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secretsocietyofgamejumpers · 16 hours

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T—Pt. 2

Inspired by the Hero’s Duty comic from the Comic Zone magazine.

But the next day’s quarter alerts couldn’t help but draw Markowski out from under the covers. After all, he had a duty. A hero’s duty.

As he hustled to join the rest of the corps, Markowski could already hear them laughing, and he didn’t need to hear a word to know it was about him.

“You get a load of Markowski last night?” Private Marco guffawed.

“Oh, it was prime time viewing!” Lieutenant Loya replied with a hearty chuckle.

“An all-time classic,” Private Maddox concurred with an eager nod.

Markowski felt his cheeks burn red. After the humiliation of last night, he’d accepted that this would always be his lot in life. But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

As the First Person Shooter rolled through the crowd, Markowski could see the goings-on outside the game. A young boy with huge horn-rims and freckles was about to insert his coins when the gun was ripped from his hands by a big-boned brute of a boy, with a face ridden with acne and stubble.

“Out of the way, you little snot!” The bully elbowed the bespectacled boy out of the way. “Let the best Hero’s Duty player in the county show you how it’s done!”

The boy brandished the gun with an evil smirk. “I’ll bet you all your candy I can finish this stupid game in just one go.”

In the background of the screen, Markowski could see the other boy backing away, his eyes downcast with shame as he listened to the boastful bully say all those demeaning things. Markowski’s heart broke. For though he was a skinny twig of a boy and Markowski was a mountain of a marine, the private saw himself in the boy—downtrodden, meek, mistreated.

But he knew the bully’s bragging would come back to bite him. After all, Hero’s Duty had ninety-nine levels, and most kids never made it past the first.

“Follow me!” The FPS robot charged forward as the bully gave a triumphant yell. Feverishly he shot at cy-bugs, with the marines assisting.

He passed level one with ease, then level two and three.

Well, Markowski thought as he made short work of some cy-bug eggs on the third floor of the lab. He thinks he’s better than everyone else just because he can beat two more levels.

But the bully forged on. Ten levels…twenty…fifty…

Markowski’s jaw dropped as the bully handled the game with no difficulty. Clearly, he knew Hero’s Duty inside and out. If this kept up, the bully would win, and the poor boy would lose everything.

He shot a glance at his commanding officer. Calhoun certainly didn’t look happy to be helping this player. But she wasn’t about to go against the program.

Sure, it was the soldiers’ duty to get the player to the top of the tower so they could win the Medal of Heroes. But wasn’t it also their duty to uphold the ideals of bravery, integrity, grace, and dignity—all of which the bully lacked in spades?

He gazed once more at the robot’s screen, at the sighing face of the bespectacled boy, wishing he could do something—anything—to help him out.

Then an idea hit Markowski faster than Calhoun’s fist after he accidentally splattered her with Cy-Bug egg yolk before her first date with Felix.

If the bully knew the game this well, the only way to make him lose is if something unexpected happened. And Markowski knew exactly where to find that.

As shots ricocheted around the seventy-fifth floor lab, the private hoped he wouldn’t be noticed amidst the chaos as he bashed a hole in the glass window with the butt of his gun. Once it was big enough, he climbed through the hole and escaped.

Markowski’s breathing was heavy as he scaled the jagged walls of the tower to the top. There was the lever he’d technically not touched…but today he would touch it, and be proud of it.

The sounds of laser flares and the horrific metal buzzing of the Cy-Bugs began to fade away. General Hologram was beginning his spiel as he prepared to bestow the Medal of Heroes on the bully.

With a deep, determined breath, Markowski grasped the lever in his hands and gave it a sharp yank.

Instantly the massive cloud of Cy-Bugs descended. Markowski scrambled down once more, bashing another sizeable hole in the glass window leading to the chamber of the Medal of Heroes.

All the soldiers turned toward the strange sight, mouths agape. Except, of course, Calhoun, whose mouth was pinched in her usual anger.

“What are you nutcrackers waiting for?” She scowled. “Weapons up!”

The soldiers all brandished their guns—but outside the game, the bully had dropped his in shock.

“What the HECK!?” He shouted. “There’s no final level boss in Hero’s Duty!”

As he scrambled to pick up the plastic weapon, there was a horrific screech as the eyes of the Cy-Bugs turned from a glowing green to a blazing red. As they formed the monstrous image of a giant Cy-Bug, the bully backed away in utter terror, not even bothering to put up a fight as the swarm ignored the other soldiers and lunged straight at him.

GAME OVER.

“Markowski.” Calhoun marched over to the private, her rage making her eyes glow even more fiery than the Cy-Bugs’. “What do you have to say for yourself?” She socked him in the jaw, and Markowski peered timidly out from beneath his visor, prepared for the ridicule he would soon receive.

But there was another emotion on the faces of the soldiers—pure amazement and admiration.

Pure respect.

“Ma’am, I’m so sorry…” Markowski‘s voice wavered. “It’s just…I couldn’t let that boy win…”

“Like fun you couldn’t.” Calhoun bared her teeth. “Private, your off-game privileges are revoked until further notice!”

“Aw, c’mon, Sarge!” Loya protested. “This guy deserves a round after that performance!”

“Yeah! C’mon, ‘Kowski! Root beer’s on me!” Marco whooped.

“Loya! Marco! Shut your chew holes!” yelled Calhoun. She turned to Markowski once more. “Get back to start position before I rip your head off!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Markowski saluted. And for the first time, he did it with a smile.

As the soldiers scrambled back to start position, Markowski could hear the other soldiers cheering.

He didn’t need to hear a word to know it was for him.

#wreck it ralph #fanfic #hero’s duty #sergeant calhoun #markowski

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secretsocietyofgamejumpers · 17 hours

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T—Pt. 1

My first fanfic is dedicated to my favorite underappreciated space marine, Private Markowski!

“It’s lonely at the top.”

How many times had Markowski heard that saying before? But as far as he was concerned, it was lonelier down below.

Up here, at the very top of the Research Lab, he was far away from his fellow soldiers’ mockery—no longer could he hear Spears and Loya lamenting they only needed to fill one more space on their Markowski Mess-Up Bingo Cards, or Kersavage smugly demanding the money he’d bet on Markowski’s latest failure.

But most of all, he was far away from Sergeant Calhoun. He knew she’d be furious, as she always was, especially since the latest gameplay had ended with him turning into a human bowling ball, with the unfortunate sergeant as his pin. He knew he was in for a world of hurt—what punishment would await him this time? Would his Tapper’s privileges be revoked? Would he get demoted to rank -1? Public depantsing? Whatever it was, it would be something his fellow soldiers would never forget, and never let him live down.

Markowski heaved a heavy sigh as he lied down on top of the tower. Staring up at the smoggy sky, his bleak surroundings seemed to reflect his lot in life—the disrespect and ridicule that had, in short order, become his reality. Every game, he’d made some blunder, like falling off the tower, stepping on Cy-Bug eggs, or letting his gun get eaten. Usually the player hadn’t noticed, but Calhoun was not a lady who liked to take chances. After every game, she’d given Markowski a public dressing-down. They’d only been plugged in for a week—but already he’d gotten thirty lectures from the Sarge. And as he walked back to the barracks or the mess hall or the field hospital, without fail he would be ribbed relentlessly by his comrades.

The nicknames his fellow recruits had bestowed on him still rang in his mind. “Dough Boy”…”Skid-Markowski”…”Private Humiliation”…

“MARKOWSKI! Where is he?”

The sergeant’s angry voice from below broke Markowski from his reverie. He scrambled to his feet, but fell back on his behind—and as he did, he heard an almighty CREAK.

Markowski stood up slowly, hoping the sound hadn’t come from his back—and as he did, he saw death itself staring him in the face.

It came in the form of a gargantuan cloud descending on him from above, a horrid buzzing sound and a sickly green glow emanating from it. As the strange shiny cloud loomed closer, its form began to change—into a shape Markowski knew all too well. The mass formed the familiar pincers and sharp-edged wings of an enormous Cy-Bug, which Markowski realized in mouth-agape, trembling horror was made up of millions of the murderous insects.

“MARKOWSKI!”

Even over the din of the Cy-Bugs’ metal murmurings, Sergeant Calhoun’s enraged voice cut like a knife as she zipped up to the top of the tower on her cruiser, pointing one sharp, accusatory finger at the private.

“I should have known.”

“S-sorry, Sarge!” Markowski stuttered. “I-I fell and…”

“Likely story.” Calhoun scoffed. “You fell on the lever that says “Do Not Touch.”

“L-lever?” Markowski glanced behind him—there, indeed, was a tall lever planted in the jagged metal of the roof. “Honest, ma’am, I didn’t know there was a lever.”

“As you shouldn’t have.” Calhoun fixed the private with a dark stare. “We don’t know what that lever was meant for, and it’s going to stay that way.”

As the Cy-Bug monstrosity loomed closer, Calhoun hopped onto the roof, scanning her handprint on the panel at the edge, then tapping the sequence of buttons that activated the laser beacon that slayed Cy-Bugs at the end of each game.

As the giant Cy-Bug flew into the light and evaporated, Calhoun, her face glowing with a combination of rage and blinding beacon light, turned to Markowski once more.

“One more slip-up, Private, and I’ll be sending you to Undead Apocalypse slathered in meat tenderizer.” She scowled, breathing down his neck. Then, with a curt snap and a point to the space next to her on her cruiser, Markowski joined the sergeant as she zipped down to the ground.

As they landed, Markowski could hear the jeers of his fellow soldiers, and he could see one brandishing a video camera and another duo of marines sharing a bucket of popcorn as they took in the spectacle.

Markowski sulked past them to the barracks. He planned to hide under the blankets for the rest of the night, and maybe even the rest of his life.

#wreck it ralph #fanfic #sergeant calhoun #markowski #hero’s duty

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secretsocietyofgamejumpers · 2 days

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There are a lot of people who aren’t sold on the ending to Ralph Breaks the Internet, and I’m one of them. Now, I don’t mind Vanellope leaving her game. My main gripe is that she does it without saying goodbye to the rest of her friends. Poor Felix and Calhoun. They laid down their life for Vanellope’s game six years ago, and if the credits of the first movie were any indication, they joined the wrecker and the president on a lot of game-jumping adventures. Now, you could argue that the couple grew apart from the best friend duo after they got married, but that still doesn’t take away from the moments the four of them did share together.

My personal headcanon is that Vanellope felt guilty about not giving Felix and Calhoun a proper goodbye, but she figured a call wasn’t personal enough, especially since Ralph got the real deal. So she and Ralph planned a scavenger hunt through all the games they’d jumped through, and Felix and Calhoun got to relive all their old memories of times with Vanellope. At the end, they found a hidden box of memories, and Ralph hid his Buzzzy Phone inside so they could talk to Vanellope and get the farewell they’d been hoping for.

#wreck it ralph #vanellope von schweetz #fix it felix #sergeant calhoun #ralph breaks the internet #fanart

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