A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the weird routine in updates, as well as lack of A/N:'s. I quit my second job, at Starbucks, which was part time, and now only have one full time job, so I have a bit more free time (thank User) - I just finished writing chapter 121, and I am sooooooooooo excited for you guys to catch up with me, cause crap goes down, and I'm just like... UHG I want to spoil everything EVERYTHING. Also, I'm going to be opening up another sketchdump request, once the story hits 100 chapters! I'll write an author's note, all about it, when the time comes, so be thinking of scenes you guys want to see drawn! :D
Give Me Everything - Pitbull
*Chapter 92*
Tessa breathed a nervous exhale and cracked her knuckles. Across the blinding sand, she could see her two opponents easily glaring right back at her and Taffyta. She could feel her blood boil, the raw competitiveness given to her, from the most competitive racer in all of Arcade, angrily paced underneath her skin. She tried her hardest to quell any sort of anger that rose to her circuits; she could swear she was bound to lose this whole competition, purely because she wanted to obliterate the opposite side of the court. She outwardly chuckled and shot her opponents a dirty look of a smirk, she knew shit was about to hit the fan. She wondered just how hard she'd have to beg her Aunt Taffyta for forgiveness. As much as she wanted to rage on the court, she felt a creep of nervousness come over her soul, yet again. The mixture of ironic feelings hit her skin one by one, as if her brain was allowing her emotions to take turns torturing it's host.
Tessa only lightly caught eyes with Taffyta, though she could see the bunker hulled out directly behind their end of the court. She tried her hardest to avoid noticing Zed's pop of blue hair, in her peripheral. It was clear he was on the edge of his seat, though Tessa felt a lump gather in her throat at just how literal that thought was; he hung on the edge of the court with his arms anxiously crossed, as if he wanted to so badly become Tessa's cheerleader, though their tense game of playing 'too cool for school' had him stoically still. Tessa pushed her raw thoughts to the back of her mind and knew she had to focus on the game at hand. Just as she was about to let her mind soak into more nervous, brooding thoughts, the referee blew the whistle to begin the last half of the game; Tessa's heart jolted as she eagerly got into a readied stance and peered across the court, of which the ball would be received from.
Tessa felt her skin crawl with sudden readiness as Peach firmly volleyed the ball to their side of the court, in Taffyta's direction. Tessa eagerly kept her eye on the ball as Taffyta lulled the ball up into the air. Much to Tessa's dismay, it moved high above their end of the court still, and easily swung to Tessa's direction. She knew Taffyta had set her up for a perfect spike, though the need to wreck this ball into oblivion was all Tessa wanted to do. In the calm of the ball reaching it's slow peak into the air, she calmed the vicious ability to destroy, her circuits seemed to unwillingly agree, much to her surprise. She bit her bottom lip in pure concentration, though it wasn't until Daisy's voice could suddenly be heard from across the court.
"Yah gunna wreck it, girly?" Daisy lightly called in the midsts of Tessa's expert concentration.
Tessa widened her eyes and felt as if the ball had suddenly frozen in mid air. She tried to swallow, the hope to avoid any sort of angered actions seemed to slip down the drain. Tessa finally inhaled a sharp breath of anger and kept her keen eye honed to the ball that came in her direction, seemingly in slow motion. With one single gesture of heightened adrenaline, Tessa knew she was in big trouble already. With a simple jump, she pushed sand outward, from her firm launch off the ground, and with as much force as she could possibly muster, she largely swung her fist straight into the ball, an action she was born for. With a gentle flinch and her bottom lip sucked firmly into her top row of teeth, Tessa dominantly peered across the court and, with a second of excitement, the ball rocketed like a comet to the planet. With a reverberating thud, a mushroom cloud of sand exhaled viciously into the air above the court. Tessa panted and schemingly smirked as she could hear Peach's and Daisy's curious, annoyed squabbling. Tessa let the corners of her mouth curl with her only mere seconds of victory, though the sharp, ear-splitting sound of the angry whistle brought her down from the clouds.
Tessa raised her eyebrows in curious surprise and whirled around in dewy confusion, though her skin grew hot with embarrassment; she knew she had likely cost her and her Aunt Taffyta a point, or more. She nervously held her eye contact around the crowd, of which wailed and cheered out of solid excitement. Tessa finally beamed a proud smile, though as soon as she raised her arm to be wrongfully exalted, Taffyta harshly brought her hide back down to reality, real fast.
"I set you up perfectly for your very first spike, and you chose to go against what everyone had told you?!" Taffyta hollered suddenly in Tessa's face, which caused her to nervously flinched, though with the simple slip of dominance lost, she quickly gained it back and stiffened her spine.
"I'm not going to play fair against a bunch of prissy, goading brats!" Tessa loudly shouted back as she gestured towards the other end of the court; she knew her opponents could clearly hear her, though she didn't care, from this stand point.
"Chill with the wrecking! I know it's fun, but knock it off!" Ralph suddenly called from across the court, though Tessa largely looked over her shoulder and dared to shoot her father a beyond annoyed glare; she wildly gestured her arm towards Ralph.
"Shoulda told yourself the same thing if you didn't want wrecking offspring, there, buddy!" Tessa shouted, though she jolted in surprise once Taffyta's firm hand suddenly gripped the top of Tessa's head, her fingers only lightly dug into her hair and scalp. Tessa quipped a few gripes as she wobbled.
"We may have spared your life once, chickie, but I know how to end it REAL quick," Taffyta dared as she hovered her forehead to Tessa's, who glared into her aunt's eyes in annoyed shock, "If we get another penalty like that, we're out. You've seen me upset, but you won't like me when I'm mad."
"Alright, alright," Tessa aggressively barked as she largely shooed her aunt's grippy hands away from her. She winced as she was finally released, though she kept her hard glare to her aunt.
"Don't give me that look, I hate them just as much as you do," Taffyta snapped as she gestured towards the court, "Play smart, not mean. You're better than that, now knock it off."
"Fine, I'm sorry," Tessa harshly muttered, as if the words leaving her mouth tasted bad.
Tessa finally let her eyes soak across the dusty court, the sun made the specks of sand glisten across the game, as if fairy dust had been daintily sprinkled upon the chaos. Tessa angrily glared across the court and felt her circuits desperately try to shake the rage, how desperately she wanted vengeance on someone that was suddenly causing her and her coding so much inner grief. Her competitive heart soared, though she knew she'd need to chill if it meant Taffyta ever speaking to her ever again. Tessa flinched as the referee shouted a few commands of dismay out towards Tessa and Taffyta; her heart sunk as their score card got bumped one number down a notch. Tessa slumped her shoulders and sent a hard, disgruntled glare to her aunt Taffyta, who easily gave her a threatening look ten-fold.
"Y'see what you did," Taffyta spat as she largely cocked her head and gave Tessa enough sass for a lifetime. Tessa largely rolled her eyes and peered back to the court, she could swear her skin was about to cook right off of her bones from the sheer amount of angry turmoil that stormed around in her brain.
Tessa finally exhaled a hard, long breath of fury through her nose and tried her ultimate best to quell her angry code. She shook her head and glared across the court, yet again; her opponents suddenly looked offended, disheveled and beyond annoyed. Tessa knew they were ones to soak up as much pity attention as they could, though she tried her very hardest not to let her mind get too pissed about the squabble that had just taken place. Before she knew it, the ball was volleyed back into the cleaned up court, and the game continued on.
After a few nervous, successful attempts at passing Tessa the ball, Taffyta gained confidence in letting her teammate have an equal part in the game, once and for all. Tessa found that controlling her wrecking force was a little bit easier than she thought, though for the sake of keeping her life, she prayed that the two girls across the court would hold their tongues, when it came to goading. As much as Tessa wanted to rocket the volleyball-bomb straight into their existence, she kept her cool; agile footwork. Tessa seemingly coated crop circles in the sand, skillful glances, calls and shots made for an interesting game, for both parties. She found, with respect and a dash of competitive sass, her and Taffyta worked like clock-work; Tessa had to wonder if this was perhaps how Vanellope felt, playing with her sister.
Just as Tessa and Taffyta were falling into a groove, Tessa found that her thoughts had begun to slip, though she tried her hardest to keep her mind on the game. Every point gained, for either party, meant for an either positive or negative outcry from the band of family and friends behind Tessa and Taffyta. Each time, Tessa tried her hardest to push their words and cheers out from her brain. Somehow, she latched onto Zed's voice like a lifeline she didn't need at the moment. She tried her hardest to shoo him from her mind, though somehow, he seemed to be the top cheerer. Inwardly, she wanted to smile, though outwardly, her disgruntled, furrowed glare only grew. She knew the tension between her and Zed was not aiding her on the court. She furiously attempted to pretend he wasn't there, though she knew she was miserably failing.
Just as Daisy volleyed the ball to Peach, after receiving it from Taffyta, Tessa dared to look to her right and glance at the score card. She bit her bottom lip and nervously glued her attention back to the tied game, though it wasn't until something shiny, out of the corner of her eye, caught her surprised attention. Tessa un-scrunched her tight, correct game posture and largely furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, as to just what was bouncing towards her. She exhaled a nervous noise and took a few uneducated, clumsy steps backwards as a single, Mushroom Kingdom Starman aimlessly bounced it's way over to her. Tessa's mind immediately began to race; she wondered just how and when this rare, curious one-up came to be. Why it was softly bouncing towards her, in this odd moment, was beyond her. Tessa opened her mouth to protest, her body jolted into action to avoid being tapped by the starman, but before she knew it, the starman curiously melted into her existence, a power-up she never dreamed of obtaining.
Tessa choked a nervous gasp of an inhale and wobbled backwards a little, though as if every single last fiber of her existence had been coated in pure gold, delicious manna from heaven, she flinched as her circuits began to work literally at the speed of light. The familiar tune, the wind up of the curious, well known power-up blared through the arena, which had the whole crowd stunned frozen. As if life itself was put on pause, she felt every single last byte of power course through her now invincible body. She curiously peered down at her larger hands as her skin and code flashed with every color of the pixel-rainbow. She felt adrenaline shoot through her code at remarkable speeds, and with this, she quickly looked up with a facial expression that led everyone to believe that Tessa knew just how unbelievably powerful she was in this moment.
As if reality had set back in, she peered across the court; the mushroom kingdom kin gazed at her in pure, unadulterated shock, as if this slip of a power-up was simply a horrible mistake. She knew something was fishy, here. Tessa knew for a fact starmans weren't just released into an open arena for no reason. She furrowed her eyebrows hard into her eyes and gave Daisy one last, final death glare, a warning she knew stunned those girls to the core. She cocked an eyebrow and, as if the whole world was set in slow motion, the ball slowly came lulling back down to Tessa's and Taffyta's side of the court. In Tessa's peripheral, she could see Taffyta struggle with an inner dilemma; dive for the ball and save the point, to avoid Tessa wrecking the court again, or step out of the way and avoid being permanently deleted from Tessa's sudden, aggressive invincibility.
Tessa jolted quicker than she ever could with out the rare power-up, which cued Taffyta to suddenly dodge Tessa, as if she were merely a charging bull with razor sharp horns. With a harsh skid, Tessa saved the ball from hitting their side of the sand, with a single kick. The ball awkwardly wobbled high into the air, though Tessa knew she had set herself up for the perfect destruction. With one single, easy swipe, and the aid of her wrecking invincibility, she pummeled the ball straight into the net, though much to everyone's surprise, the ball eagerly caught flame with the starman's power. Like a knife to melted butter, the ball seared through the net, which caused it to suddenly catch fire. Tessa grunted a hard noise and finally came back down to the sand; she almost was disappointed the comet of a volleyball missed Daisy and Peach, in it's vicious decent back to their side of the court. Tessa inhaled a hard breath and pointed an angry finger to hers and Taffyta's opponents.
"If this wasn't a volleyball tournament, you can bet your ass I'd be chasing you two right now!" Tessa hollered as the net largely crackled, the rope easily snapped as the fire melted through it. It largely drooped to the sand, before Tessa, though she was quick to step over it and onto Peach and Daisy's side of the court. She loudly continued on, "These two, representing the Mushroom Kingdom, are cheating! Throwing a rogue starman into the game?!"
"We did nothing of the sort!" Daisy loudly fought as Tessa continued to firmly march over to them, still starman ablaze. The two girls quickly shuffled to get out of Tessa's way, though Daisy largely looked over to their bunker, where Mario and Luigi hung in nervous wait, "We didn't even bring any power-ups!"
"Oh, what, a starman just so HAPPENED to appear from thin air?" Tessa mocked as she put her hands on her hips and stopped her death march; the starman slowly began to dwindle away from her existence, though the crowd went wild at the event taking place; Tessa tried her hardest to ignore the blaring whistles from the referees.
"You destroyed the net!" Peach cried in utter dismay as she gestured her hands towards the net, which remained aflame in a contained area on the sand.
"And YOU destroyed the game!" Tessa hollered, which caused both girls to flinch.
"Unfair use of power-ups," The referee suddenly called as he stepped out onto the court; the whole crowd nervously fell silent as Tessa whirled around and pierced her confused gaze upon the ref; he continued on, "Power-ups, cheats, and any other unfair use of upgrades will result in a game-ender. The Mushroom Kingdom is disqualified."
"Disqualified!" Daisy cried in angered horror as she gestured her arm towards Tessa, though Tessa furrowed her eyebrows in mild confusion as she left her mouth open agape.
"We have ourselves a victor," The referee called as he held up the proper hand flag, "Sugar Rush wins, for the third year in a row!"
Tessa slid her confused, gaping expression back to the referee and, amongst her slide of continued, dewy confusion, she caught expressions with her equally confused and tense aunt, though once Taffyta let out a loud cheer and threw her arms up in the air, as did everyone in their side of the court's bunker, Tessa sarcastically drew her scheming, annoyed, sweaty-faced smile back to Daisy, who stood a few feet in front of her.
"Well, well," Tessa chuckled, "Wouldyah lookit that."