Reviews :

Snake557 : Thank you! I LOVE those kinds of transitions in movies, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. I'm glad it got across! :)

Burgie : Thank you! That really means a lot!

CHICKENM4N : Hey! I replied directly to your review :)

Jay Sketchin : Yeah that's true! They both definitely need their rider. Chester can physically fly by himself, but having Berri there to guide him is what would be detrimental. Thanks friend! :]


Song Listened To :

Does Your Mother Know by ABBA

Stay With Me ft. Jeremy Zucker by ayokay


*Chapter 26*

In the span of the massive, circular kitchen, the glorious Sugar Rush sunshine glinted through the skylights. Filing in, one by one, Berri, Wren, Theo, Throttle and Chester all cautiously eased into the kitchen. In the lower half of the kitchen, a few Sugar Rush racers lounged about on the nearby seating, cozied with a few house plants, side tables, reading lamps and the like. The few steps that actually lead up into the kitchen boasted the two, huge, swooping kitchen islands, gorgeous and glossed in the pearliest, glassiest of white marbles. As if to be frustrated and searching for some little way to get his agitation out, Rancis was hard at work, cleaning the hearth. Ralph, Vanellope, Tessa, Oliver, Koko, Nox, Zed, Ace, Libby and Beaux all loudly hung about the kitchen island to the left of the south entrance, in which Berri, and the rest in tow, slowly emerged from.

"That's absolutely not fair, just because we have kids doesn't suddenly make us party poopers," Tessa yelled, everyone was in high spirits, loud energy, and although Throttle had the impression that everyone was legitimately fighting, it seemed to just be a family brawl, one of teasing notions. Everyone loudly began to volley their own retorts to Tessa's further remarks, "What, we're still the same people, so we're a little exhausted! I still know how to have fun!"

"Right, but when's your bedtime," Nox urged as he waggled his eyebrows; all the parents loudly groaned and griped, everyone else laughed.

"Ten at night," Berri chimed in loving sass, she crossed her arms and firmly squeezed herself in between the small gap between her mother and father.

"You kids have no clue, we used to go on all sorts of stupid adventures, EZ Living's motocross tournament, all those nights of those crazy, drunken times at Tapper's," Ralph listed on his fingers, Vanellope crossed her arms and bobbed a heavy, beaming nod.

"Yeah, but admit it, once you had me and Tessa, things tightened, you guys got slack with those wild and crazy drunken adventures," Oliver shook his head and beamed his father a wide smile, Ralph rolled his eyes and looked off.

"Yeah, then it was OUR turn to do stupid shit," Zed gestured to himself and waggled his eyebrows; everyone roared with laughter.

"But, then what happened after you had me?" Ace prod in further question, everyone went down the line, though Libby waggled her finger and gave Zed a sneaky look.

"Nahhh I wouldn't write ma and Zeddy off so quickly," Libby's cute, lilted accent chimed into coy knowing as she nudged Ace's elbow, though everyone feverishly gawked in Zed's direction as his face turned beet red.

"No, don't do it," Zed stabbed through a choke of a laugh.

"C'mere," Ace muttered to Beaux in a fatherly fashion, and with a teasing smile, he firmly sank both of his hands over Beaux's ears. Ace flared their shared, golden honeycombs, making it so Beaux now couldn't hear anything. Beaux gaped a wide exhale and huffed a noise of whole annoyance as Ace quickly carried on, "I barged into the garage, on the Kalivar castle lot, shortly after mine and Libby's birthday, and... Y'guys were gettin' REAL freaky on the hood of mom's car."

"WHAT?!" Berri shouted in a hard squeal, everyone was absolutely lost in loud laughter.

"I hate where this conversation has gone," Zed grunted as he covered his face and threw his head back in whole agitation, meanwhile Tessa shoved her forehead to the counter and covered her whole head with her arms and hands.

"I didn't see anything detrimental," Ace chimed as he unhanded Beaux, he grunted and peered up at his father in teasing agitation, young, innocent ears that likely already heard too much anyways.

"I'm sure this is JUST want uncle Ralph and aunt Vanellope want to hear, eh?" Wren wrinkled his nose and sagged into the kitchen island with a widening smile; both Ralph and Vanellope largely rolled their eyes and finally shot their playfully agitated smiles to Sugar Rush's King.

"We always knew Zed was trouble," Ralph grunted, he flagged his massive hand outward and caught Zed's shoulder, causing him to wobble, "Remember that one night Tessa spent the night in your loft and you didn't ask us if that was okay?"

"Ohh, that was the night Oliver was pissed at me," Tessa finally lifted her head, her face was still beet red. Oliver beamed and eagerly nodded as him and Tessa reminisced, "He was mad that I wanted to swap codes with a User made gamer."

"Forbidden swap," Vanellope waggled her eyebrows and beamed her typical, cute, toothy smile.

"Lickity stopped anything from happening because of a stupid thunderstorm," Zed muttered, as if he were still salty about it.

"Damn, breaking all the rules, dad," Berri crossed her arms and peered up to her father in great cheek, he rolled his eyes and puffed his hot blue hair out of his eyes.

"Alright, let's uhhh... Take the attention OFF of Mr. Zedian T. Kalivar, can we? Please?" Zed begged, though Berri lifted her finger and was confident in keeping this train going.

"I think I remember a few nights ago, I went to the kitchen to get a drink, and I don't think you guys closed your bedroom door all the way, and-" Berri was suddenly grappled into a teasing headlock via Zed, in which she blurt a hard, stifling laugh and urgently began to wrestle Zed's strong arms.

"We were FAST asleep, Bear! Thank you for that story, NEXT!" Zed choked a loud laugh as him and Berri continued to struggle in further, chuckling retorts; the kitchen sung with laughter and happiness.

"Y'could always tell the kids the story about how you caused a power surge in Game Central Station, Mr. and Mrs. Schweetz," Rancis's gentle, manly voice cheekily called from the hearth; everyone loudly cooed knowing antics in Ralph's and Vanellope's direction.

"I honestly don't think we will ever live that down," Ralph covered his face and shook his head, though Ace bugged his eyes in widening disbelief and shook his head with a huge smile.

"WHAT? I thought the Kalivar castle losing power, because of me, was a huge deal," Ace rushed in a gawk of whole surprise, though Beaux widened his eyes in smiling, irritated stun and peered up at his father, he finally blurt a hard laugh as Libby covered her now blushing face. Ace wildly gestured to his grandfather and beamed wider, "The whole ENTIRETY of Game Central Station?!"

"We should, y'know, keep discussing this further, I think," Vanellope sneered, she shot Ace a sarcastic smile and shrugged.

"The whole station," Ralph mumbled, though he eased Vanellope a loving, knowing smirk; she rolled her eyes amidst blushing cheeks.

"Ooo, remember that one day that me and Penny took my brand new dirt bike around the Evergreen forest?" Tessa gestured in Oliver's direction, he sagged and shook his head in smiling remembrance.

"I had to get Orion to come fish us out of trouble," Oliver's nostalgic smile held true, to which Vanellope perked up and pointed at her first and second born.

"I will never forget that day," Vanellope stated with a gentle laugh as everyone eagerly honed in, "You three almost became hood ornaments."

"Ohh, the good 'ol days," Oliver bobbed a nod and finally caught eyes with Theo. He playfully pointed to his son and shook his head, "We're still cool. We just have children. It doesn't change anything!"

"Yes it does," Nox, Koko, Berri, Wren, Theo and Throttle all mumbled in teasing, smiling dismay; every parent in the group loudly let out a hard groan, though it wasn't until Rancis finally strolled over did the group glue their attention to the added voice.

"You're forgetting Tessa's and Zed's incredible escape to Tron?" Oliver cocked an eyebrow and gently lofted his teasing smirk in Zed's direction, though with a pang of nervousness, Berri furrowed her brows in hard surprise and shot her father a look of concern.

"...Tron exists?" Berri prod quietly to her father, as if to wonder just why he would've kept this information from her; before he could hesitantly answer her through a grimace of grit teeth, Rancis tenderly popped the group's bubble.

"If you guys REALLY want to prove that you're still cool, why don't we play a hard, palace-wide game of hide and seek, then?" Rancis chimed, he waved about the long shoveling stick he used for the kitchen's main hearth.

Everyone at the kitchen island fell silent in contemplation, everyone's eyes gently glossed to one another in smiling curiosity, and with the frozen, heightened mood of question that hung in the air, Rancis gently waved the stick about some more and cocked an eyebrow.

"Stay on the lot, you're not allowed to teleport anywhere else, nor go inside anyone's home, nor the flyer's enclosure," Rancis listed, he cocked an eyebrow and was entirely floored he had everyone's solid, frozen attention, they held in suspended wait as Rancis's cheeky smile only broadened, "I'm it... Y'got a hundred and twenty seconds. Starting now."

For merely a second and a half of holding curiosity, it wasn't until the whole room lit up with coding did Wren and Throttle urgently cover their faces and eyes. In the blink of an eye, every single glitcher in the group picked one of the four entrances from the kitchen to shoot down, tiers of colorful glitch lines and circuit boards easily swarmed the room in a buzz of chaos, one that made the electricity in the room drum to a buzz of heightened frenzy before settling, just as every single firework of a glitcher was gone like vanishing streaks of lightning. Wren and Throttle's hair whisked about for a moment, and once everything settled, the only sound left was Rancis counting down from a hundred and twenty, his muscular arms and back worked to continue cleaning the hearth. Wren sagged his shoulders in now boiling annoyance and felt the heat of the massive disadvantage he had. He glowered his aimless gaze across the room and clenched his teeth in steaming agitation, though he felt tepid warmth want to simmer the second Throttle gently rested his hand on Wren's shoulder.

"... I, too, feel the pain of not being a glitch," Throttle's deep, caring voice blurt a small chuckle, though with such, Wren heaved a hard, long sigh and began to slowly saunter in the direction of the Sugar Rush racer's garage, as well as where his, Berri's and Theo's music studio hung in hot wait.

"I surely do looove being normal," Wren's voice came down to a depth of crackling annoyance as he shoved his hands into his coat's front pockets, his father had finally reached the forty second mark as Wren nonchalantly sagged out of the kitchen for good, with no sense of urgency. Chester slowly followed Wren, strictly by the sound of his voice and footsteps.

"You just did that to get them out of your hair, didn't you," Throttle mumbled quietly to Rancis with a knowing side-eye as he sat at the island; Rancis shrugged and didn't miss a beat.

"Worked, didn't it?"


With a jolt of searing, silver electricity, Berri effortlessly glitch-hopped down the long stretch of a corridor that lead to the Sugar Rush racer's underground garage, as well as her's, Wren's and Theo's music studio. With the garage being entirely underground, the first twenty feet of said well lit corridor glossed it's way to a proper stair well, one that finally leveled with the underground garage. The second Berri's coding connected with the ground, down the long tier of stairs, she continued onward, like a bolt of lightning. After a few seconds of travel, she finally reached within twenty feet of the gaping entrance to the garage. Through said small entrance, she could see a peak of a few of the racers cars, as well as another peak of the selection of exercise equipment that the majority of palace residents utilized.

Berri choked a small huff of a breath, came out of her agile glitch-hopping and peered ahead, to the garage. She knew hiding in her music studio was likely just an easy spot, and she would easily be found, though she fingered her lip and wondered if she could fit in the whole of Theo's kick drum. She grinned at the idea, shook her head and rolled her eyes, though in the flicker of nervousness, she could hear, from way down the other end of the corridor, where she had just come from, the soft patter of nonchalant footsteps. She knew whoever was en route to her, in this moment, had to eventually climb down the whole entire staircase. She knew if it were her great uncle Rancis, no glitching would be involved, and it'd likely take him a hot minute. Berri turned around in skillful footwork and began to walk backwards, she kept her eyes on the massive stretch of a gorgeous, white corridor she had just come from, and in gentle diligence, she inhaled a readied breath, eased the core of her glitching powers and whirled around in a sudden splay of blue hair and agile, steady footwork.

As if moving in slow motion, Berri's line of sight caught again with the entrance of the garage, though she felt prickles of heightened electricity sprinkle up her arms and spine as she suddenly saw an added presence round the corner of said corridor, heading into the hallway from the garage, in the opposite direction she was headed in. As if trying to slam on the breaks and halt a transmission from kicking into high gear, Berri's incredible, powerful coding did everything to begin to launch her forward in the lunge of a proper glitch-hop, or the beginnings of it, though she choked a startled noise and felt all of her efforts fall short. Berri shut her eyes tight, allowed herself to firmly collide with whoever this individual was, and in the mess of splayed coding, Berri choked another startled noise the second her exterior coding excitedly danced with this individual's exterior coding. she unfortunately didn't get a proper look at said person before diving headlong into them.

In the sear of it all, Berri shut her eyes tight and was delighted to find that, although this individual wobbled backwards a step or two, they were more or less an unmoving force of warm strength. Berri's ears pricked as she could hear this individual grunt a noise of concern, his deep voice was glossed in uncertain warmth, and it was in this hot moment of colliding realization did Berri understand that this male she had dove into wasn't a familiar one. Her excited, frenzied and confused coding collided with this being, and it was in the licks of molten, stinging, uncooperative coding did Berri get a sudden wash of scalding binary, from this person. Hot red honeycombs swarmed Berri's mainframe and easily mixed with hers in a soak of grippy curiosity, though as soon as the sparks of passionate coding finally died in a zip of remembered shyness, Berri huffed a few panting exhales into the chest of her victim.

Berri fluttered her eyes and tensed in entire surprise, her blue eyes met with this person's soft, light grey t-shirt, her hands and arms rested tightly against the inner bend of his forearms and grappled tight to the skin, and it was in this concluding wobble of exasperated grunts and huffs of further confusion did Berri furrow her eyebrows and enjoy the confusing sense of warmth, his arms came tight about Berri's sides and upper back. It wasn't until Berri realized her long, soft, blue hair had splayed all over the side of her right arm and down to this individual's left arm did Berri finally ease her head away in shock and peer up into the stab of golden eyes that nearly used to haunt her, all through her childhood. Like looking straight into every single last childhood fear she had, she sunk into herself, sagged her shoulders in unadulterated fear and embarrassment and could hardly even get his name out, amidst staggering, blushing horror.

"Turbo," Berri huffed in a shaky tone of girly, apologetic grief.

"Your highness," Turbo stabbed in a near-whisper of rising adrenaline, and it was in this instance did Berri understand that Turbo likely assumed she was running from trouble. With the way Turbo's arms fastened about Berri and began to softly situate the two so that Turbo was in the line of whatever danger she was running from, Turbo's terrified glowing eyes peered down the lonely corridor in a spike of purpose, "Wh-what's wrong, is everything okay? Where's Tessa?"

"O-Oh, no, I'm... I'm fine, I'm fine," Berri now blurt a bashful chuckle, she suddenly felt her face wash to an embarrassed shade she could swear was somewhere close to purple. She tried her damndest to seem nonchalant, though the only thing she could do was breath a nervous giggle and sag her gentle hands to Turbo's strong, masculine forearms. Although he still held onto her in suspended anticipation, as if all of his swearing to protect the royal family was now coming to fruition, he finally sagged his shoulders and peered his vividly glowing yellow eyes straight into her soul. Berri felt her insides clench, though the strange amount of tenderness said scary eyes held was something she dutifully noted, "W-We're... We're all playing hide and seek, I was just... Headed to the garage to find a spot to hide."

"Oh, phew," Turbo stated through a raspy sigh as the two held suspended in each other's arms, Turbo's strong hands gently cupped behind Berri's upper back. He held almost an entire foot of height over her, the tender way his long-blinking eyes held down to Berri in boyish, dumbfounded uncertainty. They held painful, awkward eye contact for a second or two before they both quickly eased off of each other. Turbo huffed a trembling breath, now entirely uncertain of what to do with himself, he anxiously rubbed the back of his head and stammered on a few conversation-starter words, "S-So, I-I... Y-You guys, uh... Wh-why are you..."

"Oh, your books, I'm so sorry," Berri tucked her vivid blue hair behind her ears and suddenly began to step over to the few books Turbo had abandoned on the ground, due to their bout of coded fireworks; Turbo jolted to halt Berri in picking up his books for him.

"Please, your highness, I-I got it," Turbo tenderly laid his fingers to Berri's soft shoulder and cued her not to lift a finger. He scrambled to pick up his books before she could even think about fighting him to it, and in a shlep of the few books he secured tight to his chest, he stood up straight and nervously eyed Berri, "Th-Thank you... I-I hope I didn't scare you."

"No, not at all," Berri fibbed. She knew staring into those golden, square-pupiled eyes of his was only the stuff of her entire nightmares, mild childhood trauma that not enough time around Nox and Throttle apparently quelled, though she sucked it up and knew she could handle it, especially due to the softness Turbo's hardy, scary exterior tried to defy, "I wasn't looking where I was going... You, uh... You here to see my parents?"

"Yeah, I'm just dropping these books off to Zed, he let me borrow them," Turbo staggered, and it was with this did Berri begin to see Turbo's hands lightly tremble, likely due to the scare, though Berri cocked an eyebrow and gave him a cute, knowing smile as he began to nervously side-step around Berri, as if being in Berri's presence was somehow something he potentially wasn't worthy of, "I-I... Good luck, with your game."

"Thanks, Turbo," Berri gestured with a small giggle as she waved her hand, he only barely gave her a nervous smile in return and began to hurriedly make his way down the long corridor, his only destination, from there, being the palace's kitchen.

Berri sagged her shoulders, stiffly turned around, clenched her fists and her teeth and silently began to mutter to herself in whole entire embarrassment. She shut her eyes tight, eased into the garage, quietly berated herself and felt the hot wash of forever lingering embarrassment cling to her skin like a ghost that was lonely. She knew it'd be a hot minute before she could let herself live that encounter down.