A Glitch in the System (Vanellope)

[Sora]

Man, it felt good to be back in here. The engine revved under his seat as Sora turned the handles, one foot bouncing in preparation. He heard the timer starting up, and pushed off his foot, hunching over as he waited for the final beep.

The scenery looked the same as it always did. A large dark navy "wasteland" of data, the grid lines stretching to the far, far walls of the arena. The "sky" was also dark, the only light coming from the light pollution from all the rest of the structures in the datascape. And the glowing blue neon lights from his cycle and electronic. It was deceptively calm, quiet and peaceful. Sora knew that was going to change the moment the timer reached "zero".

3...2...1... GO!

The moment he kicked off and sped up, the walls slid up quickly along the gridlines, racing ahead of him to form the familiar course. Sora didn't even have to look to the sides to see the rolling heartless quickly gaining speed on him. Summoning his shield, he rammed into one to knock it back into a wall before turning back to center. Bringing out his guns, he zapped the second one with a reassuring cackle of energy, exposing its code.

And for a second, the code turned blue and into a shape that was twice the usual size. Blinking in confusion, Sora nearly rammed into the wall that shot up in front of him. Screeching into a turn to follow the path, he regained his bearings, eyes back on the road. Must've imagined it. And he had better pay attention if he wanted to beat his record. Oh, and survive too.

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

Vanellope had been wandering around this game for, well… quite a while.
She had been in the middle of a race in Sugar Rush and winning, naturally, When all of the sudden she glitched… but it wasn’t like her normal glitching. She wasn’t even aware she could glitch entirely out of Sugar Rush! But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t find her way back, so now she was stuck in this “dumb looking game” in her own opinion.

It was sure boring here. Sure, this game also seemed to be a racing game, and she luckily still had her kart… but there was no other racers; at least not as far as she had been able to find. What a lame game She thought.

Vanellope was chilling atop one of the digitized structures. She liked being in high places, it allowed her to watch over the area, mostly looking for something fun to do.
She then heard something she hadn’t heard before, but she almost instantly knew what it was. “There’s a race starting?” she looked over the edge and saw a long person on a weird looking kart about to start a race it seemed. ”Another racer!” She exclaimed. She was NOT going to let this opportunity slip by, no way. Vanellope quickly glitch-transported herself to the level of the track, the timer was about to hit zero already, but whatever, she’d let the boy have a head start.
Her kart materialized by her, as the other racer took off. Vanellope hopped into the driver seat of her kart, pulling on her red goggles before starting it up and zooming off after him.
Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know this track at all, so it wasn’t as easy to navigate for her as it seemed to be for the other racer. But Vanellope von Schweetz was no way going to lose, at least not without trying a few tricks first.
“Heh, this guy better watch out, he’s goin’ down!” She said to herself as she quickly gained speed on the other racer. The monsters that started popping up around concerned her a little, that was new, but no matter, it was probably just part of the track! This was almost confirmed to her by how the other racer seemed to annialate them, and they turned back into code. Good opportunity.
Vanellope sped up her car, with the intention of passing up the other racer to make herself known, and make this more fun, but she had an unintentional glitching moment where her form turned to code for a moment, but it got better a moment later, revealing Vanellope and her candy-created kart. She was a bit confused when the other racer suddenly gone missing from behind her, she looked back and noticed what she assumed was a shortcut. “Drat, I’ll get him!” She sped up again, hoping to go around where that path would meet up with this one again.

Once she saw the other racer again, it was time to try this again. She glitched herself forward again, ending up closer to the back side of his bike.
“Hey! Don’t think you’re going to win so easy!” Vanellope called out to him mockingly. “I dunno who you are but I’ll beat cha’! She stuck out her tongue before her small kart zipped forward.

[Sora]

Sora totally had this. Each turn, each appearing heartless were still ingrained into him. It had been a while since he had done thing, but Sora was pleased to see that he still had the stuff. Turning with a thought, bashing the heartless in without a second glance, Sora was sure he had his new record in the bag. So when he swerved back to meet the main path, he had his eyes on the "prize", even when he knew it would be out of sight soon, smirking triumphantly to himself.

“Hey! Don’t think you’re going to win so easy!”

The teen jumped. Craning his head over his shoulder, the keybearer of light blinked, did a double-take and gaped. A midget in a candy car? Just what the heck was going on here? A new program? A glitch?

“I dunno who you are but I’ll beat cha’!"

She zipped ahead of the still stunned Sora, just before a heartless rammed into him and rattled his teeth. He tsked, berating himself, just before activating his spinning shield and ramming right back into the heartless. Darn it, those few seconds of daydreaming could cost him! And all over... whoever this girl was.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" He called back.

He saw she was gaining a little distance ahead, and he shifted the guns on his bike. He fired the little lasers at the garish sugary confection passing as a kart, aiming for the cookie tires. He had to stop quickly though, to avoid the pillar. In this track, narrow neon blue walls shot up in the middle of the track, forcing the player to swerve around them to avoid smashing into them. The heartless were descending on them again, and this time Sora saw they wre aiming both for him, and the little girl. Okay, so they recognized her as a "program" so that meant she was another player in the "race". Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting.

The "finish line" was a giant crack in the wall, one he himself had formed months ago to escape this deadly place before he was derezzed. They had already passed the "fork" in the maze, which meant they were a part of the home stretch now. But the pillars jutting up with a split second'd notice, and the heartless attacking made sure the feat was not simple. On either side of the crack were two giant mechanical heartless that worked as the "guards," shooting their own laser canons at the players, once they got too close.

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

( Sorry for speeding through this, haha. I really want the more fun things to start :3 )

Vanellope giggled as she pulled away from the other racer, becoming more focused on the track in front of her. This track was a lot more interesting then the Sugar Rush ones, this one was seemingly a lot more dangerous. The monsters hadn’t really bothered with her before, mostly because Vanellope had been transporting herself to different areas, leaving the groups of them probably confused. Now however, since she wanted to essentially be a bit of a show off to this stranger, so she wasn’t glitching quite as often (at least not purposefully). This was giving the creatures more of a chance to creep up on her.
Vanellope’s car swerved as a few lasers from the other racer managed to connect with her kart, but she was used to this kind of thing happening from her races in Sugar Rush. She glanced back in her mirror, swerving her kart away from his shots. There wasn’t any boxes here that she had seen, which was very disappointing. His weird-looking kart already had a few weapons she’d seen, while hers didn’t have anything on it. Oh well, Vanellope still had an idea for getting rid of the monsters that were quickly trying to group up and attack her kart. She’d had to avoid a few pillars on quick notice already, and she figured they could serve her as weapons.
Vanellope kept going straight, until a pillar put itself up in front of her. However, instead of veering away like any sane person she continued to speed forward, allowing herself to glitch over to the left, past the pillar. The heartless that had been trying to smack into her instead ran into the pillar.
“Haha! Did you see that!?” she called out excitedly, and slightly surprised that that had actually worked. “Those things got destroyed!” She laughed.
Vanellope could see ahead what, unknown to her was the finish line (again assuming it was something with the track, it didn’t look like a finish line to her)
However, the giant robots started to shoot at her and to be honest it freaked her out a bit. There was nothing like that on Sugar Rush. She also still had in the back of her mind that this wasn’t her game, so she could really die here if they shot at her.

The nervousness caused Vanellope to glitch like crazy. She started to skip around, luckily around the lasers being fired at her; however unluckily, causing her to lose control of her kart. Somehow she ended up driving backwards into the “finish line”.
She blinked confused when suddenly the race was over.
“Woooo, well that was freakin’ scary!” She looked around for the other racer. She hadn’t actually seen if they had crossed the finish line or not in her little glitch-fit. “Hey, you, where’d you go!?” She called out.

[Sora]

(Lol, why do you think I put the finish line in view? XD)

Sora HAD seen that. And despite himself, he was kind of impressed. He had never seen a program behave like that before. It was like an awesome teleporting thing! Except it looked kinda weird. The teen didn't really have much time to think on it though, he had to at least focus on the track to finish. It was still a bit hard though, considering the bright, flashing code of the glitchy program when she suddenly went haywire.

Sora couldn't even try to attack the other guards, he had to put all his focus into evading. Not just the lasers, but the teleporting code too. She seemed to be going all over the place, darting everywhere. Sora had to swerve a few times to avoid running into her. He finally revved up the engine full throttle, focusing on speed and ignoring the scoreboards for destroyed heartless. In this case, it was better to escape. He managed to pull ahead just enough to race through the crack, before the backwards cart pulled in as well. Unfortunately, he was three seconds over his previous record, so it was a moot point. Fortunately, he was a little too distracted to care.

“Woooo, well that was freakin’ scary! Hey, you, where’d you go!?”

Before he could answer, both players turned quickly into code, and teleported out of the open area into the control room. They were still within Ansem's computer system, as proven by Sora's program jumpsuit, but they were now in a smaller room, with windows overlooking a view of the datascape, and a yellow monitor, which was what brought the programs to the racing games in the first place.

Sora grinned. "Oh don't worry, I'm right here." Obviously, since the two were facing each other now and could see each other perfectly. "But that was some really awesome racing! Where'd you learn to swerve like that! And man,t hat teleporting thing you did was awesome! Well, okay, at the end it got kinda scary, but it was still really cool!"

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

( I tried and I ended up with a short post.... sorry ^^

Vanellope panicked again slightly at the being transported. She thought she was glitching again for a moment, but it felt strange to her. One in the new room however, it wasn’t scary anymore.

She looked up at the, clearly boy, she had been racing against. She looked at him very quizzically, basically because he looked funny, but surprisingly let him speak.
“Heh, well that was nothin’!” She exclaimed, proudly putting her hands on her hips and looking up. “Racings in my code! So I can’t help but be good at it!” She said smiling, but her body glitched out slightly, causing her form it became pixilated for a second. Vanellope had gotten so used to this happening, she didn’t even notice. “You’re the first person,well, aside from the players to actually think my glitching is cool!” She bounced excitedly. “I think its pretty cool. I’ve got like, and awesome super power!” she quickly started to teleport herself around the room. “I could be here, or, over her, or over here!” She then came back to standing in front of the strange boy, catching her breath a bit from talking so fast and glitching around.

“Ssssoooo. You got a name Mr. blue spike head?”  Vanellope asked putting her hands in the front pocket of her sweatshirt.
“Also, what kinda game is this? Seems like what would happen if Sugar Rush crossed with something a little less violent the ‘Hero’s Duty’”
Vanellope then took a moment to giggle to herself about the name Hero’s Duty. That NEVER got old!
She simply continued to look up at him with her rather disproportionately large hazel eyes, waiting for some sort of answer.

[Sora]

"Racing in my code" was an unexpected phrase, but one that Sora understood, even with his nonexistant computer skills. So she was made just for racing, that made sense. Wasn't that what programs were all about? Tron was made for a purpose, and he followed his "code" pretty well. Well, he assumed, anyway. Maybe now that he was the new MPC it was different, but the details were too much effort for Sora to figure out at the moment. He blinked, cocking his head curiously at the glitch that took place. Now that the teen was closer, he could see the tiny numbers that she turned into when she did that... thing she did. Oh, "glitching", okay. Sora wondered briefly if he should tell her that it was probably because he was a user- or, player, that he thought it was cool, even if it confused him.

Especially when the tiny program started teleporting- er, glitching all over the place. "Whoa!" Sora turned and darted his eyes around as quick as he could to keep her in his sights. Hands up, and eyes wide, Sora wasn't really scared so much as surprised. Man, he was almost getting dizzy just looking at her. But when she finally slowed down and beamed proudly at him, he couldn't help but laugh. It was more of a quiet chuckle at her antics that put him at ease. He could think of a few bouncy, energetic people she could get along with.

At her questions, he put his hands on his knees, crouching down so he was closer to her level, a habit he had when conversing with friends who were on the extreme side of vertically challenged. Compared to him, anyway. "Well, this isn't exactly a "game". We just got outta the races, but now we're in Ansem's mainframe computer. It's the security and information system that runs Radiant Garden or something. I'm not sure about all the details. And..."

He frowned for a moment in thought and scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I've never heard of those games here before. I'd have to ask Tron. Oh, he's the one running the show now, he's in charge of everything.And I'm, uh, not like other programs. The name's Sora." He straightened from his crouch and crossed his arms as it was his turn to look quizzically at her. "So, wait, if you don't know where you are, how'd you even get here in the first place? And what's your name?"

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

( really meh post, I appologize x.x )

Vanellope just looked at Sora very, very confused. …Not a game? Impossible. This boy must just be stupid. She thought. Raising a brow at him.
“You hit your head or somethin’? Not being a game? Haha. You’re funny.”
That was plainly impossible, this had to be a game. This surely wasn’t any arcade! This looked nothing like what she could see of the “outside” world. Plus, they raced! What’d he think he was? A gamer?
This Tron guy probably knows what game this is. Maybe that isn’t knowledge the lower level characters get to know….odd way to run things To Vanellope, being a part of a game was common knowledge, everyone knew that they were a part of a game and they had to put all effort towards the players… Why would a game be programmed without that knowledge? That seemed to her like it would make things much more difficult.
Vanellope grinned. “Names Vanellope von Schweetz! I’m the President of Sugar Rush!” she said proudly, but smirked, looking at her nails. “But I guess you can call me Vanellope.”
“As for how I got here, I dunno! I was racin’ and as usual, winning, but I had a really… weird glitch and ended up here. I thought I was alone till you came, haven’t seen anyone else!” Vanellope twirled around, starting to look around more.
“This place looks so crazy and technology-y. Everything is all shiny and blue!” She giggled.

[Sora]

“You hit your head or somethin’? Not being a game? Haha. You’re funny.”

"Wha- but I didn't!" He protested. "We're really not!"

But it wasn't the sure, confident declaration, but the almost almost pleading defense of a, well, teenager. But the confused and skeptical look on her face made Sora suspect that she did not actually believe him. He sighed once, rubbing at the back of his helmet in thought. He didn't know enough about this computer mumbo-jumbo to make her believe him. Speaking of believing, it was Sora's turn to look skeptical.

"President? You?" It started out with a smirk, then worked it's way to a grin the more she spoke. Bringing his hand around to his mouth, he chuckled into his fist as he tried not to make eye contact with her. Especially when she looked so excited to see the inside of the mainframe. Oh sure, Sora knew it was cool, but the leader of some program or something? Well, he had a hard time believing she was anyone that important.

His chuckles were abruptly cut off with a familiar blaring alarm. Darting around in a manner similar to Vanellope, he searched for the source of the disturbance, and looked to the yellow terminal, which was flashing.

Faulty program located. Initiating quarantine sequence.

The voice wasn't Tron's, that was for sure. It was a slightly "feminine" but mostly cybernetic voice. "Quarantine?" Here, Sora cast a confused look to Vanellope. "What's that mean?"

As soon as he asked, the doorway to the room that Sora had completely forgotten was originally a cell, flashed purple in time with the pulsing lights of the rest of the room, before a clear barrier with hexagonal patterns covered the doorway, pulsing faintly. The yellow terminal screen flashed with menu options of it's own accord, showing the main control room for the access computer.

Faulty program quarantined. Initiating analysis for possible malware. Return to control room and diagnose program?

"What? No, just get us out of here! I want to talk to Tron!" Sora demanded.

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

“What are you laughin’ at spikey?” Vanellope said crossing her arms. “I’m technically the Princess of Sugar Rush so ya know, If you aren’t nice to me I could have you executed.” She smirked back rather challengingly.
Vanellope jumped when the alarms started to go off. “What in the name of all that is sweet is that!?” she said she asked, looking at the flashing terminal as well.
Her question however was pretty much answered by the voice that came along with the annoying alarm. “Really!? Ha it took you that long!?” Vanellope shouted at the ceiling. Vanellope looked of at the door, and back to Sora quickly.
“Later Spikey!” Vanellope called out, ignoreing his question. She and immediately glitched away, and tried to get through the door, but she was just a second to late. Vanellope couldn’t pass through the door, just like when she had tried to leave Sugar Rush, She was stopped by a force field.
Vanellope fell back on her butt and rubbed her head. “Oooww….” She looked up at the door and glared at it. “Stupid door.”
She got up, and looked back at Sora.
“Ugh. We’re in trouble now.” Vanellope walked back over to Sora, shoving her hands in her pockets. “Sorry man, I didn’t mean to get you stuck too…” She looked up at him smiling with the look of someone who knew they did something wrong, and was afraid of the repercussions.
Vanellope however raised a brow and started to giggle at Sora's demanding. 
“Pipe down, there is probably no use in yellin’ at things. Whatever’s got us won’t be after you anyways.” Vanellope looked around, still pretty confused as to how this was actually working out. “That is, Unless you’re the bad guy of this game!” 
She teased, poking at Sora's leg.

[Sora]

He turned away from the doorway too look down at the giggling Vanellope again, and he laughed a little nervously, letting his fists swing down. Her point about yelling at things wasn't something he could argue. He had already learned that much about computers at least. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll just get us to Tron and clear this whole thing up."

He stepped around her to face the doorway head on. Just like the first time he had been locked in here, there was a puslating circle with a keyhole inside. Stretching his hand out, he summoned Kingdom Key, the weapon springing to his grip with a flash of light. The edges glowed neon blue, matching the rest of his outfit. Pointing the end of the key to the keyhole, he threw a grin over his shoulder. "Don't worry though, I'm definitely the good guy."

The lines grew brighter, until a tiny jet of light sprung from the tip to pierce the circle. The barrier went white, before it dissolved, leaving the door bare once again.

"C'mon," He beckoned her to follow before loping through. "Let's get outta here before they try to throw us in again."

[Vanellope von Schweetz]

( I'm so sorry aahh. for some reason every time I tried to reply my brain wouldn't describe. resulting in a terrible post but I can words again so I'm good! )

Well this was lame. If there was one thing Vanellope didn’t like, it was having to stay in a tiny little area for a long time. It was like asking a child to sit still after they’d eaten a bunch of candy, not going to happen. At least this time however there wasn’t any glitch proof restraints. That was the worst.

Vanellope looked a little confused at Sora, considering he was examining the door
“If I can’t get through it I don’t think there is much you can do.” she commented. She was about to ask him some meaningless question so as there wouldn’t be an awkward silence, she hated those, but then Sora did something very, very confusing to her. He summoned a giant key, and then unlocked the door.

Vanellope quickly scurried out, as Sora said, not wanting to be caught again.
“If you had that oversized thingy to open then door then why were you even flippin’ out?” She laughed. “You’re sure a strange one. But good guy or not, I’m not worried.” She smiled. “I happen to know a ‘bad guy’, and he isn’t actually that bad at all.”
“So where are we going?” she asked quickly after, spinning around in a circle as they walked.

[Sora]

Sora chuckled quietly, laughing a little sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his scalp. The keybearer had been so caught by surprise, he had not thought of the most obvious solution until he slowed down to actually consider what had happened. But hey, at least he remembered and got them out, right?

"Guess I forgot. We're gonna go see Tron." Sora reiterated. "He might be where the MCP used to be, and if that's the case, then we're gonna hafta take a solar sailor out there. I'll get us there no problem."

It had been while, but he still remembered the way. He led her through the hall, and out onto the platform. The datascape was the same spectrum of blue and violet graphics everywhere they looked, with the digital sky "overcast" with data. Sora marveled how there did not seem to be any heartless popping out yet. Or that they were not being followed. Well, it just meant things were going by faster, right? "So, what did you mean by "knowing a bad guy" anyway?"

"Sora!"

The teen stopped and looked over, seeing the distant form of his old friend running over to greet them. Alright, looked like he would find him sooner anyway. "Hey, Tron!" He waved him down.