Thought it might be intriguing.
New chapter. Sorry about the brevity.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
A Gathering
Saffa and GH hadn't a match for awhile.
They were not aware of any ulterior motives on the part of Gamemaster, who kept his motivations from the fighters. But why would he confide his plans in beings he considered to be mere insects? The fact that they possessed blood instead of ichor, like Realm Walkers, disgusted him. It was as if a human discovering that a creature had no blood but worms instead, or something similar.
Saffa and GH took what little enjoyment they could out of this "break", but they did not know if they would whisked out into battle. They were not given any warning before their mandatory participation in a battle, and not given notice about who or what their opponent was. That would involve work that Gamemaster was just not interested in doing, and it would force him see his fighters as thinking, feeling beings, something he wasn't interested in doing in the least.
The other fighters seemed to know something about this, but said nothing. It was as if they were afraid of mentioning it. As if there was a fear of a heavy reprisal for telling the two of the fact of their next opponents would be.
Gamemaster wanted them to go into the next battle unprepared and unaware . . .
***
Parker wasn't the only one that came through the portal. Cloak, Shadow, Phoenix, Abby, and Gaz with her Laserbeak armor came too. They landed on the ground as the portal dissipated into nothingness.
Parker was in a violet light sphere, but Helen wasn't fast enough for the others. Gaz's Laserbeak armor actually afforded her flight, though. Cloak landed daintily on his feet, while Abby and Shadow fell on their butts. Cloak
was a cat after all.
"Not fair," Shadow complained, a bit miffed on how her uncle didn't fall on his butt.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Abby said.
Cloak wasn't paying attention to that, for he had immediately noticed the entechment machine. He had only read about them briefly, and not in great detail, but he was sure that was what this was. He quickly realized that they were standing on some sort of conveyor belt -- he wasn't sure if he could stop it from moving, and wondered if it was a pointless exercise.
He didn't know if entechment would work on Realm Walkers. He didn't really want to find out. Even academically. He noticed Parker, Helen, Underseen, and Sam floating above the conveyor belt, with Gaz hovering, and he formed an energy disc beneath his feet as Shadow did the same.
"Hey! What about me!" Abby protested. "I can't fly! . . . Well, yes, I can, when in morph, but that's beside the p-- ahhh!"
Cloak had hoisted her up on to his disc, which he enlarged to accommodate. She looked rather rumpled at the sudden lift.
"You could have said something, you know," Abby sighed.
"Quite," Cloak said, more interested in the entechment device. Not as fascinated as Yarin would undoubtedly be -- which reminded him.
"No one tell Yarin of this device," Cloak said.
"Eh, it would be one way to get him to forget about his microwave," Parker said, hand around Helen.
The RAFians could practically hear a nonpresent Yarin shouting, "FOOD YIELD INCREASER!"
