Reviews :
Snake557 : Their bond is really special! Not much tops it :D And, unfortunately you guys won't be seeing Vye for a little while, and it'll probably feel like an eternity due to my slower upload schedule, but you will definitely be seeing everyone again! When and how is a complete mystery but I'm excited to get to it.
Song Listened To :
The Storm by TheFatRat and Maisy Kay
*Chapter 6*
With a hit of coding Gideon skillfully masked under his and Kepa's original turquoise coding, the five swiftly arrived to a darker more secluded corner of the Wifi's router. Due to Gideon teleporting him and his crew through the wires of Sugar Rush's outlet and straight into the Wifi's outlet, they popped out into existence quietly and were delighted to find that no one noticed them or paid them any mind. With such a different hit of atmosphere, Gideon and crew got a good look about this new Wifi router. Similar to the station outside of it, which had Sugar Rush across the way, said router station was beautiful, a heavenly white glow that radiated from the ceiling, and similar to Litwak's old setup, said router had the infamous portal and teleportation hub right at the center. Although the router wasn't technically crazy busy, it still had a very decent amount of gamers coming and going. Said blips of electrifying buzzing noises continue to hit their ear drums, as if to quietly taunt the five and make clear that this was it, it was go time, and their turn to dive in was very rapidly upon them. Gideon sucked in a shaky breath as the five sagged from each other and did what they could to not look suspicious, and though Gideon made clear to talk in code and not overtly express their plan of action out in public, he tenderly squeezed in one last few notions for the individuals in his care.
"Alright, guys, I'll head in last, I want to make sure none of us get stuck here or left behind," Gideon started, the five began to slowly mosey towards the massive, glowing platform. An inviting green color, the crew watched as a few gamers stepped onto the transport pads, of which hovered straight to the router's intelligent point of origin, to which said gamer was immediately encased in a see-through bubble of security, the portal's aperture eagerly slid open in a huge gape, and they were off like a rocket, thus sealing the aperture with a thud. Kepa flattened her ears and now began to secretly panic, and though said fluttery feelings were now making her want to run away with herself, she proverbially held onto Gideon's lovely, deep voice and knew this was going to certainly be a trip for the books. Gideon pressed on as they neared a short, fast-moving line of gamers of all kinds, calmly preparing to leave Litwak's and head to the internet, one by one, "What to expect is a ton of light, a ton of color, a rollercoaster of movement, but... Once you're clear from the light, you'll be transported to the internet's only send and return station."
"A-and we'll all be together?" Mara worried, Lash lovingly rubbed her upper back as Gideon made sure to situate himself last in line with Lash first, Novus second and both girls in between.
"Yeah, we'll all arrive to the same station, finding each other should be easy," Gideon nodded in warm assurance; although he, too, was nervous, he did everything he could to make his team feel as if this was going to be an absolute breeze, so to keep everyone level headed, "If not, we each have our phones."
"Th-this bubble thing is safe, right?" Kepa softly worried as she peered to Gideon over her shoulder, though as the line moved and as the group got a solid visual of the massive opening and closing aperture they were about to be transported into, they all flinched as they watched a random gamer, in line, get sealed in a thick, coded bubble and thus shot down the internet's thick, scary, powerful wire.
"Yes, I promise, it's all safe," Gideon mused tenderly, "Just know... We're outside our game. Just keep in mind that regenerating isn't a thing, out there. Don't let it scare you, just be smart and be aware of your surroundings. You four okay?"
"No," Novus choked a small laugh and shook his head, "I only just decided to come not two minutes ago!"
"Yeah, dude, welcome," Lash muttered with a small laugh, though as his time came to step up and be shot off, Novus flattened his ears and braced himself for his turn, as well.
"See y'guys down there," Lash called with a wary little smile over his shoulder, though as his boots hit the green, illuminated transport pad, he flinched as it easily began to slide closer to the aperture, with him stood still on it. All at once, the aperture opened in a glide of a yank, a red coded bubble eagerly enclosed him, and with a punch of electricity, he was off and long gone.
"O-ohhhkay, I can do this, I can do this," Novus staggered nervously, though as he got to the platform and kept all four of his paws aboard, he flinched in surprise as said platform now began to hover him straight for the suddenly sealed aperture. He gulped a swallow and mumbled a notion to himself, "I-Is this bubble gunna be big enough for me?"
"Yes, you'll be okay," Gideon lovingly called, and before Novus could turn around and playfully argue him, said massive bubble eagerly enclosed Novus with ease, and like Lash, he was swiftly shot out of the yank of the opened and then sealed shut aperture.
"Alright, Gid, y'better not leave us stranded down there," Mara only teased as she hopped onto said moving platform, turned to look at Gideon over her shoulder and cutely waved him and Kepa off, "I promise Sugar Rush won't be happy about it!"
"I wouldn't dream of it," Gideon called with a cute laugh as she, too, was encased and shot off; it was here did Kepa hesitate to press forward. Gideon frowned and lovingly rubbed her arm, "It's okay, baby, I'm right here. You're going to be just fine."
"Y-You promise?" Kepa worried, she could feel tears sting her eyes, and so not to hold up the line, Gideon briefly gripped her upper arms and gave her a warm kiss to the lips.
"I promise," Gideon lovingly assured as she bravely left his brief embrace and stepped onto the green platform before her. With a jolt, Kepa gasped, tucked her tail tight about her body and watched as the platform began to move Kepa to the sealed aperture, "Just keep an eye out for Lash, Mara and Novus, they'll be there first to greet you, okay?"
"Kay," Kepa whimpered as she flattened her ears and came upon the massive, intimidating aperture.
She could feel her nose wrinkle over and over as the multitudinous amounts of smells, sights and sounds heavily oversaturated her little system, she tucked her tail tight around her and awaited her destiny, and though she was feeling scared and worried, she narrowed her gaze in collected determination and watched as the aperture opened up and revealed a blackened, never-ending tunnel of twinkling stars of bright blue wire lights. Although terrified, she clenched her fists as her mind rapidly reminded her of the very secretive little task she had set upon herself, with said rollercoaster ride onto the internet, and before she could run over her plan once more, she was sealed in a protective, coded bubble herself and was thus shot like a rocket into outer space. Kepa largely gasped and felt the lift of gravity leave her, she hovered in the center of said bubble and urgently squinted her eyes as the stream of shooting stars began to stream past her at lightning speeds. She covered her face in a spike of fear as a sudden, blinding white light kissed her retinas, though with said kiss of understanding, Kepa flung her head up in remembrance to her plan and allowed said blinding light to nearly burn her eyeballs to a crisp.
Inside of this hit of blinding light was a sea of all sorts of colors, a kiss of rainbow she knew well, though as she could feel the tug of gravity begin to return to her, she urgently looked up, in her bubble, and did whatever she could to shield her eyes from said blinding white light. She knew she had to get to the bottom of this Sundog talk, she knew she needed to see, for herself, if her intuitive inklings were right. Eager to keep this small plan to herself, for fear of it not working out and thus giving the group a small bout of false hope, she grit her teeth and began to feel urgently frustrated over the fact that said blinding white light was too bright to even shield from. In the rush to get all of her questions answered, she hurriedly peered about her encased bubble, of which was now rocketed down towards the internet, still sapped in blinding light. Kepa flattened her ears amidst the whipping noise and rush of movement, and with every last ounce of her magical coding and intuitive drive, she firmly pressed her palms to the glass about her. With her coding, she encased said coded glass with the darkest, heaviest amount of window tinting she could still see through, and upon her success of this, she whipped her head to look up and nearly came unglued as to just what was now plainly revealed to her.
Kepa hollered a loud noise of unadulterated terror as said tinting now easily blocked out the blinding light she couldn't see anything through. What seemed to be a massive prong of a green target was so securely housed into the underside of what looked to be a near-moon sized floating island. Kepa landed on her upper back, in the bubble, and was now fiercely face to face with the hugest mass of land and rock, even with the top speeds her and everyone was rocketing at, leaving the underside of said island's presence was a long and slow process, due to it's sheer size. Kepa heavily panted and felt a huge hit of tears sting her eyes, she peered up to the mass of it all and took note that the internet's main point of send and receive, the near-city sized green target securely house into the belly of this incredible island, was angled a little out and to the side, not directly at the ground. Kepa finally allowed her eyes to leave the planet-sized mass of land she was swiftly rocketing from and to gather with her fresh, gorgeous surroundings, something she could now easily see due to the intense tinting she had encased the glass in.
Kepa panted, tears rolled down her cheeks, her and a handful of other gamers shot like rockets now across the tippy-top most layer of the internet's huge sprawl of never-ending metropolis. They whipped through the internet's glowing mass of protective clouds, all kissed with tickles of silver ribbons of electricity. She urgently looked about and was in shock at just how vast, just how beautiful it all was. The sheer amount of colors, signage, flying vehicles, gamers and transport alike, she finally sagged and was shocked at how futuristic and incredible it all was. Although eager to get to the ground and really poke around, she flattened her ears and now looked up and over her shoulder. With her glass bubble still tinted, she was now far enough away from the land mass, in the sky, to see it as a whole from afar and not as if it were an asteroid colliding into the planet. Said land mass was massive, she was too far down and now too far away to make sense of anything atop said floating island, but it was here did she finally allow the tinting to dissipate, thus revealing the thing that everyone always saw, whether coming or going; the source of the internet's sunlight, simply a ball of intense, perfectly-replicated sunlight. With this connection, with the Sundog immediately found, Kepa held her breath and was entirely floored that her little, secretive plan actually worked. She bobbed the Sundog a small little nod, as if to silently assure it that she would return for it shortly after reconvening with her team on the ground.
"Pspspsss, herrre Kepa," Lash tsked out into the air, Mara largely rolled her eyes.
"Don't do that, you jerk," Mara barked with a happy laugh as she swat Lash's chest, the two stood with each other near the press of the massive, sunny grey and white station's send and receive pad all alive with colorful, illuminated pads of said send and receive of individual's coded information, discs that pushed and pulled beings to and from the internet. Mara tossed her eyes about in a small swing of worry and took note that said station, as a shallow, open-aired atrium, had dozens of exits that hugged the inner circle of said structure. Said exits had all sorts of information about locations, cities, highways, towns, a multitudinous amount of information in so many different languages, it all had Mara hugging her arms across her chest and sagging a little, due to the sheer overwhelm. Now due to finding Gideon, Novus and Kepa, the two casually looked about the bustling crowd, of which flowed, came and went, "User, I'm... I'm about to pass out, this is..."
"A lot, I know," Lash mumbled softly with a nod, the two continued to causally peer about, though Lash flung his arm up and waggled his hand a little as he noticed Gideon across the stretch. Lash hovered for a moment and eventually caught Gideon's attention, to which he began to hustle over. In his hustle, he bumped into Novus, to which both boys now began to casually saunter in Lash's and Mara's currently stationary direction, "User, seriously, where is Kepa?"
"I don't know," Mara worried quietly as her and Lash continued to look around, though as Gideon approached and took note of Kepa's absence, him and Novus also began to urgently look about.
"Ah shit," Gideon murmured in annoyance, though not aimed at Kepa. Gideon sighed and began to feel a full hit of worry, "She confided in me before she jumped on the initial teleport pad, too... She was about to start crying."
"Kepa," Mara cooed softly in a hit of sorrow, due to Gideon's words, though as Gideon stood a bit taller and now stiffened, he felt his hands urgently reaching for his phone, in his jean's front pocket.
Wanting to secure information coming and going as best as he could, he clenched his teeth and was eager to text as little as possible. Not wanting to loudly yell Kepa's name and bring attention to himself, his coding kindly tickled the underside of his brain and reminded him that he had the power to make a certain, special noise that only Kepa would know to respond to. He raised his eyebrows in the hit, took a small few steps away from Mara, Lash and Novus, and gently whipped his tail up in a swat, as if to gear up and prepare. Although not a sound he would ever dream of using in public, he allowed the flutter of turquoise light to beautifully spill down his spine, and as the spiked club of his beautiful tail bobbed in an easy hover, up and down, he rattled said delightfully, fluttery, xylophone-like trill of a noise loudly into the air. Well aware this was a noise only dragon-gargoyles would respond to, or even anyone from Castle Run, Gideon knew that due to the sheer billions of different types of people here, on the internet, that running into someone who would also respond to Gideon's rattling call would be slim chances. With fervor, with full confidence, he sucked in a readied breath, stiffened and allowed his tail to emit said beautiful little noise out into the air, once more. Said bounce of noise echoed about the station's beautiful, shallow atrium of which allowed the enchanting splay of sunshine to coat each of the multitudinous teleport pads.
Gideon perked up, raised his eyebrows and could suddenly hear Kepa's tender voice emit a trill of a scared meow amidst the crowd, said meow was a delicate yowl of terrified concern, and as Gideon sourced the direction, he was thrilled to see Kepa now urgently making a straight-away for Gideon, all due to hearing his call, a call specifically designated for her. Gideon sagged his shoulders in relief and allowed his turquoise coding to dissipate, he frowned upon seeing Kepa urgently speed walk in his direction. She wore a cute, yellow, linen top, of which was loose and airy, as well as a pair of dark grey leggings. Her ears were tucked tight to her skull, she got deeper into Gideon's field of vision and was relieved that Gideon urgently took note that she had been crying. Gideon donned a wildly apologetic smile and opened his hand for her. As she approached, he took her trembling hand in his and easily sagged her into the press Lash's, Mara's and Novus's encouraging, gentle presences. Just as Gideon opened his mouth to usher her a kind notion about how she made it and everything was okay, she stabbed her eyes tight into Gideon's and now fiercely portrayed a very real amount of terror and floored excitement. Said excitement was genuine, though the huge amount of terror overrode her thoughts currently, and with such switch up, she now visibly began to panic.
"I-I found it," Kepa just barely hummed over a whisper, she began to shake, she crossed her arms and now urgently looked around in the wake of adrenaline-soaked fear; Gideon did everything in his power not to bug his eyes and loudly go diving on Kepa for answers, he surprised himself at how still he was remaining as he volleyed her a very tender reply.
"You huh?" Gideon quipped in a lilt of shock as he, too, crossed his arms and now firmly sagged his thumb up into his top lip. He choked a small chuckle, shook his head, thrusted his hands down to his side and tilted his head with a cheeky grin into Kepa's eyes, as if to very firmly tell her that he believed her in full, though allowed his voice to pretend as if he didn't, "Nah, cause that would mean..."
"I found home," Kepa whimpered, she grimaced, tucked the back of her hand to her mouth and stood tight and tall within herself, she flicked her tail up a little and did what she could to look loose and unbothered, though failed as tears slipped down her cheeks, "I found it."
"How positive are you?" Gideon chirped quietly in return.
"One million percent positive," Kepa staggered as she firmly looked across the station and allowed her eyes to dart about in scanning for eavesdroppers; the station was sunny and welcoming, though nothing could convince Kepa of this.
"Wh-where?" Gideon questioned, though he knew that was a dumb question, he knew that Kepa couldn't just openly talk about a place that likely very few knew about, it was something surely no one had ever heard of before, Kepa squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
"We were right," Kepa returned, and it was here did Gideon sharply dart his eyes straight into Lash's, then to Mara's, then Novus; all three of them looked like statues. Kepa carried on in a whimper as she gestured her shaky hand outwards and lulled her teary eyes closed, "Everything me, you and Lash were discussing at the meeting, last night, was correct."
"-How?" Mara started confusedly, dumbfounded, their jaws couldn't be wiped from the floor.
"I-I can't," Kepa started, though not as if she was wanting to keep it secret from them, it was as if she was en-route to fainting and was in no headspace to properly talk her way through this massive hit of shock to her nervous system; Gideon cued to this, lovingly gripped her upper arm and nodded to his team with a loving look of endearing cuteness, though said team very nervously knew this was Gideon communicating with them that there would be trouble if they all didn't just adamantly remain calm and collected, no matter the circumstances; easy, unflinching obligation was what his team immediately gave back to Gideon.
"I'm hungry, yeah? Let's eat before we head out," Gideon shrugged casually, Lash bobbed a nod as Mara warmly rubbed Kepa's upper arm.
"Yeah, when we sit down, then we can have Kepa tell us all about that crazy dream she had last night," Lash played along with full nonchalance, to which Gideon nodded and shrugged, once more.
"Yeah, let's go find the station directory," Gideon cued, Mara clapped her hands in excited nonchalance.
"I want pizza," Mara squeaked, Novus joined in on the roll of faked casualness, though it easily began to become natural after a few forced notions of calm contentment.
"PIZZA," Novus loudly urged, Lash rolled his eyes as the two now dorkily began to bicker, and as said group of five calmly began to make their way across a few arches of the station, in the direction of the nearest, digital display of a directory, Gideon warmly held Kepa snugged into a side hug as they crossed the gap.
"I'm proud of you," Gideon whispered into the side and top of Kepa's head as the two walked together. With said easy sway, their tails lovingly slithered together with the coy, flirtatious hook of hand-holding at the tips, "Whatever the hell happened, I'm sure it took guts."
"Thank you," Kepa whimpered with a nod as she tried to steady her breathing, "I'm just... Incredibly overwhelmed, I cannot believe we trusted our gut, on this... What ELSE should we trust our gut over?"
"... Wonderful point," Gideon murmured in a teasing show of dread and ironic excitement.
