Reviews :

faolan1230 : :D haha true. You'll seeee.


Song Listened To :

This Time by Foxworth Hall


*Chapter 226*

"Wait, wait, we lost Turbo," Wren mumbled in rising urgency from the back seat; with Berri at the wheel and Mara in the front seat, Wren was positioned directly behind her whilst Lash sat behind Berri. Wren furrowed his eyebrows, nervously looked out the dark tint of his own window and finally brought his eyes to Lash's golden eyes, he equally shrugged in soft confusion.

"No we didn't, he's behind Throttle, who is behind me," Berri stated with soft ease, she tidied her bangs out of her eyes a little and kept her hands loose on the bottom of the steering wheel; the luxurious, gorgeous car, Turbo had given Berri the keys to, was a perfect mixture of sporty and pristine. A matte black night rider, the low swoop of a hood impressively boasted Sugar Rush's warm, irresistible sunshine. Berri lofted her eyes over her shoulder and gave Wren a sweet smile, "Ladies first, after all."

"That was nice of him," Mara tenderly quipped with a nod as she looked out her own window, they flew down the weaving highway alongside Sugar Rush traffic leaving Orion City, the scenery about them was ever-changing and becoming a bit more candy-filled the more they eased out of the city's limits.

"Yeah, a nice way of him to allow us to get lost," Lash blurt with a hearty laugh; Berri grinned in annoyance, knowing it was just a brotherly joke.

"Right, this HUGE display here, navigating us to our destination, is just so the car looks prettier," Berri muttered with the continuation of said grin, she gestured to the beautiful portrait-sized screen in the middle of the dash. It was intricately lit with a cool display of their GPS, just where they were headed, the predicted weather and a bunch of other intelligent stats.

"It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself," Mara mumbled with a dewy little smile, she gave Berri a cute look of desperately trying to become unreserved, "So, Turbo's just hanging in last to make sure we all get there in one piece?"

"I'd assume so," Wren agreed softly, Lash chuffed an annoyed noise.

"News to me, usually that guy has to be first everywhere he goes," Lash meanly muttered, and although Wren and Berri knew that Lash's humor was rather stabbing and taunting, with all the love in the world, Mara was the only one who was now doing what she could to learn quick and hit the ground running.

"He has Berri's coding now," Mara gently delivered, though her icy eyes so carefully lofted over her shoulder and caught eyes with Lash's golden gaze. Mara shrugged and was thrilled to be holding tight eye contact with Lash, as if the longer they held eyes, the quicker she'd be able to really figure him out, "I'm assuming past versions of Turbo would act like that, but, now..."

"I would know nothing about that nonsense," Lash sneered cutely as he narrowed his creepy gaze, he finally peeled his eyes from Mara and shot Wren a mean smile, "I, as a matter of fact, have my own, original coding."

"Yeah, we know," Wren stated with annoyed emphasis as Berri and Mara began giggling.

"You poor thing," Berri chimed dramatically, she caught a cute glance of Lash's annoyed facial expression in the rear view mirror.

"Poor thing? No, no, no," Lash muttered with a grin, he flagged his hand a little, "I'm an original. No one else here can say that."

"I can," Mara eased in warm innocence, though Lash eagerly snapped back with his infamous snark, a wide grin, to boot.

"Babe, you're a self-programmed gamer, you're not originally created by Users," Lash eased, Wren raised his eyebrows in hot surprise and opened his mouth to playfully begin arguing Lash, though the world seemingly slowed the second Mara inhaled a slow, steadied, deep breath and readjusted her sitting position so to get a better look at Lash; much to everyone's whole surprise, she so daintily reached her hand back and allowed her fingertips to kiss the top of Lash's right knee.

"So, I'm going to give you four choices here, and you can abide by it to gain my attention, or you can ignore it and I'll ignore you in return," Mara quipped daintily, a lovely lace of venom in her voice was almost like fools gold, Berri sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and gripped the steering wheel in clenched dread as Mara so softly carried on, "Mara, Ma'am, Ms. Kalivar, or Your Highness. Take your pick."

The whole car fell silent as Mara and Lash held tight, painful eye contact. Although Mara's icy eyes pierced through Lash's soul with purpose, she nearly felt her heart sink the second Lash's eyes began to grow a bit of a happier yellow. Knowing the mood ring cycle of color between the Turbotime boys, Mara didn't let her disappointment and now insecurity show due to the raw fact that Lash's eyes not once lost color, a show of nervousness. Mara eased him a gentle little smirk of challenge, turned back around in her seat, tidied her delicate, shoulder length pastel blue hair and blissfully peered at the road ahead of them, the road their caravan rocketed down. Lash heaved a shaky sigh through his nose, darted his curiously yellow gaze tight to Wren's and did what he could to conceal a bewildered grin. Lash finally bit his tongue in mild irritation, and although immediately thwarted, he sagged back into his seat, tightened the seatbelt over his chest in a lazy fashion and glossed his yellow eyes out of the tinted window in almost respectful defeat. He sourced just which title he should deliver in this instance of knowing, full well, that he had insulted Mara, a princess in her own right, and in his quick thinking, he sourced just what his big brother Turbo would do, how he would respond to Berri, a princess herself.

"... Your Highness," Lash defeatedly mumbled, though in a slump of as much respect that he could even muster, and with such, the whole car fell silent in hot surprise.

"Thank you," Mara eased in cute softness with a mean little smile that could've fooled anyone for pure innocence.

Lash rolled his eyes a little, though as Wren bravely cut the tension and quickly carried on with Berri about a topic pertaining to their fun getaway, Lash furrowed his eyebrows a little and cautiously slid his secretive gaze to Mara, who sat in the front passenger seat, diagonal from him. A poised, beautiful individual, she held her chin up, her bright eyes pierced forward with gentle purpose, it was extremely clear to the universe that Mara knew the exact weight of the golden honeycombs underneath her porcelain skin. Although thwarted, Lash furrowed his brow in softer confusion and wondered just what else could piss her off, and if there was maybe a limit to it. A girl who properly concealed nearly everything about herself, she did whatever she could to only give the tiniest little tastes to everyone, here and there, a way of keeping people intrigued. Lash gently crossed his arms in further, quiet pondering and wondered just how far under her skin he could get. Having found out everyone else's limits, he was excited to have a fresh soul to annoy to no end, even more so that he now had prey that seemed delicate and fragile, though showed a solid amount of kickback. Lash eased a closed-mouth little smile of anticipatory challenge to the dark tint of his window before he allowed his mind to come back to their gentle conversing.


"What was Lash even talking about, Throttle's driving is fine," Nox muttered as he flagged his hand forward; with Turbo at the wheel and Theo in the backseat, all three boys quietly chuckled as Nox continued, "He taught YOU how to drive, why would Lash even say something like that?"

"Throttle's softened a little, that's why," Turbo quietly stated with a smile, the air in the Lumos was easy and calm, though they rocketed after Throttle and Berri at scary speeds. Turbo shrugged nonetheless and so gently glossed his golden gaze to his littlest brother in his passenger seat, "You know how it is. We each have had a very different past two and a half decades."

"You stayed in EZ Living, right?" Theo wondered to Nox in casual warmth, Nox bobbed a nod and adjusted his seatbelt a little.

"Yeah, I sort of hid out in EZ Living until Ace, like... Adopted me," Nox breathed an easy chuckle and dart his eyes to Turbo and then behind himself to Theo, "Can't say I'm not grateful, though."

"You already know mine and Lash's situation," Turbo mumbled, he exhaled an easy sigh and continued with a smile, as he shook his head, "Throttle's gone on to teach coding, I'm sure his first years as a professor were explosive and fun, he's settled in and found peace within his situation."

"And then went and swapped with someone as fiery as Wren, of all people," Nox muttered with a grin, the three erupted into cute laughter.

"I can definitely relate," Turbo grunted through a satisfied grin as he finally shot Nox a cheeky glance of camaraderie, "I think all three of us were sort of moths to flames."

"I dove in face first," Nox loudly laughed, as did Turbo and Theo.

"Theo's in a situation where they're both super calm and collected on the outside, I'm sure there's more to your's and Tatum's seemingly... Secretive relationship," Turbo prod in brotherly tease, Theo rolled his eyes and looked off with a bashful smirk.

"Yeah, she's already thrown me a few surprises," Theo muttered cutely as he looked out his window, Nox obnoxiously waggled his eyebrows.

"Ooo, like what. She's a gargoyle, isn't she?" Nox prod in boyish delight, Theo bobbed a proud nod and relaxed in his seat, "Like... Wings and stuff? They can make them appear and disappear? I did some research on Castle Run's gargoyles, it's pretty intense, actually. They have an interesting hierarchy."

"She has wings?" Turbo chirped, his facial expression sagged in almost bewildered curiosity, though Theo grinned and looked down to his larger hands.

"Yeah, but... Don't ever ask her to see them, she's really shy about it," Theo mumbled in smiling protectiveness towards his rare beauty, "If you ever see her with her wings on display, don't make a big show of it. She's working on, well... Being more comfortable in her own skin. She's half gargoyle."

"Still equally as awesome," Turbo assured gently, Nox cocked an eyebrow.

"You've seen them?" Nox prod with a cheeky look, Turbo rolled his eyes.

"Course he's seen them," Turbo gawked, to which Theo eased a shaky chuckle and nodded.

"I have, she's a total badass," Theo stabbed through a quiet, excited stab of an exhale, to which Turbo and Nox easily swelled with laughter.

"Can she use them? Like she can actually fly?" Nox wondered in further bewilderment, to which Theo nodded. Nox scoffed in delightful agony and sat back in his chair with a gentle slump, "Damn, that's so cool."

"You wishing Koko had wings now?" Turbo muttered, grinning annoyance that was contagious amongst all three boys; Nox grunted in irritation and flagged his hand out.

"No, Koko's got her own secrets, I just think that's really cool, about Tatum," Nox retort loudly, all three boys were grinning, laughing messes, "I just feel bad for Lash, really. He's the only guy coming without a swap mate."

"At least Berri invited Mara, he'll have someone to relate to," Theo mumbled in nonchalance, to which Nox wildly furrowed his eyebrows and shot Turbo and Theo a look of question.

"Relate to? All those girls probably packed at least ten bikinis each, I was with Koko when she packed," Nox started in an air of caution, though he sneakily shot Turbo a smiling look and shrugged, "You REALLY think we're all going to be on our own private beach together, four gorgeous girls, and Lash is just going to be plain gold? Hoping to simply RELATE?"

"What are you saying?" Turbo worried, he furrowed his brow and now was catching on to what Nox was insinuating.

"Where are your eyes landing, right to Berri, yeah? Me for Koko, Theo for Tatum, and Wren and Throttle have each other... Who do we have left?" Nox chimed in a prickle of delight, Turbo froze and peered out at the road ahead of him as he drove, though he held his breath and began to grapple the steering wheel with nervous dread. He finally sagged his nervous eyes tight to Nox's and grimaced, "I know Lash isn't an idiot. He may be all against swapping and everything it all entails, but he's going to be surrounded by gorgeous women. One of which, as we all know, is-"

"A USER," Theo completed with a sharp inhale and a hearty laugh to follow, "Holy shit, I didn't even piece this all together! Did Berri do this on purpose?"

"No, not at all, I swapped with her this morning, I would've gotten the code-memo," Turbo muttered through the grit of his teeth as his eyes sagged to a minty splay of nervousness; Nox immediately guffawed at this notion.

"Lash doesn't have the balls," Nox choked a hard laugh.

"Besides, Mara would thwart all of that nonsense, Berri told me that she told Mara to secretly keep an eye on Lash, anyways," Theo rushed to explain, hoping to quell Turbo's worries.

"Can you imagine... Lash... As a USER," Nox hissed as he narrowed his eyes and grinned in bewildered delight, though Turbo visibly gulped.

"Guys, when I say I didn't even think about that, I mean, I REALLY didn't even think about that," Turbo rushed in now grinning nervousness.

"Nothing is going to happen, seriously," Theo firmly assured with an annoyed laugh, "She hardly talks to anyone, she's pretty shy, I'm sure this ONE vacation isn't going to make Lash do a complete one-eighty."

"I guess you're right, though, that'd be REALLY weird," Turbo grimaced and shot Nox a look as if to beg Nox to give him reassurance, here.

"Yeah, it'd be weird, but seriously," Nox muttered in smiling wariness, "Where there's a beach, there's bikinis. Where there's bikinis, there's skin. Lash isn't even a gentleman to begin with, like hell he's going to keep all calm and collected once the little pixels in his brain get all fired up, for the first time in his silly little life."

"Maybe we should just isolate guys and girls," Turbo muttered teasingly, though he looked off and felt his pupils tighten a little, as if maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.

"Good idea, split our vacation in two, make it so no one has sex, it'll be like becoming monks," Nox muttered in hot irritation, "If you deprive me of vacation sex, I'll slash your tires."

"I'm not going to deprive anyone of vacation sex, what the hell man," Turbo eased through an irritated sigh as he rubbed his left temple, a self-soothing notion of now more stress onto his already full plate.

"... 'cept Lash," Theo quipped quietly, Nox blurt a hard laugh and covered his face.

"I gotta talk to Berri," Turbo sighed nervously as his eyes gently scanned the large screen on his dash, though he grunted a defeated noise of irritation and shook his head, "Dammit, I forgot, I can't call her. Lash and Mara are driving with her."

"Oh, they're in the same car together?!" Nox squealed with a hard laugh, the car swelled with hard laughter, though Turbo grimaced through the nonsense and shook his head.

"He's not going to try anything, I HIGHLY doubt Mara would even so much as go for anything like that, trust me! I grew up with her!" Theo firmly urged, everyone still was lost in laughter.

"Guess these next two weeks will certainly be interesting, to say the least," Nox nervously mumbled through his grit teeth as he shot Turbo a cheeky side-eye; Turbo visibly looked out of sorts, as if somehow Sugar Sun Island was now five hundred thousand lightyears away.