Reviews :

Jay Sketchin : For real! I'd freak out too, if I was Bug LOL!

Nikki Firesong : that's great foresight you have there! Their kids' powers will definitely be ones for the books. :)


Song Listened To :

Loyal by ODESZA


*Chapter 105*

In the rush of the reverberating bass, the skull crushing amount of adrenaline that sapped the entire arena the four owned, Berri's fingers moved like lightnig down the bridge of her glistening, expensive guitar. Although simply inside a rehearsal, blaring to a crowd of a few thousand empty seats, she still imagined the riot of the crowd out before her. The rigor of hitting every single note on cue, the explosion of music the four created, it was like a symphony of in sync rhythm, something that made Berri's heart race, the rush of purpose flood her veins, and with such a hot, fast melody that sapped her entire being, she absolutely could not help but sing along with Gunner's powerful words, lyrics he, himself, came up with, she began to nearly belt the song in her own version of harmony, a kiss of soprano she nearly itched to give Gunner's masculine touch, she got lost in the act of creating something beautiful that she nearly missed the lower of Gunner's mic, cueing the rest of the band to cease production.

"Bear, Bear," Gunner rushed, he reserved irritation, though the slicing motion of his arm made very blatantly clear that he was maybe well past annoyance. Berri panted through her mouth, sagged her shoulders, eased a dewy look of cuteness and felt her face get hot the second Gunner cocked an eyebrow and gave her a mildly authoritative look of sincere, nervous seriousness, "The mic on your guitar is picking up all your singing, Bear."

"I-I'm sorry," Berri staggered, the race of her heart came to a very jarring halt, she frowned and tried her hardest to catch her breath, though through the several times Gunner has begged her to ease up on the conjoined singing, she felt her heart begin to harden to the very raw desire to sing. She knew it shouldn't be that big of a deal, and with such, something inside her begged to at least try and stand up for herself, "... I-I really can't just like... Sing in the background? Just a little harmony here and there?"

"We already have Wren on the back up vocals, we need a man's voice in the background, babe," Gunner tried to reiterate, as if maybe he had gone over this with Berri before, and although he was doing a great job at showing softness, the desperation in his eyes was real. He pleadingly looked Berri in the eye, across the dozen foot gap, and apologetically shook his head, "Just... Try your hardest to reserve yourself, hun. Your voice is beautiful, but... It's contaminating the track, here."

"Sorry," Berri sagged in defeat, she inhaled a deep breath and put on a brave face for the time being, though she almost nervously glanced back to Wren and Theo, who both equally hung in almost irritated wait, a rush of defense to their princess's side, something they'd forfeit all shreds of their celebrity lifestyle to uphold, something Berri diligently took note of.

"You're okay babe," Gunner grew softer, he jostled his mic a little and gave her a weak smile, "Maybe... We can jam out together after practice, and you can sing all you want then, does that sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Berri nodded, the delighted look in her eye was forced and vacant, though she was thrilled it at least pacified Gunner enough to have him turn to Wren and Theo and begin giving instructions to them.

Berri sagged her shoulders, which caused her gorgeous blue guitar to droop on the strap. She gingerly reached up, out of instinct, and gently gripped the guitar pick that Turbo had given her. The grooves in her fingerprint, on her thumb, easily sagged over the grooves of the lettering engraved on the back, she could successfully feel every single letter of the words 'here and now' seemingly imprinted on her heart. Her eyes glossed the dark arena with a twinge of longing, a twinge of sorrow, a strange feeling of mild disconnect she was beginning to sink into, unwillingly. Lost in a sea of stage lights, the empty arena out before them was something truly to behold, and although her stomach knotted with the idea of just the size of a crowd to be placed here, she regretted spiraling into the dreaded thoughts she tried her very hardest not to think about.

As if now inevitable at this point, she allowed herself to aimlessly gaze out to the crowd as Gunner's deep voice gave kind instruction to Wren and Theo from afar, the murmurs of their masculine voices dribbled to that of incoherent nonsense as she daydreamed the vision of seeing Turbo's happy, golden glowing eyes out in the crowd. She long-blinked in sadness, thinking that there likely wasn't a single thing she wouldn't do to see him standing there, cheering her on, though she grappled the pick a little harder and knew, full well, he'd be cheering from afar. No matter how much it pained her to just swallow and deal with. In the act of lulling her eyes closed, amidst a defeated eye roll, she felt her skin go cold at the sight of something familiar out in the dimly lit arena.

In a hard, frozen stance of a double take, Berri fixated her hawk-like gaze to the edges of the empty arena and felt her pupils tighten in a draw of triggered fear. There, in plain sight, lurking near the edges of the arena's balcony's shadow, were two deleters. Berri froze, the prickle of goosebumps that shot up her arms then sailed down her spine in an electric jolt of terror, and although she was now plagued with said terror, she felt as if she couldn't do anything to get her feet to move. As if holding her breath for eternity was now her greatest talent, she fixated her gaze to the two deleters in whole, undivided attention as they simply loitered in baited wait, as if they were absolutely certain they weren't seen. Berri felt her feet finally begin to move, and with such a burst, she inhaled a trembled breath, backstepped a few times and urgently began to make her way to Wren's glorious keyboard and mix-station set up.

"Please tell me you see them too," Berri huffed over the nearly hundreds of keys and knobs Wren was loosely surrounded by, though he bulged his eyes in terror and grew stiff in uncertain anticipation.

"Who," Wren huffed silently, though much to Berri's delight, his eyes began to scan the empty arena.

"Guys, what's the issue?" Gunner pressed, his tone becoming more and more agitated, though Berri knew she held rank in this situation and thwarted Gunner's mild attitude with a firm finger pointed to the ground.

"SH-" Berri sharply addressed, she gestured to Gunner and peered to him in heightened terror in the corner of her eye, though she muttered to carry on, "There are two deleters at the edge of the arena and I don't want them to know that we see them."

"Bear, there's nothing," Wren stated in a tone that showed nonchalant strength, though he wildly flinched once Berri glowered him down and silently begged him to keep his tone low.

"There's two?" Gunner now eased on board, his hushed tone had Berri grateful that at least someone took directions well, though Berri nervously glanced to Gunner and was very certain that the terror in her eyes was real. As smoothly as he could, he glossed his eyes about the arena and felt stumped, though he brought his diligent attention back to Berri, "We can't see them, then... I see nothing."

"There's two, they're loitering by the middle exit," Berri rushed, though she sagged her guitar and peered down to her palm in aimless thought, "H-How can I see them, but you guys can't..."

"Guys?" Theo called from across the small stretch, he peeked over the top of his shiny drum set, "Y'good over there?"

"Just fine," Berri's sharp voice suddenly pierced, though she peered down to Wren in terror and shook her head, "We have to get out of here... We all have the deletion protection, but Gunner and the rest of the team doesn't."

"We have to hurry, then," Wren mumbled nervously, and much to Berri's relief, Gunner quickly eased to Theo's aid and silently filled him in on everything that was going on.

In the quick shuffle of abandoned instruments, the maze of back stage corridors they so quickly traversed, the four were successful in exiting out the back end of the massive arena whilst successfully escorting all staff and security out of the building. In the silent sting of panic in the air, everyone fled as fast as they could, wasting no time to stick around and be deleted out of thin air. Alongside the quick escape, Gunner, Theo, Berri and Wren were successful in jumping into a larger vehicle with nearly pitch-black tinted windows, an organized scramble of climbing into the cranked car and forgetting seat belts entirely, Gunner's driver floored it as soon as all doors were shut.

"Holy shit, I'm sad I didn't get to see it," Theo grunted, the twinkle in his eye promised Berri that these boys could only really sympathize with her, and nothing more.

"Hopefully they'll be gone soon, we have to keep practicing," Gunner stated in a disgruntled tone as he lofted his eyes to Wren, all three boys had a floored look of terror and excitement on their faces, "I-It's not cool that there was two of them in our presences, but... I'd be so interested to see what they look like."

"Big, gangly black things, I think?" Wren staggered, though they all sagged in impending guilt as Berri sharply shot each one of them looks of full fledged traumatic pain from the far back seat.

"They're tall, slick, have red markings, weird rectangle pupils and daggers for teeth," Berri stabbed in whole, riled irritation, the post-trauma that came flooding her veins nearly began to take her down, one stress mark at a time, "They're incredibly beautiful creatures with a roar that will haunt you for the rest of your life... How the hell I'm able to see them, and you guys aren't, is now beyond me..."

"Sorry, Bear," Theo mumbled softly as he looked down, Wren and Gunner equally eased small apologies as well.

"What does this mean for the concert?" Gunner worried quietly, they all shifted as Gunner's driver did everything he could to get the four to the safety of Gunner's home, high on the hill, "If that arena isn't safe for ticketholders, then... W-We gotta figure something out."

"No where is safe," Berri muttered darkly as she nervously looked down at her open palms in the dark of the SUV's interior, Turbo's pick necklace gently swayed back and forth from the movement in her downward peripheral, causing her to feel further agitation for everything going on. Alongside that, the faint glow of her stress marks, on her temples, easily glinted on the shiny pick that almost haphazardly dangled from her throat. She shook her head, shut her eyes tight and held her head in her hands, "I-I gotta call dad..."

"And Turbo," Wren eased without thinking, though he felt instant regret the second Gunner furrowed his eyebrows and shot Wren a look of mild confusion, though before Gunner could press on the topic at hand, Theo interrupted the ordeal.

"Let's... Just get inside Gunner's house, to safety," Theo eased with reason as he gestured his hand out a little and let out a gentle sigh of relief, "We can make all the phone calls we want once we're behind closed doors."


A/N :

Alright guys! The tally has spoken, and enough if you guys would like me to do the comic pages from the chapter where Berri runs into the deleter. I'm terrified because it includes nearly no dialog, but I ALSO have decided to include the chapter AFTER it where Turbo comforts Berri! A little incentive for me to push through and accept the challenge haha. Chapter 46 has two more pages needing to be completed. WeFINALLY are getting internet at our house tomorrow so it'll be easier to complete. Thanks guys! Hope you're enjoying so far~