Reviews :
chuckiboo : Yes of course! It was very briefly touched on a handful of chapters back. Vye Ketton is Game Over's original winner. She cultivates and grooms the winners of Game Over and has a bit of a gang built up. She's one of the most powerful gamers on the internet and lives in the dark web. She is the 5th story's main villain, so I won't expand on it way too much. You will meet her in the 5th story. She plays a very pivotal part in Gideon's life (main character). Thank you so much for your compliments! I can't wait to introduce the 5th story to you guys :D It's coming shortly!
Lyssdoodle : I'm excited too! I'm so glad you are as well :D Yep, get those ideas down, cause Chapter 250 is now going to come at everyone pretty quick, here!
Song Listened To :
The Grid by Daft Punk, Tron Legacy Original Soundtrack (no vocals)
*Chapter 245*
With the scuff of their heels to Tron's tough grid and asphalt, Lash, Wren and Berri stepped out of their cab with forced easiness. Berri breathed a small giggle, lulled into Wren's side a little, linked arms with him and was thrilled the two were able to keep up the rouse of pretending to be a couple. With the onslaught of seductive gazes, cute quips of warmth, Berri was surprised at just how easy they made it all seem; their coded conversing, amidst their silent and unseen bout of an exterior swap spoke a very different, nervous conversation. The two hurried to reassure each other that they would make it out of this mess alive, Lash's diligent, golden gaze kept a continuous scan of their surroundings, and although the three had to desperately blend in, it was near impossible not to gawk at all the towering, gorgeous high rises, towers and sky scrapers alike. Tron City was gorgeous, dark, haunting, brooding; every single beam of white light in the details and crevices of architecture was a sight to behold, such a stark contrast of dark and light was everything the three dreamed of. Although Lash had been to Tron prior, it was clear in his softer meandering that he had missed the finer details hidden in the streets, the lovely kiss of coolness, the bite the city so easily afforded anyone brave enough to enter.
"My hair's a mess," Berri mumbled, tight to Wren's proximity, he tossed her his brilliant blue eyes; cooler colors popped with the vivacity of punched saturation, every single little beam of white light made cold, blue colors just sing with said icy atmosphere.
"It looks fine, babe, just a comb-through will do," Wren's deep voice volleyed in easiness, his saunter and demeanor held fast to a few notches away from his typically flamboyant, light-hearted self. He then tossed his eyes to Lash, they did everything they could to control gawking at the gorgeous surroundings and bustling city life about them, all dark, gloomy, heightened and alive in a swooping embrace of desired irony, "This it?"
"Yeah, I'm genuinely exhausted," Lash mumbled, he subtly looked about as the three approached the beauty of a rather wide swoop of an automatic, sliding door. It hummed in methodical, whirring goodness and beamed a gentle light down on their path, marking it for them, their way into the hotel they had approached. Lash tucked his hands into his jacket, and as their hair lightly whisked about due to entering the vacuum of the indoor atmosphere, they made a straight-away for the receptionist area, "Y'guys go wait over there, by those chairs... I'll get the room."
"Kay," Wren mumbled in nonchalance as he began to lead Berri away, though as the two parted from Lash, Berri nervously watched as Lash pressed on without them, straight for a woman who had cued to his presence and kindly welcomed him to this beautiful resort of a hotel.
Berri tried not to frown, and though her eyes were distracted by the incredible swoop of an atrium, the gorgeous show of Tron's boastful architecture mixed with sleek lights and steel beams of dark, swooping goodness, she sagged a little deeper into Wren's arm, as well as his coding, and bit her lip. The urge to cry brimmed at the back of her throat, and though she had no clue why she was getting so emotional over all of this, somehow the thought of being very blatantly outside of her home game, in such a hostile environment, made her skin crawl. The raw fact that her own point of safety, on the grid, was tucked into a brick against Lash's chest. Through coded conversation, she warned Wren that she was about to start crying and was desperate for a distraction. She knew, full well, once she got to their shared room, she could potentially unload, though for now, there were way too many civilians about to even think about unloading in this instance.
"My dad told me, the other day, that he was going to do everything he could to convince my mom to have a third child," Wren's lovely, deep voice chirped in pure nonchalance, and though it was forced, Berri nearly flinched at how convincing it all was. Much to her relief, Wren did whatever he could to not only play this part, to keep their cover, though he so tenderly held his hands about Berri's little waist and pulled her into him for comfort.
"Oh yeah?" Berri wondered with a smile that she did everything she could to keep from crumpling, she sagged into his strong hold and rested her hands on his broad chest; Berri was almost disappointed Turbo couldn't be here to see this entirely bizarre situation.
"Yeah, how cool would that be?" Wren narrowed his gaze, wrinkled his nose and allowed the hush of his lovely voice to gloss Berri's cheeks, and though Berri was well aware he wouldn't dare lean in for a kiss, she was glad he pushed the envelope and made their very sticky and dangerous situation as nonchalant and convincing as possible, "Y'think I'd make a good big brother?"
"You kidding?" Berri warmly wondered, and for a split second, her worries vanished; Wren properly hugged Berri's waist and swayed her a little, their close proximity only barely closing, "You'd be one of the best big brothers in this whole Arcade."
"Baw," Wren guffawed sweetly, he looked off and allowed his eyes to catch with Lash's figure across the way; he looked to be wrapping things up. Wren finally gave Berri his full eye contact, once more, he could tell she was due to crumbling shortly, he desperately pushed the conversation in hopes of distracting her from crying, "Y'think it'd be a boy or a girl?"
"Ohh... I don't know, I think it'd be cool if it were a girl," Berri giggled, her eyes welled with tears, and though she stuffed it, they came dangerously close to spilling down her cheeks; she fervently reminded Wren that if he were to full on hug her, or give her any further show of loving doting, she'd lose it, "Th-that way we have another person's closet to raid."
"You're not wrong," Wren blurt a chuckle and bobbed a firm nod, though he raised his eyebrows in nervous surprise and quickly realized this wasn't a typical conversation for a straight couple; he cleared his throat and nervously looked about. Though out of ear shot, there were still a decent amount of people in the resort's lobby. Grateful to see Lash finally making his way over to the three, Wren stiffened and began to lead Berri to Lash's positioning, to meet him half way, "Good to go?"
"Yep, c'mon," Lash stated kindly with a nod, though his curt tone and attitude swiftly reminded Wren and Berri to keep up and keep quiet.
Saddled tight into the nook of Wren's linked arm, once more, Berri did what she could to stiffen her upper lip and hold her breath. With both boys kindly leading the way, across the lobby and to a more secluded area of gorgeous, dark, cocooned elevators, hugged with sophisticated white lights, Berri was certain the only thing holding her to the planet, right now, was the idea that she was in fantastic company. Upon entering the elevator, although initially thrilled it was just her, Wren and Lash aboard, she tightened the hold of her breath and knew, full well, they would only be more safe to unload once they were behind the safety of their hotel room. A painfully quiet elevator ride, up to the twelfth floor, Berri's glossy blue eyes stared down her blurred reflection on the backside of the closed elevator doors. With a chime, the three were let out into a starkly much quieter hallway, narrow with tall, white ceilings, the rest of their surroundings was dark and hugged by gorgeous, light blue accent lights along the baseboards.
"Beautiful hotel," Wren murmured as quietly as he could; grateful the hallway was void of life, he cocked an eyebrow and looked about the bottoms of each door they passed, in an attempt to see if there was light emanating from underneath, to see if there was any shred of life about them, "Wonder if this is a dead time of year, here..."
"Tron City has more life in the winter," Lash mumbled quietly, and though his voice held warmth, he seemed nervous to do further conversing, "Don't ask me why... It's a lot colder, then, obviously."
"The lack of sun might have something to do with it," Wren muttered, he gave Berri a small smile in the corner of his eye, and though Lash successfully pressed to the door of their shared room and opened it via the tap of their thick slab of a door card, Wren still hovered near Berri and was now becoming concerned with just how unglued she looked as if she had become. As the three entered, with Wren being the last one inside, before the three could quietly gawk at their beautiful shared room, Wren firmly locked the bolt of their door and gripped Berri's lower arms, "Babe, c'mon, it's... It's gunna be okay."
"My phone kept buzzing in my pocket," Berri murmured quietly, she inhaled a shaky breath and was relieved to finally let her tears fall. She grimaced a small noise, held her hand to her left temple and yanked her phone from her pant's thick pockets. Upon her home screen lighting up, she inhaled a tight breath and huffed a shaky little cry of despair before she continued on, "Literally EVERYONE under Sugar Rush rule is desperately texting and calling me..."
"W-We really can't answer?" Wren started in nervous question, though his hands gripped Berri's now upper arms with a swathe of coded love, he urgently peered to Lash, as if to beg for leniency here.
"No, no contact... We can contact them all when we return," Lash pressed in adamancy, though Berri crumpled a bit further and exhaled a shaky breath of the further onslaught of sorrow. Lash sagged his shoulders and, although his phone, too, had been buzzing like crazy, he shut his eyes tight and tried not to hang his head. Upon the reveal of his muted gaze, he frowned in Berri's direction. He knew this was incredibly hard to suddenly go through, in such a tiny span of time. So many drastic things had taken place, and though they were in a time crunch, Lash knew he needed to tend to the two beings here who were ultimately in his care. With tenderness that had returned to their tight bubble, in the still dimness of the corridor of their little hotel room, Lash reached his hands out and was successful in wrangling both beings in to a swathe of reassuring exterior coding, all information that held a fierce amount of love from every single person down Berri's blood line. Berri's gaze of desperation pierced Lash's amidst the glow of her unlocked phone, "Look... I know this is hard for you guys, it's hard for me too. It's hard not knowing what's going to happen, the ins and outs of this whole ordeal, but... We HAVE to get to Litwak's and come back, in record time. We'll literally be back before you know it."
"You sure?" Berri's shaky voice pleaded, she largely frowned and felt her phone buzz, once more.
"They're going to storm Sugar Rush's outlet and wonder where the hell the game went," Wren's deep, stern voice pressed in Lash's direction, now feeling protective over the shivering worries of everyone back at the Kalivar Castle, "They're literally going to think we died and Sugar Rush is corrupt..."
"If I know my brothers and Sugar Rush's royalty like I think I do, I know NO one is going to be allowed to leave Dead Zed," Lash stated in warm confidence; Berri sagged into his touch, and although he wasn't quite Turbo, the familial sameness had her itching for that fill of loving camaraderie, "Zed's going to put that whole jungle castle on lockdown. Knowing us three are gone? He and Tessa are going to do everything in their power to make sure that no one else goes missing."
"He's not wrong," Berri murmured in nasally defeat as she looked back down to her phone.
"C'mon, guys... I'll be programming two more flyers for us," Lash warmly mumbled as he finally unhanded the two and began to cautiously step into their lovely, dim room; gorgeous white tiles hugged by dark walls and skillfully lit floorboards, their cozy room had two billowy white beds with gorgeous nightstands all aglow with Tron's beautiful, lighted accents. Lash heaved a tired sigh and nearly smiled at the sight of a bed, though his deep voice croaked on as Wren and Berri's footsteps tenderly followed in behind him, "I've decided, I'll be giving you guys my flying knowledge, via exterior swap... The disc on your back will collect and keep it."
"Oh, good, so flying out of here won't result in me crashing to my death?" Wren muttered cutely, Lash blurt a laugh and shook his head as Wren was first to pick a bed; aware that he'd be sharing with Berri, he scoot to one side and kindly fluffed the pillows.
"No, no crashing and burning, today," Lash choked in incredulous cuteness, though as Berri approached the bed, she hesitantly laid down and was very blatantly in need of solid reassurance, a very heavy amount of tender loving care; something neither Wren or Lash could easily afford her, in the full swathe of need she required. Lash heaved a tired sigh and sat down on his bed, directly next to Wren's and Berri's, he was grateful to have their full attention, "Alright, guys, here's... Here's the game plan. I'm going to induce sleep, upon you two. It'll be only an hour, or so, but it'll technically give you the results of a full nights sleep. I have to be super careful about my coding coming in contact with the grid."
"Why?" Wren worried.
"Because, if blips of my own User information hit the grid, I'm positive... It won't end well," Lash muttered quietly, and though he was nearly positive the three were safe to converse freely in the security of their hotel room, he still showed a solid shred of worry, over the whole ordeal, "Ace was the first User to ever be born inside the Arcade... He was the first User to be also graced with glitching powers. Live wired powers that are, unfortunately, easily accessible. Information like that, just freely being pumped into Tron's grid, is... Extremely unwise."
"That's why we're not teleporting," Berri stated quietly with a knowing nod, to which Lash mirrored her.
"I've thought on that notion further," Lash's raspy voice pressed, a daring smile sprawled his face as he showed gratitude for having Berri's and Wren's full attention, "Once we're in the air, I'll teleport us to the portal... We're going to go to this building's roof top, take off from there, and... I'll teleport us away."
"Midair?" Wren worried with a great amount of staggering hesitation, his becoming-terrified eyes hooked tight to Berri's, for a moment, before drawing back to Lash's in hot anxiousness.
"Midair... We'll be safe, though... Upon teleporting, we have to RUSH that portal stream, as fast as we can," Lash warned, four blue eyes hooked to his in an icy draw of terrified anticipation, though as Lash huffed a shaky, unsure chuckle, he shook his head and nearly grinned, "You guys, I can get us there... But, once we're there, it's brand new information for all of us. I've... NEVER done anything like this."
"Comforting," Berri mumbled in dreary sarcasm, to which Wren rolled his eyes and looked off.
"I know there's absolutely no time to sit and digest, there's no time to comfort each other or comfort everyone back at the castle," Lash stated in due diligence, he grunted and got to his feet in preparation to put Wren and Berri to sleep via their consent. He approached the two with his hand gently aglow with his fresh, coral-colored glow of honeycombs and circuit lines, fresh User powers Berri and Wren were certain held a million keys to unanswered questions about this whole Arcade, this whole ordeal. Lash cocked an eyebrow and shook his head amidst a gentle, knowing smile, "If we move fast enough, we're not going to need to do any of that... If we're successful, there will be no need for mourning or comforting or sorrow. Just celebration."
"Y-You'll wake us up, right?" Berri staggered in gentle worry as Lash approached Wren first, and as Wren got comfortable and held his hand out, Lash inhaled a deep breath and swarmed Wren's main frame with his incredible coding. Like a light switch flipped, Wren immediately sagged and fell right into probably the deepest sleep of his life. Berri cocked an eyebrow, watched Wren's structure sag with coded, sleeping release, and finally stabbed her nervous eyes tight to Lash's as he rounded to her side of the bed. Berri hurried to get more words in, "Look, I-I... I know that we can trust you, but I'm just..."
"Scared? Unsure?" Lash listed calmly, he shook his head and so lovingly knelt next to her side of the bed. He smiled, and though his live-wired hand gripped hers in the flinch of upped voltage, he opted to exterior swapping with her before sending her off to sleep. His warm embrace of powerful, confident coding squeezed her soul with love, every single shred of him was licked at every single edge, though he was a whole, complete being of humility, a raw and rare individual of pureness, as if Berri had a front row seat to a masterclass in redemption, an absolute masterpiece of ironic contrast. She sagged in his care, familiar coding that not only kissed her with a shred of Turbo's, but also a shred of Ace's, Tessa's, Zed's, Ralph's, Vanellope's, every single coded being in her lineage seemingly reached down and pat her atop the head within Lash's single squeeze of love. He gave her a glimmer of warm, honest eye contact and ushered her one last hushed notion, "You won't be, shortly... I won't let you down."
"Promise?" Berri whispered as she lulled her head into the pillow, her eyes held tight to Lash's as he bravely tucked her bangs out of her eyes and leaned closer to her face.
"Promise," Lash nearly mouthed, and with one final sweep of his incredible, fresh new coding, he pressed an innocent kiss to Berri's forehead and ushered her coded mainframe into a restful slumber.
A/N : Hey guys! I'm finally on winter break! From here until January 25th, I'll be back on my every-other-day upload schedule! Which will probably see through to the end of OOTB. My Spring semester will likely start with my 5th story. I'll be doing a title reveal shortly here, I just have to finish the cover art for it.
If you want to keep up with all my art and school work, please follow me on IG! Username Vyntastic - Saga art doesn't stop because I'm in school - I make time for me :) I was able to keep up AND finish this semester with all A's. *pats self on back*
