Reviews :

Burgie : Definitely right about that.

Snake557 : I agree, so much! I wish my family did this for me, it's infuriating to know that so much could be done and yet nothing was done all in one go. UHG. Thank you friend! :D I know, winged dragon/gargoyle hugs are the best lol


*Chapter 132*

"Chase," Gideon called, the way he skillfully glitch-hopped across Arcadia's sprawl of bevelled, white beauty had the bounce of echoey electricity clipping nearby outlets. He gently eased out of his royal purple flash of beautiful coding and eased a few steps about a dozen feet from Chase's positioning. Gideon flinched, he looked haggard, as if he had been crying, defeated and worn down to nothing. Gideon largely frowned and scuffed his heels to a stop as both boys caught eyes, "Hey, you... You okay?"

"No, I'm... I'm fine, truly," Chase's deep voice muttered, he glanced across the distance between him and Arcadia's train station. The high glass ceiling of Arcadia station met with the hit of towering white walls, which eventually sagged to lower levels of tunnels and breezy passage ways that lead to both Arcadia's Academy and, furthermore, it's glamorous train station. Chase cleared his throat, tossed his beautiful, hot orange colored lizard eyes about the place in a teary show of defeat and finally gave Gideon a meek smile, "I've just had a huge falling out with my family... Flint's offered me space at his house."

"...At Flint's?" Gideon flinched with a whisper of a surprised chuckle as he grew a bit closer to Chase. Although Gideon was aware Novus was still present, he was almost glad Novus hung back in Arcadia's grand, open space, so to give both boys a bit of private conversing. Gideon rubbed the back of his head and felt confusion course him, "His house is so tiny, though, I mean... Really?"

"Well, supposedly his friend Seze found out the conditions he was living in and got Flint a new home, rent free," Chase bugged his eyes and shrugged, though before he carried on, Gideon furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Seze?" Gideon prod.

"Mr. Favor?" Chase reminded, Gideon recoiled.

"Oh, oh, right..." Gideon drew his boggled eyes across Arcadia Station, over his shoulder, and glanced between Sugar Rush's gleaning outlet with mild dread, "Well, damn... Sounds like it'll be fun. Are you doing okay?"

"I'll be okay," Chase mumbled sorrowfully, he, too, nervously glanced to DigDug's outlet and shook his head, his eyes held a world of grief, "You'd think family would be more supportive of your decisions."

"They don't like that you're leaving?" Gideon delicately prod, though Chase shook his head and scrunched in a furrow of potentially walling off.

"No, it's not that," Chase mumbled, "They begged me to stay, but... It's complicated. Flint said I can stay with him as long as I need. He's been more like a father to me than even my own father..."

"Your parents are divorced, right?" Gideon worried sorrowfully, Chase nodded and heaved a shaky sigh.

"Yeah, they share coding, too, which... Sucks," Chase staggered, he narrowed his gaze in gentle confusion and shook his head, "Though, Flint said he knows of a guy that has the ability to reverse swaps... I didn't know anyone in Arcade could ever wield THAT much power... I mean, right?"

"N-No, only Users have that ability," Gideon stumbled on his words, and as if Lash had some sort of freaking telepathy, Gideon's phone began to ring. Upon sliding his phone out of his pocket and revealing his lock screen, Lash's name was confidently plastered across the caller ID. Gideon huffed a chuckle and gingerly answered the phone, "Hey."

"Hey, where'yah at, my guy?" Lash stated with a lilt of charm, though Gideon could tell that Lash's tone was laced with authority, further proving that Tessa likely called Lash and begged him to wrangle Gideon in.

"I'm chatting with a friend in Arcadia, hang on one sec, okay?" Gideon politely state, he sagged his phone away from his ear and into the press of his sculpted chest. His eyes kindly drew to Chase's, "I'll, uh... I'll text you, okay? It'll be cool that you two are living together, now. Hangouts will be far more fun, yeah?"

"Yeah, man, I'll text you," Chase smiled, he looked hopeful through the glassy sag of defeat his figure was held captive in, he bobbed a nod and gave Gideon a friendly handshake-high five combo before back-stepping to his destination, which was the train station, "Maybe we can do something together this weekend, yeah?"

"Yeah, lemme know," Gideon encouraged with a smile, grateful that his little group of misfits, in Cyclone City, was becoming a bit more tight knit, though the more Gideon thought on Chase's words, about Flint knowing someone who could reverse swaps, the more he started to feel as if the red flags were getting just a little bit bigger in his peripheral. He shook his head, turned heel and began to press towards Turbotime's outlet, where Novus patiently sat in wait. He brought his phone back to his ear and heaved a long sigh, "Hey, sorry... What's up?"

"I'd rather you tell ME what's up, bud," Lash mumbled knowingly, Gideon largely rolled his eyes and now properly glowered down Sugar Rush's outlet as he firmly trudged past it.

"I'm gathering the traitors inside Candy Land are now conspiring against me?" Gideon grunted in full irritation, he pressed closer to Novus's bubble and gingerly sagged his hand to Novus's snout upon approaching him.

"Dammit, how'd you find out," Lash hissed in playful irritation, he seemingly jostled about, as if he had just gotten up from being comfortably seated, he breathed a long, exhausted sigh into the receiver and finished it with a dollop of a cute chuckle, "C'mon, Gid. Come into Turbotime. I got a room for yah."

"...H-How did you know?" Gideon felt his skin grow cold, and although he knew Lash had likely just had a conversation with Tessa, he held his breath and was unsure just how Lash could now read his thoughts and ideas.

"Hey, I'm just putting myself inside your head, dude," Lash chuckled, "I'm doing my best to figure you out. You're pissed at literally everyone inside Sugar Rush, you have a girlfriend inside Turbotime, as well as an art job waiting in the wings. It's either you move in with Kepa, or you move in with me."

Gideon breathed a long, tired sigh through his nose and now sorrowfully peered back at Sugar Rush's outlet across the way. He felt tears sting his eyes, and for the first time in his life, he felt his heart tug towards Sugar Rush's gorgeous, golden outlet. How desperate he was to truly feel as if he owned his place as royalty, the desperation to fit in and walk palace grounds feeling a sense of belonging. He knew it was all there waiting for him, he was well aware that buried underneath the hurt was a solid place of camaraderie and value. He wondered if the proper distance given would take heat off of the situation, the ability to let the problem cool to a tepid, touchable conversation was likely his wisest bet. He lovingly pet Novus's snout and finally turned to peer into Novus's big, awaiting blue eyes, gentle and narrow with patient curiosity.

"Too soon for Kepa, huh?" Lash muttered, Gideon smiled, lulled his eyes closed and nodded.

"I'm getting there," Gideon croaked, "Valentine's Day."

"Perfect, that's in three weeks... Why don't you come stay with me until then, and on Valentine's Day, you can decide what you want to do with Kepa, moving forward," Lash gently suggested, "User forbid she suddenly doesn't want anything to do with you..."

"I'd leave," Gideon joked with a cute choke of a laugh, though the silence on Lash's end was deafening.

"...What?" Lash uttered, Gideon flattened with a sag of his shoulders.

"I-I'm kidding," Gideon mumbled nervously, Lash could somehow visibly be heard rolling his eyes and pacing in circles.

"Come into Turbotime, Gideon, we got work to do," Lash directed in gentle authority, to which Gideon pat Novus's snout and cued for both boys to enter into Turbotime's outlet.

"What kind of work?" Gideon prod cheekily, he figured his joking notions were safe with Lash, "We gunna overthrow Sugar Rush?"

"Yes," Lash muttered tiredly, due to a few clips of buzzing noises, that mildly interfered with their phone call, Gideon could tell that Lash had whisked himself away to the code room, "An alignment for your coding is WAY overdue."

"I don't need that," Gideon grunted in playful irritation, Lash loudly scoffed a sarcastic laugh and patiently waited for Gideon's coding to land on Turbotime's grid so that he could teleport him and Novus to Turbotime's lovely, black abyss of a code room.

"That statement alone tells me enough about this situation even before seeing what your coding lineup even looks like," Lash was rocketed into happy laughter, "Everyone needs an alignment, Gideon... Everyone."

"Even you?" Gideon sneered as he took in Turbotime's damp, lovely, crisp cool winter air, though before he could exhale, his coding was sharply whisked away and plopped right into Turbotime's near-pitch black code room. Gideon sucked in a breath, tightened his limbs and caught eyes with Lash's haunting figure from a dozen feet off. He held the whole game's power right in his hand, on top of all of his incredible User abilities, Gideon held his breath and felt, for the first time in his life, truly and genuinely intimidated by Lash in this instance. Gideon audibly swallowed a hard gulp and tucked his hands to his chest in a nervous show of twiddling as he meeped Lash a small, cute notion, "Uh, hi."

"Gideon, I need you to understand something," Lash's deep voice started in gentle, methodical usualness, though his eyes glossed the glowing code room orb he delicately held hovering in his glowing palms. He wore a sharp black button down and nice pants, and though he was bare foot, it was clear to Gideon that Lash likely had just returned from a formal date night with Mara. He looked very cleaned up, the hint of cologne hung in the code room, Gideon visibly shrank due to the sheer gloss of authority Lash held over Gideon without even trying, something Gideon wasn't brave enough to try and rival, "There is only really one kind of a guy that will look their elder in the eye, a King no less, and lay aimless threats to their well being."

Gideon felt his blood run cold. Eager to fight back and suddenly understand that Lash had very quickly gotten the whole low-down of what had just previously taken place, between Gideon and Zed, Gideon felt his pupils tighten and understood one harrowing fact, here. Lash was not only swap mates with a User, rendering him one as well, though he was swap mates with Zed's only granddaughter. Gideon very quickly felt the energy of the code room and understood that Novus did not make it to the code room, via Lash's teleportation, though was likely placed somewhere else in their arena home, skillfully giving Lash and Gideon dreaded, harrowing alone time. Gideon wondered which to allow, fight or flight, though the only thing vehemently presenting itself currently was the act of freezing. Gideon could hardly even gulp anymore swallows, the dryness of his mouth hit him head on, and it was here did Gideon truly understand that he had met his match.

"A bad guy," Lash's voice croaked, bass that shook Gideon's core, Lash's haunting, golden eyes peered hard into Gideon's with stern authority, "I've spent the better half of my life being that guy, Gideon... I muddied around with assholes that were in and out of the dark web, I understand what it's like to feel forgotten about and left out, and wanting everyone to suffer for the sheer amount of pain I felt."

Gideon began to feel purpose snake back into his veins, and though he was very close to biting the hand that fed him, he laid a tepid glower into Lash's eyes, as if to politely state to Lash that lest he push Gideon too far into a corner, no one on Earth would be safe from the wrath and rage Gideon had pent up inside of him.

"Your father is likely the biggest bad guy in this entire Arcade, but stereotypes die, Gideon... Ralph is only seen as a baddie during quarter alerts, and his true self comes out to play after game day is said and done," Lash skillfully laid into Gideon's fragile heart. He narrowed his gaze for emphasis and shook his head, "I can't tell what you're trying to accomplish by getting on all of Sugar Rush's bad side, but I can tell you from very real, scary experience. That game, and its rulers, always come out on top... Always."

"I hope they rot for how poorly they've treated me," Gideon growled through the grit of his teeth, true rage beginning to surface, to which Lash side-eyed Gideon and dared to test him further.

"And then what?" Lash stabbed, "Sugar Rush, what... ROTS to the ground and now you AND Kepa have no roots. Nowhere to share skillsets from traded coding, nowhere to cultivate heritage if you ever have babies. You're really going to let something this silly come between you and a bright future you could have inside of Sugar Rush if you just, I don't know, sit down and communicate to everyone without threatening your KING?"

"He's..." Gideon halted his words and knew what he wanted to say was vile and not true, he grimaced, shut his eyes tight and shook his head in infuriating regret, regret Lash viciously latched onto.

"He's your King! Above all of that, he's your brother-in-law!" Lash shouted as he gently released the code room orb, it skillfully hovered nearby and allowed the illuminated glow of gentle blue to coat the black abyss of a code room they both stood in.

"I can say the same thing! What about ME!" Gideon finally erupted, he was surprised to see Lash flinch. The tendons in Gideon's thick neck protruded with rising anger, "Not only am The King's younger brother-in-law, I'm also the original King's blood! I'm Ralph's son! I feel that holds a higher stature over any of their titles, anyways. I'm blood... The only reason it's easy to steamroll over me is because disrespecting children is easy to get away with."

"Gideon," Lash gently demanded, Gideon shook his head and dared to take a step closer.

"None of you have ever even experienced what it's like to be a lonely child," Gideon's booming voice reigned over Turbotime's shivering, black code room. Gideon immediately felt irritated at the fact that he already had begun to crumble this soon into his game, "None of you Usermade gamers can ever even try to understand my headspace! Imagine being little and helpless and voiceless... And THEN left out and gossiped about!"

Lash heaved a short sigh through his nose and was now well aware he didn't consider this angle whatsoever. He tilted his head down and, although he was nervous to do so, he allowed Gideon the space to encroach and show his chest in tested dominance.

"You're right," Lash mumbled gently, Gideon's teary, enraged eyes pierced Lash's like golden daggers of fear, anger, sorrow, any stab of negative, grieving emotion was immediately felt like a wall of bricks.

"I'll get in ANYONE'S face to defend myself," Gideon growled, Lash immediately felt the unfortunate weight of being just underneath six foot tall with the way Gideon's scary figure hovered over Lash's in deliverance of his angry hiss of a conclusion, "Even you."

"You have every right to be angry," Lash grumbled, he eyed Gideon and gingerly rested his hand to Gideon's chest. Successful in garnering Gideon's lead and easing Gideon a foot or so away from Lash, he was thrilled that Gideon was bluffing with his words, however scary and convincing they were. It was here did Lash understand that Gideon's weight in his own self worth was becoming so valuable and pricey that Gideon was showing signs of being willing to go toe-to-toe with literally anyone, and though Lash knew Gideon wasn't stupid enough to try something against a User, Lash was boggled to know that he had the guts if the stars aligned. Lash shook his head and stood his ground in Gideon's hot red presence, "I don't think that anger should be used to burn bridges."

"Drawn up," Gideon stabbed quietly, noting him and Zed's parting words.

"You're standing at the draw with a readied torch, Gideon," Lash dared, Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

"I'm not the one with the torches!" Gideon urged in hateful frustration, to which Lash cocked an eyebrow and gestured down to Gideon's fists; viciously clenched at his sides, veins popped out of his upper arms and jugular as if he was due to exploding.

"Yes you are, Gideon," Lash muttered sorrowfully, and though he was terrified all of this would fire Gideon up and truly cause the destruction Gideon wanted to rain down on everyone, he was forever thrilled to see that at the center of Gideon's hate and anger was still that sad, sorrowful, innocent little boy, one of which truly just needed the hugest embrace by the ones that wronged him. Lash sighed and shook his head, "Step away... Step away from Sugar Rush before it's too late. You clearly have unresolved anger that needs to simmer before you can go back and truly make amends."

"I don't want to make amends," Gideon demanded, his glassy eyes now threatened to spill tears down his cheeks, something that caused Lash to sag his shoulders and show true, bittersweet sorrow for Gideon.

"Yes, you do," Lash soothed sadly, such a tone that had Gideon's eyes now nervously scanning Lash's broad shoulders in aimless, teary, defeated confusion, "I know what I said resonated with you... I know you desperately want to make amends so you can bring Kepa into the fold. What a beautiful... Beautiful union that would be."

Gideon visibly sagged and heaved a trembling sigh through his nose, and with the flicker of his eyelids among confused glances about the black code room, tears finally escaped him.

"I know all you need is community, I know all you're desperate for is family to understand you and welcome you into festivities with no questions asked," Lash stated gently as he shook his head and bravely reached for Gideon's upper arm, "This all can be achieved, Gideon... I know this because, even though I was never once a child, I still was in your shoes not two years ago. And now I have family, the promise of growing it, I have everything I want because I had some very nasty conversations with the people I had conflict with... Berri even socked me in the face, in one instance."

Gideon's face visibly sloped to surprise, to which Lash erupted with laughter and shook his head, thus causing a tiny, bashful smile to peak at Gideon's plump lips.

"I deserved it... But, it was still incredibly difficult," Lash urged gently, "It may not be tomorrow, it may not be next month, but you HAVE to be open to it," Lash urged gently, "You're... You're kin of the greatest gamers ever. You're a part of something so grand. I know you don't want to give up on it."

"... I won't," Gideon whimpered in a weak promise, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, "I'm so angry."

"You have every right to be, but anger won't solve this issue. It'll foolishly make you feel good, and it'll make you seek vengeance, but that's about it," Lash instructed with caution as he shook his head and gently squeezed Gideon's trembling upper arm, so wrought with anger and power his coding shook due to it, "Look... You're safe here, clear your head, create healthy distance. That's what you need right now, to separate and clear your head. My suggestion is, when the time comes to truly hash things out and find solace in your place on palace grounds... You need to talk to Tessa and Tessa only."

Gideon bobbed a nod and did absolutely everything to remain composed, and though more tears spilled down his cheeks, he held together with confidence that ironically came easier to him as the pain got harder and harder to bear.

"Tonight, we'll have a beer, make some delicious food, tell some jokes, hang with my side of the fam, but first," Lash started, both men gently caught eyes in a string of knowing, and though Gideon held his breath and prayed somehow Lash had forgotten, his stern voice clipped the cold code room air with brotherly sternness, "You need a coding alignment."