingly feeble.

"Felix, Calhoun...I, uh… I gotta talk to you alone for a second."

"SLAUGHTER RACE?!"

Felix clutched his chest at the sound of the game's name. Calhoun just stared, slack-jawed and scandalized, as if Ralph had just struck her across the face.

"Look, it's not as bad as it sounds," Ralph insisted, his head bumping against the roof of the kitchen as he squeezed his arms in against himself as close as he could. "She told me Shank put her code block thingy in the game so she'll respawn and everything…"

Felix gripped the back of the nearest chair. "You're letting her run around with someone named Shank?! Good gravy, Ralph, is this one of those games where players go around blowing up churches and hijacking buses full of social workers?"

Ralph rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I dunno, maybe? I didn't see all of it. But the point is, it's what Vanellope wanted! She told me it was her dream, y'know? To find a place with no rules or tracks or anything, where she could make her own decisions!" His eyes began to sting again. "I-I know it's gonna be tough, guys, but it was her call, okay? I couldn't stand in her way, this was what was gonna make her happy."

"Oh, gee, where have I heard that before?" Calhoun snarled, her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. Ralph had known she wouldn't take this news well, but this was the angriest he'd seen her in years.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered.

Calhoun's armored hands balled into trembling metallic fists. "I mean, I'm pretty sure there's at least one particularly large lummox in this room who once thought he'd find happiness by 86'ing his duty and jumping ship into a game full of brainless bloodthirsty Cy-Bugs. Tell me, Tiny, can you dig into the recesses of that lump of Play-Doh you call a brain and remind me what happened after that?!"

A horrible pang of guilt suddenly shot through Ralph's chest.

"No, guys, c'mon, it's not like that!" he insisted. "She just wanted something more out of life!"

"So then it's exactly like that!" Calhoun barked. "Ralph, how could you of all people let Vanellope abandon her game like this?!"

"She was bored!" Ralph shot back. "She was bored with Sugar Rush! She needed a change of pace in her life! I mean, what kind of a friend would I be if I didn't trust her judgement?"

"SHE'S NINE YEARS OLD!" Calhoun bellowed, her bangs falling into her reddened face. "Didn't you even try to explain to her the importance of our duty to the players? What do you think's gonna happen when Litwak plugs that steering wheel into the console on Wednesday and all those fresh-faced game geeks out there discover their favorite avatar is gone for good?!"

Sweat itched on the back of Ralph's neck. He tried his best to ignore it.

"Well, she…" he began lamely. "Sh-she said to me, what'd she say - 'I'm one of sixteen racers, who's gonna miss me?'"

"WE miss her!" Felix yelped. "Jiminy jaminy, Ralph, she didn't even offer to say goodbye?"

"And what about those cute little racing rugrats out there?" Calhoun snapped, jabbing one furious finger behind her at the kitchen door. "All afternoon, you know what the only thing out of their sugar-dusted cakeholes has been? 'When's Vanellope coming back? When's Vanellope coming back?' Do YOU wanna be the one to look 'em in the eyes and tell them that she ISN'T?!"

There was a heavy pause. And then…

"...Vanellope isn't coming back?"

Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun all turned. The kitchen door had swung open, and there on the other side of it were the Sugar Rush racers, all fourteen of their little faces struck with glossy-eyed shock.

Taffyta Muttonfudge, Rancis Fluggerbutter, and Candlehead were at the front of the group. Rancis had gone white as a sheet; Candlehead tugged on one of her pigtails so vigorously that it might've come off. Tears were smudging the edges of Taffyta's mascara already.

"Sh-she…" Taffyta stammered. She didn't seem to want to say it. "...She thinks we're boring?"

Ralph waved his hands wildly, bumping into the china hutch and shattering several plates. "No, no, she didn't mean it like that, kiddo!" he insisted hastily. "I'm sure she wasn't bored with you…"

"I thought we were her friends!" Candlehead bawled. The tears were flowing freely now. "I th-thought she always w-wanted to race with us! Th-that's what she said, wasn't it?"

"Y-you're joking, right?" Rancis gasped, clutching his neatly groomed head. "Like, this is your sick idea of a joke, right, Ralph? RIGHT?!"

"Okay, joke's over!" Gloyd Orangeboar called desperately, looking up at the ceiling through reddened eyes. "You really got us, Vanellope! You can come out now!"

Felix wrung his hammer nervously as all fourteen racers started to cry. Calhoun ran a hand down her fury-lined face.

"Is-Is-Is it because I always t-t-teased her?" Taffyta moaned through shuddering sobs. "I d-didn't mean it! I was just p-p-playing, that's all! It's not like I really hated her-er-er!" She dropped to her knees, her soaked mascara-laden eyes making her look like an exceptionally depressed raccoon.

Swizzle Malarkey tried his best to hold his tears back, fixing his watery gaze on the nearest wall. "This is not happening," he sniffed. "This is not happening…" It wasn't working.

"What about Sugar Rush?" Jubileena Bing-Bing asked, wiping her eyes. "She was our president! Who's gonna lead us?"

"Nobody's gonna lead us!" Adorabeezle Winterpop shouted through her sniffles. "Not like Vanellope did! She was the best leader we ever ha-ha-haaad!" Bawling in earnest, she and Jubileena hugged each other, trying to support each other's weight.

Felix put on his best attempt at a smile. "C'mon, kids, you can't be Grumpy Guses forever! Um...we still haven't determined who the Freeze Tag Champion of the Arcade is yet, have we? Who wants to go for round two?"

"WAAAAH-HA-HAAH!" Candlehead howled at the top of her lungs, tears streaming like waterfalls. "I WANT VANELLOPE-HE-HEE!"

The kitchen rang with the deafening din of fourteen sobbing, screaming children. Felix slumped against the kitchen counter, admitting defeat, and ran a hand through his dusty brown hair. "Eeoh boy…" he sighed heavily.

"My thoughts exactly," Calhoun growled, glaring dangerously at Ralph.

Ralph couldn't bring himself to look back.