WorldWide Wreck-It

I Hear 2000!

As the two vehicles sped down the tracks, all the arcade denizens took in the sights of the towering buildings around them. It was crazy how tall most of these buildings got, and with the bright advertisements and constant noise it made places like GCS seem like a library in comparison. The same cars, copy-pasted by the millions sped past to who knows were, all of it uniform and controlled.

Ralph leaned back and glanced around at the surroundings, craning his neck up to look at the buildings. All the advertisements and logo flashing about made him wonder if night was ever really a thing here, especially considering the sky was a pale techno blue with no sun in sight. He pursed his lips as they were taken past a massive building with the logo to Yahoo on the front.

Turning a corner sharply, Ralph held on tightly, only to be nearly thrown off when they came to a sudden stop. Removing, he looked up and ahead, seeing how one of the intersections seemed to be frozen in time.

"Looks like this will take a while", the wrecker said. "I guess even the internet has some freezing glitches of its own."

"They're frozen up ahead?" Felix asked with a frown. "Boy, it makes me feel bad."

"It's probably normal, hun", Calhoun said boredly. "This place is massive, and if all these people that don't look like Surge are real people, then obviously this whole place has its work cut out."

"I know, I know... It just makes me feel bad that they are all struggling so much. Maybe I could find a server of some kind..."

"We've got a mission, Felix", Ralph said as he tapped the top of the vehicle. "So maybe some other day, but not now."

"Right, yeah, steering wheel." The handyman adjusted his hat. " One thing at a time, we need to save Sugar Rush."

"That's it, Felix!" The wrecker looked back forward and watched as a crew worked to free the intersection. So as they waited, Ralph let his gaze wander to the surroundings again, taking in all the energy and activity. It kinda made him regret coming here, with how loud and bustling this place was.

Sure, GCS could be very active, especially with all the denizens from the larger, more densely populated games. But there was a different sort of tone and atmosphere the wrecker couldn't quite explain. It was less warm and welcoming, and more cold and corporate. Maybe it was all the expressionless users running around and egregious amounts of advertisements that made it off-putting. Everything felt so hollow and fake.

He shivered subtly as the idea drifted in and out of his head, and centred his focus on the transport the racers were all in. They were trying to pass the time as the intersection was cleared, which seemed to be almost done. The wrecker smiled at the racers, while also silently hoping things did work out. He wanted it to, but there was that small voice in the back of his head saying otherwise.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when his vehicle suddenly shot forward, blasting through the now clear intersection. The wrecker shook his head and faced forward, getting his mind back on track to the task at hand. But as they continued down the track, Ralph found his view glancing around at all the advertisements and company logos everywhere. As he did so, a memory slowly formed in his head. One of when he began to hate a part of himself...

~

Ralph was sitting in the cafe, a few of the others sitting aimlessly at other tables and eating some light lunches. The wrecker flipped a page in the book he was reading, an autobiography of Walt Disney as a little distraction of his to learn more about the company that created and owned him. He was half excited and half terrified to figure out the full story.

As he got to the part talking about the original strikes in Burbank back in 1941, Ralph started to feel a lot more iffy about everything. Walt seemed like a great man, but he was also an awful man at the same time. A creative genius, but a control freak at the same time. It was kind of eye opening seeing such a drastic shift in the legendary storyteller at that moment.