Reviews :
Burgie : Yeah, he's literally got nothing to lose, so he's just gunna let his mouth run lol!
faolan1230 : LMAO! AQUI Y AHORA I'm crying laughing hahah
Snake557 : Too true :P
Nikki Firesong : LOL! Yeah Berri definitely gives it to him. Tessa really no longer needs to go berserk on anyone, now that Berri shows her true colors, here.
A/N :
I'm glad you guys are enjoying the drama so far! I'm going to put another WARNING here, to just remind everyone of the stronger-than-usual cussing that goes on, inside this chapter. That's all! :) Thanks guys!
Song Listened To :
Game Time ft. Ninja by 3LAU
Ask Me Twice by Natiive and Effie Passero
*Chapter 125*
Berri felt her face get hot, suddenly the room about her seemingly brightened in a white hot show of unadulterated shyness, and it was in this subtle outburst of rising frustration did she feel her stomach clench in immediate regret; not in the way of sticking up for Turbo, though doing so in this land mine of a group of individuals, which now included a very mouthy Turbotime foe. Berri swallowed hard, and although everyone nervously dragged their attention away from Berri and slowly to Lash's interpretation of this nonsense, Berri nervously slid her gaze to Turbo and bit her lower lip a little. In the catch of Turbo's golden eyes, he peered to her in a soft show of bittersweet, apologetic shock, as if to quietly convey that she really didn't need to stick her neck out so incredibly far. Nonetheless, he eased the peaks of a tender smile, just for her, to somehow prove to her that he was entirely flattered and grateful for her undying loyalty.
"Well," Lash huffed in a breath of a mean, airy chuckle. He raised his eyebrows, gave Turbo a wide, coy grin of rising glee and firmly back-handed Turbo's right peck, which had the sweet smile immediately wiped from his face in a flinch of a jarring back-step of mild surprise, though Turbo shut his eyes tight in impending irritation and was now fully prepared for Lash to have his way. Lash urgently peered to Berri and honed in on her, and it was here did Berri feel hot regret now swathe her soul in an easy gulp of death, Lash's sauntering figure very slowly began to prod its way closer to her, as if to wonder if he was allowed to move about the game, "Looks like you have a taker, Mr. Turbotastic."
"Leave her alone," Turbo stabbed firmly, his deep voice croaked to a depth of seriousness, the code room tiles nearly reverberated with the bass. Turbo felt beads of sweat crown his temples, his heart raced, the sheer fact that Berri had now suddenly put their little ember of love, in which they were trying to forget, right in the spotlight, center-stage.
"You want her for yourself, man, I get it, I get it, I'll keep my hands to myself," Lash cooed sweetly, though his words and demeanor were as sharp as daggers, "So sweet of you, there, miss... You mind telling me your name, then?"
"Berri," She stabbed, she glowered Lash down, though as he grew within five feet of her, she felt her airways tighten as vivid, nightmarish flashbacks began to desperately try to overtake her vision.
She heaved a shaky breath and desperately tried to peer into Lash's eyes with some form of reverence, the sheer fact that this lore-ridden being was now staring her dead in the face, a creature related to the one person she cared for the most, she felt her veins wiggle as every single last memory, from Sugar Rush's final winning battle, somehow came rushing back to her. Berri was well aware she had adopted memories from when she was simply a loading bar inside her mother's coding, though somehow, the raw fact that these adopted memories were something she could relive did not make the haunting experience, of Lash closing in on her, any easier. Lash looked the most like Turbo, which had Berri reeling, though his skin was a little lighter. He was about as tall as Nox, though he had Turbo's build. His short, lighter grey, scraggly hair looked unkept and not thought on, and although Berri was sure she'd find solace in his eyes, it was the one thing she now was nearly hyperventilating over. The very thing she had nightmares of, as a child, the very thing she struggled with in the venture of befriending Turbo. Lash's eyes were everything she was terrified of, a vision of horror now come true, right before her. Black slits that were more vertically rectangular than Turbo's, making it quite harder to navigate and decipher warmth, or any fragile human emotion, for that matter.
"... Have we met before?" Lash's voice croaked in genuine tenderness as he narrowed his gaze and side-eyed Sugar Rush's princess, though it was here did Berri see Tessa cover her face in a sag of dread, tight in her peripheral. Although Berri inhaled a shaky breath to try and confidently answer Lash's question, he huffed a falter of a statement, slowly shook his head in unmitigated surprise, crossed his arms and gingerly waggled his finger at Berri, "It's you... You're the one that ruined my plan."
"I said leave her ALONE," Turbo put firm, near-bellowing emphasis on his last word, and although Lash flinched and just barely looked over his shoulder, to his older brother, he brought his schemingly grinning smile back to Berri in a show of now taunting excitement.
"I'll be damned," Lash huffed in a breath of a small laugh as he shook his head in disbelief, once more, though he raised his eyebrow in poised delight and, although he gestured outwards to Berri, he firmly peered to the group about him, "I guess this is just what happens when illicit gamer breeding goes unchecked."
"We've met," Berri snipped in now a full-rise of wrecking hatred, she clenched her fists and almost wanted to warn the others, about her, that this could very easily get ugly; she was almost relieved to see Turbo now beginning to press closer to the two in an authoritative march of nervous determination.
"Oh I see what you're doing, here!" Lash blurt in a gentle breath of surprise, he urgently peered back to Turbo with a wide, scheming grin, one that way too easily mocked Turbo's lovely smile, something that Berri now felt entirely strange about. Turbo halted in his footsteps as Lash gingerly took a few paces back, so to get close enough to Turbo to, once again, backhand him on the chest, a brotherly swat of almost mocking approval, "You can't have the girl you want, so you're just... Worming your way up the royal ladder. Guy gets the princess, one day becomes King of Sugar Rush. A more... Civil and peaceful way of going about things, and... May TAKE you a long while, but-"
"Th-that's NOT the case, Lash," Turbo firmly argued, he urgently shook his head and pleadingly peered into Lash's eyes, "I genuinely like all of these people and wish no ill on them... Can we PLEASE stay on topic? I simply had a few questions for you, I wasn't wanting all of this other bullshit."
"Right, right, okay, sure," Lash guffawed, he flagged his hand downward at Turbo, as if to dismiss, and with a teasingly cheery smile, he almost lovingly pat Turbo's upper back and grimaced the group a fake smile of secretive, scheming glee, "He LOVES you guys, really. He'd make a GREAT King, can you imagine?"
Although Berri was entirely certain that her family members, gathered around, weren't gong to believe anything Lash was saying, she still felt entirely mortified. She held the sides of her head, shot Turbo an urgent look of whole apology, shook her head just barely and, in the midst of inhaling a shaky breath, she flinched once Lash darted his creepy eyes right into hers and began to return the few paces he had reversed, a direct path to her that he sought to complete.
"Sweet victory for nailing my knees to the floor and forcing me to grovel at your pretty little feet," Lash muttered through the grit of his smiling teeth, he seethed as he firmly pressed closer to Berri. He sharply pressed on, his furrowed brow easily showed a vein in the center of his forehead, "Now that you're all grown and aren't simply bringing your mother back from the dead by merely existing, due to the muddied nature of your coding... Why don't you go ahead and delete me, like you wanted to, all that time ago?"
"No one wanted to delete you," Berri argued gently, though she still shook with the onslaught of all sorts of emotions that coursed through her silver circuits, the stress marks on her temples began to flare in rippled surges of her accelerate heart rate.
"As if somehow coming out of that drama was what won the Queen a fucking Nobel Peace Prize," Lash choked a mean laugh, he gingerly lofted his gaze in Tessa's direction, she easily looked just as angry as Berri, though was doing a much better job at concealing it all, "How HONORABLE. The Queen spared a lost boy, she has SO much kindness in her heart!"
"Don't say one cross thing about my mother," Berri nearly growled, she clenched her fists and could hardly take the jabs being thrown at her loved ones, though Lash eased a chuckle and crossed his arms.
"Yeah, watch it," Zed muttered as he took a gentle step forward, and although him and Tessa had learned a great deal of rising above naysayers, he felt his blood begin to reach a boiling point.
"Oh, honey, I have absolutely nothing to lose anymore," Lash snapped, he widened his eyes and grew serious, and as he took a step deeper into Berri's now tighter vicinity, Berri felt her whole demeanor sag in entire fear, the reality of this nightmarish being now eking into her bubble, she felt as if her heart was about to stop entirely. Lash grit his teeth and carried on, unabated, hopelessly, "You go ahead and let Turbo worm his way into your heart, it's all a scheming joke to get the crown... You may have outsmarted me once, little girl, but I WILL have the last laugh..."
"Think what you will," Berri stabbed, she did anything and everything she could to use conclusory phrases to get Lash's cross-hairs off of her, once and for all.
"Tenderhearted people get absolutely no where in this world, Berri," Lash stated firmly in a quiet tone of a stabbing whisper, he leaned about a foot from Berri's face and just barely shook his head, his haunting gaze to her was entirely unwavering, "I'd watch your back. This is an infiltration you're clearly too stupid back away from. You could be a good little girl and actually talk to me and listen to reason... Unlike your mother. The conceded, royal bitch that she is."
With a soft inhale through the nose, Berri lulled her eyes closed, reeled her already clenched fist, hovered for a split second and simply prayed. In the gentle, twisting wind up that seemingly hung in slower than slow motion, Berri could feel every single last ounce of every relative before her so graciously gift her with every last pixel of the universe's energy, just for this one, single game-ending hit. With the bone crunching clench of her teeth, the sharp flex of her core, Berri easily careened her fist straight into Lash's jaw, sending him wobbling backwards with a pop of surprise that made the entire group jolt in unmitigated horror. Lash grunted a deep noise of pure, blind-sided surprise, and as Berri's clenched fist came back to her side, she inhaled a deep, shaky breath through her nose and honed in tight on her target. Seeing red, she pursued Lash in a quick few stomps of unstoppable rage, it plagued her unlike anything she had ever felt before.
"Say it again!" Berri shouted with every last pixel of energy in her chest, and though she now could feel Turbo's, Wren's and Rancis's hands firmly grapple her wrists, sides, lower arms and shoulders, to desperately try and restrain her, she urgently struggled past the mess of men and gave Lash a pure look of hatred. Turbo, Wren and Rancis were successful in holding her back, and though they all urgently tried to coo to Berri and get her to let up in her pursuit, they greatly struggled against her newfound, unleashed wrecking power. Berri panted through her nose, and the grit of her teeth, and as big tears of anger and frustration welled in her eyes, she staggered a deep inhale and let the whole, unrestrained power of her vocal chords just sap the entirety of the code room, "SAY IT AGAIN!"
"Fuck me twice," Lash hissed in a choke as he wobbled to get to his feet, he firmly rubbed his jaw, stretched it in a gape of unadulterated confusion and peered to Berri in now raw surprise, as if he was entirely certain he didn't see that coming, "Say it again?! I'll say it again! I'll say it over and over until it gets through your tiny-ass PEA BRAIN!"
"SAY IT!" Berri screamed, she was successful in giving Wren's chest a firm shove and getting his strong grip away from her, leaving Turbo and Rancis with not much man-power left to hold Berri's now writhing power back.
"You'll never amount to Queen under your mother's rule cause she's a selfish... Little... BITCH!" Lash's voice cracked in a bellow of mean, cackling delight, and it was here did Berri understand that the code room was now hers, for this raw instant.
With the firm, though lovingly restraining grip of Rancis's and Turbo's hands on Berri's lower arms, she clenched her teeth and was well aware she had to get out of their hold, though in such a way that was graceful. Berri inhaled yet another deep, seething breath through her nose and felt every last strand of her wrecking and glitching DNA melt together in harmony. Although she hadn't taken due time to really hone her wrecking skill, she did everything she could to merge both of her powers equally, to form a wrecking power that was on fire with electricity. In the swirl of jolting, coded, silver magic that swirled her circuits down her arm, she opened her palms wide and thrusted her arms and elbows straight into a lock, down and back behind her. With the earth shattering sound of code room tiles popping into a chaotic frenzy of wrecked ceramic, without even being touched, both Rancis and Turbo urgently stumbled backwards through the perfect, spherical destruction of pristine tiles, shards of ceramic that went flying in all directions, outwards from Berri and Lash.
Everyone urgently began to scramble away from the pop of chaos, mutters and grunts of concern, and in the now divide between the center of the fight, Berri honed in on her target and swiftly began to stomp her way towards Lash's now confused, discombobulated presence. He raised his eyebrows in unadulterated surprise, certain that a second generation self-programmed gamer wouldn't dream of having this strong of powers, Berri glowered him down with a look that could melt his soul in a second flat. She visibly grit her teeth, threw her right arm out, and with the weapon that was her molten silver coding, she wrinkled her nose in further hatred and allowed every single last one of Turbo's coding lessons rush her, in this instance. Within seconds flat, typically unheard of, she sourced Lash's core coding and dug in. Immediately, the two stressor marks, on his jugular, surfaced in two, larger, molten hot red honeycombs of dire urgency, and with Berri's unforgiving chokehold, his body went rigid in unadulterated, strangulated surprise.
"You had one chance to make this as easy as possible, and of course you decided to take the different route," Berri's trembling, livid voice shook the entire code room, and as she pressed within a few feet of Lash, his knees buckled and his limper lower body sagged to the ground as his stiff core, shoulders and upper body began to urgently struggle, his desperate grey hands began to claw at his own throat in entire confusion. Berri inhaled a trembling breath and noticed the code room immediately hone to her presence, the main code room orb hovered a dozen feet above her, as if to promise to everyone here that Berri had the floor, "You're going to give us the information we need before I rip the coding right out of you... Like what you did to me and my mother, all that time ago... And I PROMISE I won't make it quick."
"Wh-what information?" Lash barely wheezed, he narrowed his gaze in now pure, urgent struggle, he peered up to Berri in a rile of genuine terror.
"We know you have something to do with the deleters, the malware protection you helped garner from the dark web," Berri yelled down into Lash's face, she firmly pointed back and to her left all while keeping Lash in said choke hold. In the jostle of the toss of her eyesight over her shoulder, she firmly yanked Lash along with her, by nothing but the strict formation that her coding had on Lash's core coding. He grunted a sharp noise of pain, grimaced his eyes shut and was dragged on his knees a few feet. Berri firmly pointed in the direction of the still screenshot, of Lash inside Eighteen's memory, and firmly got back in his face, mid-point, "We have physical proof that you're behind all this bullshit. Now, give us the information we need."
"I-I wasn't in... Ch-charge of th-that," Lash's voice wheezed, he urgently held his throat with his trembling hands and peered up to Berri in a show of genuine plea, he shook his head a little and did what he could to swallow as Berri's coding remained firmly dug into his, her right hand hovered about a foot and a half from his now strained jugular, the pop of his veins and adams apple was painfully prominent, "I-I left... B-Before I had to..."
"To what!" Berri barked in whole frustration, she jostled Lash around in frustration.
"B-Before I had to t-turn Turbo in," Lash struggled to get out, he choked a noise and pleadingly peered to Berri in desperation, "I... I-I COULDN'T."
Berri grit her teeth in further irritation, though her coding now sapped with sorrow and confusion. In a firm swipe, she urgently thrusted Lash to the side and released him of the choke hold she had on his core coding, something that had every glitching master, in the room, wide eyed in froze surprise. Berri panted through her nose and turned around, her arms and hands shook as she looked about the disheveled, confused group about her. Turbo was the closest to her, had previously stepped his way through the wreckage of tile, his chest urgently rose and fell through his heavy, terrified breathing, his utterly concerned golden eyes peered hard into Berri's, a whole swathe of entire confusion. Lash urgently coughed a noise and rubbed his throat as he lay knelt on the tiles, though he finally dug his hateful gaze into the back of Berri's head.
"Y-You really think I rearranged the entire game to keep just YOU fools away?" Lash's deep and now raspy voice barked as he regained the ability, he shook his head and narrowed his grimacing, disturbed gaze, "No, no... If you really think I'm the bad guy in this sick and twisted tale, then you've ALL got another thing coming."
"Who is it," Berri stabbed in still heated frustration, though she peered hard into Turbo's eyes, who stood frozen about five feet from her, the closest from anybody.
"... Zed knew him well," Lash's voice grumbled to a depth of conclusion as he glowered his hateful, golden eyes to Zed's position on the grid; it was here did everyone nervously drag their molten gazes to their King in a wavering wobble of nearly betrayed confusion.
Zed held his ground, though also held his entirely confused eyes to Lash's, as if to question just who in Arcade this particular person could be, though before Zed could step about and begin to heavily question, Lash shot his mean, taunting gaze back to Berri, another tactic to fervently get the attention off of him, a scrambling notion of desperately attempting to bob and weave his way out of this mess.
"That's some serious coded skill, you have there, your highness," Lash's mean voice pressed quickly, he did his best to try and get to his feet with an exhausted grunt. He continued to rub his neck as he cocked an eyebrow in her direction, "I see Turbo has taught you well..."
Berri raised her eyebrows and fervently dug her now embarrassed and still heatedly frustrated gaze straight into Turbo's frozen disposition; they were forever the benchmarked topic of this ordeal. Berri sagged her shoulders in mild defeat and gave Turbo a mildly mortified look, as if to silently convey to him that she was well aware she was now putting their romantic affairs wide out in the open, a show of not thinking before she did or said anything. Turbo exhaled a shaky breath and gave her an equally as frustrated and nervous look, though his twinkling, golden gaze held to her in an overflow of forgiveness, as if to tell her that this was the price they paid for their secretive, romantic endeavors.
"I don't think I've ever even seen Turbo access core coding that quickly," Lash's voice deeply rasped, he sagged, as if he had potentially given up on fighting and now just wanted to poke at the open wound's of the fresh crew about him, a sick game of not giving a crap any longer, now that he's lost so badly. Lash cocked an eyebrow and eyed the back of Berri's head in gentle confusion, "Even with all the crap that I have done, doesn't even compare to the bullshit Turbo's caused for the Arcade."
Turbo sagged his shoulders and felt every single last pair of eyes, in the room, hone tight to him in tender confusion, and as him and Berri remained locked in molten, nervous eye contact, he could tell Berri was now becoming angry, once again. Turbo gingerly shook his head at Berri, to silently state to her that everything he was saying was strictly to get under her skin and nothing more.
"From the coded connection we had, I'd say its safe to say you've already fallen into Turbo's little trap," Lash grunted with a wide smile, he crossed his arms and glanced back and forth between Berri and Turbo, desperate to put the two on blast, "How much did he have to pay you to allow him to have his hands all over you, like that?"
"Th-thats... Not..." Turbo started, he heaved a shaky breath and now urgently glossed his eyes to Zed and Tessa, and although Turbo held his palm out and upwards, in pleading desperation, Zed shut his eyes in a lull of mild annoyance and shook his head at Turbo, as if to silently comfort Turbo in the fact that everyone inside the room was taking everything that Lash had to say with a grain of salt.
"Right, right, STRIKE that, your honor," Lash barked sarcastically as he urgently gestured towards Tessa and Zed, "Don't tell mommy and daddy about the mild fit of fooling around we did, huh."
"God dammit, Whiplash," Turbo grunted, and although he remained hovered before Berri, he shot Lash an urgent death stare of now destroyed, deflated irritation.
"Y'tell Berri about that secretive thirteenth stressor point just yet?" Lash side-eyed Turbo in cheeky, boyish delight, and although Turbo lulled his eyes closed in now molten embarrassment, he could feel Berri's furious aura before him remain, unwavering from said heated feelings.
"Y'know, if I played my CARDS right, Lash, then MAYBE I would've," Turbo barked in solid, sarcastic irritation, and although his words weren't far from the truth, he figured shooting Lash down with a bit of his own medicine would balance the scale; Lash narrowed his eyes in tender confusion and shook his head.
"I just don't understand it, Turbo's the hugest, meanest bad guy in this entire game... Wanted by confused, badass Tron do-gooders that have absolutely lost their minds," Lash pressed in a weird wave of warm sincerity, though he finished off his single strain of genuineness with a mean huff of a laugh, "That coded road goes both ways, sweets... You strangle me and I get a good look into just what makes you tick... Why on Earth is this sad sack of mistakes on your list of highest priorities?"
"Because I love him," Berri's now trembling voice stabbed confidently as she firmly opened her eyes and peered hard into Turbo's aura.
Turbo's gaze urgently blinked from Lash's figure and straight into Berri's eyes in a bout of prickled surprise. He raised his eyebrows and held his eyes firmly locked to Berri's in speechless shock, and although he had been feeling anger creeping up into his veins, he felt his heart suddenly jolt in a hot, reverberating cleanse. He huffed an audible exhale of sheer surprise and long-blinked his twinkling, golden gaze tight into Berri's trembling blue eyes, and though she looked entirely disheveled, wholly irritated and exhausted from everything she had just endured, the windows to her soul hooked tight to Turbo's gaze in such a clear, concise way, as if to assure him that this was the painful truth. Although Turbo wanted to forget the world about him and rush her with his own confessions, he froze and now felt heat sap his circuits in uncertainty, as if Berri's beautiful, honest confession wasn't simply to get a ball rolling, but more an act of getting a massive weight off of her chest, to prove a point and nothing more. The painful wall they now hit, together, Turbo sagged his shoulders and urgently peered into Berri's eyes as the code room fell silent, not even Lash had a retort. Just as he was about to reach his hand out to her and hopefully aid her rushing feelings, he largely flinched as Berri suddenly whirled around and firmly stomped in Lash's direction.
"If my parents let you free, and you're out roaming Orion City one day, just understand that you're on my hit list," Berri stabbed firmly as she pointed a finger deep into his face; Turbo reeled at the sight of Lash legitimately flinching in terrified surprise, an honest show of now just how secretly scared Lash was of Berri. Berri got in Lash's face and clenched her fists, "When you're out living your best life, getting yourself that latte, taking that stroll, turning over that dead leaf of yours... You watch your back... Cause I'll be there."
Lash raised his eyebrows and nervously peered hard into Berri's dominant gaze, and although he wanted to desperately bark back a retort and pretend that he wasn't scared, he remained frozen and felt as if this probably wasn't the best time to pretend to everyone that he was scared of nothing. Berri shot her eyes down and to her side, she expanded her rib cage and now allowed her voice to broaden the lot of every shivering soul inside the code room.
"Whatever was said inside this code room STAYS inside this code room," Berri bellowed in sharp, dominant assurance. She pointed down to the ground and cocked an eyebrow, "Do I make myself CLEAR?"
Everyone nervously mumbled notions of trembling agreeing, and upon Berri hearing no objection, she turned her glowering facial expression of pure hatred back to Lash's shaking soul, and with the zip of her silver coding, she skillfully utilized the code room's abilities and successfully teleported herself out of the likes of the person she was forever curious to meet, and now regretful that she did. Lash flinched in whole surprise, and as soon as Berri was deep in his face, she had vanished into thin air and was whisked away to wherever, certain that absolutely no one was brave enough to follow her.
