Song Listened To :
Live in the Sky by Tritonal & Eric Lumiere
*Chapter 9*
"Kepa, look! That one shop is all cat-themed stuff," Mara hissed in girly excitement as she flung her arm out, to Kepa's left, and firmly pointed. Her and Kepa were linked arms in an adorable fashion, Kepa's beautiful dark brown tail swayed in lovely flits of feathery fur as the two sauntered, Mara giggled as her and Kepa caught smiling glances, "Maybe that shop has those hoodies that you love, with the ear cut-outs?"
"Maybe!" Kepa chimed excitedly as she and Mara snugged tighter in their adorable link of arms.
Kepa swung a smile about their sunny, lively and exciting surroundings. Towering buildings that stretched into the internet's wild blue, blips of digital displays shone down ads and billboards of all kinds, lovely store fronts and eateries were wildly bustling with all sorts of life, all beautifully crowned with dollops of lush foliage, here and there. Due to really digging her heels in and discovering every single little part of this vast, unending play space, Kepa tossed her gaze over her shoulder in the firm reminder that her and Mara were loosely spearheading this trek to User knows where. In the flick of her tail, the catch of her peripheral, she noticed Lash sauntering about ten feet behind her and Mara, to which a loose crowd of people passed in between Lash and Gideon, who was further back with Novus. In the swing, in the near-thirty foot gap, Kepa caught eyes with Gideon's near-menacing glower, his thousand-yard stare, he hung near the back of the group and eagerly kept his eyes on his new brood. This was full proof that Gideon was a wonderful alpha dog, here; he hovered in the gentle, hefty sway of his beautiful tail, with Novus tight in tow, alongside Lash's steady, serious gaze forward. It was proof to Kepa that the three men were eager to allow the two girls to play and have fun, carefree, whilst they kept a stern eye out for trouble in said unpredictable play space.
"Lash has told me all about this place," Mara started quietly, and although they were amidst a bustling, talkative crowd all about them, she still linked her arm a little tighter with Kepa's and kept her voice low in coy, girly excitement, "Apparently it goes on for leagues... It'd take a five hundred hour train ride just to cross the entire span of the internet."
"Five hundred hour train ride?" Kepa gawked, her heart was struck with existential dread as she dart her eyes about with a toss of a breathy giggle, "How fast is the train moving?"
"It's on a magnet rail, I guess it's the main mode of long-distance transportation on the internet, it circles the entirety of it and weaves all throughout," Mara rattled quietly, though as her and Kepa caught eyes, Mara scoffed a shaky noise of bewildered disbelief, "Lash said the train on that rail reaches top speeds of nearly three hundred miles an hour..."
"A-And it takes five hundred hours to cross the whole of it? From one end to the other? That's nearly three weeks of travel," Kepa whispered, Mara's eyes were still bugged as she nodded. Kepa scoffed a shaky breath and got a good look around; they came up to a much busier area where the sky was littered with a round-about of flying modes of transportation of all kinds, all sorts of gamer's vehicles glistened against the Sundog's glorious, noon-time beams. Kepa pressed on in continued stun, "Lash tell you anything about maybe were to find a map of this User-forsaken place?"
"Yeah, he said there's an information area near the main send and receive station we just came from," Mara mumbled with a nod, though she only barely tossed her eyes over her shoulder to source the three men diligently following at a smaller gap of distance behind them, "I think it's better we don't dawdle, though... Those kinds of details can be secured once we, well... Y'know."
"I wish I knew how to get to our destination," Kepa muttered in mild annoyance towards herself, she rubbed her forehead and lightly grimaced as the two continued to walk arm in arm, a lovely sisterhood Kepa was eager to dive into due to her current loss, "It sucks having all of your antennas now cued to something bigger than me, but... Tuning to the right station seems to be impossible."
"You'll get it, I'm sure it takes some getting used to," Mara gently assured with a nod and a flick of her lovely pastel hair, she sneakily gave Kepa a sweet side-eye and tucked even tighter into their link of arms, "I can't believe Gideon like... Pre-proposed to you, just then."
"Right?" Kepa whispered with a shaky, elated giggle and a wide grin to boot, though in the second she took to begin openly gushing about Gideon and feeling comfortable doing so due to his distance behind both girls, she flattened her ears and was swiftly reminded that Gideon could hear them, surely. All of her skills, every single one of her heightened senses were very easily gifted to Gideon amidst their swap, and with this, she eyed Mara and understood that Mara hadn't thought of this. She peered to Kepa in a show of girly secrecy, as if to promise that whatever she had to say about Gideon, in this moment, would stay between both girls. Kepa shook her head, huffed a defeated giggle, looked off with twinkling, renewed eyes and was almost thrilled Gideon was listening. She continued on and pretended she had forgotten that Gideon's hearing was now unmatched, and picking her voice out of the hundreds of noises about them was entirely possible, "He's so sweet... I can hardly keep my hands off of him."
"I'm so glad you guys settled your differences," Mara mused, both girls giggled.
"I wasn't even going to mention marriage or babies or anything, it was always something I wanted from him, but I sat back and kind of just let it come to me," Kepa shrugged, her and Kepa caught glances as they meandered in cute steps of mild fumbling, "I've been manifesting a romance like this... I can't believe it all panned out, like this."
"I get to be the aunt of your guy's adorable kitten-babies," Mara squealed gently as she bounced on her tip toes a little, this caused Kepa to wobble, though both girls corrected and erupted into happy giggling.
"Whatever kits we have, I desperately hope they have his eyes," Kepa mused in sighing bliss as she shook her head and lulled her eyes closed in wonderstruck delight, "It's like the fire from the sun. He is so dreamy..."
"Uh-oh, you have a crushy-crush for this particular dude?" Mara teased, Kepa scoffed a shaky giggle and looked down to their feet.
"If you call wanting to have his babies a crush, then, sure," Kepa guffawed, both girls erupted into happy laughter.
Gideon scoffed a silent exhale of a laugh through his nose, lulled his eyes closed, tilted his head down and now couldn't help but allow a widening grin to do whatever it could to desperately fly free. Gideon finally sucked in a steadying breath through his nose and lifted his head in a return to make sure his pack stayed safe, though he narrowed his gaze and eyed the back of Kepa's head in bewildered, lovestruck cheek. He shook his head, allowed his unconfined smile to broaden and looked up a little in contemplative excitement. The glowing blue of the internet, all about them, was insatiable, it was exciting. Gideon could feel triggers doing what they could to remind him of his very first journey into the internet, he still could map the direction to the dark web, he returned his eyes to the back of Kepa's head and was eager to allow new memories to rewrite the old ones. In said venture, he was floored the image of his small family unit sauntering, carefree, was a beautiful start.
"What's funny," Novus mumbled, his voice didn't lilt in question, he almost seemed wary that Gideon had taken a tiny step outside of playing the role of guard dog.
"Nothing, I was just eavesdropping," Gideon's deep, crackly voice murmured, though in the toss of his gaze back and to his left, into Novus's big blue eyes, he wretched his neck a little further and gave the glowing, gorgeous ball of fire a damn-near planet length away from them a twinkle of eye contact. It hung proudly in the sky, he felt his retinas burn from said beam of the Sundog's light and silently gave it a little promise that they were very well on their way. Gideon tenderly continued on, to Novus, "I think we should probably find a route to eventually circle back to the information desk..."
"Y'really think it's wise to put a proper internet search out for the thing we're genuinely looking for?" Novus mumbled warily, though as Gideon opened his mouth, retrieved his wretch and eye contact in the direction of the Sundog, he jolted in unadulterated shock the second a hologram of messy, chaotic pixels suddenly erupted in front of him in the form of a pop-up.
Gideon choked a hard noise of shock, bumbled through the wall of bright pixels, and upon said collision of the bright, noisy, sudden popup, his coding grappled with the coded nonsense and wigged out to proper correction. Novus also stumbled through said sudden popup, and with their collective blurts of confused grunting, Lash, Kepa and Mara urgently whirled around in terrified shock. Although the popup confusedly and loudly buzzed in malfunction and quickly zipped away, Gideon stumbled backwards a little, nearly tripped over his long tail, corrected himself and now felt a huge swathe of almost terrified confusion fall over him. Although Gideon could hear Novus choke a nervous laugh, he could hear Lash, Mara and Kepa gently asking both boys if they were okay, Gideon felt all sound begin to dim about him as a heads-up display suddenly was what hovered in his line of sight. Gideon huffed a panting noise of confusion, furiously rubbed his eye sockets with his balled fists, reopened his eyes and now urgently looked about to the glowing little display in his vision. Although there were things listed like his vitals, moods, needs, things that could positively or negatively affect his stressors, the key thing he could see was what had him absolutely floored.
"It was just a pop-up, my guy, you okay?" Lash mumbled gently, though Gideon flinched due to his suddenly much closer proximity, causing Lash to sharply flinch in a chain reaction. Gideon scoffed an apologetic noise and continued to urgently look around, "'Ey, chill, what's wrong?"
"Y'guys seeing this?" Gideon hissed in trembling shock, though as all four of his travel team began to nervously look around, they tightly began to worm closer to Gideon's presence for protection. Gideon shook his head and waggled his hands as he desperately tried to remember just where they were, "N-No, act natural, I'm fine, I just..."
"You're freaking me out," Novus stabbed quietly as he flattened his ears.
"See what?" Lash mumbled quietly, Gideon firmly looked around and could plainly see a few glowing, hot-white ley lines, as if they were routes, they snaked off in vastly different directions and looked to be markers to guide those that could see said lines.
"Novus, do you see it? You went through the ad, as well," Gideon pressed in quiet, excited panic.
The group fell silent and gave Gideon near-stern looks of playfully frustrated impatience, to which Gideon long-blinked, looked all about and had everyone eagerly looking about, as well. They looked to find anything out of the ordinary, to no avail.
"Gideon," Lash apprehensively pressed, his tone was stern and almost pleading, such a stark tone snapped Gideon out of his feverish scanning.
"There's guide lines on the ground, I have a whole heads-up display in my vision," Gideon cooed to the group in shaky bewilderment, though just as Lash was about to open his mouth and confusedly question Gideon's words, Gideon bravely snapped his fingers in a blip of a spark near Lash's upper arm, and without cueing his exterior coding way too much, he was able to immediately share with Lash just was going on without having to hover in the proverbial and literal hand-holding of an exterior swap. Lash sharply raised his eyebrows, held his breath and now did everything he could to not obviously and obnoxiously look around, like what Gideon was just doing. Lash's bewildered gaze told a different story, one of which Mara, Kepa and Novus were now glued to as Gideon carried on, "Where do they lead?"
"How precarious would we look trying to find out?" Lash whispered as Gideon and Lash continued on with said little snapping trick to Mara, Kepa and Novus; everyone except Novus now began to do whatever they could to seem like a collected, lazy little group of chatting friends amidst the hustle and bustle of the civilization about them.
"I don't get it, what's different?" Novus begged nervously as he watched all four of his teammates continue to hold a fresh look of wonderstruck bewilderment in their eyes, it was something Novus lacked.
"You don't see the thick, glowing white line here?" Gideon pointed down to the ground, said confident beam of a singular white grid line, about a foot thick, pressed onward for maybe a few hundred feet before sharply taking a left and vanishing in between the narrow of two nearby towers of what seemed to be rather expensive loft apartments. Said buildings were aglow with the light from the Sundog, foliage crowned the balconies and the sky scraping rooftop.
"No?" Novus staggered nervously, though Gideon bit the bullet and laid his live-wired hand to Novus's snout. Amidst a proper exterior swap with Novus, both boys flinched as Novus got a solid look around, once and for all, to finally see just what Kepa, Lash, Gideon and Mara were now seeing, "Ohh... I-I don't think we'd look precarious, we just walk and talk but... Have a secretive purpose."
"Just follow this one, here?" Lash mumbled quietly as he eyed Gideon, all of their words were just a notch above mumbling; although no one around here seemed shifty or conniving, they still did everything they could to not give anyone the benefit of the doubt.
"Yeah, let's follow this one and see," Gideon pressed shakily as he rubbed the back of his head and glanced into Kepa's eyes, "Y'think..."
"I know," Kepa skillfully corrected with a nod, Gideon's silent question of asking her if she potentially thought this was maybe a route to the Sundog was swiftly put to bed with her much sharper, much more confident intuition. It was something Gideon was now eager to lean into, the both of them provided so many different aspects of their powers, such aspects that were equally louder and quieter to the other's respective traits.
"C'mon," Lash started, he was the first to trek forward, ultimately having both Kepa and Mara casually following in his footsteps, with Gideon now eager to continue hanging at the back of the group with Novus, though the second Gideon allowed his hand to slip from Novus's snout, Novus grunted a noise of confusion, causing Gideon to urgently peer his eyes to him in a spike of confusion.
"H-Hey, it's gone," Novus whimpered in full worry as he sagged his ears, the group halted their movements and peered to him in mild dread.
"Why is it only us that can hold onto this mess?" Mara worried, she scanned her own display, one that only she could see, and assessed her coding's and body's vitals.
"What is the one thing us four have in common but not Novus?" Lash murmured curiously with a shrug, and once the notion hit everyone head on, Novus almost dejectedly sagged; Gideon firmly put his hand to Novus's snout and cued for his eye contact, he gave Novus a healthy dose of his brotherly love, via the reconnection of their exterior swap, and lovingly smiled into his eyes.
"Don't worry, bud, let's just... Get settled, and we'll chat about all of this," Gideon hurried warmly as Novus bobbed a sorrowful nod and stepped a bit closer to Gideon. Gideon lifted his tail a little, gestured down to it and shrugged, "Y'wanna hold onto my tail and keep hold of it that way while we follow, well... Y'know."
"Yeah," Novus mumbled in a further show of nervous dejectedness, the sheer fact that he wasn't a User and couldn't simply get a grip on all of the incredible powers that come with said title, he was at least thrilled to be in cahoots with the crew that could get him to a point of potential safety.
"C'mon, we'll follow it all together," Gideon assured as he turned his back to Novus, peered back over his shoulder, cutely lifted his tail and awaited Novus to hold on via his mouth.
"Okay," Novus hummed sorrowfully, and as he gently gathered the very tip of the longer strands of feathery, auburn fur from the end of Gideon's long tail into the cautious grip of his mouth, he flattened his ears, hung his head and continued to sag in a lazy saunter of a follow in Gideon's footsteps.
With Lash spearheading the direction, they sauntered as if they didn't have a now suspicious destination. As the five pressed on Gideon, kept a strict eye out to see if anyone else somehow was seeing these grid lines and following them. No such situation took place, no one seemed to be interested in the singular, glowing grid line that had wormed in the narrow of said alley way, across the stretch. Tiers of layers and layers of walkways stretched up into the sky and down into the internet for at least fifty stories, it was in passing said secured railings and looked down did Gideon suck in a shaky, shocked breath, bug his eyes and realize these guiding lines were nearly everywhere, in plain sight, and no one seemed to be able to see it. Due to Novus not being able to keep a grip on properly seeing and following said light on the ground, Gideon easily chalked this all up to the fact that they were Users. Able to see it all through the proxy of the Users in his group, Gideon tugged his tail up a little and closer to his six, thus pulling Novus a bit closer to him. This was Gideon's way of silently assuring to Novus that he wasn't going to be left out of this venture, no matter what. Novus huffed a small breath, caught his footing, pressed closer to Gideon and kept an unwavering grip to his tail.
After about five minutes of slow sauntering, a slow mosey of following said confidently glowing grid line, the group of five ever so slowly came upon the bend that said line vanished into. Between two big buildings, a darker alley way, the light continued to proudly gleam them a promise of security, something they could just feel in their bones. The way Kepa kept glancing back at Gideon, for assuredness, promised him that he was their rock in this mess. He carefully catered to Novus, kept their exterior swap prominent, though looked forward and was adamant about keeping his eyes on Lash who was ultimately leading them into this mess. The closer the five got to said darkened alley way, the more nervous Gideon got. In the now much slower, more cautious saunter down this dimmer alley way, they passed trash bins, back doors, strewn trash bags and broken bicycles, all to happen upon a sudden right turn, in the alley, that said light eagerly bent into. Inside said sudden right turn was a dead end, though in this dead end was a beautiful, near-ten foot high gape of a glowing, golden trapezoid-portal of a gateway. There was no way to see just what was on the other side, though as the five silently approached, Novus dropped Gideon's tail so to speak out to the group in full caution.
"Y'guys really think that-" Novus sharply halted his statement. Upon dropping Gideon's tail, all four of the beings before him, as well as the promise of the glowing portal, suddenly vanished. Novus sharply perked his ears high, he felt his heart drop, he staggered a sharp noise of unadulterated terror and was now immediately abandoned inside this darkened alley way. Novus hurriedly took a few clumsy steps back, scanned about for his friends and now urgently began to panic, "GUYS?!"
Gideon jolted in shock, due to Novus's sudden bellow of a call, as if there was maybe something bad about to happen, though as Gideon firmly turned around and peered hard to Novus, he could suddenly see that Novus's figure was no-longer bathed in the glorious golden light coming from the portal they were maybe a dozen feet in front of. Gideon felt his brain brick in confusion, though his heart broke as Novus's panic was now becoming animalistic. He flattened his ears, scuffled his bigger claws and feet, sprawled his wings in full terror and began to look as if he was due to rocketing himself away from this area and sourcing the way back to Litwak's immediately. Gideon huffed a nervous noise of confusion, jolted with an outstretched hand and urgently shoved his palm into Novus's snout, once and for all. Novus finally was soaked in the light from the portal, once more, his big, terrified eyes hurriedly collected with Gideon, once and for all.
"I'm here, we're here," Gideon urged, and though Novus now largely sagged and held his breath in a full hit of relieved fear, it was swiftly replaced with terrified gratitude in the billow of big, scared tears in his eyes.
"Y-You guys vanished, it all did," Novus whimpered, he now didn't reserve the urge to have a minor melt down; he choked a small noise, peered to the portal and now shyly avoided eye contact with Gideon as he soaked in the feeling of his live-wired palm on his snout, "User, that was so scary..."
"We're here," Gideon cooed gently, though with said loving rub to Novus's snout, he lulled his big eyes closed and allowed tears to stream his velvety cheeks. The group largely sagged in the hit of sorrow and now surrounded Novus in a swathe of love that Gideon was at the center of. Gideon blurt an apologetic little laugh, cupped Novus's face in his able hands and was now beyond-eager to love on Novus and make sure he knew he was wanted, needed, remembered. He was adamant about not letting his own incredible, world-altering powers to come before him and anyone in his life. He warmly stroked Novus's cheeks with his big thumbs and shook his head, he stood still in Novus's bigger presence and tenderly curled his beautiful, lithe tail about the ankle of Novus's front left paw, "It's okay, bud, I gotcha... I'm not gunna let you go, I promised to keep all of you safe."
Novus nodded and furrowed his brow in a grimace of crumpling, to which Kepa and Mara cooed him similar, loving notions all complete with tender, hefty pets to the side of Novus's neck and the warm stroking of his sagged, adorable bat ears. Gideon raised his eyebrows in knowing, angled Novus's head up a little and was relieved Novus's big blue eyes reopened in the teary reveal of full vulnerability.
"Powers won't come between us... No matter what disadvantage, no matter who has what ability, I'm not going to let it leave you in the dust, okay?" Gideon lovingly cooed into Novus's face, to which much bigger tears welled in Novus's eyes. He sniffled a small cry-hiccup and barely bobbed a nod as he allowed his skull to lay heavy in Gideon's powerful hands. Gideon nodded alongside Novus and allowed a loving, nervous smile to sprawl his cheeks, "We're gunna go in together, okay? No one gets left behind."
"W-We're going in?" Mara whimpered nervously as the group looked back to the glowing portal.
"... Novus just confirmed to us that gamers that aren't Users can't see the light, on the ground here," Gideon pressed cautiously as he pointed down to the singular grid line that lead directly into the glowing portal, "Furthermore, the closer Users get to a portal, they vanish from wandering eyes..."
"There's something here," Lash's deep voice murmured, him and Gideon caught eyes in a swing of concerned curiosity, "Surely there's a way to get Novus equipped with the ability to see all of this on his own, without our help."
"Surely," Gideon pawed, Kepa nodded.
"DLC maybe?" Mara chirped, the group laughed in collected assuredness.
"A dangerous ploy, really," Gideon murmured, though he sucked in a readied breath and kept his hand glued to Novus's snout, all alive with their healthy exterior swap.
"Gideon," Lash cautioned, and though Gideon glanced into his eyes, the group fervently peered back to the glowing, awaiting portal with bated breath.
"I hear you," Gideon mumbled in almost playful annoyance; although everyone knew Gideon was in charge, somehow the power dynamic between him and Lash was very much a similar dynamic to that of a much older, weathered brother to a feisty, eager-hearted littler brother.
"Y-You..." Lash started, he sucked in a trembling breath, eyed Mara in concern, exhaled his final question and peered to Gideon in raw, excited concern, "Y'really want to go through that?"
"Would you rather walk away and spend the rest of our time here tortured with wondering?" Gideon pawed, he tilted his head and eyed Lash in a boyish side-eye; Lash rolled his eyes and looked off.
"No," Lash muttered in frustration over the fact that Gideon was right, Kepa and Mara stifled giggles as Gideon took a brave step forward, with Novus now eagerly keeping tight to his gravity.
"C'mon... I'll go first, with Novus," Gideon stated in assuredness, and as the two stepped out first and pressed to the humming glow of said portal, Gideon sucked in a trembling breath and could feel the rest of his team doing diligent work to stay tight to Gideon's gravity, as well. Gideon cocked an eyebrow and was within feet of said glowing portal, his free hand outstretched, he hummed the group behind him a warm notion of nervous, anticipatory excitement, "See'yah guys on the other side."
