*Chapter 14*

A spill of collected pixels, the buzzing kiss of added bodies into the palace's dim, main teleport hub, Lash and Gideon silently regrouped on said pad and hovered in a few seconds of contemplative stillness. In the tender toss Lash's dimly glowing golden eyes took into Gideon's, both men gathered that the beings in the palace's main kitchen were surely having a few drinks, a near-midnight snack or two. Due to quarter alerts, the majority of main palace residents, being the racers, often always turned in early. The lovely voices bouncing around the palace's incredible dining hall was saturated in familiarity, it was something that had Gideon's heart jumping due to hearing Tessa's voice out of the bunch. In Lash's and Gideon's quick and easy journey back to Litwak's Arcade, the difficult part was Gideon's daunting task of storing a digital way-point, clear across the Internet, no less. A mess of coding stored safely in his own digital inventory, Gideon bobbed Lash a small nod to not only communicate that said stored power was still intact, but stepping out into the palace's dining hall, to greet their family, was encouraged. What Gideon's task was to simply come back to Sugar Rush, place the incredibly powerful waypoint of a teleport pad palace side and have a one on one conversation with Wren, was now a mini reunion with their loved ones and surely reconvening with Kepa's parents.

"And then I look over, and it's just Turbo and Wren huddled together in the corner because Chester started snarling at them in his sleep," Berri cried from laughter, the whole group was entirely lost in hunched over gasp for air as Berri retold a very funny story that happened to her recently, "So Gunner kept making those stupid barking sounds, like an asshole, and Chester just kept getting angrier and angrier!"

"Y'should've been there, the noise he was making was so scary, I'm not even joking," Koko yelled as she was now daintily wiping tears from her eyes, everyone was long gone to intense laughter.

As Gideon and Lash slowly moseyed into the palace's gorgeous dining hall, they assessed just who they were walking into. Gideon took note of who was present, which was his own mother, Koko, Berri, Tessa and Penny. The dining hall was dim and quiet, only lowly lit crown molding and lovely hearth lights were the backdrop for Gideon's family casually strewn about the kitchen area, lazy leans to island and cabinet counters with drinks in hand and loose smiles donned. Gideon was certain that, even in his day-long absence, the group was finally coming to terms with the sheer facts of just how exponentially safe they suddenly were. It was as if Gideon could now feel their full gratitude with no strings attached, he could sense that everyone now felt entirely safe in his presence and in his care, something Gideon had no clue he needed, until this instance. What once was a harrowing game show where being feared was his top priority, somehow ushering everyone to safety was now something that immediately and permanently replaced it. Something he could feel himself smiling over, it made his heart soar. In this little giddy feeling he was now largely emanating out to the room, he excitedly caught eyes with Tessa and was entirely floored to see her stiffen, sharply gasp, clumsily set her drink down and glitch-hop in a beam of silver lightning straight for Gideon's square on the grid.

With a thud and a hefty collide, Gideon grunted a hard laugh of boyish warmth as him and Tessa were firmly saddled into a huge hug. Gideon grinned on Tessa's shoulder, lifted her off her feet for a moment and happily laughed out into the air with her, her tears that landed on his shirt was yet another hit to his soul he didn't know he needed; what was now full proof that his family felt entire safety in Gideon, even when presented with vulnerability.

"Tell us everything," Tessa urged with a teary grin as her and Gideon finally unraveled, to which now everyone urgently began to hustle over to the group so to eagerly welcome Lash and Gideon back home.

"You guys aren't going to even believe it," Gideon shakily huffed in enchanted wonder as he donned the widest grin he had ever sport in months.

"It's almost too much to even explain," Lash chuckled, him and Gideon fervently caught eyes in hefty nods of knowing.

"The only thing we were told was that you found it," Vanellope urged excitedly as everyone peered their excited gazes deep into Gideon's and Lash's, "The Sundog is a real place? Like, it actually exists?"

"Yeah, it's encased by sunlight, it's the safe guard of the internet's original source energy," Gideon explained, the group was silent and wide eyed in baffled confusion as Gideon continued on through chuckling disbelief, "The only people that live there, or know about it, are other Users or any other gamer that is what's known as a 'User-proxy'."

"Oh, and, uh, Gideon's the literal King of it," Lash muttered in sarcastic nonchalance.

"What?!" The whole group urgently erupted in hot shock, to which Gideon stiffened, squeezed his eyes shut and felt his brand new, upgraded hearing fervently remind him that his new realty came with weird, new pet peeves.

"Yeah, I... I'm being honest, I still have no clue who, what, when, where and why," Gideon urgently gestured to his chest and shrugged, "But, met some of the Sundog's higher ups, found out one of them was Ora, and, uh... Yeah! Pieces to the puzzle."

"Ora!" Berri huffed in shock as Penny covered her mouth, everyone continued to hover in frozen shock as Gideon raised his eyebrows and looked off, so to continue on with this roll of boiling information.

"One thing I've learned today is," Gideon trailed off for effect and furrowed his eyebrows as more information gently arrived to him from User knows where, "Wherever there's an up, there's a down..."

Everyone hovered in Gideon's gentle words, even Lash furrowed his eyebrows and patiently listened as Gideon loosened and looked down aimlessly to everyone's feet.

"As above, so below," Gideon hummed in a lilt of nervous confusion that now began to plague him. He furrowed his eyebrows sharply and was absolutely thrilled everyone present remained silent and patiently wondered just what Gideon was grasping at, "If there's a sunny solace of a Sundog where only good-natured Users can go... High above the internet's cloud..."

"Yeah?" Lash pawed nervously, Gideon sharply stabbed his eyes into Lash's and nervously carried on with the continuous stream of a download he was somehow receiving.

"Then surely there's a darkened, miserable place underneath the dark web," Gideon's voice darkly croaked, to which then Lash felt his face slope to dreaded realization.

"Where evil-natured Users can go," Lash finished nervously, the air in the group now began to sag into something far more brooding, something far more concerning, a topic that everyone eagerly subscribed to due to having their whole team's best interests at heart. Lash carried on in uncertain proxy, as if little blips of the information Gideon was getting, was now hitting him as well, "Deep below the web..."

"World Wide Web, it's what we now will live on," Berri huffed shakily, with a shrug and a nervous nod.

"You're saying there's a darker place than the dark web?" Penny wondered in full concern, to which Gideon lulled his eyes shut and huffed a shaky chuckle out into the air, as if to potentially regret letting his words get away from him.

"Look, I know for absolute fact everyone is safe on the Sundog. What that translates to in terms of what that means for the more sinister parts of the internet, well, I'm not entirely positive," Gideon grumbled, everyone peered their scared eyes to Gideon as he huffed a sharp sigh and regretfully carried on, "All I know is, Callum has my manifestation coding, he's essentially me in a past life... But still me."

"A-And you're in charge of The Sundog?" Tessa gawked, her voice shook as everyone peered on in total shock.

"Imagine me going toe-to-toe with a near-carbon copy of myself," Gideon muttered nervously, "Whatever has happened in these last proverbial forty eight hours is incredibly important, and I'm not sure how or why..."

Gideon sucked in a huge, trembling breath and looked down to his opened hands. He sagged his tail to the ground, with a thud, and shook his head in a small grimace of doing whatever he could to choose his words wisely.

"No one here can afford to think that none of what is happening is ridiculously important," Gideon muttered as everyone's raw attention hovered tight to Gideon's in a now paralysis of feverish, unadulterated stun, "I have crowned myself... Literal King of the Internet. And, I can't tell you how!"

The group huffed little gasps of chuckling irony as Gideon shrugged his shoulders, shook his head and fervently furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm just a kid!" Gideon cried in a huff of hot shock as he gestured to his chest and looked each person in the eye, "But even still, somehow, I feel whatever has happened here, isn't something to take lightly at all."

"You're worrying me and I don't know why," Lash muttered nervously, Gideon softened and shook his head.

"The point I'm trying to get at is... Anyone associated with me, living inside of a kill-zone of an Arcade, is now suddenly a target," Gideon regretfully ushered out to the group, to which the room began to nervously prickle with dread, "I understand everyone here is safe, but I also understand that you will be your safest living on The Sundog... And, I say this knowing, full-well, you guys are going to continue on with quarter alerts and hold true to our palace, our earned hierarchy."

"I mean... We're safe inside Litwak's new Arcade, right?" Vanellope pawed sorrowfully, everyone stole wary glances to each other.

"Yes, you're safe here, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to freak you guys out," Gideon heaved a shaky sigh, rubbed the back of his head, eyed Lash and narrowed his gaze in tired concern, "The night is almost over, we can almost turn in and go to sleep, but... Still got a few more tasks left to do. Being actually on the Sundog has just set different, new priorities in motion. I've built a home for anyone and everyone on the Sundog, anyone that feels as if they want to change their mind and move in, they definitely can."

"We encourage it," Lash grumbled warmly as he looked down and bobbed a nod in agreeing to Gideon's words, "The tree is big enough for everyone, that whole island, really."

"Tree," Tessa huffed in a small uplift of a surprised smile, Gideon beamed.

"Yeah, it's... A Sugar Rush candy cane tree, you guys aren't gunna believe it," Gideon scoffed a trembling little chuckle, shook his head and allowed his smile to broaden.

"Nox and I have decided to move in," Koko suddenly spilled in a girly squeeze of grinning excitement, to which the whole group perked up at her cute little outburst.

"You're going?!" Vanellope cried, Penny sagged her shoulders and almost desperately peered to Tessa, as if surely the group has mulled this whole ordeal over and took turns wondering just who would live on the Internet and who wouldn't; clearly conclusions were fully made, until now.

"Yeah, w-we're coming with," Koko clasped her hands together and gave Gideon a doughy, twinkly-eyed little smile, "I don't want Nox to live separate from his brothers, y'know?"

"Would be a little less exciting without him," Lash mumbled in sarcastic dismay.

"That's so exciting," Gideon hummed with a nod as him and Koko held eyes, her sweet, warm brown gaze sung in shimmery renewal as he continued on, "As much as I'd want to show you guys everything tonight, I really do want to let all the dust settle before I bring everyone over and get everyone coded and set up as User-proxies."

"That's okay, today's surely been huge," Berri shrugged, she wore a light grey t-shirt underneath a lazy black zip up hoodie; everyone was dressed down for the night, it was clear palace gossip was happening between this small group.

"It has... My main task, currently, is to place the main way points to the Sundog, something we can access from Sugar Rush. We need to find a proper place to put this teleport pad, though I have a few ground rules I'd like to lay first and foremost," Gideon patiently started as he glossed his eyes about the small group he was in, he was glad to have everyone's attention as he carried on, "The pad is entirely off limits until I can get everyone coded on the other side... I'm begging you, do not let curiosity get the better of you, once I place the teleport pad, just forget it exists for now... Please."

"Pretty please," Lash mumbled nervously; after seeing just what almost happened to Novus earlier in the day, when they arrived on the Sundog, was enough for Lash to feel dread over someone accidentally teleporting over, only to endure a full disintegration.

"Once everything's settled on the other side, you guys are welcome to visit," Gideon rubbed his temples and now began to look as if exhaustion was catching up to him, "Look, it'll all have stipulations and ground rules I do not want to be broken, but I am way too exhausted to list them all right now..."

"Yeah, keep your energy preserved, this visit is important anyways," Lash muttered, and even though he was reminding Gideon of his chat with Wren, he didn't seem thrilled about it impending upon them.

"What else are you guys doing here, then?" Tessa gently inquired, she looked between Lash and Gideon with curios hazel eyes.

"Well... We're here to have a little one-on-one with Wren," Gideon hummed apprehensively, he could see Penny stiffen in confusion, in his peripheral. He grimaced a little and eyed her much shorter stature directly to his left. She crossed her arms, cocked an eyebrow and now began to look miffed. Gideon sighed and glanced to Lash before giving Penny his full attention, albeit sheepishly, "I'm going to have to call him and get permission to bring Lash, though..."

"Interesting development," Penny's gentle voice stated in a lilt of sarcastic, womanly taunt as she almost meanly eyed Lash; Lash sharply looked down, sucked in a shaky, almost irritated breath and was floored Gideon was sharply cued to the sudden tension in the group.

"... Funny you say that, actually, I'm beginning to think it actually might be a good idea if you join us, Penny," Gideon almost snapped back to Penny. Immediately he could see and feel this ridiculously convoluted mix of loyalties begin to ebb and flow in curious patterns. Although Penny, Rancis and Taffyta were all also feuding with Wren, Penny still took an obvious stance in Wren's corner when it came to defending Wren against Lash's nasty comments from the day prior. Gideon glanced to Lash in apologetic cheek, cocked an eyebrow and held eyes with Lash's now much more dampened, irritated gaze, "I think we all have a lot to discuss... Lots of rugs to overturn, guys. This is a fresh start, we all need to get on the same page and get good."

"You want me to come with you guys?" Penny gestured to herself, "You want me to come with you two, to also have a chat with Wren?"

"Ma'am," Gideon politely concluded, and even with manners, Penny still stiffened and allowed her cocky, bratty side to eke through, something Tessa was now nervously grimacing over.

"You want me to come with you two, to also have a chat with Wren, whom of which I am very angry with right now," Penny gestured her hand over her shoulder and shrugged; she then snottily gestured to Lash and shook her head, "And then I have to turn around and defend Wren against Lash even though I'm angry with Wren? You're really gunna put me in that position?"

"Pens," Tessa cautioned gently, Penny sagged her shoulders and gave Tessa a frustrated frown.

"No, I'm serious, you really want to get me in a room with Lash and Wren and crack this bitch wide open?" Penny's voice began to raise, something that had Lash's eyes now muting to grey, everyone in the room prickled with nervous little smiles of bewildered curiosity. Gideon lulled his eyes closed and gingerly reached for Penny's upper arm as she continued, "What's gunna become of the palace, then? The whole thing will go up in flames-"

"I will be mediating... I will have my small one-on-one with Wren, and then you two will join shortly thereafter, where I will be mediating," Gideon immediately thwarted as he titled his head down a little and gave Penny a confirming, almost stern look of assurance. He raised his eyebrows, lightly side-eyed her and gingerly held her upper arm, eternally grateful that his simple statement of assurance also then spoke his full dominance into existence. Gideon lulled his eyes closed and shook his head as he let gratitude course him, gratitude over the fact that his word was quietly adhered to, "You guys can get heated and say whatever you need to, but I will have my hand over the whole of it. No fires will happen on my watch."

"... Period," Berri snipped with a small giggle as Penny rolled her eyes and looked off, the group roused into giggling, sans Lash and Penny, to which Tessa rubbed Penny's upper back and shook her head.

"This'll be good, Pens, Gideon's right... So much has happened, so much has suddenly changed," Tessa cooed gently, to which Penny finally began to show signs of softening, "We need to stick together... We need to allow ourselves to have these really difficult conversations. Wren needs us, Lash looks willing to talk, Gideon will make sure nothing gets out of hand, y'know?"

"Yeah," Penny snipped softly, she braved Lash's muted eye contact and wasn't surprised to see a small undertone of bitterness in his demeanor, he tilted his eyebrows in a subtle narrow of his eyes.

"I don't want any unrest," Lash mumbled, and although Gideon knew Lash's true heart and soul behind his words, his tone nearly told a different story; said tone had Penny subtly rolling her eyes in disbelief, leaving Gideon to fully understand that this once timid one-on-one with Wren was now going to turn into a game of chicken lest Wren denies Lash's and Penny's impending, spontaneous presence.

"None of us do, but this talk has to be had," Gideon agreed gently as he bobbed a nod, cued up the waypoint in his digital inventory and eyed Lash in a swing of knowing, "Like a bandaid..."