Dreams Come True

The Teenage Robot

The four of us spun through the portal, screaming our heads off as we did.

"You know, I'd thought I'd be more used to this since this is my third time!!!" I cried, hugging Gladius tightly. Ralph was flailing around like a plastic bag caught in the breeze, while Vanellope desperately tried to hold on. I could find some joy in this, as I laughed at my two new friend's peril. Just when it seemed Vanellope was about to puke, weakening her grip on the wrecker, the portal spit us out in a turquoise sky. We all yelled as we slammed into the ground.

Well, Ralph did. He shook off his pain and rushed to grab us. He caught Vanellope and me, but had to ignore Gladius as he was heading blade down. The sword was stabbed into the ground, but he quickly pulled himself out as Ralph set me and Vanellope down.

"We really need to get better with those things..." Gladius said as he dusted me down. Vanellope, meanwhile, rushed to a nearby bush and hurled into it, making the rest of us cringe.

"You okay, kid?" Ralph asked the racer. She dizzily stumbled away from the bush, but then shook her head and beamed.

"Okay? I feel great!" She cheered, "That was awesome!" She glitched over to Gladius. "Let's do it again!"

Gladius cleared his throat. "I understand you had fun, Vanellope. But if we open too many portals too soon, we could really mess with the multiverse."

Vanellope crossed her arms and looked down, frowning. "Darn..." She noticed something up with the ground. "Wait, is it just me, or does this place seem...Weird." We all began to look around at our surroundings, and they were definitely odd. Slightly faded colours dominated everything, from the aforementioned turquoise sky, dark blue hills off in the distance, and the green grass beneath us. The rest of the plantlife was the most strange, as it all looked two-dimensional, thanks to the lack of shadows and their solid colours.

"Well, none of the games at Litwak's looked like this", Ralph said, "But still, how the heck does any of this work?" He walked up to a nearby tree and walked around it, utterly baffled when the thing somehow had depth.

"Well, I live surrounded by endless candy, and even I think this is weird", Vanellope said as Ralph joined us again. "Where exactly are we, anyway?"

I started looking around, and noticed a road not far from us. "Well, where there's a road,there usually is a town. Let's go." The others nodded, and we made our way over to the road. Vanellope had jumped onto Ralph's shoulder, and when we reached the stretch of pavement, I looked both ways. Nothing was to the right, but to the left was a city, far off in the distance. Closer to us was a road sign on the opposite side of the street. I crossed the street, the others following closely behind, and we began to head down alongside the road. As we did, Ralph and Vanellope began to take guesses as to what the world could hold.

"What do you think, kid?", Ralph asked the tiny girl, "Hoping to run into...Princesses?"

"What, ewww, no!" Vanellope gagged, "I bet we'll run into a giant, smelly ape!"

Ralph rolled his eyes playfully. "Suuuure we will. And if we're lucky, he might be stuck with a rotten, little cavity." He tickled Vanellope under the chin, earning a giggle from the girl. I looked back at them and smiled, only to slam right into one of the posts that held up the sign. Ralph and vanellope snapped to me while Gladius bolted over me.

"Caleb! Are you okay?!" he asked in concern. I shook my head and opened my eyes.

"Yeah", I groaned, "Not the first time I've eaten pole before." I slowly stood up again, shaking my head to make sure I didn't knock anything loose. I felt my glasses get taken off my face, and I looked up to see Gladius examining them.