Cy-Bugs

"Cy-Bugs are like a virus. They don't know they're in a game. All they know is eat, kill, multiply! Without a beacon to stop them, they'll consume Sugar Rush! But do you think they'll stop there?" "Yes!" "WRONG! Viruses do not stop! Once those Cy-Bugs finish off Sugar Rush, they'll invade every other game until this arcade is nothing but a smoking husk of forgotten dreams."

- Sergeant Calhoun explaining Cy-Bugs to Fix-It Felix, Jr.

The Cy-Bugs are a race of robotic bug-like creatures and are the main, later secondary antagonists in the 2012 Disney animated film Wreck-It Ralph and the main antagonists in their fictional video game, Hero's Duty. They serve as the generic enemies in the fictitious game Hero's Duty. Because of some of the failed programming of Hero's Duty, Cy-Bugs are unable to tell the difference between the game and real life, meaning they are truly malevolent creatures unlike other characters who are merely villains in their games only. This forces the heroes of Hero's Duty to constantly battle the bugs to prevent them from destroying the entire arcade. The Cy-Bugs are not only intimidating in appearance, but are also very powerful. For being evil not only in their roles, but actually being evil, they don't attend Bad-Anon. They do not speak unless they swallow someone who does.

Background
The Cy-Bugs, as their name suggests, are robotic creatures closely resembling insects, most notably silverfish. Like insects, they are instinctive and only have three motives: kill, eat, and multiply. They attack in swarms and devour anything in their path, making them even more destructive. Because they were designed to be primitive and bestial, they are non-sapient and dangerous beings in both game and reality as opposed to villains who are simply evil in their game. This effectively makes them viruses if released in the game world. In their game, their eggs are kept at the tower for every new game that starts, because they are native to the program and cannot be removed. Hatchlings are just as vicious as the adults and grow at a rapid rate. A single Cy-Bug can lay hundreds of eggs, given the proper conditions to survive and sustain them. The most notable, and deadly, ability the Cy-Bugs contain is turning into anything they eat, be it organic or inorganic. The results can range from simply changing parts of themselves into weapons (etc. when one ate Ralph's gun and turned its appendages into the same kind) to a completely different form of the original (etc. when many ate the contents of Sugar Rush, turning their carapaces into candy, cakes, and chocolate). Devouring video game characters inside their game doesn't seem to change them (eg. Calhoun's husband to-be). Once outside of their games, however, causes them to transform into a horrific fusion of the character and the bug, and the character seems to become the dominant personality (but more psychotic and sinister), while retaining the Cy-Bugs' basic instincts.

Though they are mighty opponents, the Cy-Bugs do have weaknesses. Laser guns from Hero's Duty and other weapons can destroy Cy-Bugs as long as the guns aren't eaten, otherwise the Cy-Bugs can use their own foe's weapon against them. Devouring fragile objects will also cause the Cy-Bug to lose their armor and become much more vulnerable to physical attacks: for instance, when they devoured the candy from Sugar Rush, they were easily crushed by Ralph. Their greatest weakness is their attraction to immense rays of light, similar to a real bug's attraction to a bug zapper. Once they sense a form of light, the Cy-Bugs cannot stop themselves from heading towards it, even if it is lethal. As a result, a special beacon has been built into the tower that attracts and destroys them between games.

Hero's Duty Prequel Comic
The Cybugs were originally created by the A-Toy Corporation scientist Dr. Brad Scott who conceived of them as advanced adaptable toys that would alter themselves based on how their owners played with them. However, the firm's executives immediately saw their potential for military use and moved development to a far off planet for further development. Dr. Scott tried to stop the weaponization of the project but his cries fell on deaf ears. The initial weaponization experiments immediately resulted in disaster and while most of the scientific team was evacuated, Brad stayed behind to try and hinder his creations' spread until the Space Marines arrived to help evacuate the civilian population. After meeting Calhoun's team and helping them light the beacon to allow for the civilian ships to get away, he fell in love with Calhoun and chose to remain to help control the continually growing Cy-Bug menace.

Wreck-It Ralph
The Cy-Bugs first appear in the 1st-person shooter game, Hero's Duty, preparing to attack a fleet of soldiers. When Ralph interfered with the game, one of them came close to nearly killing Ralph and the player. This forced the soldiers to end the game early and stopped the swarm by launching the tower's beacon of light, immediately attracting the Cy-Bugs and killing the swarm. Later, Ralph climbed to the top of the tower to achieve the gold medal and accidentally hatched one of the eggs at the top. The hatchling clung to Ralph, causing him to become disorientated and fall into an escape pod. The two were launched out of the tower into Game Central Station and then into Sugar Rush. The hatchling quickly grew and ate away some of the escape pod and proceeded to attack Ralph. However, the escape pod's ejection button caused Ralph and the Cy-Bug to be flung in the air, with the Cy-Bug being slammed into a Candy Cane tree and tossed into a pond of extremely sticky taffy, where the Cy-Bug seemingly drowned.

It is revealed that the Cy-Bug survived and burrowed its way underground. It found a candy root and tried to eat it, and transformed into a colorful candy hybrid as a result. Sergeant Calhoun later discovers its massive nest, where the Cy-Bug had quickly reproduced, multiplied, and created more candy-bug hybrids by feeding its offspring with the indigenous sweets of the land.

The creatures make their move when the race begins, and destroy everything in sight. The attack forces the evacuation of the Sugar Rush residents, but leaves the racers Vanellope von Schweetz and King Candy in danger. Vanellope escapes from him and races ahead, but King Candy gets swallowed by one and ends up taking control of it, turning into a viral hybrid monster, and becomes the Cy-Bugs' leader. Ralph overhears Calhoun explaining to Felix that the bugs cannot be stopped without a beacon and comes up with an idea to erupt the Diet Cola Mountain to produce another beacon of light. Though the King Candy monster tries to kill him, Ralph breaks free from the King and brings down an entire crater of Mentos into the lava, causing the mountain to erupt. The eruption produces the beacon, and the Cy-Bugs who have been closing in on Calhoun, Felix and Vanellope (who glitches past the bugs to go to Ralph's rescue) stop their advances, turn to the beacon, fly toward the light and get vaporized along with King Candy. This kills all the Cy-Bugs and King Candy for good.

Big Hero 6
A baby Cy-Bug figure can be seen amongst Fred's action figure collection in the film.

Trivia

 * The Cy-Bugs' power to assimilate anything they eat into their physical structure is probably a joke on the saying "You are what you eat".
 * The Cy-Bugs' power is similar to many video game characters: Kirby, who gains the powers of any foe he has eaten; Metroids, the main enemy from the video game series of the same name (in their early stages, they seem to feed off of other beings and then become stronger); and Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise (their ability to absorb the characteristics of their food also parallels the Xenomorphs' ability to absorb the traits of their hosts, as well as their instinct to multiply).
 * Although King Candy crowns himself the leader of the Cy-Bugs after being eaten by one by accident, the Cy-Bug queen, the implied final boss of Hero's Duty and the Cy-Bugs' true leader does not appear until the events of Wreck-it Ralph: The Video Game as the main villain. The events tied to the game could be considered noncanonical.
 * It's implied that the Cy-Bug that ate King Candy/Turbo during the climax is actually the same one that Ralph accidentally brought into Sugar Rush while escaping from Hero's Duty, since it stowed away in the escape pod Ralph was in. If this is true, then this is most likely the reason why Turbo becomes the Cy-Bugs' leader, as they would naturally follow the one that hatched them, and if the Cy-Bug that ate Turbo is indeed the same one that Ralph set loose which hatched them, then the Cy-Bugs would believe that Turbo is the one who hatched them.
 * The Cy-Bug who consumes Turbo/King Candy has the very same appearance as that which ate the purple and orange peppermint tree root.
 * Yet another hint is that when Turbo confronts Ralph in his Cy-Bug form, Turbo says he became one because of Ralph, suggesting he knew that Ralph was the one that brought the Cy-Bug into Sugar Rush, even though he never saw Ralph enter the game. This possibly means he gained the original Cy-Bug's memories.

Similarities toward regular bugs

 * The Cy-Bugs' weakness is light, which is very similar to that of flies' weakness toward bug zappers.
 * Interestingly, the Cy-Bugs' love of sweets when they came to Sugar Rush is similar to how bugs such as ants or flies love human food.
 * They live in organized groups like ants, bees, hornets, termites and wasps, but look more like beetles.

Cy-Bugs