Reviews :
Snake557 : I'm glad you guys caught on to that... Animals alllllways know ;)
Burgie : He's a sweet dude, for sure... But Chester seems to think otherwise.
Jay Sketchin : Thank you friend! And, you're not wrong lol
CHICKENM4N : Absolutely.
*Chapter 61*
In a spike of blurry confusion, Berri inhaled a sharp, startled breath and jolted out of her slumber. Her eyes peeled open in a sticky pop, dilated pupils immediately tightened upon the shine of Sugar Rush's glorious morning sunshine, and although Berri knew she was safe and sound, she still felt the rush of fear soak her circuits at the sheer fact that she wasn't in her own bed, let alone her own bedroom. As Berri's circuit lines began to gently glow a heightened silver all down her throat, arms and temples, she panted, sat up straight, clutched the center of her chest and did absolutely everything to get her bearings. She quickly understood that she was in Sugar Rush's main palace kitchen, a massive, sunny hub that typically was bustling with life on any given day; today was different for an odd reason.
Upon the noise that startled her awake, she could hear the vicious rumbling of the Sugar Rush racer's incredible race cars, just down the well-lit corridor of the garage across the kitchen. With jumbled, haphazard thoughts, she desperately tried to recollect everything that had happened the night prior. Upon giving Gunner a proper tour of Sugar Rush's palace, whilst introducing him to literally every soul on palace grounds, Berri finally remembered that her and her grandmother Vanellope had sat down after dinner time to gab about boys and the happenings about Arcade, Academy and Sugar Rush. She felt a twinge of confusion continue to seep into her still faintly glowing circuits, a motherboard of subconscious protection, a glitchy, haphazard fight or flight mechanism engrained in her very being by the one, dirty haired brat she called grandmother. She rubbed her eye as her heart rate finally began to settle from the extreme spike, though as more memories of the night prior came back to her, she felt her heart immediately throb in guilt and sorrow.
Once Berri's surroundings became a bit clearer, she glossed the gorgeous marble island she was previously slouched over, sat on one of the cushiony bar stools. Her phone lay next to where her head had rested, Turbo's familiar, lovely smelling hoodie was splayed underneath where she had been sleeping. She wondered if she had maybe given someone a promise that she was just resting her eyes, and it very quickly turned into a full-blown nights sleep. She bit her lip in terror, grappled her phone and was absolutely certain she'd be greet with all sorts of missed calls and texts from Turbo; upon laying a finger to her home screen, she flinched in confusion to see simply no notifications from Turbo, whatsoever. She furrowed her brow, froze, and felt the dread and guilt very quickly segue to confusion and mild hurt. She knew she had accidentally fallen asleep on her plans with Turbo, though she was now mildly sore over the fact that he didn't attempt to reach out to her to finalize if she was truly coming over, or not. She sagged, knowing full well he likely wasn't gong to extend his neck any further than he already had; she was entirely aware that she'd have to be doing the asserting for the next while.
Although up for the task, she still rolled her eyes in whole, groggy, grouchy annoyance, lazily grappled her phone, tried to get her bones to a stand and grimaced at the very action of it all. Having gone an entire night's sleep slouched at the kitchen island, she was aware it'd call for a whole day of aches and pains. She gently put on Turbo's zip up, sagged her phone into her now wrinkled jean's back pocket, and tapped her other pocket for her materializer. Although the angry sound of grumbling race cars was still abundant in her ears, she furrowed her brows in confusion as every single racer cut their engines, as opposed to said engines simply just fading away in the distance, only to return after a successful racing day at Litwak's Arcade. All at once, urgent voices could be heard, echoey nonsense Berri couldn't quite make out, though as the urgency grew, she changed her line of direction from the main teleportation pad, straight to the corridor that lead to the garage.
Upon a lazy set of still sleepy glitch-hopping, Berri came to the gape of the garage's corridor entrance. She peered inside, a well lit concrete room that easily was a fifth the size of the palace lot. Across the whole stretch, everyone's race cars had previously been in line to exit the garage's long exit, a tunnel that let out on the side of the nearly-jagged hill side the palace sat on; everyone's race car, except Gloyd's. Upon further inspection, as Berri's apprehensive demeanor only lingered on the outskirts of the situation, Gloyd had the hood popped, nearly every racer loudly contemplated the issue with Gloyd's car, all whilst Gloyd grunted and poked about his own engine bay. Berri landed eyes on her grandmother, a gorgeous, slender being, a curvy figure that looked incredible in her new racing gear, everyone looked sharp. She sagged her racing goggles onto the crown of her head, approached Gloyd and tenderly instructed Gloyd a few notions, her level headed demeanor and disposition still held and carried as royalty; once a Queen, always a Queen. Something Berri greatly admired.
After a few minutes of tense conversing, Gloyd's hands now covered in the oily, dirty leftovers of his engine bay, Berri flinched as the teleportation pad eagerly came alive with a silver glow; Sugar Rush's King and Queen quickly stepped off the pad and approached the situation. Berri sagged a little and raised her eyebrows, she knew that she was now being treated to a master class of problem solving, a detrimental issue at hand, the very idea that quarter alerts were at stake. Tessa and Zed pushed into the group with ease, and although they radiated a welcoming aura, it was stunning to Berri at just how the gravity in the room shifted. The bubble of dominance both beings sapped over the place, a sense of calm, yet a stern sense of urgency, it wasn't long until a majority of the racers now settled, backed away and allowed Tessa, Zed, Vanellope and Gloyd to commandeer the situation at hand. Above the gentle murmurs from the group of antsy racers, Berri overheard her mother's and father's conversing, and with such awesome presences in this group, she felt bravery sink back to her royal, silver circuits.
"I-I practically built this thing from the ground up, it kills me when I say... I-I have no clue what's wrong," Gloyd complained, his sweet tone and lovingly soft disposition was rarely ever bristled, like such. He sagged the back of his wrist to his now sweaty forehead, the look of forlorn concern in his warm eyes sagged to Zed's, as if to beg for guidance here, "She started up just fine, but the second I shifted to drive and pressed the gas, she shut off."
"Couldn't be a leak in a vacuum line somewhere?" Someone in the group tenderly wondered.
"When's the last time you ran a smoke test on this thing, Gloyd?" Vanellope gently prod, her words were laced with care, as Tessa and Zed pressed closer to Gloyd's engine bay, Zed swiped out his main digital pad and brought up nearly the whole lot of the code room's remote power. A holographic display simply hovered above the pad, and as Zed thumbed through the options, Vanellope shrugged as all eyes honed tight to just what Zed was doing, "Did it sputter and hesitate as you pushed the gas?"
"No, it just... Went dead," Gloyd worried, and as the fear of missed quarter alerts quickly began to brim upon everyone, Gloyd began to grow sarcastic and frantic in his tone and words, "The car's maintenance is entirely up to date, I literally just did a zillion-point inspection yesterday."
"Easy, easy... It'll be okay, it's probably something with the computer of the car, I'll just run a few tests real quick," Zed instructed calmly, a fatherly presence he easily laid upon the entirety of Sugar Rush, the same warmth he'd give his own children.
"I really need to brush up on these car's computer errors," Tessa grimaced, as if she was absolutely certain some form of an error code would come up, and upon said code reveal, she was then worried she wouldn't know exactly what to do, "These things are vastly different than a code room... Y'think they'd go hand in hand."
"One's a vehicle with precise, working parts that all absolutely have to cooperate," Vanellope mumbled in full understanding, "The other? Nearly a sentient orb full of information that'll keep on kicking whether it's missing pieces or not."
"Learned from experience," Tessa muttered through a tired sigh as she rubbed her forehead.
"Shit," Zed hissed through his teeth in a lazy huff of a noise, he shook his head and gently showed Gloyd, Vanellope and Tessa the holographic screen before him, which was eagerly targeted and pinpointed on the coding of Gloyd's race car, the incredible, glossy exterior only visually beat by the incredible engine and machinery under the hood, "Yeah...Got an error code I don't know how to begin to tackle."
"What do we do?" Rancis worried from the other side of Gloyd's car, the group began to lazily reform about the hot topic at hand, nervous eyes of uncertainty landed to their King and Queen, as well as Sugar Rush's light-footed princess, unbeknownst to Tessa and Zed, "I-If YOU don't know what to do, then..."
"I know what to do, it's just... It's an error code with, well... Other error codes packed inside of it, or behind it, rather," Zed muttered, he shook his head and glossed his eyes into the incredible engine bay of Gloyd's car, "To put it into extremely simple terms, the cylinders locked up. I've noticed a bit of a sticky transmission with these cars, the second the computer thinks there's a slip or a catch in the clutch or teeth of the transmission, the whole thing locks up and refuses to let go."
"How do we get it to ease up, then?" Vanellope wondered, and it was here that Berri was close enough for both Tessa and Vanellope to notice. Berri furrowed her eyebrows, gently looked into the engine bay, felt the loft of confused eyes gloss her way but was thrilled that Vanellope pressed on, no matter how strange it was to see Berri's presence about the garage at this time of the morning, "Certainly it's just some sort of reset."
"I-It should be, but... I have no clue how long it's going to take," Zed worried, he glossed his eyes to Gloyd in a show of nervousness and shook his head, "Gloyd, you can take one of the back ups to race in today, but... I-I worry about you being picked by a human. Those back up cars are just dummy cars that don't represent any of you guys."
"It'll suffice, I-I'm sure no one will notice," Taffyta nervously suggested, she shrugged and glanced to Rancis, as well as Vanellope.
It was here did the group about Berri, Tessa, Zed and Vanellope begin to bicker and loudly worry about impending quarter alerts, literally minutes away. Berri raised her eyebrows and softly peered to her father's holographic display; something similar she had seen in Turbo's code room. She urgently furrowed her brows and felt a sharp idea hit her brain. She knew that Turbo had built his own bike from the ground up, with nothing but Zed's tools and the brain in his skull. She urgently glossed her almost aimless attention down to the engine bay and let her mind run away with her, she knew Turbo had so many years of Arcade and racing knowledge under his belt, though she had to wonder if he'd know how to solve this riddle. With a confident inhale, and judgement that was still foggy from only previously waking up from a rough night's sleep slouched on the kitchen island, she gently raised her hand and dared to play her royalty card in a crowd of superiors, once more.
"I-I know someone who can fix it," Berri eased confidently, although her words brought literally everyone to a drum of stunned silence, she breathed a shy giggle, scrunched her shoulders, rolled her eyes and looked up, "I-I mean... My great uncle Felix, probably, but... H-He's probably preparing for quarter alerts."
"Like we should be," Minty snapped as she crossed her arms, everyone urgently began to agree, an on edge demeanor, though the second Zed raised his eyebrows and glossed his dominant eye contact across the rowdy group, everyone shrank back to their normal, quiet selves.
"Who, Bear?" Tessa pressed in genuine question, though as Berri grappled her phone, from her back pocket, she waved it about a little and rode the brave train.
"Turbo," Berri stated confidently, though she flinched the second a few individuals scoffed annoyed noises of whole detest.
"Y'kidding, the guy would likely cut wires without us looking," Snowanna snipped from the group, a few other voices called out in further agitation.
"I don't think he'd come out of his hiding spot for us, aren't we like... Low-lifes to him?" Swizzle wondered, and although he was irritated, he seemed more neutral on the matter.
"Turbo can fix it, don't you dare say one more cross thing about him," Berri suddenly stabbed, the swell of confidence she was previously grappling at now came flooding her veins without questions asked; everyone fell silent and held tight to her now stern demeanor, however haggard she looked, "Turbo's been around longer than each and every single one of us... If there's anyone who would have a shred of knowledge, here, it's him."
"I guess I didn't even think about that," Zed mumbled kindly, he eyed Berri with a smile and shrugged, "He's usually our nocturnal code-room helper... I don't think to contact Turbo this early in the morning."
"He takes care of nightly routines, with Rancis," Tessa bobbed a knowing nod, Rancis was beginning to press closer to the center of the group, it was clear he was prepared to defend Turbo, if need be, as well, "That's a good idea Berri... I was so focused on just getting this fixed that I didn't even consider Turbo."
"He would know what to do, surely," Berri nodded, her eyes glossed the group in an outward show of dominance and tender upset; although the group simply didn't know just how close Berri and Turbo were, she was prepared to make it clear to them if she had to.
With a quick few tabs, Berri urgently pressed the call button on the little drop down menu of Turbo's name, in her phone's contact list. It was only until she brought the phone to her ear did she feel her insides clench with a squeeze of terror. The sheer fact that she was now about to be on a phone call with Turbo Black, in front of every single last important individual to Sugar Rush's name, she wondered just how she could possibly thrust herself into such a situation. She heaved a shaky sigh, and upon further indication that this maybe wasn't such a wise idea, she very quickly remembered that the last time she had talked to Turbo was when she was promising him that she'd come see him the night prior; a promise she failed to keep. She clenched her teeth, looked down as the phone continued to ring, though in a flurry of muffled swipes, Turbo finally answered his phone; the sheer amount of hesitation, exhaustion and confusion in his voice was beyond palpable.
"Hello?" The deep grumble of Turbo's voice was scratchy and raspy by tenfold, it was clear she had woken him up.
"Turbo, I'm... I'm SO sorry to wake you up like this, but we have a situation here, in the racer's garage," Berri eased softly, the tender sorrow in her tone was something Tessa cued to; Tessa cocked an eyebrow and beamed her daughter a knowing smile, clearly the tone of apology, the potential for currently feuding lovers, something Tessa knew well.
"What's going on?" Turbo grunted in a deeper spike of more awakened concern, Berri could clearly hear him huff a noise upon getting out of bed, further shuffling indicated he was prepared to be on his way; a duty he swore to uphold, to be on his toes and ready for action at the drop of a hat.
"Gloyd's car crapped out on him, dad ran a test to see what was up and it's a few error codes that we're not sure we can figure out immediately," Berri quickly rattled off, she put her hand on her hip and peered down into Gloyd's engine bay, "I hate to... Do this to you, but... I knew you'd have the answer to this issue, and quarter alerts are literally upon us. Is there any way you can-"
With the angry buzz of the garage's teleportation pad, it very quickly came to life with the swarm of Turbo's hot red coding, ancient honeycombs that popped with so much fervor, it practically climbed a nearby wall. Everyone whirled around in hot, solid surprise as Turbo's figure urgently began to pace across the stretch of the garage. Berri raised her eyebrows in entire, madly blushing surprise. Having just woken up, Turbo was proudly shirtless. He wore his favorite, faded red sweats, which sagged on his lower hips. Hugged tight further up his hip bones was a show of the thick band of his black boxers, Turbo looked disheveled in the most delightful way. Berri sagged her phone from her head and realized that Turbo had hung up on her, due to using the teleport pad, and although she wanted to immediately be overjoyed, throw herself into an excitable hug with Arcade's most misunderstood soul, she felt her whole demeanor sag with confused tension; the whole idea that Turbo's disposition read entire unwelcome, he looked mad, and although his eyes still held a confident yellow glow, Berri wondered if she'd see his angry red side, here.
"Your majesty," Turbo grunted with a nod, he gave Zed an apologetic look, as if to be sorry for showing up nearly entirely indecent, though he knew the game couldn't afford to wait for Turbo to simply brush his hair and put on a shirt. Zed lovingly gave Turbo's shoulder and upper back a firm pat as he neared, though it was extremely clear that Turbo was just as aggravated to be in this group as much as Sugar Rush's racers were. Turbo huffed an irritated sigh of silence, lofted his creepy, square-pupil gaze about the group of nay-sayers and finally hooked his eyes to Zed's, "Cylinders locked? Y'got the packaged error codes, didn't you."
"...Yeah, you familiar?" Zed faltered with a small, incredulous laugh, he easily handed the master digital pad over to Turbo, something he knew he wouldn't question for a second, though was fairly certain every racer around him was now holding their breath in terror.
"Boy, am I," Turbo grumbled in mild irritation at said notion, as if he had maybe dealt with this a thousand times.
Berri held her breath, took a few steps away from Gloyd's engine bay, and now felt every single last ounce of her confidence leave her system. She tucked her hands to her chest in girly uncertainty, she looked over Turbo's masculine figure and just about had a hay-day. The sculpt of a suggestion of abs on Turbo's torso, his strong arms, the veins in his able, handsome hands, she bit her lip and froze in a rile of now entirely lofted confusion. Berri held her breath and was well aware this was a very tall order to ask of Turbo, especially coming off of carelessly forgetting plans with him the night prior and falling asleep on promises, Berri frowned and wondered just where they'd go from here. The tension in the room was beyond palpable, the nervous steps away a few racers took, though Berri was at least thrilled they held their curious eyes tight to his point on the grid. She knew she needed to keep up with this situation, a situation she vowed she'd hold fast to Turbo's side for. She flinched as Turbo cleared his throat, tried to straighten his hair, and thumbed through Zed's digital pad.
"Yep, yep... Tons of fun," Turbo grunted, a few flashing error codes suddenly popped up in front of the drop down menu that he had cued to, he shook his head and wrinkled his nose in boyish irritation, "Yeah, yeah, I get it, trapped air, I know, I know."
Berri dared to huff a small giggle. She crossed her arms and eased up, she knew that no one else would if she didn't, excluding her mother, father and grandmother. She was delighted to see the edges of Turbo's lips just barely curl a secretive smile, something she had the entire privilege to see blossom into a full fledged show of teeth and laughter. Berri studied Turbo's every move, she knew she had seen him in this particular group of people before, but now that they were in such a raw scenario, she wondered just how he'd handle the heat. With a flinch, Turbo heaved a gentle sigh, set Zed's pad down in a safe landing inside Gloyd's engine bay, and quickly made his way to the driver's side door. A few of the racers gently shifted to ease out of Turbo's way, and as Turbo leaned into Gloyd's driver side seat, the gentle crank of the emergency brake was heard; what came next was the clear noise of Turbo shifting the car into neutral.
"These cars are amazing, they're fast, reliable, and can take a beating," Turbo grunted as he stood to correction, came back to the engine bay, swiped up Zed's pad and began to eagerly thumb through a few options, "What absolutely blows about them is the fact that... You could so much as look at the engine block wrong, and the whole thing seizes up. Good move going with Tobikomi, for the make of these cars, but... Still think we should stick with the models from the 90's."
Turbo sagged the pad a little, lofted his gaze to Zed and Tessa, and much to Berri's surprise, his lazy, exhausted gaze came back to hers, he dared to give her a soft, understanding smile.
"What do I know, I'm just an old dog... Can't teach me new tricks," Turbo grumbled, he raised his eyebrows, inhaled a deep breath and began to prod through a few things, specifically honing in on the holographic infrastructure of Gloyd's car. He leaned closer to Zed and Tessa, knowing they'd be the ones who needed this lesson in looking, "See, here? The whole thing froze mid combustion. It's either gasoline still in the cylinders, or air. Nothing will turn back on until you release it."
"And putting it in neutral?" Zed prod as he locked eyes with Turbo.
"That's the secret," Turbo grumbled, "A secret that I nearly learned too late, once upon a time. Almost decided to total a car I was fixing up because of this issue."
"Was that when you ruled Sugar Rush?" Torvald muttered in gentle annoyance, and although her tone wasn't technically too snotty, it still held an underlying tone of bitterness.
"As a matter of fact, yeah, it was," Turbo dared, his voice pressed to an upset, loud volume that was entirely foreign to Berri. Turbo inhaled a deep breath through his nose, his strong, lightly muscular chest expanded, he shook his head and peered back down to the digital pad with Zed, "In order to get everything to loosen, y'put the thing in neutral... Now you have to go in and tediously release and unhinge every single last coded spring and trap and valve and whatever the crap, inside each cylinder. I would sit and patiently show you, but it's clear that we-"
All at once, the game eagerly began to announce the sheer fact that Litwak's Arcade was open. Turbo bobbed an nod, huffed a sarcastic chuckle, and before he could say any other words, his fingers worked like lightning on the coding before him. His incredible eyes dart back and forth in his detrimental task, and as he eagerly unlocked every single last problem in Gloyd's engine, he pressed a firm finger into the refresh button. The coding of Gloyd's car eagerly glitched in a flicker of the code room's coding of a silver glow, and with a thud, the car came back to the grid of the garage. Turbo gently handed Zed his digital pad, pressed into the driver side door of Gloyd's car, and with a crank of the ignition, the car loudly roared to life. Everyone eagerly beamed excited, shocked, and bewildered looks of entire disbelief. Berri covered the sides of her head with an equally as surprised look, and as Turbo came around the front of the car, his strong hands and arms eagerly lowered the hood of Gloyd's car. With a slam of the closed hood, Turbo dusted his hands, cocked an eyebrow, and lofted his creepy gaze straight into Gloyd's soul.
"You're good to go," Turbo coldly volleyed, "Easy on the shifting... These cars won't play nice if you don't."
"Th-Thank you, Turbo," Gloyd staggered as his lightly shaking hand reached out for a handshake, and as both men shook hands in a firm swipe of manly understanding, Turbo, Tessa, Zed and Berri eagerly took a few steps away as every racer jumped into their cars.
With the loud roars of each engine, as loud and eruptive as it all was, it very quickly came rumbling to the tender reverberation of echoes. As the final car could be heard leaving the garage, the four heads were left in the dust of silence, the gentle, sunny warmth of the well lit garage, it was here did Berri understand that they now had yet another problem to solve. Although Berri was floored that Turbo was a master at solving engine problems, she knew full well that when it came to feuding, he wasn't one to solve, but rather one to run or shove it under the rug. Berri cocked an eyebrow and dared to gloss her eyes to Turbo's face, he stood confidently next to her, between her and her parents. Zed finally heaved a long, exhausted sigh and gently reached out to Turbo for a handshake.
"Dude, you saved my ass," Zed blurt a chuckle, and with this, Turbo's strong shoulders sagged in understanding, his warm smile finally came back to him, and as Tessa rested her hand lovingly to Turbo's upper arm, Berri held her breath and remained silent to watch this sticky situation conclude.
"I-It was nothing," Turbo stated, warmth finally began to come back to his voice, it was clear he proudly showed his cold front amongst strangers, especially strangers that mildly detested him.
"We can go over that properly, after game day," Zed bobbed a nod, to which Turbo followed suit, "I don't want to have to keep bothering you this early in the morning, if that happens again."
"Sorry we had to wake you up," Tessa eased in a sorrowful mumble, and although Berri was certain Turbo would have some form of a begrudging remark, she was delighted to see him shake his head in tender protest.
"You guys gave me a second chance at life," Turbo's deep voice eased over the group with love, he long blinked in sleepy exhaustion, however, and tried to keep face in the mix of lack of sleep and being thrusted into a group of people that hated him. He inhaled a deep breath and confidently carried on, nonetheless, "I'm not going to squander it by sleeping through times of need."
"Good man," Zed agreed with gratitude, though as they held solid in their handshake, Zed firmly pat Turbo's upper arm, heaved a tired sigh and began to remove himself from Turbo's and Berri's tight presences; Tessa began to follow suit, "Alright, go back to sleep, we can handle it from here. Bear, y'meeting up with Throttle?"
"Yeah, dad," Berri chimed with a small nod, "Class is in an hour."
"Don't forget," Zed pointed to her, his voice was stern in a teasing show of cuteness, though he winked at her upon him and Tessa slowly turning their backs and heading towards the garage's teleportation pad; once the two were gone in a flit of lovely silver coding, Berri held her breath and now realized she was entirely alone with Turbo.
Turbo heaved a long, hot, tired sigh through his nose, sagged his shoulders farther and allowed all his walls and guards to come down. He raised his eyebrows in boyish, dewy concern and softly lofted his eyes to Berri's. She raised her eyebrows, locked eyes with him and still felt that sting of creepiness fall over her. She was now understanding that it would probably be something she was never entirely over, though the itch to pound that fear to a pulp only drove her to be near Turbo even more. She felt the remembrance of guilt sweep her system, and just as she went to open her mouth to let out a whole slew of apologies, Turbo lulled his eyes closed, shook his head and grimaced in mild annoyance.
"It's fine, Bear, it's fine..." Turbo grumbled, Berri sagged her arms to her sides and shook her head.
"I-I fell asleep in the palace's main kitchen, I-I don't know what happened," Berri gently begged, Turbo peeled his exhausted eyes open and finally peaked a gentle, knowing, irritated smile at her, "I was woken up by the racer's turning on their cars, and then... I heard something was wrong, and, when I came to investigate, I knew it was a job for you."
"...Thank you," Turbo bobbed a nod, he finally scoffed a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head, he expanded his masculine chest and lulled his eyes closed in sleepy desire as his arm raised high enough to peak his nearly black armpit hair, "I-It's not every day I get to show off my knowledge to the people that think I'm worth nothing."
"I knew we could count on you," Berri further assured, though she began to feel confusion fall over her; how eagerly she'd inadvertently grovel at Turbo's feet, how badly she wanted his approval, how far she'd go to see his heart melting smile lofted in her direction, "Turbo, I'm... Really sorry about yesterday, honestly. It was a whirl wind of chaos and I guess it just wiped me."
"I'm pissed at you," Turbo finally scoffed at the dregs of his silently whining, grunting stretch, arms high above his head.
"Oh, shut up, it's not even that big of a deal," Berri now stabbed in playful defense, to which Turbo lulled his eyes closed and rubbed the back of his head in exhaustion that now soaked over the need to be alert and at the ready.
"It's probably something we should fight about at my place," Turbo stated in a serious tone, though Berri could tell that by the choice of his words, he was simply bantering.
"Did I really screw up that badly?" Berri prod in a teasing show of defense, to which Turbo raised his eyebrows, put his hands on his hips and bobbed a nod of disappointment.
"I mean, yeah, I don't know how we're going to get through this," Turbo played, his voice remained stern, the gentle banter between them now crumpled amidst knowing smiles they couldn't contain any longer. Turbo rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Whatever, Bear, let's just... Get this over with."
"Yikes, I don't think we'll see this one through," Berri mumbled as the two began to gently saunter closer to the garage's teleportation pad; the grumbling irritation in Turbo's voice was entirely apparent, though Berri wondered if she could somehow troubleshoot her way through the tricky maze of emotions a Mr. Turbo Black was very secretly wonderful at deploying; she knew full well that she was the lucky duck that had the treasure map, the winding, thorny path directly to his heart.
