Reviews :

Jay Sketchin : It's no issue! yay, glad it was cleared up :]

chuckiboo : Aww, thank you! I'm glad! And yes, Berri is a bit louder and more easily flustered than Tessa, she has a ton of 'outward' personality.

Burgie : Thank you so much! I'm glad you think so!

CHICKENM4N : I agree. I wish everyone was as accepting as mostly everyone on the Palace lot.

Snake557 : Indeed!


Song Listened To :

End of Line by Daft Punk, TRON soundtrack


*Chapter 28*

In Sugar Rush's cold, blue, December day, Berri and Chester moseyed to Chester's riding stable. All squared away with grooming equipment, it's also where Berri fed, bathed and saddled Chester. Due to his blindness, he wasn't the best at hunting with his flight pack, due to the fact that they hunted in the air. Berri did a wonderful job of keeping Chester in tip top condition, due to the amount of running and riding they do. Chester, being a rare hybrid of a lykata, had the lithe figure of his mother, though the head, jaw and ferocious set of teeth due to his father. With an organized mess of scales and fur, both pops of orange and blue, with a creamy underbelly of softness, Chester's height easily towered over the top of Berri's head. She was eye level with the gorgeous, short, cream furs on his broad upper chest; he stood proud and tall, even with his disabilities, something Berri so diligently uplifted so he could live as normal of a life as he could.

"I remember the nights, when we would waaatch the sun come up," Berri sung sweetly, every note was hit in absolute perfect pitch, the lilt of her voice just barely carried down the massive, arched, outdoor corridor they wandered down, en route to Chester's stable. Berri sagged her shoulders, looked off and let go of Chester's lead, confident he'd continue following her. She sang on, outside of the lyrics, though stayed in tuned, "When I'd hockey-check youuuu in the garage corridorrr."

Chester huffed a silent choke of what would be a laugh, he grimaced a wide, fang-filled smile and flattened his ears. How badly he wanted to emit laughter, he poofed the feathers that lined his neck, like a bird, to show excitement. Berri rolled her eyes and lulled her eyes closed in continued embarrassment.

"Holy User, Chester, I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for that... Dive face first into such a noble, prestigious being, someone so important to Sugar Rush," Berri muttered as she grappled her bangs, angrily peered into her hands and was now certain she wouldn't be able to think about anything else for the next hundred years.

As Chester and Berri came upon his open-aired stable, they gently sauntered inside. A smaller enclosure comfortably tucked into the very edge of the flyer's massive, jungle enclosure, it was lined with crates and hooks, all gorgeously splayed with different saddles that Berri would decorate Chester's spine with, leads and reigns alike, Berri knew it'd be a matter of time before she could confidently give Chester a proper flying saddle, whenever that day would come. Although Sugar Rush's foliage was on it's way to dying for the winter, new crops of winter greens and gorgeous, green and white striped candy cane sprouts began to present themselves about Chester's stable, all crowned with pretty green leaves, covered in powdered sugar speckles and mint. The smell was fresh, an indescribable wash of newness.

"Maybe I'll never see him again and I can just pass it off as a misunderstanding?" Berri shrugged as she finally began to unhook Chester's saddle, she reached underneath his soft belly and unhooked a few more buckles before she grunted and caught his heavy saddle. She turned heel, so to properly put his saddle away, though she continued with a girly giggle, "It's just LORE. Only Wren knows the real story... I doubt Turbo would go telling other people."

Chester huffed a hard exhale, perked his ears high and caught the sharp stir of something he heard, just where Berri was approaching, and before Chester could likely give Berri a warning signal, Berri jolted clear out of her skin in fear, her silver coding nearly rocketed through the roof of the stable. Berri choked a small, nervous wail, stumbled backwards and uncontrollably welcomed Chester's heavy saddle into her lap as she fell to her rear.

"ACE?!" Berri blurt in whole annoyance, although Berri hadn't forgotten that the castle-wide game of hide and seek was still a thing, she didn't think anyone would choose Chester's stables as a hideout; Ace nervously peered his head out, from behind the few saddles on display, and the big storage cabinet he had squeezed next to.

"So sorry," Ace meeped with a sheepish smile as he scrunched his shoulders. He finally grunted and tried to worm his large, muscular body from wedged between the nonsense of the saddle rack and the storage shelf, "I didn't think you guys would come back so soon... Did great uncle Rancis ALREADY find you?"

"Yeah, I sort of checked out," Berri muttered as she held her larger hand to her racing heart, she inhaled a long breath through her nose, to calm down, and gave her big brother a wily look of teasing detest. She grunted, got to her feet and began the hoisting process, of Chester's saddle, all over again.

"I heard all that, what's this about, erm... 'hockey-checking' Turbo in the garage?" Ace blurt a hard chuckle, rolled the sleeves of his hoodie up his arms and remained stationary whilst Berri eased past him and began to hang up Chester's saddle and leather reigns.

"For User's sakes, now that you AND Wren know this story, I know now that I will never live it down," Berri grunted as she hoisted the saddle on it's proper rest, she rolled her eyes, sighed, quickly began to tuck her loose, long blue hair into a sloppy low ponytail, and in the movement of it all, she bent down, opened her storage cabinet's drawer and grappled for Chester's large brush, "Go'head, tease me, make fun of me, I get it. Get it out of your system while you can, go on."

"I'm not going to make fun of you, Bear," Ace chuckled as he crossed his arms, she rounded about him and began to lovingly brush Chester's pelt where the saddle sat; the fur there had mildly clumped, and with her diligent hand, she began to firmly iron everything out whilst Chester sniffled the grassy substrate below him, his massive paws and non-retractable claws shifted a little as Berri methodically stepped about him, brushing his orange fur with ease, "...Wait, Turbo's here?"

"I mean, unless I bumped into a VERY realistic and matter-filled hologram of Turbo, Ace, YEAH... Turbo's here," Berri muttered in further dismay at herself, she knew she'd get over it eventually, though she was sarcastically excited to spend the rest of the evening moping about her embarrassing encounter with Sugar Rush's noble Knight, "He's wearing a light grey shirt with black biker jeans, he uh, just showered, smells of a delightful cinnamon pipe tobacco, his heart rate spiked when we collided so I don't know what it was resting, his birthday is May first, nineteen eighty-two... Wait a second..."

Ace cocked an eyebrow just barely and suddenly felt his heart surge, the fact that if Berri were indeed telling the truth, and said collision was a coded frenzy of an exterior swap, then Berri got a good, solid dose of Turbo's vitals, health and age statuses, all backstory that none of the new generation had really been introduced to.

"... Turbo's thirty seven Arcade years old?" Berri staggered in eye-bugged confusion as she stopped brushing Chester, sagged her arm to her side in defeated confusion and peered to her big brother over the tops of Chester's shoulder blades, "What gives? I thought Sugar Rush was plugged in, in nineteen ninety-seven? The game is twenty two years old... How is Turbo a whole fifteen years OLDER than the game he was made in?"

"User, you're going to rock whatever math classes you take, at Academy, Berri," Ace blurt a hard chuckle and put his hands on his hips, he knew he wanted to dodge and prolong Berri's curious questions for as long as he could, though he also knew it was futile.

"His... His coding didn't state that he was from Sugar Rush, now that I think about it, it... Didn't clarify anything," Berri prod, she narrowed her gaze to Ace and gave him a challenging look, as if to wonder now if information was being withheld, "He's coded for Sugar Rush, but... That's not his game, is it..."

Ace held his breath and let his cheeky demeanor slide, he tenderly peered to his baby sister, a mature, fully fledged gamer, a gorgeous display of Zed's dominant eye and hair color, a sturdy, curvy and lithe representation of Tessa, she was a solid powerhouse of intellect, as sharp as they come. Ace knew slipping by her was as hard as trying to slip past Tessa's radar, which rendered nearly impossible. He was well aware only vague details were to be given to the children, on the palace lot, about the insane amount of turmoil both Sugar Rush and Dead Zed had previously gone through, it was all they could do to prepare their young minds for Academy and to potentially fill in the gaps when they were fully ready. Ace felt the weight of Berri's now heavily questioning blue eye contact, like warm ocean water on most days, though in instances where she meant business, her gaze was as sharp and as cold as daggers of ice.

"Ace," Berri demanded, her womanly voice was something Ace was still trying to compute, he knew the aging process was super quick in the Arcade, though now having to witness it all first hand via his baby sister and his own two twins, he wondered when his head would stop spinning.

"I-I'm sorry, Bear, I just..." Ace staggered, he was worried that one of Sugar Rush's younglings would rope him into this sensitive conversation, and strictly did everything to avoid it, though in the tender secrecy of Chester's stable, Ace heaved a hot sigh through his nose and knew he'd have to surrender some shred of information, to tide her over; he hoped their mother and father would eventually do the rest, "Turbo is from a very old game called TurboTime... It was one of the first games to be plugged into Litwak's, almost forty years ago."

"What happened to it?" Berri's tight-lipped attitude stabbed in tenderness, as if she were now determined to get to the bottom of this, the sneaky avenues of Sugar Rush's sickly sweet palace lot now showing it's sticky past, the grid lines that glowed hot white with the remembrance of past horrors untold.

"It was unplugged before Sugar Rush was plugged in," Ace wondered if he could keep all of the details to a minimum, "Turbo took refuge in Sugar Rush later, and... H-he's been here ever since."

Berri narrowed her gaze and suspiciously side-eyed her big brother. They held painful eye contact for nearly twenty seconds, Berri somehow hoped her intimidating, womanly glare would eke more information out of Ace's pores, though nothing came of it. She had to wonder if that were simply the end of it, or if Ace had been practicing his poker face. Nonetheless, she shook her head softly and shrugged a little.

"So, no one was going to tell me this?" Berri blurt an annoyed chuckle, she gestured her hands outwards, "And what of Nox and Throttle? They, too, just took refuge in Sugar Rush?"

"Well," Ace sighed, he knew he could slack in some places, though was somehow praying their mother and father would soon fill the gaps to this crumpling gingerbread house, "They split up... Nox hung out in EZ Living for a long time, and Throttle was actually a professor in End of Line Academy."

"So... All three brothers call Sugar Rush home now? Turbo was just immediately Knighted for no reason and now is in charge of the entirety of Orion City? Which, if you do remember... Is Sugar Rush's largest most massive metropolis," Berri put her hands on her hips and, again, gave her big brother a look as if to clearly state that she smelled a rat, information that was even still being withheld; Ace sagged his shoulders and looked off.

"Berri..." Ace looked down to his bare feet, shook his head and contemplated his next move extremely carefully, he knew the topic of him, Libby, Beaux and Mara being Users was something still tight under wraps, though he was also well aware the 'User' conversation was likely due for Berri, Wren and Theo, any day now, "There... There was a lot that happened before you, Wren, and Theo were born. A lot... Now, I don't know if I'm the right person to spill all of those details to you."

"Well, why not?" Berri prod in further annoyance, "It all started today, when uncle Oliver mentioned Tron... It still exists? I thought that place was just a myth."

"It's real, Bear," Ace bobbed a nod and desperately tried to segue this nonsense off to his father, "Dad... Dad was one of Tron's protectors."

"Why hasn't he told me?" Berri now looked insulted, though Ace stepped up his game and furrowed his brow, he knew he could relate to Zed in this aspect and the fragile game of chess played with your children, due to just how much sensitive, personal information is told, and when.

"I'm sure he was planning on telling you whenever it arrises, he wasn't going to tell you something like that when you were a child and unable to totally understand," Ace defended, "You're a grown woman now, Bear... I'm sure if you approached him with your questions, he'd happily tell you. The majority of this nonsense happened even long before I was born. I'm only two and a half years old..."

"Why do I feel hurt by this?" Berri wondered gently, she shook her head and gave Ace an annoyed look of rising sorrow, "I feel like I've been lied to."

"That's the farthest thing from the truth, Bear... Information is withheld due to your age, I'm positive mom and dad just thought they'd tell you as you reached your one year, into adulthood," Ace defended softly, he gave Berri a knowing look and gestured to himself, "Mom and dad sat me down and told me a LOT of heavy stuff when I came upon my first birthday... I'm sure your time is coming shortly, as well."

"What kind of stuff did they tell you?" Berri now wondered in tepid, rising fear, as if the previous embarrassment with Turbo, from earlier, was not even a blip in the algorithm any longer; Ace sighed and peered Berri down, wondering just how she would swallow the fact that her own big brother was a demi-god.

"More than I can still wrap my head around," Ace admitted, his deep voice crackled to a depth of realness, something Berri wasn't entirely used to, and it was with this switch up did Berri feel her glorious, innocent Sugar Rush Palace lot give off a haunting presence, a vibe of dark times that were had, a molten core that was sour to the taste, though entirely irresistible. Berri, for once in this conversation, unhanded the dominant stance here and sagged her shoulders in reserved nervousness as Ace darkly continued on, "There's things you probably could afford to know right now, and... Things that will probably be presented to you, in time. I'm sorry Berri, but I don't think it's my place to spill all of mom and dad's back story."

"Backstory," Berri scoffed, although she knew she wasn't betrayed in the slightest, she still held on to the sting and relished in it, "They can tell me if they want to... I guess I shouldn't pry, if it's really as big of a deal as you're making it out to be."

"It's your call," Ace held his hands up and tenderly began to back-step towards the gaping entrance of Chester's cozy stable, "Every single person on this lot has a story, all intertwined... Y'wonder why we're all here, on this lot, anyhow?"

Berri furrowed her eyebrows and now had to reassess the headcount on the lot, just how many people lived here that weren't of royalty, though just as she opened her mouth to urge Ace to not be so cryptic, Rancis suddenly poked his head into Chester's stable and firmly pointed a finger at Ace, a wide, fatherly, teasing smile crowned his face.

"Gotcha... Damn, you guys are terrible at this game," Rancis choked a laugh, "Losers get to clean the hearth. Wren's already got a head start, so get to'it."