Thomas returned to the ground, hopping off his glider as Reno and Calhoun finished off the last of the Cy-bugs and Heartless. His glider vanished as he looked around, noting the area was empty of foes for the moment with a nod. he then turned to other things, wincing a bit as he saw Calhoun probe the Cy-bug's remains, unsure if he would have the calmness to do as she did with that kind of ease. what she experienced must have been unique, very different from fighting Heartless like they did.

Now, the news of a hive, that was bad, about as bad as the notion that the Heartless helped speed up these things development. "Man, gotta wonder if the Six Senses finally decided to actually defend the Signs. Took them long enough," he mused, hand on his chin as he thought. He nodded in agreement though, ceding control to Calhoun as the one most experienced with these things and giving off more of a commanding air.

"Let's go," he agreed, and began to follow after her, appreciating the body armor she wore, the differences and similarities it had to his own. But his attention was drawn to the shorter Felix as the mechanic looked up at them and spoke. It was at that point that a piece of information returned to his brain, somewhat long forgotten with the journeys, everything he had been through, and the general lack of steady female companionship besides Amaya and belle (one of whom was taken, and the other he wasn't quite sure what was going on, an issue he was putting off), which was the fact that he had been something of a ladies man, the 'cocky confident' air he gave himself doing wonders for his image. Nothing solid of course, but it wasn't for lack of options.

"She's something alright," he replied, gaze turning back to the path ahead and their surroundings as they moved on, looking for the hive.

((Collab Post between Letter Bee and Shadowsaint007))

"You're fighting against possible evil," spoke Ascot to Ralph, "and even if you aren't, I'll be with you to take responsibility." He then turned to Jake:

"I think that Ms. Belle can handle this alone; her job is 'thief', after all. Besides," the boy said self-deprecatorily, "if you go, then only someone as small as me can protect Ralph from whatever traps the King might set for lone 'subversives'," he smiled. "Besides, I want to learn the fun of wrecking the scenery." Then, a thought came to him, and Ascot spoke to Jake and Ralph:

"Wait a second; that Vanellope girl, she wants to race, right? But, where's her car?" Ascot then thought of something. "Jake, Amaya, can you two go after Vanellope and see if she has a car? I think that, with Ralph in tow, he can take care of me, and I him."

"Will do," Jake said. Before he left, he turned to Ralph.

"Hey, big guy, take care of my buddies, alright? Good luck."

He gave Ralph and Ascot the thumbs up before heading in Vanellope's direction.

Ascot gave a thumbs-up back, and conjured up his Keyblade Glider, before zooming off in the direction of the castle, Ralph in tow. As he came within range, the boy shouted, bluffing as he did so:

"We know about your evil deeds, King Candy! Your reign of tyranny over the inhabitants of this world..." he then paused for effect, "is over!" And with that, he flung a Fira in the direction of the castle, while Ralph wreaked havoc on the grounds below.

"What... wait, what are you hooligans doin' out there?!" squawked the dimunitive king. "What are they doin-! AAHH! watch it, that fireball's a health hazard! I'll have you all in my Fungeon for this!"

He ran away from the parapets, squawking for the guards.

"Guards! It's Wreck-It Ralph and some crazy kid! They've gone Turbo! Take them down! An' I want to see 'em locked in the Fungeon! Immediately!!"

The Oreo guards saluted as the wacky King giggled nervously, running for safety.

That's when the cannons came out. Some bright and with swirly colors, other large with pointy nozzles. Pop-Rockets flew into the sky, and crashed down crackling onto the attacking duo, splattering hot candy shrapnel. Oreo guards pulled out the soda fountain hoses, and the mighty Ralph found himself sprayed with several high-powered soda cannons. Ascot, meanwhile was targetted by several Ice Cream catapults, with giant scoops of Tutti Frutti and Rocky Road hurtling in his direction.

"Surrender, you oversize Hooligans!" came King Candy's voice over the castle's PA system. "Have some candy! Hoohoohoo!"

Elsewhere:
"I think we found her," Jake said, as he heard sobbing. He got out from behind the bushes, to see Vanellope sobbing next to a giant candy boulder - something that looked like a giant jawbreaker.

"Vanellope, was it?" he inquired. "Say, where's your car?"

"They... they smashed it," sniffed the little tyke, wiping her tears away. They rolled this Jawbreaker on it."

She punched the giant candy in frustration, shaking her wrist when she only hurt herself.

Jake sighed. Children could be such cruel beings.

"Amaya?" he inquired. "Can you check Vanellope for me? I think she hurt her wrist. Vanellope, stand aside."

"Wait, what..." she said, trailing off when he was tapping the jawbreaker.

"Look, genius," she huffed, "that's a Jawbreaker, it's never going to-"

Jake pulled out Konig Raubitier, and it glowed a wicked ice blue in his hand. With a roar, he delivered a mighty blow with Icewolf Bite, shattering the supposedly unbreakable candy with a single hit. Vanellope's jaw hung loosely in surprise. Jake removed the now small pieces, only to find Vanellope's pedal-powered kart smashed by the giant candy.

"Sorry about that," he said, carrying what looked to be one of the gears, now utterly mangled out of shape. "Looks like you'll need a new cart..."

The little girl looked at the two, Amaya and Jake, with the wheels turning in her head.

"Actually... I think I know where we can get a car - or make one. You guys wanna help me?"

Just then, there was a series of loud explosions and blasts in the distance.

"What was that?!" Vanellope asked, surprised.

"Well," Jake chuckled. "Looks like those two REALLY know how to make a distraction. So you were saying something about making your own car?"

Back at the Castle:

Ascot, smiling, swiftly evaded the ammunition coming in his direction, not bothering to waste his magic with a Haste spell until the enemy brought the really]/i] heavy artillery. He jinked and janked, going in zigzags to make himself a harder target, and occasionally using Reflect. However, the sacrifice for this was that he can only launch the occasional Fira, giving him little hitting power; after all, he was a close combat person.

Seeing Ralph sprayed by the hoses, Ascot swooped down, past the AA fire, and, once he reached Ralph's position, used Faith, creating a circle of light that knocked back the hosers, and healed both him and Ralph. Then, after that, the boy then spiraled back up, provoking more AA fire in his direction, and more evasions. This time, however, Ascot got a few grazes of shaprnel, but nothing too prounounced...

"Thanks for the save, kid," Ralph sputtered, wiping himself off with a flag that had fallen into the courtyard among the chaos. "This is worse than the time I snuck into Hero's Duty... and please, no 'Doodie' jokes, I've heard them... all..."

Ralph looked up, and his jaw dropped.

"What the-"

He promptly got slammed by a giant rolling Wagon Wheel, with the cannons from on top of the castle firing more exploding candy and gobstoppers, causing craters in the ground.

"Sour Bill!" cried out the dimunitive monarch, "Did you shut the doors?!"

"Yes, your highness," said the green candy minion in his usual monotone.

"Excellent! Get the C.L.A.W. squad here, these vandals must not escape! Hoohoohoo! Remove the drawbridge! I don't want them getting away!"

Sour Bill saluted quickly then made for the drawbridge in a quick step.

Meanwhile, the guards on top began tossing peanuts, pulling the string on the pods then dropping them on the attackers. Already, several giant tubs of molten fudge were prepped, before pouring them over the edge.

Ralph was punching away more Wagon Wheels before he yelped and grabbed his foot. That's when he noticed the hot fudge filling up the yard.

"I hope that friend of yours managed to sneak in, kid," he called out to Ascot. "Cause if we're not in hot fudge already, we will be!"

"We can retreat...after this one last surprise!" And with that, Ascot flew up again, and [i]intentionally allowed himself to get hit by an explosive rocket, filling his senses with pain, forcing him to dispel his Glider...and causing an explosion of white flames to burst out from him; his second Limit Break: Govern Magic. For those who wonder how he got this attack, Govern Magic was gained after the battle with Lucus, when the fight awakened a new ability within Ascot...

These are the mechanics of Govern Magic: Everything that does not accord with conventional reality would burn, whether magic, psychic powers, or 'soft' sci-fi technology. Normal weapons, or 'hard' sci-fi tech, however, aren't affected. Nonliving magical and psychic constructs, or soft sci-fi technology, are destroyed even though they are normally immune to fire. As for willpower-dependent constructs such as Satoko's strings, they are not destroyed, but the fire can spread from them to the caster using the same connections said caster uses to feed willpower into the construct.

Sapient beings, however, are merely burnt with Nonfatal damage; they would suffer the pain of burning until they fall unconcious, but are otherwise not harmed. The castle, however...

The guards cried out in pain as they were blasted back against the walls only to crumple into unconscious heaps. King Candy, however, ducked behind a large table, coming out wide-eyed to see that his guards were out cold while the two who trashed his castle were still standing.

"KID!" Ralph cried out, reaching to grab Ascot as he fell. "Jeez, give a warning, I nearly had a heart attack there!"

"How... how dare you!" screamed Candy as he ran up the stairs. "Y-you meddling monsters! Y-you pin-headed psychopaths! I worked hard to be King of Sugar Rush, and nobody's going to take it away from me!!"

Just as he disappeared into a tower, there was a loud rumbling noise as brown sugar masonwork and dark chocolate walls trembled, cracking open to revealing a giant dome with four gattling guns, all linked to a command cockpit with large targetting sights in front of it. From the PA system came King Candy's shrill, psychotic laugh.

"Oh, I'm not done with you yet, you nit-witted hooligans!!" he cackled. "Here! HAVE SOME CANDY!!"

"Oh boy..." Ralphs said, face going pale, before he turned around and ran as fast as he could carrying Ascot in his arms.

Loud, thundrous noises erupted when the gattling guns fired a massive multicolored torrent of jelly beans, with the occasional rocket blasting off and exploding a little too close for Ralph's liking. All the while King Candy laughing like a loon, a psychotic grin on his face as he fired his Gattling Gum Cannons full-auto.

"Come back here, you little freaks! I'm not done with you yet!" he snarled, the voice carried menacingly through the PA system. "Guards! Catch them! Don't let them get away!!"

Ascot smiled, then cast Cura on himself.

"I think we need to run faster," he said as he cast Haste...

END

Belle ran into the direction of the castle. She saw the Oreo Guards in front of the gate, and knew she had to wait for the distraction now. She hid herself in one of the nearest cotton candy trees. She soon heard the screaming of King Candy and the sound of a fireball shot by Ascot, as she knew that Jake wasn't the best with magic and Ralph is pure brute strength. "Hehe, looks like they have started." she thought. She peeked through the tree and saw the Oreo Guards pass by and enter, what was now, the battlefield. Belle quickly made her way towards the castle gates. Unfortunately they were locked. She could eat her way through it. However for starters, they would notice someone had sneaked inside and secondly she, unlike most girls, didn't like eating too much candy.

Belle heard the door opening and quickly hid behind the the door that opened. A small green sour ball exited the castle. "Now is the time to use it." Belle thought. After he fight with Lucus she finally managed to learn a spell, something she was working on for some time, but gained because of the fight. The spell Stop. It however was in its first form so it wouldn't hold for too long. But luckily she only needed it to get into the castle, and she was fast enough to take care of that. "Stop" she mumbled while pointing her hand into the air. Sour Bill couldn't move or notice what could happen around him. Belle quickly sneaked in before the spell wore off.

As she got inside she quickly hid around the corner of the door. Sour Bill took a last look inside of the castle before locking the gates. A grin appeared on Belle's face. It still was a thrill to sneak into a building, especially a castle. And it was very easy to do, mainly because her friends caused a distraction. Belle examined the interior. It was very... pink. Strange color to choose for a man, but after seeing King Candy he looked kinda... like a person who liked this color. She walked towards the throne at the end of the room, but unfortunately didn't find anything. As she wanted to go upstairs she suddenly heard a female voice.

"Going somewhere?" the voice said. Belle looked around in shock and saw a person, in a black coat, sitting on the throne. She had a big posture, so it wasn't Mika or anyone else they had encountered, namely as she also was a female.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?!" Belle shouted, as no one outside would ever be able to hear her because of the noise.

"Hahaha. Let me introduce myself, I'm Gula one of the Six Senses. And I'm here to stop you." she said with a grin. Suddenly she was standing next to Belle. She was fast, Belle was in some kind of shock that she suddenly appeared that she couldn't react the way she normally does. Normally she would have never let the woman come so close to her. "Let's change the scenery. It's a little small here, don't you think." she said with a smile and pulled Belle through a Corridor of Darkness.

Joshua had recovered by the time Thomas and Reno/Oner had finished with the Heartless. By the time Thomas landed he was leaning against a nearby tree, looking a bit bored
"Next time the enemy had better be quality and not quantity but at least that was a good workout." he commented, though his eye remained on Thomas. Something about their 'leader' was bothering him still. Thomas never displayed any powers of Darkness, at least not to the extend that Joshua himself did. But Joshua could swear he still sense darkness from Thomas but again, it felt muted, like something was hiding it. If Thomas was having his own struggle with Darkness, he shouldn't try and fight it alone. Joshua knew this all to well.

~~ If he does have Darkness within him, I have to find it out before it consumes him. Flat out accusing him will do no good. Gotta test the waters first before letting the ship sail.~~ he thought before setting off with the others. He kept an eye on Thomas the entire time, hoping to see a chance to try and find something out and confirm or deny his suspicions.

Ascot, who had been recovering from the candy rocket strike using healing spells and items, was finally up and running just in time to search for Jake and the others for several minutes, meandering here and there, occasionally eluding Candy Troopers, until finally, he and Ralph found...a Moogle Shop where Ascot can buy more healing items and food, something that he needed.

It seemed as though the group would never find Jake, Amaya, and Vanellope, until finally, they got lucky; and managed to find the car factory, where the others were. Of course, they had to sneak in, which was harder now that King Candy's troops were on high alert. Ascot felt guilty about assaulting King Candy's holdings just because he was bullying Vanellope; at the very best, it was disproportionate retribution...

...But, well, the boy had had enough of having villains with good publicity running around, sitting pretty in their castles while they tyrannized over people. Yes, Ascot was still convinced that King Candy was such a villain; because at the previous worlds that the group had roamed in, it was always an authority figure who was the villain. Yzma, Shere Khan, Long John Silver, and most infamously, the White Witch.

Counterargument: there were good authority figures as well, like Captain Amelia and Aslan, but while the two were theoretically more powerful than their opponents, in practical terms, LJS and the White Witch held the largest amount of temporal power. Still flimsy logic to judge King Candy, to be sure, but, well, one more thing: The Worlds, he noticed, ran on stories.

Tangent: Was there a 'Narrative Force' that governed stories? Is this 'Narrrative Force' more powerful than the Light or the Darkness? Was there an energy that bound worlds, people,and places into patterns? If so, can he tap it? Should he tap it? It might be unethical and dangerous if he tried to do so, but, if his theory was right, then he might discover a game changer...

Ralph and Ascot successfully managed to sneak into the kart factory. As they joined up with the others of the group, Ralph looked down to Ascot. "Thank you guys so much for helping me. But have you gotten any closer to finding your thing?" Ralph asked. Meanwhile Vanellope was waiting on Ralph and shouted. "C'mon let's hurry! I want to make a kart!" she said excited.

---

Calhoun and the others were still walking around in the Sugar themed game. Calhoun was getting a bit disgusted by the environment, as she was used to the dark themed first person shooter of which she was part. The change of scenery was nice for a while but she already had enough of it. Everything was candy and as bright as it could be. Along the way they have fought some more Heartless and Cy-Bugs, but it was notable that the Cy-Bugs were becoming candy monsters as the time progressed. Calhoun looked back to the boys, of whom she kinda get the idea that they were her new soldiers in this mission. "Hey! Do any of you guys know what these other dark creatures actually are? I've been wondering that for some time now." she asked.

---

The Corridor of Darkness opened again on a whole different area. Belle was thrown out by Gula and found herself in a place filled with giant pink cakes. Belle quickly recovered and took her distance from Gula, not wanting to be surprised by her anymore. Belle immediately grabbed her dagger and held it in front of her. Gula also stepped out of the corridor and chuckled as she looked at Belle. "You really think that tiny blade is going to defend you from my attacks?" she said, Belle only looked back with a serious face. Gula took a look around. "Hmm... shall we stay in this sweet theme?" she showed her hand which had a mouth inside of it, as well as in her other hand. The mouths were chewing on something and then blew it out of her hands. A big pink bubble of taffy was blown out and formed a bubble around her hands, acting as giant boxing gloves made out of gum.

"What did you just do?" Belle said somewhat surprised, but still paying attention to everything that might happen. "She is a member of the Six Senses, so that must mean she has one of the senses as powers. Oner told me that Mika had the power of scent and seeing as she just chewed something out of her hands, that must mean that she has the power of taste. And seeing as she also isn't very thin..." she concluded.

Gula laughed once again. "You probably already discovered, right? My power is Gustation." she said with a grin. Without saying or explaining anything further she rushed towards Belle with the hard bubble gum gloves aiming for her. Belle threw one of her daggers towards the bubble, it hit, but the bubble didn't pop. In a hurry Belle quickly grabbed her Kotetsu and blocked the bubble fists of Gula. Both Belle and Gula jumped back immediately. They charged at each other some more times until Gula realized she had to do something else. At this point Belle still was just defending herself and not attacking. She didn't know her abilities so she didn't want to get close. Gula on the other hand knows quite some things about the whole group.

Gula again ran towards Belle but this time punched a few times before she was even close to Belle. She launched gum bubbles at high speed towards Belle, who in turn cartwheeled out of the path from the projectiles. Gula however didn't stop and continued firing them, forcing Belle to continue cartwheeling. Belle quickly discovered the pattern in the firing of the bubbles and dodge rolled into the direction of Gula. Belle jumped into the air and performed Wishing Edge. Unfortunately the attack was blocked again by Gula who held the bubbles in front of the hit. However the attack was strong enough to pop the bubbles. Belle jumped back again and threw a dagger which hit Gula, but didn't inflict that much damage. Gula grew a new bubble, but only on her left hand.

"What are you planning?" Belle asked suspicious. Gula looked back with an irritated look. "Just wait. You know there are more tastes right? I'm only using sweetness now." Gula attacked Belle again, who in turn jumped over her and performed a Thunder Dash, which hit Gula and pushed her back. "Doesn't matter. Almost done." she mumbled. Belle rushed towards her this time wanting to do another Thunder Dash. She did so and again and almost hit Gula, but got slammed away herself by Gula. She used her aerial recovery and landed on the ground. She looked at Gula as a sword slid out of the mouth of her right hand. It looked like a metal sword, but that wasn't quite the case. She noticed that there was something different about it. "What is that?" Belle asked.

"Let me introduce you to my second taste. Saltiness. Salt contains many metals, so it easy to create a sword from it. And it is hard to break." Gula said with a smile. "Seems like this battle won't last very long." with one bubblegum hand and a salt sword, Gula charged at Belle. The thief reached towards her pouch of kunai's and shurikens and saw that there weren't many left. She forgot to restock after the fight in Twilight Town, after the fight with Amaya's father. She threw some of her shurikens and then ran out of Gula's path. Gula stormed at Belle and prevented her from running away by firing gum bubbles in front, and behind her. Belle threw her remaining projectiles to hold Gula off, but they were as effective as last time. She wanted to block with her Kotetsu but it got slammed away. Gula smiled as she approached Belle and smacked her with the bubble gum glove. Belle was thrown to the side against one of the cakes. The overweight woman approached Belle and readied her salty blade. "Seems like the King's warriors aren't that strong after all." she said and slashed at Belle, who shut her eyes and could only pray now.

an inner light awakens...

Belle opened her eyes again, noticing that she hasn't been hit. In front of her was a silver colored keyblade with a tip that looked like a giant shuriken. Belle was really surprised, but so was Gula. Belle however quickly realized that she was in a battle and quickly performed a Thunder Roll to get away from her, while also inflicting some damage on her. Belle jumped on top of one of the cakes, shortly followed by Gula. "I'm not going down so easy." Belle said with a smile showing off her new keyblade.

Thomas walked along with the rest of the group, scanning their surroundings and trying to figure out where this hive thing would be. Or what it would even look like for that matter. Preoccupied as he was with this headache an the pain radiating from his dark wound, he was unaware of Joshua's observation of him. He had his own mission though, but it would have to wait until he got a chance to talk to Calhoun alone, which would be difficult as things stood.

At the question from the Sergeant, Thomas nodded as they walked. "They're Heartless," he said, beginning the explanation that he was sure one of his compatriots would add to for perceived inadequacy. "They're from our world. They're kinda....They're like physical manifestations of the darkness in people's hearts." He shrugged, aware of how that might sound crazy to a military person from some sort of shooter game, but it was the truth. "So, how are we supposed to find this hive besides walking around and hoping we just stumble across it," he asked, curious to see what kind of detection methods Calhoun might have.

Oner was the one who was manifested for their journey in the sugar themed game, using his blade skills combined with the Diaja spell or the strange and incredible control he had over Ultima to help fight off the Cy Bug and Heartless attacks. Despite his small arsenal of offensive spells Oner was no pushover and could indeed hold his own, so when he was manifested he wouldn't be slowing them down. Oner, unlike the others, was quite fond of this charming world. Well not as fond as Reno was who would have probably have at that entire ice cream mountain if he had been manifested for any longer, but it was a nice change of pace from the somewhat more grim worlds they visited like Treasure Planet, Prydain, and Narnia.

It was then that Thomas not only explained to Sergeant Calhoun what the Heartless were, but also asked a question on how to find the hive. Oner came up with an idea. Not one he admired, but an idea nonetheless. "I might have an idea..." He spoke up, making a small stride to catch up a bit with the group as he had been taking up rear point as he took in the various colorful sights, sketching them as he did. Snapping his sketchbook shut and making it vanish with a flick of his wrist, Oner walked with the others now instead of a bit behind them.

Before Oner could speak though about whatever his idea was in the blink of an eye Reno was standing, or rather floating, in his place. No slow change. Just in one moment Oner was there. In the next, Reno. "We just bring them here, it'll be easy if we make something big and flashy." That probably wasn't Oner's idea, or it might have been, but was also probably not exactly what Oner had in mind. Knowing Reno though, the boy with no restraint or tact and with, as Belle once put it (yes I am referencing one of Belle's thoughts about Reno from before the final boss battle on Prydain, deal with it), 'the guile of a brick wall', probably misinterpreted whatever Oner's exact idea was. With a grin the young boy floated a bit backwards, the markings on his face glowing with that same darkness from before as it gathered in his hands, the lines on them glowing as well. After just a moment's worth of focus he aimed his hand towards the sky. His eyes gleamed pure as a serene night black for just a single moment as he uttered one word. "Yami"

With that a large beam of magical energy that was black as the glow coming from Reno's markings shot from his hand in the same style as a Mega Flare, shooting into the sky. Since it was black as night in what looked like a world without any black in it whatsoever it would probably stand out as Reno poured more energy into it to make it bigger and shoot even further up into the sky, the power emanating from it being quite immense. After a few moments he stopped, letting the beam finish its course as he looked up at the sky, then at the others, a grin on his face. "Someone ought to have seen that right?"

Without waiting for a reply, or anyone able to get one to Reno, in the next moment Oner was standing there, having manifested now in Reno's place, his fingers rubbing the circle on his forehead as he just sighed heavily. As Reno's other half and reflection he understood just how Reno could be more than anyone else here. Heck he probably knew why Reno gave people nicknames, but that would probably be harder to explain then explain then... just about anything. "That... wasn't my plan, but once Reno sets his mind on something well..." He sighed heavily, shaking his head. "There is just no stopping him."

Calhoun nodded interested as Thomas explained that the Heartless came from their game. "Ah, you come from an RPG game. Not many of those around here. But I do wonder why enemies from other games are attracted to this one." Calhoun questioned. Oner afterwards said that he had an idea and suddenly shot a beam of energy straight into the sky. Calhoun already knew that this would not help them in finding the hive, as the hive is filled with eggs and eggs can't react to what Oner just did. Or was it Reno, it stays confusing for everyone. Nothing much happened. "I already thought so." Calhoun said. "We can expect some Cy-Bugs or Heartless here soon, but we got to keep moving." she said.

"S-Sergeant." Felix said and pointed to the hole in the ground in the distance. Two spider-like legs just came out of it, shortly followed by the rest of the creature's body. A large Cy-Bug appeared out of the hole. It had completely merged with the environment of Sugar Rush, almost making it look like it belonged here. His legs were made out of two Pocky, two pretzels and two candy canes each with a chocolate dip and a different topping, white chocolate, peanut and sprinkles respectively. It's backside was a huge waffle cone with chocolate dip tip. One top of the body was a mint chocolate chip ice cream ball with a chocolate topping with hard candy sprinkles on top. The only thing left of the monster to recognize it as a Cy-Bug was it's black beetle face with glowing green eyes.

"Seems like it worked after all. And I now have an idea where the hive might be." Calhoun said. "But first lets kill this thing!" she said and ran towards it with her blaster ready.

"I'll stay here!" Felix shouted as everyone headed off.

Thomas couldn't answer that second question of hers, but he nodded in agreement when she decided that theirs was an 'RPG', whatever that was. He just smiled and nodded, smiled and nodded. It seemed like the safest course rather than embarrassing himself further by asking what that was. He would probably find out soon enough anyway.

The mage was thrown off by the rapid shift from Oner to Reno, one made in practically the blink of an eye and with little fanfare or the decorative trappings that there usually were. He didn't think drawing the hive to them quite worked that way, which Calhoun seemed to confirm. But it was too late as Reno said...something, and a spell flared out, a beam of magical energy that smote the sky with blackness. Thomas could feel the magical energy radiating from it, the sheer darkness, and it had a resonant reaction in his dark wound, him gritting his teeth as he grabbed for the pulsating injury behind an armor plating, candy cane twig in his mouth snapping form the stress, magic wavering enough for the inky spots of blackness on the armor to reveal themselves. He could only hope that everyone was paying attention to the spectacle rather than him as he forced the magic back into place. He was none too pleased with Reno or himself, himself for showing weakness in the face of darkness, and Reno for once again showing off with magic that Thomas didn't have and probably never could have.

Fortunately, for his sanity, Oner returned just as quickly as he had left. “I noticed,” Thomas replied, perhaps a bit more acerbically than he had meant too. “Anything else important in that bag of tricks?” He didn't expect that question to be answered, but there had to be a lot, given that Oner had had a year of training compared to the paltry few days everyone else had. Hell, that was almost like cheating.

Attention was drawn elsewhere, to a Cy-bug that emerged that seemed fully combined with this candy environment, which was probably a bad thing. Thomas summoned his Keyblade, ready to get to work. “Well, that guy looks ugly,” he commented dryly as he took on a guard posture, moving in as well and waiting to see which of his companions would light off first at the thing.

Joshua listened to the conversation then went on passively, most of his attention on Thomas. This didn't stop him from mentally wanting to strangle Reno when the mage went and did something random, namely he shot a dark spell into the sky. He prayed Amaya didn't seem that and think it was him. However he also got to take note of Thomas' reactions to the dark spell and they were somewhat revealing. Thomas not only gritted his teeth to the point that the candy cane in his mouth broke and he grabbed his armored arm.
~~So that's how it is~~ he thought to himself, also noting Thomas' change in tone when speaking after the spell.

When Joshua spotted the Cy-bug that came out of a hole in the ground, Joshua's expression turned serious. He stepped forward to get in front of the other
"You four go on ahead." he said, summoning his keyblade" I'll handle ugly here and catch up to you later. We can't let these things run wild by the looks of this one, which means we can't afford to be delayed. So get your asses down that hole right now while I do some exterminating. If you meet up with the others, try to help them... and make sure Amaya is okay for me will ya?"

OOC: Sorry it took so long, guys. Busy week.

Jake was leading the two girls based on directions Vanellope was giving them. They had barely managed to get in site of the car factory when Ascot and Ralph finally caught up.

"Man, look at that thing," Jake whistled. "All that just to make a couple of candy cars? They certainly roll deep around here."

He turned to the two arrivals.

"Well, you two took your time - and good grief, what happened to you too?! You look like you've been in a war!!"

"Let's just say," Ralph responded, "King Candy is a BIG fan of exterior decoration."

"Oh?"

"The type that includes fireballs, explosions, and high-pressure hoses."

"Wait," Jake protested. "All this place has is candy! Ho-"

Ralph raised a hand to interrupted Jake, reached around, winced, and then grunted as he pulled out something from his side. He presented it to Jake who recognized the shard.

"Wait, how did you get Peanut Brittle stuck in your... actually wait, I don't want to know."

"Thanks."

"Talk about overkill, what sort of a distraction did you two do to piss him off so much?! Speaking of which..."

Jake looked around.

"What about Belle? Did you agree on a time to meet?"

He looked at the sun's position. It must have been more than an hour or two. Either King Candy's castle was a veritable labyrinth, or...

"She's late," Jake muttered. "I don't like this. I know she's supposed to be a skilled infiltrator, but... this is taking too long..."

"I know," spoke Ascot, "'I'm worried about Belle, too." Ascot refused to consider the possibility that she might have been trapped, not because he wasn't smart enough to think of that, but because he trusted the Thief to get out of trouble. "Anyway, let's focus on..." he looked around the factory, "making a vehicle?" Ascot had never been in a factory before, being from a medieval world, and the entire place facsinated him.

He watched Vanellope and Ralph make a car, with Ralph surprisingly showing creative skill in doing so. Then, after that, once the two had finished constructing the vehicle, it was time for an escape from the factory. Though still aching from the castle battle, Ascot, well, let's just say he's prepared to help Ralph and Vanellope escape the facility, and go to...whatever was their home base.

Amaya followed the others finding the wrecked cart as she assisted with helping before seeing ascot and Ralph back. She moved to them both holding up her hands over their wounds casting "cure" on each one "i am glad you are safe but belle isn't here yet "she added before looking up sensing a huge surge of dark energy "that has to be one of the boys....it isn't Joshua's from what i can tell"she said

The group in the kart bakery finished making the beautiful new kart for Vanellope. She was moved by it, that she finally had a kart with which she could drive. She thanked Ralph and the others for helping her make it. However suddenly an alarm suddenly went off. They had been discovered. The doors opened and King Candy, along with some Oreo Guards, were standing in the opening. "Seize them!!" King Candy yelled out. Vanellope immediately hopped into her brand new kart and Ralph jumped on the back of it.

"We have to get out of here as quick as possible!" Ralph shouted. "Drive Vanellope!" Ralph looked behind him at the keyblade warriors. "Your comrades showed some type of vehicle earlier too, right? Use it to escape!" he said. Vanellope started to drive, shortly followed by the others and King Candy in his own kart. During the ride Vanellope told Ralph that she knew a place nearby where they could hide, her home. Ralph looked back at the others. "Follow us, we know a place to hide. It wouldn't be wise to fight now!" Ralph said. They drove as hard as they could and made a quick left turn into the Diet Cola Mountain, going through a portal which seemed like you only could access by hacking the game. They arrived at the inside of the mountain where there was a small house in the corner, and a cola lake in the middle. An unfinished race track was located in the mountain with mentos covering the ceiling.

"Welcome to my home!" Vanellope said with a smile.

((OOC: Let's just assume that Vanellope already knows how to drive, so we can skip that when inside of the mountain))

---

"Okay kid!" Calhoun said as the progressed towards the hole in the ground up ahead. Once she was there she looked down only to discover that the whole undergrounds of the game was filled with soon to hatch eggs of Cy-Bugs. "This is bad... this is really bad..." Calhoun mumbled to herself. She turned towards Thomas and Reno. "There are too many of them, once they hatch they will take over this game. We have to alarm the residents of the game about it." she looked at Joshua who was taking out the Cy-Bug before turning her attention to the other two guys again. "That is just one, soon the whole game is full of them." as she said that another one crawled out of the hole. She immediately grabbed her weapon. "Reno, go to Felix! Thomas you help me defeat this one. After defeating these two, we must get everyone out of here!" she said and began shooting the second Cy-Bug.

Oner didn't know about someone fighting an enemy alone. Even if it was a Cy-Bug, it was still a rather large one. Still, Oner had faith in the abilities of each of the group members. As long as Joshua's darkness didn't go berserk again like before then it was all good and Oner felt like that wasn't going to happen. "Good luck to thee then, but before we go, a blessing to aid thee." Oner pointed his hand at Joshua and uttered one word. "Aura." The moment he uttered this a blue aura would envelope Joshua. His magical strength, physical defense, magical defense, and speed were all boosted as Faithaga, Hasteaga, Protega, and Shellga were all cast upon Joshua with that single spell.

After that Oner went on ahead with Thomas, Felix, and Calhoun towards the Cy-Bug hive where they looked in and saw an unfortunate sight. Eggs everywhere, ready to hatch. One more large Cy-Bug appeared from the hole. So much for an easy, relaxing trip. Oner heard Calhoun's command to go to Felix and nodded, deciding to stay near the plumbe---, er... carpenter. He had no idea what types of powers Felix had, but judging by his small physique and tiny character model, Oner knowing what Reno knew about video-games which was alot, he probably was not a fighter or soldier type game character like Calhoun was.

So as Calhoun and Thomas fought the new Cy-Bug that surfaced Oner made sure to stay near Felix, not bothering to correct Calhoun on her mistake in name. It would probably take a while for anyone to get used to finding out which one of the two Denizens of the Mirror, or which half of the Denizen of the Mirror, was manifested at the time. The young Denizen also made sure to keep an eye on the hole and general area in case any Heartless, Cy-Bugs, or other various threats like the Six Senses showed up, or just anything in general that would be something that needed to be looked at.

Jake raised an eyebrow at the idea of "baking" a car. He had seen some old jalopies being put together by his old buddy Miguel, but... something told him this was probably not a very efficient way of making cars. Ol' Mike would have been shaking his head in disbelief had he been there.

Still, the little tyke was overjoyed at the result, and it seemed to work. They were about to make a discrete exit when King Candy broke in with his enforcers. Apparently, someone set off the silent alarm.

"Knew we should have bound and gagged that sleeping old man," Jake mumbled to himself. Still, no point crying over spilled milk.

King Candy looked furious. He recognized the duo of Ascot and Ralph, and was not at all pleased to see that they were helping the "glitch".

Ralph and Jake grabbed the frosting bags, and squeezed them full-force at Candy and his escort, knocking the bald king down.

"Sire! Are you alright?!" Winchell asked in concern as he helped his King up.

"I'm fine, they just glazed me," he chuckled. "GET TH- where'd they go?!"

By the time he had gotten up, the party made a hasty exit, Jake smashing down a wall to allow his friends out. Ralph and Vanellope took the newly-made cart, Jake took his Glider, and the King's forces were in hot pursuit. Despite there being three Keybladers and one uber-strong wild man among them, Ralph told the group it was better to make a hasty retreat than to fight.

Jake shrugged. Best to get the kids to safety, he supposed. Besides, Ascot and Ralph were still a bit woozy from their fight wrecking up the castle. Still, he figured it was probably best to give a distraction to throw off the pursuit.

Jake jumped off the Glider, hitting the ground running.

"Go ahead!" he called out to the group, "I'll distract them and catch up!"

Summoning his axes again, he jumped high, and then charged his axes with as much power as he can, slamming into the ground with such force that he caused a giant crater, and a cloud of dust to kick up, obscuring the group from King Candy's car. Candy had to swerve sharply and hit the brakes to avoid getting slammed by the shower of candy bits and debris, while one of the police cars wasn't so lucky, falling over into the dirt as it was knocked aside. Candy coughed, clearing the dirt from his mouth, before glimpsing Jake going around a corner, ostensibly following the group.

"There they are! Get them!" he exclaimed, and immediately hit the gas, chasing after Jake. The remaining car chased him too.

Jake, however, had made a note of where the group was heading, and was actually leading the chase in a different direction. He halted the glider suddenly, turning to face Candy and his policemen.

Candy saw Jake stopping, confused as Jake didn't seem to move, or do anything. Just then, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Jake was hovering over a giant lake of banana pudding, obscured by the small hill ahead of them. With a gasp, he pulled over just in time, but turned to see the other police ploughing ahead heedlessly.

"Stop! You fools! It's a trick!" he cried out.

Too late. The car managed to catch some air, only to fall back down right into the pudding swamp in front of Jake. Duncan and Winchell swam up to the surface, sputtering and coughing up banana pudding and wiping it off their sunglasses. Jake gave a mocking salute, and flew off.

"Come back here, Criminal Scum!" cried Winchell impotently, waving his baton.

With the pursuit gone, Jake went back to the crater he made, and started following the cart tracks in the dirt road. To his surprise, he found it lead to two sugar-free lollipops, crossed together on the side of a volcano that looked like a soda bottle.

Cautiously, he reached out to touch the wall, only to find that his arm went through it like it wasn't there.

"Interesting," he mused, and stepped through. Inside, he found a large tunnel, which he followed. The whole area smelled like a volcano - if said volcano had overly warm cola instead of lava and brimstone. He found Vanellope, Ralph, and the others inside, with what looked like a bed haphazardly built together of discarded items.

"Hey guys," he spoke up. "Sorry it took so long. Did I miss anything?"

The inside of the volcano was...beautiful. Beads of Mentos dangled above a lake of cola, a volatile combination, from what he had absorbed of Chemistry, but that didn't matter; right now, the whole place seemed like...a cathedral. All was quiet except for the group's conversations at the back, and Ascot's mind was made serene by the scenery...serene except for continued worries about Belle.

The thief still hadn't reappeared, and, well, Ascot was now certain that something had happened to her. Dangit all, he should have insisted that Jake go with her! It was now that Ascot regretted using 'story logic' to try and move the quest and investigation along; he cursed himself for being so idiotic. But, still, everyone made mistakes, and it was time to atone for them.

"I'm going flying out to rescue Belle," he spoke to the others, waiting for their opinion.

Thomas, ready with his Keyblade and armor, relaxed as Joshua took the fore, more than prepared to fight this thing. Much as he might want to, he was willing to grant the warrior what he wanted, in order to get closer to being alone with Calhoun. That would be hard, but even if it were just with Felix around that would be alright too, given that he didn't know the guy.

“Alright,' he agreed with a nod, unknowing of how close Joshua was to figuring out his problem. But he left the warrior to fight as he moved along with Calhoun, Felix, and Oner. It was a quick trip to the hole in the ground that they were aiming for, and on arrival Thomas whistled. “Wow, that's a lot of them,” he commented. “Getting rid of them all is going to be pretty difficult.”

His attention was drawn as another Cy-bug emerged to fight, and he prepared to fight yet again as Oner and Felix took off following Calhoun's instruction. They were alone now, he could say, though Joshua was nearby dealing with the other Cy-Bug. But now wasn't really question time.

“Let's do it,' he agreed with a nod, and moved on, swinging with his Keyblade while firing off Fira and Thundara spells at it. He aimed for the legs and back torso, guessing those to be weak spots given that it was a giant bug, while Calhoun distracted it with her energy gun thing. Hopefully this wouldn't be too hard.

Outside of the hole, Joshua was having the time of his life, if your idea of fun involved fighting a giant insect made out of machine parts and candy while trying your best to not be stomped on, bitten, and rammed by it... which he found to be no fun at all. He spent the beginning of the battle between him and the oversized pest mostly dodging it's attacks and getting used to it's rhythm while also occasionally blasting it with magic or slashing it with his keyblade. Over all it seemed like a very simple opponent, almost primitive in it's methods. Then it pulled out the machine guns and the lasers. Which made things more of a pain, since it was able t keep it's distance better then that.

Now Joshua didn't have Reno/Oner's overly powerful magic that could possibly blow up entire cities if they put their minds behind it, nor did he have Jake's amazing strength that could smash boulders and Ascots speed that should be leaving behind afterimages at this point. He was somewhere in the middle of all of them and that made his fights a tad bit harder. But he didn't gripe or complain about that, since he knew these facts and was just fine with that. Being balanced meant that his fights were tougher but that he was adaptable and could switch styles on the go.

Earlier defend and counter attack had been his style in this fight earlier but now he had to go full offense on this damn bug. Be quickly used his Quick Dash to close to one of it's legs, which he quickly climbed up before jumping into the air and doing a downwards slash on one of it's joints. With a bit of effort and the keyblade's unnatural sharpness to cut the leg off. Seeing the circuitry on the inside of the leg and put all his power into a Dark Thunder spell, overloading the damn spider's systems and causing it to collapse. He jumped away and landed on his feet just as the entire thing exploded behind him.

~~Now if only someone was recording that like some kind of movie.~~ he thought, shouldering his keyblade.