Star-Crossed

Ch.15

*Chapter 15*

The group slowly approached Diet Cola Mountain's secret entrance; the glitch between the two sugar free lollipops. Everyone arrived at the entrance with hesitation.

"Does this entrance still work after the game's reset and upgrade?" Ralph asked curiously, his eyes glancing between Vanellope, Taffyta and Candlehead. Candlehead nodded in assurance.

"Yep! I was here with Taffyta and Snowanna the other day," She chimed, the candle brightly burning atop her head.

One by one, everyone stepped inside. The wall glitched and bulged as it let everyone in. The inside of the mountain looked pretty much the same. The whole inside of the mountain was warm with heat from the boiling soda pools. Everyone slowly approached the boiling soda lake, the broken and wretched racing tracks hung over it like looming memories. Ralph heaved a long sigh and put his hands on his hips, he took in the familiar sight and smiled.

"This place is creepy," Felix said nervously.

"It used to be my home," Vanellope said gently with a knowing smile, "I found that secret entrance a long time ago, and decided to make this my humble abode."

"We didn't have a single clue that you lived here," Candlehead chuckled, "We always knew that the Glitch was on the run, but we would've never guessed you lived here. We didn't even know you could get in here."

"I just found it by poking around, really," Vanellope laughed.

"I almost had a game over here," Ralph blinked a few times, gazing down at the boiling pool before everyone. He felt a soft hand on his lower, inner arm.

"You taught me how to race here," Vanellope said sweetly as she gazed up at Ralph through grateful eyes. Ralph chuckled and smiled back at her.

"Alright, lovebirds, let's get fixing," Calhoun barked as her, Candlehead and Felix began to trek up the pink road that led to the break in the bridge.

"C'mon," Taffyta chuckled knowingly as she nudged Vanellope.

"How are we going to go about fixing something that is missing parts?" Vanellope called after Felix as her, Taffyta and Ralph quickly skipped ahead to catch up.

"Good question," Felix rubbed his chin in confusion as him and Calhoun approached the break in the bridge up the hill.

"Don't get too close," Calhoun warned gently as they peered over the edge of the tracks down into the boiling pool of soda.

Vanellope quickly picked up a loose piece of pretzel and hurled it upwards towards the hanging looms of mentos that had reformed. She clipped two mentos off of their perch, sending them rocketing into the boiling soda. Two massive gysers immediately sprung up, shooting boiling soda up into the air. Everyone on the bridge quickly scrambled away. Candlehead squealed as her candle blew out.

"What was that?" Felix exclaimed as he clutched his chest. Calhoun looked upwards, the ominous mentos hanging high above everyone.

"You made my candle go out!" Candlehead exclaimed as she waved her hand over the steaming wick atop her head.

"I couldn't resist," Vanellope laughed as she quickly picked up a dry piece of pretzel. She wisked it against the wall, causing the end to catch flame. She carefully lit Candlehead's candle once again before shaking out the flame on the end of the pretzel she was holding.