Reviews :

Burgie : Too true [

Nikki Firesong : LOL if only Berri hadn't have beat him to it! xD

Snake557 : She actually isn't in big trouble! She endured enough, I'd say haha

Jay Sketchin : YeahhhHHHHHHH

TheDoctorDusty : thank you so much! Idk where it comes from, I just like to throw in a little bit of everything into my stories :) I appreciate it!


Song Listened To :

The Wolf by SIAMES

They're All Gone by James Newton Howard


*Chapter 72*

As if entirely running on fumes, at this point, Berri's bare, bloodied feet finally bounced into the grit of Sugar Rush's luscious rainbow road. With wide eyes of teary terror that peered into the frigid distance, Orion City glowed like a beacon of hope, as did the palace, sat cozily on the neighboring cliffside. Berri's chest cavity began to rapidly rise and fall now in the form of a full fledged panic attack. In a stagger of fading eyesight, she began to clumsily stumble closer to the secretive teleportation pad just off to the edges of the waffle cone entrance of Sugar Rush. In said stumbling, her equally as quaking hands did everything to grapple for her phone, in her back left pocket. In the clumsiness, she winced in surprise and, as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, she quickly realized the whole of her phone screen was shattered. She firmly tapped the shattered glass and was frustrated to find the screen was almost entirely unresponsive. It pulled up only speckles and distorted portions of her lock screen's wallpaper, her favorite picture of her and Turbo together, Turbo successfully and cutely hiding his face amidst the tug-down of a beanie he was wearing, while Berri cheesily smiled on.

"Unlock," Berri firmly grunted in a high pitched noise of terrified frustration, she grit her teeth and, as if to now be past panic and well into a downward spiral of crazed horror, she glared down at her phone in urgent desperation and firmly shoved her thumb into the shards of uneven glass, "UNLOCK!"

Berri huffed a fogged breath of nervousness, tears continued to spill down her cheeks, and as the pain of the incredible gash on her foot began to now entirely set in, she felt the world around her desperately begin to fade away. She squinted her eyes, shook her head and did everything to stay conscious, though the second the secret teleportation pad lit up, upon the feel of Berri's nervous coding, the drop down menus, that rapidly began to display before her, might as well have looked like the cockpit of a space shuttle. She lulled her eyes closed, wobbled, and so urgently tried to remain conscious. With such, her trembling hand brought her phone to her mouth, she hoped at least the voice command would work.

"C-call Turbo," Her voice plead in sweet sorrow, her teary gaze peered to the drop down menu, and as she eased to the bottom of it, she could somehow see Turbo's name, pristine in it's little box, like a lighthouse's beam on stormy seas; she was floored to hear her phone's voice activation picked up on her request and swiftly began to call Turbo. With the sweet sound of his voice, she felt an onslaught of more tears burst forth.

"Hey, you," Turbo's soft and lovely voice cooed, entirely unaware of the chaos.

"Turbo, th-the deletion virus, it's... I-I w-was..." Berri began to loudly suck in deep breaths of full-on panic, though as her finger clumsily began to stab at Turbo's name, she clenched her teeth and continued on, "L-let me in, please, I-I'm... C-coming over."

"Where are you? What's going on?" Turbo suddenly stabbed in whole entire concern, with the strange tone and panting of Berri's voice, he immediately knew something was detrimentally wrong. With a sudden bang of background noise, on his end, it was now made very clear that he was suddenly tearing through his house. The heaving, raspy, loud sounds of her deep and chaotic breathing was now the only thing he could hear, which only now induced panic in his coding, "C'mon, babe, stay with me, where are you? Come over, don't say anything else, just come over. Do you need me to teleport you?"

"J-Just... Open your door, I d-don't..." Berri grunted a gentle wail of a cry as she finally sagged her finger into Turbo's highlighted name, and in a very healthy dose of whisked coding that had an entire hayday on Berri's incredibly fragile coding, she came into Turbo's dimly lit foyer and immediately fumbled to her knees, "I-I can't..."

"I'm coming, just stay put, are you safe?" Turbo's voice trembled in a stab of authority, he urgently scrolled through his own portion of the code room's digital pad, and the second he saw Berri's waypoints right at his front door, he raised his eyebrows, lofted the pad to his couch, hung up the call with Berri and shoved his phone into the gape of his favorite red sweat's side pocket.

With the rush of wanting to cue old, ancient glitching powers he used to have, he grit his teeth in frustration and full-on ran to his front door. In a slap of an emergency-open button he's never had to use, his large, hefty front door slid open faster than ever before. As he dart out into his foyer, he urgently peered to his teleportation pad and felt his brain practically turn to goo at the sight before him. He inhaled a choke of a breath, clutched his chest and, in a show of unmitigated horror, he took a clumsy, dizzy step backwards and was entirely uncertain what to even do with the image that was being lofted straight into his retinas, something he was certain was his actual worst nightmare. The haunting show of Berri nearly entirely covered in blood, the horrible gash on her foot and milder wounds all about her arms and hands, the lovely blue of her hair that eventually faded to a morbid dribble of darkening, drying blood, Turbo continued to reel as her shattered phone fell from her hands and she sagged to the tiles of Turbo's lovely foyer.

Although Berri was still barely conscious, Turbo knew not to ask questions. In a jolt of a lunging step, he immediately rushed to her being, scooped her up into his strong arms and was unflinching about the now coat of blood and vomit he had brought upon his own self. He knew the code room would solve all of these problems, the only thing he knew to convey in this instance was the solid, unwavering fact that he was going to go entirely above and beyond to set all of this right, both physically, emotionally and mentally. Sagged in Turbo's strong arms, Berri finally felt release. With a heavy thud, she finally rested her head against the broad of Turbo's chest and collar bone, a sigh of relief, a rest she finally could afford, and as she closed her eyes and soaked in the rushing, soothing motion of Turbo's swift movement, she knew that she would now be in an eternal sweep of entire care, a swathe of lovely overflow she knew she now well deserved, and didn't deserve, all in one go.

Turbo panted in a spike of fear, the golden glow in his eyes was entirely gone, his heart raced at the speed of light and the sheer amount of questions that stabbed the edges of his brain was becoming unbearable. As he tightly cradled Berri's body in his masculine arms, bridal style, he soaked his now lightly bloodied feet onto the teleportation pad at the edges of his dim hallway, the only one that lead to his own section of the code room, one floor down. The second the teleportation pad whisked the two away, Turbo's feet confidently stepped out into his code room. With the lights and code boxes entirely dimmed, due to the nighttime sleep settings, the only light that welcomingly gleamed in was the lights from Orion City below. With Turbo's authoritative presence, however, the bowing, round gridlines on the glossy white floor below gingerly came alive with the dim glow of Turbo's otherwise brightly glowing red coding.

"Cue code box, palace rule," Turbo urgently requested to the now gingerly awakening code room; a glowing red orb, right in the center, hauntingly flared with his vocal cue, and in an instant, a spanned web of every single person's code box, who lived on palace grounds or had high stature in the game, began to gently bob about the two. Turbo's eyes held tight to the orb right at the center as he continued on, "Berri Schweetz Kalivar, Turbo Cassius Black."

As the code room orb gingerly illuminated, once more, as if to politely and quickly respond to Turbo's urgent requests, both Turbo's and Berri's code boxes blipped to correction, a few feet before the both of them. Turbo bobbed a small nod and held Berri a little tighter, as if to lovingly assure to her that the pain would stop here.

"Full reset, internal and external," Turbo firmly commanded, and with an easy flicker of coding, they both immediately blipped back to the code room's safety in a full reboot, like promised.

With the still, lovely hum of the freshly awoken code room, and nothing but the soothing sound of Turbo's now calmly beating heart directly into her right ear, she felt every ounce of pain immediately vanish, like a breath of entire relief. With now pristine clothes, void of any single speck of blood, vomit or debris, she laid in Turbo's unwavering, hefty grip, a true damsel in distress. She could feel Turbo's now grey, still terrified gaze held tight to the crown of her fresh blue hair, his hot breath nervously coat the bridge of her nose, she fluttered her eyes and felt a strange pulsing of bittersweet, emotional hurt still remain in her circuits. She lulled her eyes closed, once more, and swore to herself that she could just lay here, in the safety of Turbo's code room, in the safety of Turbo's arms, for the rest of her life. Her eyes scrunched tight in the onslaught of a grimacing cry that brimmed at the back of her throat, her mind screamed at her to stiffen her upper lip and toughen up, yet her throbbing heart quietly urged her to grieve, to lay in distress, so long as it accompanied the one last shivering soul Arcade could dream up; Turbo Black.

"What the hell happened?" Turbo's voice only barely huffed in a staggering breath of a whisper, a lilt of genuine terror that still coursed through him, he knew full well that he would have an extremely hard time ridding his brain of the sheer sight of Berri's bloodied figure on the floor.

"Th-the deletion virus," Berri's still weak voice staggered as now fresh tears spilled down her dewy, clean cheeks. Turbo furrowed his eyebrows in whole confusion, though as Berri tenderly pressed on, Turbo's strong arms very daintily tilted her and eased her body upwards, and back to her feet. Upon release, his still trembling hands gripped Berri's upper arms, so to prove he was beyond glued to the topic at hand, the peer of his haunting grey gaze tight into her teary orbs was sweet release that only made Berri's grimacing cry spill over the edges. Big tears spilled down her red cheeks, the look of dewy, sweet, naive innocence now entirely wiped from her beautiful eyes, "I-I ran into one of the... Deletion viruses..."

"H-How... Why...?" Turbo huffed in a still falter of words, he narrowed his gaze, shook his head and only gripped Berri's upper arms a little tighter, "You left Sugar Rush? What happened?"

"I-I can't believe I... I l-left," Berri now staggered to get words out through the uproar of crying that her shaking lungs now so desperately wanted to emit. Through grit teeth and a now very glassy gaze, her trembling shoulders made her stance wobble a little as Turbo tried to hold her secure and still, "I-I'm such an idiot, Turbo... D-Don't... P-please don't... Tell my parents."

"Why did you leave?" Turbo worried, and as Berri's head tilted forward a little in the midst of now the sweetest, daintiest cry-hiccups he's ever heard, her beautiful blue hair draped over her eyes and wet cheeks. Turbo tilted his head, leaned down a little and lovingly tucked her blue hair out of the way, a secure tuck behind her cute ears, "Bee, i-if you have information about these deletion viruses, we HAVE to tell Tessa and Zed."

"Not right now, not right now, please," Berri urged as she reopened her glassy eyes and gave Turbo a look of whole desperation, "Please, I just... N-Need you, please... Don't tell them yet."

"I-I won't, I won't," Turbo secured; although the logical part of his brain was running at full speed, the cold desire to immediately tell the people above him was now very slowly being overwritten with a warm sense of care and tenderness; he was well aware Tessa and Zed had stature above him, though as he peered into Berri's eyes, he just barely smirked and understood that she, too, held rank over him, and anything she says, goes.

"Gunner was just... Telling me that he was excited for his b-band manager, Bedgy, to meet me," Berri desperately tried to collect herself, through sniffles and nervous breaks to catch her hiccuping breaths, she shook her head and scrunched her eyes tight, "It was... M-My stupid idea to jump over to EZ Living really quick..."

"Y-You went all the way to EZ Living?" Turbo firmly worried, though he scolded himself and knew not to get way too stern with her, he was well aware she had endured beyond enough.

"I w-went there and back, just fine," Berri complained through a teary whine, she shook her head and allowed her gaze to aimlessly get lost in the lovely, faded light brown, cozy pull-over sweater that Turbo was wearing. It had a grey Sugar Rush logo down the side, equally as faded, a more masculine touch to the game's design, "I-I made the mistake of... Leaving Gunner's security team behind, at End of Line station..."

"Y-You saw... You actually SAW the deletion virus?" Turbo huffed in rising concern, as if all the cogs in his brain were now beginning to run at full speed, just what Berri's fragile information meant for the entirety of Arcade.

"Saw," Berri huffed in a narrowed gaze of further impending tears. She shook her head and shut her eyes tight, "W-we played wall-ball with each other for half the train ride to Game Central Station... Just us, in that tiny train cab..."

Turbo raised his eyebrows in now impressed surprise, the idea of Berri fighting off said virus, in said tiny train cab, for that duration of time, was something he was now trying to wrap his mind around. He cocked an eyebrow and assessed Berri; with just how shaken up she was, and just how bloodied and battered she had come to him, he was certain he had likely underestimated Berri's abilities, and she was potentially telling the whole truth. Berri inhaled a trembling, nasally breath through her mouth and desperately peered into Turbo's eyes.

"I-It was terrifying, a-a... A huge black creature easily the size of Chester," Berri complained, though she now outwardly began to cry in Turbo's gravity, as if explaining all of this was now becoming too difficult, "I-It... It had mirror-like invisibility, a-and fangs, and... The noises it made...!"

"Easy," Turbo tenderly urged, though as Berri's shaking hands firmly covered her face, she now outwardly sobbed into her hands, cueing Turbo to fully understand that he likely should ease up on the prodding questions, for a second.

In an override of protection, he released Berri's upper arms, stood up straight and firmly tugged Berri into his chest and arms. Like the missing puzzle piece he knew she was, she fit square into his body, snug and perfect. The way her quaking arms grappled about his middle, the firm shove of her wet face into the gentle nook between his neck and collar bone, Turbo eagerly welcomed her home, his arms fastened securely about her upper back and shoulders. Turbo's mind reeled; what previously was a very strong, determined young lady, not afraid of anything, was now a trembling shell of stiff terror, the way her skeleton practically latched onto his and was now making very clear that she would likely never let go, Turbo felt his heart sag in defeat. It was here did he understand that Berri was very swiftly handed a solid life lesson, though he shut his eyes tight in dread with the tsunami of emotional trauma that would very heavily follow, for quite awhile.

"Shh-shh," Turbo so softly shushed in her ear as he sagged the side of his head to hers, he furrowed his brows amidst the tight scrunch of his eyes, and with a very tender, lulling sway, he now found that he was nearly holding her upright, almost without her help. Her soft, wailing cries held true in the form of trembling gasps for air, nasally protests of sobs tight into Turbo's chest, as if she was simply pouring her entire heart out for him and him only, he prayed the swaying and sweet nothings, in her ear, would cease the nightmarish sounds of her whole despair. He inhaled a shaky breath as the entirety of it now began to seep into his skin, and as tears finally stung his still grey, horrified gaze, he long blinked in cold realization and peered across his attentive, nervously poised code room. He shook his head and, as his masculine hand held the back of her head, he stared down the palace, far in the glowing distance, in a gentle pin-prickle of dread, "I-I'm here... I'm here."

Although Berri didn't move a single muscle, except to cry, she finally, after about five or ten minutes of Turbo's gentle swaying, began to calm. With the ease of his soothing, whispering words, Berri's soul finally began to succumb to the tenderness of it all, as if she only now finally realized she was safe from harm. As Turbo's gentle hand continued to ease down the back of her head, through her clean, soft and lovely blue hair, he was at least thrilled she had calmed in his gravity. The warm, welcoming hum of Sugar Rush's code room safely secured the two in a bubble of love, and although Berri was likely eons away from any bashful thoughts that could potentially come her way, due to being so intimately close with Turbo, he at least did what he could to comfort her, and remind her of better days and better times. Although outside of Turbo's confidence gage, he inhaled a shaky breath and knew, in times of need, he could muster the courage, to go to the ends of Arcade to comfort the one person that meant the absolute most to him.

As Turbo continued to gently, barely sway the two, he lulled his eyes closed and bravely began to hum the tune of their secret, little love song, to her, and no one but her. On key, right pitch, and sapped with the softest, sweetest hum of rasp, Turbo knew fully singing said song likely contained boasting a little bit more confidence than he could afford right now, though he was absolutely thrilled to feel Berri's shell of a figure warmly come back to life. She inhaled a deep, shaky breath, her tight grip, about his mid-section, lovingly drew up his body in a more confident, warm embrace, as opposed to the cling she was previously grappled in. She bashfully fluttered her wet eyelashes, tilted her head and rested the side of her head, for good, on the center of his broad collar. Turbo warmly smiled through closed lips, and as he tucked his chin to the top of her head, he softly continued to hum. Noticing the warm, golden glow that finally came back to him, via the gentle show of light on the bridge of his own nose, he patiently concluded the tune and allowed the two to sit in warm silence for a few moments.

"...Thank you," Berri's raspy, nasally voice finally croaked in a whisper, to which Turbo stiffly nodded, his chin still tucked over the top of her head.

"Anything," Turbo assured warmly, and although Turbo didn't want it to end, they slowly began to unglue themselves from each other. Turbo raised his eyebrows in a pluck of nervous concern, slid his hands into hers and was floored she stayed hovered half a foot before him, as if to promise that she could potentially need a further swathe of comfort, coming up, "I'm... I'm really proud of you."

"...H-how," Berri huffed, the only word she could even utter, the raw fact that she made likely the stupidest decision on the face of this whole Arcade, she narrowed her still teary gaze and peered hard into Turbo's eyes, full of distraught disbelief.

"Berri... You evaded the deletion virus. The very thing that no one could even put their finger on," Turbo staggered, he dared to give her a small smirk, "That... That's HUGE. And the fact that you can describe it, and know what it looks like."

"I-I... I can do more than just describe what it looks like," Berri muttered, though as Turbo furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, Berri gently reached into her back pocket and pulled out her materializer.

Turbo patiently watched as she thumbed through the holographic display, that emit from her materializer, though as she thumbed to the option of the bubbled, severed creature's hand and half of its forearm, Turbo messily covered his mouth, took a gentle step backwards, shook his head and was floored the second Berri eased it into tangible existence. Hovered secured in a bubble of her silver circuitry, said arm was half way through the process of being deleted, which was clear due to the red coding that was mid-pause, crawling up the length of its arm. Turbo huffed a shaky breath and now nervously brought his terrified attention to Berri before him; her eyes looked dark, a haunting display of amped maturity that now sapped her being, Turbo felt a pain strike his heart, almost as if she'd never be the same, after this. He glanced back and forth between her and her souvenir and gawked.

"Y-You killed it...?" Turbo wondered in a lilt of whole disbelief, though he knew now, at this point, that he had greatly underestimated her. Due to just how torn up she had appeared on his doorstep, he was certain said battle to the death was far greater than anything he could imagine, "Bubbling it kept his arm from deleting?"

"Guess so," Berri shrugged, though her sagged, sorrowful eyes now eased to their bare feet in whole entire distraught; more tears began to well in her eyes at new fears that coat her brain like molten lava, "I-I'll... I'll tell my parents in the morning. There's no way I can just... KEEP this information from them. I'll rat myself out... You don't have to worry about it."

"Berri," Turbo eased, knowing full well she was not wrong, though he also knew that Tessa and Zed would quite simply only be thrilled of one thing; that she was alive. Turbo shook his head and warmly returned his hand's grip to hers, "Sure you... Maybe shouldn't have snuck out, but... You're alive. That's all that counts. I wouldn't be worried about Tessa and Zed."

"I-I don't know what to tell Gunner, I don't know what to tell anyone," Berri mumbled, she shook her head and lulled her eyes closed, "No one's going to believe me, except anyone that sees this severed arm. And like hell mom and dad would let me bring it in for show and tell," she stabbed in now sarcastic, jaded misery; what once was a lighthearted, joking air about herself very swiftly turned into bitter vengeance of darkness.

"Let's... Just try and get some sleep," Turbo sighed, his raspy voice carried on in defeat, "We can worry about what to do afterwards. Nothing is going to get solved right this second, it's three in the morning."

"I-I don't want to sleep alone," Berri blurt in a swell of added fear that sapped any shred of tip toeing and bashful flirting she even had in her system, "P-please, I... Please let me stay with you, please. I'm begging, please."

"Berri, you don't have to beg, you know my answer," Turbo huffed a gentle breath of a laugh as he shook his head and squeezed her hand; he knew, full well, this wasn't an invitation, this wasn't for funsies, this was strictly fear driven and he was well aware he needed to entirely respect that. He bobbed a nod and squeezed her hand a little harder, "We can sleep in my loft. Top of Sugar Rush, away from harm... Sunlight in the morning."

Berri nodded at his quick idea, and although she could feel her heart absolutely begin to harden, she could feel the base of said hard, stone cold heart still hold a bit of gooey warmth, a resting place she now was certain she'd only leave for Turbo. Although the lovely, exciting thoughts of being a potential celebrity, and dating one to boot, was still hovered tight in the back of her mind, the only thing she wanted right now was to be in Turbo's safe embrace. She could feel herself weighing into a very confusing, heart-torn situation, and as if every situation and ordeal also came with its loft of excuses as to just why she was acting the way she was, she turned a blind eye to herself and wondered just when these kinds of torn feelings even became possible. The only thing narrowed down her tunnel vision was simply to curl away with Turbo for the rest of the morning, to pray that her parents would understand, and to somehow hope that Gunner, as well as the whole of Arcade, would simply not be made aware of any of this nasty ordeal.