Later that day, a girl named Swati and her friends were playing in the arcade at Litwak's. Swati put a few quarters into Sugar Rush and sat in the driver's seat. Her friend Nafisa watched as she prepared to play.

“Pick Vanellope,” Nafisa said. “She's got the best super power.”

“Yeah, the glitch,” said Swati. “I love her.”

Inside Sugar Rush , Vanellope's name was plastered all over the leaderboard. It seemed she won every time!

Vanellope sat in her car at the starting line along with Taffyta and the other racers. The Sugar Rush announcer's voice spoke up as the girls prepared to compete: “Drivers, start your engines.”

“You're gonna lose today, princess,” said Taffyta, giving Vanellope a nasty look.

“While I am technically a princess, Taffyta, I'd rather you just think of me as Vanellope—the racer who's about to kick your butt,” said Vanellope.

The announcer spoke again, ending their conversation. “Three, two, one …… GOOOOOOO!”

The racers hit their pedals and were off! Taffyta took the lead as Vanellope glitched her way through traffic, disappearing and reappearing farther and farther ahead of the rest of the pack.

“Excuse me, pardon me, coming through,” Vanellope said as she passed one racer after another with ease. When she approached the Gumball Challenge, everything happened as usual. Huge gumballs rolled down a steep hill straight for her, but because she knew the track inside and out, it wasn't challenging for her at all. “One, two, and three gumballs.” She effortlessly made her way around each one.

Taffyta still had the lead, but Vanellope easily caught up. When Taffyta spotted her, Vanellope leaned back in her seat and snored loudly. Then she perked up and said, “I'm sorry. I must have fallen asleep. Am I winning?” With a grin, Vanellope blasted past Taffyta.

Taffyta wailed as she fell to second place.

Vanellope safely rounded a turnout of the Gumball Challenge.

“And that's Vanellope with a huge lead!” said the announcer. “No one's gonna catch her now!”

In the meantime, Ralph, hidden away in the distance, was working on a new track. “Here she comes,” he said to himself excitedly. “She's gonna love this. Right on time.”

Soon Vanellope noticed three billboards.

The first one read looking for something new?

The second said and different?

And finally: then take this track……

Vanellope smiled as she read each one. She knew right away it was the handiwork of her best friend. “Ralph, you old son of a gun!” she said gleefully. “I'd say I've got time for a little detour.” She steered her car toward the new track.

In the arcade, Swati noticed she was heading for something she'd never seen before. “Hey, look. I think I unlocked a new track!”

Vanellope went off-road onto Ralph's bumpy homemade track. There were candy-cane tree obstacles in unexpected places and super-dangerous jumps. As Vanellope went over the track, she howled with delight. “Wa-hoo! Thank you, Ralph!”

“You're welcome!” Ralph yelled, thrilled that Vanellope was enjoying his creation.

In the arcade, Nafisa urged Swati on. “Get back up there—you're going to lose!”

Swati yanked the wheel hard to the left, trying to get Vanellope back onto the regular track, but it wasn't working. “What's wrong with this thing?” she said, struggling to control the Vanellope racer. She pulled hard at the wheel again, and this time the whole thing came right off!

Vanellope rounded another turn and rocketed over the new track, hooting the entire way. “Wa-hoooooo!” She was having the time of her life…… until suddenly, her tire hit a bump wrong, causing her to crash! Her car tumbled into a ditch and landed in a puddle of mud.

“Kid!” Ralph shouted, running to her. “Oh, man. I'm so sorry!” he said. “Are you okay?”

“Oh my gosh,” Vanellope said. “That was so much fun! What an amazing track! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hugged Ralph tightly, still exhilarated by the new course.

Ralph smiled and took his hero medal out from underneath his shirt. “You're welcome. You know I take my duty as your hero very seriously.”

“You took a serious doodie where?” Vanellope joked.

Taffyta appeared on a hill above them with her hands on her hips. “Vanellope, get up here,” she said in a serious tone. “We have a situation.”

In the arcade, Swati held the steering wheel up apologetically to Mr. Litwak as other kids stood nearby watching her.

“Mr. Litwak, the Vanellope racer wasn't working, and I think maybe I turned the wheel too hard,” Swati said. “I'm real sorry.”

“Oh, it's okay, Swati,” said Litwak, taking the steering wheel from her and stepping toward the game. “I think I can get it back on pretty easily.”

Inside Sugar Rush , Vanellope and all the other racers stood around nervously talking to each other. Taffyta turned to Ralph. “What did you do?” she said angrily.

“He was just trying to make the game more exciting. Leave him alone,” said Vanellope.

Ralph poked his head onto the game screen to see what was going on in the arcade. “Yeah, why don't you relax, Taffyta? Litwak will fix it.”

“All right, on you go……, ” said Mr. Litwak as he began to put the wheel back on the game. But when he tried to force it, the wheel broke—into two pieces!

“Um. Okay,” said Ralph inside Sugar Rush . “Still not a problem. Obviously, he'll just order a new part.”

Outside the game, Mr. Litwak's face fell. “Well, I'd order a new part,” he said to the crowd of kids now gathered around, “but the company that made Sugar Rush went out of business years ago.”

The kids were aghast.

“I'll try to find one on the Internet,” said one kid, looking down at his phone.

All the kids dropped their heads as they began to do the same, searching their phones for a new steering wheel.

“Good luck,” Mr. Litwak said. “That'll be like finding a needle in a—”

“I found one,” said Swati cheerfully. “See, eBay has a wheel, Mr. Litwak.” Swati held her phone up to show him.

“Really? Great,” he said.

“See?” said Ralph inside the game. “Those kids have it under control.”

Mr. Litwak adjusted his glasses as he read the information about the steering wheel on the phone. “Are you kidding me?” he scoffed. “How much? That's more than this game makes in a year.” Mr. Litwak sighed. “I hate to say it, but my salvage guy is coming on Friday, and it might be time to sell Sugar Rush for parts.”

The kids groaned as Mr. Litwak headed around to the back of the machine.

Ralph's eyes popped. “Litwak's gonna unplug your game!” he shouted. “Go. Run, run, run!” Ralph, Vanellope, and everyone else hurried out as chaos filled Sugar Rush .

Mr. Litwak yanked on the plug, trying to remove it.

Out in Game Central Station, Surge Protector was whistling to himself when suddenly the stampede of Sugar Rush characters tumbled out, filling the station in a flash.

“Gangway!” a couple of donut cops named Winchell and Duncan shouted as they trampled over Surge.

“What are you doing out of your game, for Peter's sake?” asked Surge, shocked and confused. “The arcade's open!”

“ Sugar Rush is getting unplugged,” Ralph explained.

Stressed Sugar Rush citizens continued to run every which way as Mr. Litwak jiggled the plug to get it out of the socket.

“We're homeless!” cried the donut cops.

“Calm down! Calm down!” said Surge, trying to collect himself.

“Oh, jeez. I'm freaking out hard,” said Sour Bill, who, even when panicked, spoke in a low, deadpan voice.

“I've never seen this many gameless characters!” said Surge.

Vanellope stepped up to Surge. “Where are we supposed to go?”

“Stay here, I guess, until the arcade closes,” he said. “Then we'll figure out where the heck we're gonna put you.”

Worry and fear filled Vanellope, and she began to glitch. Different parts of her started disappearing and then reappearing rapidly. She couldn't believe it. Her game was gone. TxtvIRuvx4xLXb5qKbqBxjG/NmLWJ56iFgvWTAXusjJWzzttpQtL+VFlFbomKdot