Reviews :

ThoreLB : AW hahaha! It's okay. Koko and Tessa look VERY similar, especially if their faces aren't shown, so I can see how you came to that conclusion. Thank you so much for the support! :D

Snake557 : I know, Novus is someone I really missed, in this stretch of the story, too. Yes! You will see Novus soon, you'll see him in chapters 186, 187 and 188. He doesn't really start coming around tho until about chapter 201 and is fully involved/himself by chapter 205 :) I know those chapters are like REALLY far off, but I hope that gives you reassurance that he definitely comes back into the picture! Takes him awhile... Him and Gideon aren't on good terms for a hot minute, there.


Song Listened To :

The Search by NF


*Chapter 177*

"Alright, well... This is definitely new territory for me," Tessa mumbled, her voice echoed about the vast, sunny white code room all colorfully displayed with Sugar Rush's precious code boxes and inner workings.

"I'm seeing here that Gideon still has a very small amount of his original coding," Zed stated as he opened Gideon's fresh code box, the one that has since gone unchanged since Gideon's departure, "I'm wondering if... Because Gideon's coding has been basically carved out of him, I truly don't know what resetting him is going to do."

"I'm not sure," Tessa worried, she eyed Gideon who stood tight by her side, "Bud, can I try exterior swapping with you?"

"Knock yourself out," Gideon muttered dryly, sarcastically, it had Ralph rolling his eyes and looking off in the act of biting his tongue.

As Tessa gently rested her hand to Gideon's trembling lower arm, as she cued her silver coding, she gasped a sharp noise and yanked her hand away as his coding suddenly flared in angry white swirls of circuitry that snaked up his arm in blips of squared out, dead pixels. He huffed a noise of equal jarring nervousness and took a stumbling step away from Tessa, and as the two locked eyes in dreaded understanding, Tessa panted through her nose and tossed her eyes to Zed's in a show of mild terror. Gideon held onto his glower, though finally peered down to his hands in a swing of teary dismay.

"Code corruption," Tessa murmured nervously, and though Zed shook his head and began to fervently type into his code room drop down menus, so to hopefully see just what could be done, Tessa glossed her eyes back to Gideon's and grit her teeth, "Should we just TRY resetting you and see what happens?"

"Yeah, I mean... What's the worst thing that could happen?" Oliver worried with a shrug, though Gideon dared to shoot Oliver a dirty look.

"I could die," Gideon growled, to which Ralph finally felt a lick of bravery surge his rising frustration.

"You'd regenerate, wouldn't you?" Ralph countered, Gideon clenched his fists a little and narrowed his terrifying gaze all hashed with the claw marks that Vye delivered.

"No one kills me," Gideon threatened, and though Ralph wanted desperately to just start swinging in this moment, he bit his tongue, once more and really had to wonder why Gideon had progressively been giving Ralph, of all people, such a solid swing of nasty attitude.

"Alright, c'mon, let's just reset you and once that's all settled, we can just... TALK," Tessa urged nervously, Gideon sighed and bobbed a nervous nod, though eyed everyone as if to warn that a lot more than just kindly talking would be taking place.

With a nod of approval to Zed, and one given back to Tessa, everyone took a few steps away from Gideon as Zed clicked a few last minute options before ultimately hitting the full, hard reset button on Gideon's coding. All at once, Gideon sucked in a huge breath his lungs finally properly afforded him, the ground underneath him blipped in white and purple confusion, and for the first time since he left Sugar Rush, his coding flood him with a hit of full ability. His ribcage broadened, his spine lengthened, he felt like a million bucks, though as that final millionth dollar touched his soul, he squeezed his eyes shut and suddenly felt as if his brain firmly shook hands with his fresh coding and reminded him of every single last ounce of determination, knowledge, cut-throat ruthlessness he had adopted, these last two months, and due to Tessa's and Zed's guards being down, Gideon allowed one more dollar to proverbially land atop his head. With the surge of purple coding that aggressively flood his permanently coiled circuitry and mainframe, Gideon exhaled said huge draw of a breath and glared his evil gaze in a sweep across the code room as said suction of fresh coding soared right on past finalized resetting and wormed it's way right into Sugar Rush's unfortunately open core, due to Tessa and Zed having their hands inside of it currently.

"Ho, you guys must be DREAMING if you think Sugar Rush is sitting pretty, right now," Gideon's voice suddenly held a raw, solid amount of strength, it no longer trembled in whispery crackles, the fire in his eyes was reignited, he stood with purpose and exude every single last ounce of darkened power he had harbored over the course of the last few months he was away.

"Gideon," Tessa urged in a swing of terror she tried to conceal as every single holographic menu and drop down box, hovered in previous control of both Tessa and Zed, zipped away, and with a further hit of realized horror, Tessa watched as every single inch of life, from Sugar Rush's code boxes, suddenly snaked down the walls, all through the grout lines on the tiles and collected in a firm suction up Gideon's soles and calves.

"So THIS is what Callum wanted," Gideon growled, he held his clenched fists out to his sides as he began to suck every single last ounce of Sugar Rush's power tight into his core. His tattoos surged with his electric purple coding, snakes of circuitry wormed up his arms in blips of live-wired, on-fire vengeance he was floored to finally have. He largely glowered everyone down and, as the veins in his forehead began to bulge, the crazed, power-hungry look in his eye began to strike fear into everyone's hearts, "THIS is the feeling we BOTH wanted, now you fuckers are powerless and are forced to sit and listen to just how badly you've hurt me!"

"Gideon, w-we can just talk about this," Tessa begged through her tears as she cupped her hands to her chest and began to feel a rile of revisited terror, and though she had previously lived through this kind of a scenario with Lash, she somehow felt as if this was worse, Gideon's anger felt unhinged, it rode on justice to be served, it rode on payback, poisonous grief, enough to make Sugar Rush crumple.

"No, we're so far beyond talking, it's not even funny. You assholes have NO idea what I've been through! You assholes have NO idea how terribly you've treated me!" Gideon bellowed, he began to menacingly close in on Koko, Oliver, Ralph, Tessa and Zed, and though all three men began to nervously shuffle Tessa and Koko behind them, Gideon pressed on in a teeth-clenched look of full, blistered anger, "You assholes are about to get EVERYTHING coming for you, all those nights I was desperate for someone to level with me, all those paintings I did, all the times I REALLY thought my character counted towards being included..."

"Gideon, it DID count, but we can't go back and change any of it," Oliver begged nervously, "We can fix things now, moving forward."

"Oh, what, now that I'm back and have the code room in the palm of my hand? Now that you fuckers are royally SCREWED at the hand of Game Over's fifth winner?" Gideon's haunting voice bounced about Sugar Rush's code room, "You realize how rare and terrifying this situation is? You have a Game Over winner now in CHARGE of this silly little game!"

Gideon erupted in a hard cackle of maniacal, true delight, his skin surged with coding, holographic ribbons of glowing purple speckled the air around him with the flaunt of his incredible power, the rush of his intense coding was enough to glint blinding lights into his shivering audience's retinas.

"You ALL are way too late to the game, I returned with Kepa in my sights and NOTHING more!" Gideon nearly screamed, the tendons in his neck bulged, his sculpted bare chest sprawled with a thick inhale, it was only here did everyone notice that Gideon's bruises were entirely gone, though somehow, the gash marks on his face and pecks still remained, as if his reset maybe wasn't entirely enough or thorough. Healed over, clean scars, they still made the mere image of Gideon vastly more terrifying than what he was before he left for the internet. He continued on through the clench of his teeth and allowed every dead code box in Sugar Rush to begin deflating to the floor like weakening balloons, "You guys have ignored me for the last time, left me out for the last time, made me feel weak and insignificant FOR THE LAST TIME!"

"We've agreed to this!" Tessa begged in teary terror, she gestured her hands and bravely took a step out with her hands outwards in defeat, "Gideon, we want NOTHING more than to start over and do this right!"

"And what of me leaving! It took me LEAVING for you dickwads to unscrew your heads from your asses!" Gideon stiffened, took a few steps forward and meanly got in Tessa's face, to which Zed and Oliver urgently dove forward to pull Tessa back and protectively stand in front of her, though she definitely put up a fight to being secured behind both men, "It took me murdering thirty-seven other gamers, loading my blood with drugs to so much as FORGET you fuckers, ruining every last chance I ever had with the love of my life, only to get good and come back and, oh? What's this?"

Gideon cupped his hands to his cheek in a mean, sarcastic show of tender sweetness.

"Aww, Gideon's home, we can FINALLY reconvene and do this right!" Gideon dropped the act and spat at the group through the grit of his teeth, "It only took Callum robbing my body of my powers, it only took BOTH of us being fully and entirely neglected for you imbeciles to open your fucking eyes and realize that OH! Maybe there's more to life than just your tiny little social circle, maybe the young, impressionable souls on the lot NEED YOU!"

"This isn't lost on us, Gideon, we know we've fucked up!" Tessa loudly returned as tears streamed her cheeks, she desperately gestured out to Gideon in a full show of plea, "Please, Gideon, please... PLEASE. What can we do to make this right? We'll do anything."

"Ohh, anything?" Gideon largely side-eyed Tessa in mean, maniacal grinning, he scoffed a hearty laugh, rubbed his chin, looked off and bobbed a huge nod, "ANYTHING! Wow, I like that... Anything..."

"Anything," Tessa adamantly reiterated in full terror, she could feel everyone around her show full fear that their Queen was on autopilot, fully speaking in their stead, though with the chokehold Gideon had everyone in, everyone knew Tessa had absolutely no choice.

"Well, for a start, I want ALL of you fuckers to get on your knees," Gideon started through the growl of his voice, the tremble of his neck and head, he evilly glowered everyone down through the furrow of his brow and stabbed a sharp conclusion through the grit of his teeth, "And GROVEL."

The whole group was frozen in dread, though just before everyone could nervously steal glances to each other, they all jumped clear out of their skin as Gideon stiffened and erupted in a bellow that was large enough to rival Ralph, a bellow to make the glass dome of the code room shiver.

"NOW!" Gideon hollered as he pointed down to the ground, though as everyone finally loosened into the movement, he crowned a mean smile and watched as even Zed himself began to fall to his knees. Gideon inhaled a trembling breath and shook with power as he loudly continued, "Forehead to the dirt. Don't you fuckers ever forget who you're dealing with, ever again... Don't you EVER underestimate me EVER AGAIN!"

Gideon continued to shake, though as he fervently watched Tessa, Zed, Oliver and Koko fall to their knees and ease their foreheads to the ground in a full bow of entire, groveling terror, Gideon flinched and took note that Ralph was still standing. Gideon caught eyes with Ralph and was met with an equal glower of hatred, an equal bare of arms, it was here did Gideon suck in a shaky breath and get hit with his final, game-ending fight.

"You are NOT innocent in this, dad," Gideon growled, to which Tessa nervously lifted her head, just barely, and uttered her dad a shaky whisper of a plea to comply.

"I'm not bowing to you," Ralph dared, and though his voice shook, it was clear it shook with anger.

"I will show you just what will happen if you don't get to your knees," Gideon threatened, to which Tessa's teary begging got a little louder.

"You may have won Game Over," Ralph grumbled, he bravely took a step between his knelt children and put himself between them and Gideon. Gideon shakily panted and glowered up into Ralph's eyes and felt as if a fight was upon him, something he knew he was absolutely ready for, "But I brought you into this world."

"You may have brought me in, but I've taken you out once," Gideon's voice was low and threatening, he shook his head and narrowed his venomous gaze, "And I'll gladly do it again, old man."

"What do you mean by that?" Ralph grunted in frustrated question, Gideon clenched his fists.

"My final fight was against Wreck-It Ralph," Gideon growled, "Your stupid ass was taken out by bricks. Hope you're proud of me, dad."

"...Oh, very much so," Ralph whispered in menacing sarcasm, "Why don't you show me, again, how you won. Run me through it, show me how great you are."

"Say less," Gideon snarled, though just as he cued his incredible, purple coding in preparation to take Ralph out, once more, the sudden rock off of the face of the Earth was almost too fast for his brain to even record.

Just as Gideon jolted to take a full lunge at Ralph in the preparation to recall the last, winning fight, the cascade of the Niceland building, the huge five-ton brick that ultimately flattened Ralph like a pancake, Ralph erupted with his and Vanellope's incredible purple coding, clipped Gideon's arm with a tug, shoved the gape of his open palm directly into Gideon's jugular and took the hugest, wrecking swing he possibly could down into the ground. With a massive explosion of code room tiles, Ralph thrusted Gideon straight off of his feet and plowed his back and the back of his head straight into the ground in a full, immediate knock-out. As the sudden explosion of purple coding and dead pixel cubes released the whole power of the code room, Ralph allowed his coding to suck it straight out of Gideon's possession and directly into his own for safe keeping. As Gideon's coding chimed a noise and fully reset back to the grid in the very first game over he's ever endured in his entire life, Gideon sucked in a gasp and peered up to Ralph's huge, terrifying figure standing over him, his helplessly laid figure in the rubble of code room tiling now shook in the release of ultimate power he once had.

"Ohh man, and you WON?!" Ralph bellowed with a sarcastic, mean laugh, though as everyone behind him lifted and scurried away, due to the shrapnel of code room tile explosion, Ralph clenched his fists and pointed a firm finger in Gideon's face as he donned a look of rocked terror, "It took TWO seconds for me to take you out!"

"Dad," Gideon huffed in a swing of now fully humbled terror, though as the full reset hit him, realization and the release of maniacal, harrowing thoughts also lifted, leaving him cold and blistered in a severe amount of dread that loomed over him in the form of his father's terrifyingly huge wrecking fists.

"Listen, BUDDY," Ralph pointed a firm finger in Gideon's face, he sharply flinched, and though Gideon supported himself back on his elbows in a crawl of attempting to redeem himself, he sagged as Ralph buried his finger deeper into Gideon's face, "I know what it means to truly, GENUINELY be a bad guy. I know what this all entails, I KNOW the feeling for vengeance and begging those who have hurt you to grovel at your feet."

Gideon shook, the reset now to his full health, he still was crowned with his tattoos, scars and piercings, he still had a bit of a tremor in his head, neck and limbs, though his coding fervently flood his mind and begged him to come to grips with every word being tossed his way. With this, huge tears gathered in his eyes, he peered up to his father in a full swing of guilt and dread, he could swear he had never seen his father angrier in his life. He heavily panted, his bare chest heaved as he felt the cold wash of realization continue to drown him in reality, the truth of all this matter, the idea behind every single last ounce of vengeance he wanted was now something he genuinely had in his grip, it was something that didn't even live up to the standard he thought would hold true. Suddenly kissed with his original coding, somehow the past version of himself had far less worries and concerns, far less pain than the sheer wall of grief he harbored when he left, and with this, he began to come unglued with regret he thought he'd never feel.

"Dad, I-I'm... I'm sorry, I-I'm so sorry," Gideon huffed in still-trembling terror, though Ralph grimaced a full look of riled anger and lifted both fists in the anger he rode at full force.

"Yeah, you'll BE sorry," Ralph grunted, though just as he flexed to swing his fists down into Gideon, once more, ultimately giving him yet another game over, Ralph was suddenly jarred out of his movement with a blip of electric green coding that grappled Ralph's balled fists in a grunt of full blockage.

Oliver loudly grunted with the force and took the hit as he firmly took a stand over Gideon's body, and as he clenched his teeth, he largely cupped and shoved up on his dad's bigger fists in the interruption of his movement. Ralph choked a noise of protest as he was fully jarred out of the swing of his strong arms, and though he scuffled backwards with Oliver's hefty shove, Ralph peered back to Oliver in full shock. Although not nearly as big or beastly as Ralph, Oliver was that second in line, the second biggest beast on this lot, outside of the flyers, and as Oliver clenched his fists and stood with both his feet firmly planted amidst the rubble, over Gideon and on either side of Gideon's calves, Gideon flinched in terror and peered up to his big brother's figure stood in a protective rage above him, tall and proud. Gideon peered through the stance of Oliver's legs and held to his father's figure, who was pushed a decent amount of steps away, and though he was grateful Oliver came to his rescue, he sagged in on himself and understood that he absolutely didn't deserve a shred of it. Oliver shook with frustration over this whole situation, he panted through his nose and was grateful the code room was now in good hands, with Ralph, though he knew if they were to allow Ralph to go on a wrecking spree, in the name of his frustrations, this whole situation could get incredibly ugly, uglier than it already was. Oliver glared his father down and inhaled a huge, readied breath.

"Oliver, what're you doing!" Ralph urged in full, frustrated confusion as Oliver clenched his fists and flexed in the motion of threatening to stand firm in protecting Gideon, who lay a trembling wreck underneath Oliver's stance.

"This stops here," Oliver barked, he shook his head and narrowed his gaze, "We're all making mistakes left and right, this has to stop right now."

"He's allowed to kick us when we're down but I'm not?" Ralph argued, both men shook with full anger.

"He apologized, leave it," Oliver growled, his voice trembled with full frustration, such a flex had everyone frozen in entire shock.

"Just ONE apology and you've forgiven him," Ralph argued loudly, everyone shook with this overload.

"He'll do the same for us!" Oliver demanded as he pointed a finger down, "You got your point across! Kill him TWICE? While he's laying here helpless? You got yours, dad, you just killed a Game Over winner, be satisfied with that huge flex and just drop it!"

"This fight is between me and Gideon," Ralph stated in menacing anger, though it was here did he realize just where all this rooted desire for vengeance, in Gideon, came from, and with this hit of realization, he sagged as Tessa and Koko cautiously took a stand alongside Oliver, a hover above Gideon in now a full show of protection for their baby brother.

"This fight is NOW between you and I... Otherwise, go take a walk, dad," Oliver stated loud and proud, he firmly gestured into his chest and stood proud, "We've ALL made horrible mistakes, this moment is about getting shit solved, not making matters worse!"

"He started it!" Ralph loudly argued, to which Oliver sucked in a massive breath and made the code room tremble with his fresh power.

"And I'M ENDING IT!" Oliver's voice reigned, the brightened code boxes trembled with the bass, and as everyone fell silent, and the only thing heard was Zed tenderly adhering to Gideon's figure amidst the rubble. All eyes drew down to Gideon in a swing of concern, and it was only until the image of Gideon curled in on himself in helpless terror, that Ralph's narrow gaze was met with, did Ralph sag in full defeat and understand that bowing out was wise, for everyone's sanity.