Legend of the Chezamon
Chapter 9- The Capture
Luna tried to figure out Skyfall's next move. Most of her Creatures had been beaten, save for Kaya and Kazehana. Luckily, she had already beaten almost of Skyfall's Creatures, but he only had his Danian Guard left. She had never thought those could be so strong, however. When she had fought against him, she had lost, but she had not used Kaya or Kazehana when facing the Danian Guard, so perhaps she would defeat him this time.
"Impressive," said Skyfall, taking a look at Kaya, "It doesn't even have a scratch. Are you sure you are not interested in trading, my dear?"
Luna snapped, "Pretty sure."
Skyfall accepted the answer, "Very well, then. Danian Guard attacks Kaya."
As both players touched their respective cards and turned into the Creatures Luna hoped the Prey Drive would not attempt to take over again.
"Let's get this over with!" she spoke with Kaya's voice, and the two players were sent into the random location.
Mist Forest.
XOXOXOXO
Tom and the others made their way trough the bushes and the low branches of the trees, going to the spot they had encountered Kaya and Rocket the last time. They had reencountered in the port court, and then they revealed what they had done. They had spoken to their contacts in the Tribes about the Chezamon, but the Creatures had promised not to give away the information. They all had the same task; convince the Chezamon to make allies with their respective favorite Tribe.
And that would be a problem.
"What are we going to do now?" Tom spoke irritably after having a branch smack his nose for about the fifth time, "We can't tell them to make a peace treaty with all the Tribes."
"Remember, we'll just try to talk to their leaders, and convince them to give the Tribes a chance to prove they have changed…" Kaz thought for a minute, "… a bit."
"If they listen at all. I mean, why would they listen to what four single humans have to say?" Sarah spoke while shaking the mud off her shoes.
Peyton grinned, "Come on, dudes! They can't be that bad! Maybe they'll be interested if we tell them a bit about the other Tribes! They may even send ambassadors or something!"
Sarah rolled her eyes, "Didn't you just listen? How can you be sure they'll listen to us?"
"It's worth a try." Tom spoke, making his way through the forest.
Kaz heard something behind him; he turned around, but saw nothing but bushes. However, felt a shiver through his spine. Was it perhaps Kaya…?
No. Kaya and the others already knew them, and had no reason to sneak up on them.
He heard the same sound, this time on the right. There were nothing but bushes at the side, but the sound was coming from there. Growling, it seemed.
"Guys, I'm hearing something," Kaz spoke, getting closer to the bushes to investigate.
"You didn't hear anything, it's you imagination." Sarah replied, "And if you did, perhaps it's just a squirrel."
"No, really, I heard something-"
Before they could react, suddenly a whip-like object whipped through the air and struck Tom, who fell to the ground with a loud thud. However, before Sarah, Kaz and Peyton could do anything, they were struck with the same whip-like tongue. They fell to the ground, unable to move; as if all of their body had been rendered useless. They could only move their eyes to see what was going on.
"What… happened…?" Tom growled
"I… Can't… move…" Kaz followed
"My… back… itches… can't… reach…!" Peyton whimpering, feeling the itching get worse by the second.
"Seriously… Peyton…" Sarah rolled her eyes
Their terror began when they saw Creatures coming closer to them… about 6 or 7 of them… most of them looked like Sorka, but their tones of gray were quite different.
"What do we have here?" one of them asked rhetorically, snapping his fangs.
"I told you humans were stupid," another inquired, "They always go back through the same places."
"What do we do with them?"
A third member of the pack gave the first one that spoke a sarcastical look, "What else? Offer them cookies and tea?"
"That… would be nice…" Peyton pointed out, but when the Chezamon gave him a growl, he remained silent.
"We're going to Convert them!"
Convert? What did that mean? Judging by his tone of voice, it couldn't be nice.
"Enough!" a female voice boomed through the forest, and the Chezamon Hunters remained silent when their lieutenant arrived.
It was a female Chezamon, the first they had seen, but there was something… odd about her. Her eyes had no pupils, and she had what seemed to be… mandibles? Her fur was of a rusty red, almost like Shaoran's, and she had no color in her underbelly. She had golden markings all around her body, and her tail was a little shorter than the male Hunters'.
"Syena, we found these intruders roaming around here," another Hunter spoke outloud, "What shall we do with them, ma'am?"
Syena examined the paralyzed humans carefully, and decided what to do. She spoke in a tone that demanded obedience.
"We shall take them to the Den to be interrogated, and then the Alphas will decide if they'll be Converted… or killed."
The Hunters nodded and, before Tom knew it, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and soon he was lost to unconsciousness.
…..
When he regained his senses, he realized he was no longer in Mist Forest, but in a cave… and if Chezamon were like wolves, he could guess it was an underground cavern. His sight got used to the dim light of a torch outside their cell –it had to be a cell, judging by the wooden bars on the entrance- and noticed his friends were on the same situation as him; they were waking up.
"Where…" Kaz rubbed his eyes, and took his hand to his pants to search for his scanner… "My scanner is missing!"
The others started scanning their pockets as well, but they had the same result.
"Mine too!"
"I can't believe it! What are we going to do now?!"
"Looks like they don't want us to leave at all!"
A new voice joined them, "You got that right."
The four teens turned towards the door of their cell and spotted two gray Chezamon staring at them indifferently.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah inquired, not liking the Hunters' tone in the least.
"It means that none of you will ever leave here." The Hunter form the right sneered, "We're not sure what to do with you yet. We might make you servants, Hunters, like us, or perhaps Healers…"
"Guys, hate to break it to you, but we're human." Kaz rolled his eyes, "It's not like we can simply join your pack or something like that."
The other Hunter let out a laugh, "Don't be so sure; right now, our Beta Male is deciding if he'll Convert you or not."
Driven by curiosity, Peyton asked, "What does 'Convert' mean, dudes?"
The Hunters gave each other a glance before smirking, "You'll find out soon enough," the first Hunter that had spoken said, "But you can be sure that you will never see the light of day again… and if you do, it will be through a different perspective."
The Hunters snickered before walking away, sending shivers through the humans' spine.
"What will they mean with 'another perspective'?" Peyton pointed out while looking at where the Hunters had just stood a few seconds ago.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Kaz trembled as he thought what the Chezamon were planning to do with them.
Whatever Conversion meant, it surely didn't sound pleasing in the least. If Assimilation was a bad thing, Conversion… couldn't be any much better, whatever it was.
But why was the meaning of that word being hidden from them?
XOXOXOXOXO
A few chambers above them there was, indeed, a meeting taking place. The chamber was an underground cavern, illuminated with firefly-filled lanterns on the roof, but it was complete dug out of the earth, with no stalactites or stalagmites, or a single rock was seen. The only rock in that chamber was a long table made out of white stone- there were a few roots hanging from the roof, belonging to the trees that were above the chamber. Along the table were seated various Chezamon, all varying in color, but all of them looked almost the same in shape, except for the two Chezamon at the end of the table.
One of those was a large, black-furred Chezamon with fringes of silver on his folded, feathered wings, and the hair on the end of his long, more dragon-like tail. His ears were pointy, and the tips were of a dark gray color. He had a white underbelly and jaw, and his paws were of a bluish gray color. His face emanated authority and strength, yet he never lost his calm tone, not even for some humans.
In other words, he was like a black-furred, slightly more elegant-looking version of Kazehana.
The Chezamon next to him was obviously a female; she had his same shape, but she was much smaller and her body had more curves. Her fur was fiery red, like Kaya's, and she had white legs and face. She had feathered wings as well, but she had them wrapped around her body, as if trying to hide her body from the other present Chezamon, showing their orange and gold color. She had dark red markings on her face and legs, and her tail had dark red fringes.
One of the Chezamon on the left side of the table was a little bulky, with well-proportioned legs and shiny fur. His fur was a reddish brown, and his had a light yellow face underbelly, legs and face; his paws were a dark brown, and on his face he had an even lighter brown marking, starting on his golden eyes and running down his snout, and ending in his nose. Curiously, it had almost the shape of a 'W'. The end of his bushy tail was of a dark brown.
Another Chezamon, who was precisely on the opposite side of the table, had a contrasting dark gray fur, with silver underbelly and jaws; he had a black back, forehead, and the black fur merged with his silver underside right on his neck and near his shoulders. His front paws were black with silver fingers, giving them a glove-like appearance; his rear paws were completely black, with a silver line on surrounding them. His eyes were a crimson red.
A third Chezamon was a on the right side of the table as well, sitting in front of Syena. This one looked much older than the other two, apparently on his last years, although he still had much life inside. His fur was dark brown, his face, paws and underbelly were white, and he had what seemed to be black markings around his neck, running down his back until it shaped a 'V', and had a similar marking in the sides of his snout. Half of his more cat-like tail was black, and the rest ended in white.
"Lord Baojia, I insist these humans must be Converted immediately before they get away!" the dark gray Chezamon bowed his head respectfully at the black winged male, "We shouldn't risk them finding a way to escape and alert the rest of the Tribes of our presence here."
The reddish brown Chezamon argued back, "Converted? I don't know if you have noticed, but these humans are different from the Creatures we have converted so far! We don't know how it would change them, or if we will be able to control them at all!"
"If I wanted your opinion I would have asked for it, Hukaro!"
The Chezamon named Hukaro turned towards the old Chezamon, "Torimaku, am I right or not?"
Torimaku sighed, "On your side, I'd say that being wary is wise,"
Hukaro gave the gray male a triumphant smirk, "See? I was right as always, Ryuu."
"But… It is not a bad idea to experiment Conversion on humans."
Ryuu returned the taunting grin, "Ha."
The red-furred, winged female shook her head at the argument and gave Syena glance, "What do you think, Syena? Would these humans be useful to the Pack if they were converted? Or would it be best to execute them, as Hukaro says?
Syena thought on what she would say for a moment before bowing to the female, "Lady Dryla, if we'll convert them, I won't lie to you. Right now, they don't seem to be skilled in battle or even look like the fighter type. But in my opinion, the black-furred human seems to have potential for being a Hunter, he has courage and from what I saw, he seems to be some sort of leader; he might even become a Clawder," she gave Ryuu a small glance, ". The red-furred human is… to put it lightly, very thin and he doesn't seem very strong. He wouldn't do good in battle, I suggest placing him with the pupsitters. The brown-furred one is very large, I have a feeling he will be very strong if Converted. He would do well as a Hunter-"
"Unless he ends up like certain good-for-nothing Hunter I know," Hukaro muttered under his breath.
Syena gave Hukaro a small glare; she didn't like to be interrupted.
Ryuu inquired, "And what about the human female?"
"She is determined, if not a little hot-headed, she will do well as a Hunter as well, but I suggest she is placed as a Healer."
Hukaro spoke (this time making sure Syena was done talking), "If they are converted. If they are not, at least we should erase their memories so that they won't remember anything."
Dryla looked at Torimaku, "Are you done examining the humans' teleporting devices?"
Torimaku turned towards a Hunter on the entrance of the chamber and gave him a nod; the Hunter understood and walked towards the table, holding what a small brown handkerchief on his jaws. He put it on the table, revealing the group's scanners.
Torimaku explained, "I'm afraid these devices cannot be used by ourselves; me and my students have tried everything to make them work, but they just won't budge," he bowed respectfully to Baojia, "I'm afraid that only the humans are capable of using them."
Hukaro lost his patience and snatched Kaz's scanner, sniffing it and pressing random buttons, trying to see if there was a way of unlocking it.
Ryuu rolled his eyes, "Are you deaf? Torimaku just said they won't work with us!"
Hukaro narrowed his eyes, not taking his gaze off the red scanner, "What do you suggest, then? Return this to the humans so that they teach us how to use them? They'll get away as soon as we give it to them!"
"Although…" Syena thought for a moment, flicking her tail, "That would be a good idea."
"What?!" Ryuu and Hukaro snapped at the same time, giving her a confused look.
"The humans are our prisoners; if they're smart, they'll realize that they don't have any choice but do as we say. Besides, I never suggested we gave their scanners back at all, we shall ask them how to make them work."
Hukaro thought for a moment, and something else snapped, "Now that we're on it, these humans… They are not from here at all. Perhaps they've been to the other Tribes' Dens… If we could gain some information from them…"
Baojia snarled, "IF you're suggesting to attack one of the other four Tribes, you can forget about it."
Hukaro bowed his head, "No, my lord. All I mean is that we should be wary; we know nothing of the other Tribes, if we're attacked-"
Ryuu interrupted him with cough, "In case you forgot, we're hidden within the depths of the Forest of Life. Mist Forest is a myth to the rest of Perim, not to mention that all the outsiders that came here never returned to their Dens. The possibility of them knowing of our existence is very low, unless…"
Ryuu's eyes widened in realization at what Hukaro meant. The four captured humans were not the first to have come to Mist Forest; many other humans had been going into Mist Forest, but all of them had gotten away. To enworse things, the humans knew of their existence already, so they had probably already shouted it outloud in all of Perim…
Hukaro continued, "As I was saying, it would be useful if we knew of the other Tribes' weaknesses, in case they attempt to return again."
Baojia and Dryla looked at each other for a while, as if attempting to figure what the other was thinking. Finally, Baojia gave Hukaro a nod.
"Very well. You and Syena will interrogate the humans, but do NOT give them their devices back. At least, not yet. First, obtain all information you can from them."
Hukaro vowed his head respectfully, "As you wish, my lord.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Luna/Kaya looked around the misty background of Mist Forest, attempting to catch Skyfall/Danian Guard's scent, but it appeared the man had been trained in camouflaging, because she had lost his trail. He had said the Danian's name was… Kendrun. Of course even the Danian guards had names! How would they call each other if they didn't? Kaya's sensitive hearing alerted to footsteps, and he barely had time to doge a pebble stone attack. He landed in a bush, and before he knew it he was avoiding shots from the elder, more experienced player.
"Come on, doggie!" Kendrun taunted at the red Chezamon, "I don't bite… much."
Kaya retorted, offended, "Hey! I'm not a dog!"
He lunged at Kendrun, all while avoiding the Stingblade's shots., and the two went rolling down a hill (which they hadn't noticed at all due to the landscape). Despite rolling down, Kaya managed to see the edge of Mist Lake ahead. If Kendrun was good when on ground, perhaps he was not the type of Danian who knew how to swim. As they flew into the air, Kaya leapt away to the ground before Kendrun fell into the water. The red Chezamon got closer to the edge of the small cliff, staring at the water, seeing nothing but bubbles gurgling; Yep, apparently, Kendrun was not the type of Danian who could swim.
Before he could do something, Kaya was struck with a Water attack, and he was sent flying against a tree, making him whimper in pain. Suddenly, Kendrun rose from the water in a whirlpool; Kaya stared at him in astonishment.
"Seriously?!" he spoke, "What's next?! Air attacks?!"
Kendrun grinned as he landed a few meters away from Kaya, launching more water attacks at his opponent, despite the Chezamon having no trouble avoiding them.
"Damn it, Kaya's fire attacks will be useless against water attacks," Luna thought, "But… fire and water together form steam. If I could make enough steam to daze him, I could get an advantage and finish him off!"
Kaya launched an Inferno Gust to counter Kendrun's Rip Tide, and as Luna predicted, steam started to emanate from the point where the two attacks collided. The more time passed, more steam formed, until Kendrun finally could not see where Kaya had gone. He frenetically started looking around, but was unable to spot the Chezamon's red fur; the last thing he felt before being coded was something Kaya digging his fangs into his throat.
Back in the Battledrome, Luna changed back to normal; she was surprised to see Skylander was clapping his hands.
"Excellent, my dear. You have great potential to be an exceptional player. If I may ask, what Creature was that you used?"
Luna looked a the ground; despite the compliment, she couldn't bring herself to reveal the secret, "Sorry, mister Skylander, but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone about it…"
Skylander sighed in disappointment, "I understand, my dear… A promise is a promise. If you do not wish to speak, you do not need to."
He gave her a mysterious look, "After all, there are secrets that should remain secret."
"Thanks, mister Skylander! I'll call my brother and tell him about the match!" Luna grabbed her scanner and rushed back to the port court. She didn't notice the curious stare Skylander was giving her.
"… Such a high-spirited young girl… I wouldn't be surprised if she came to beat a Codemaster soon."
XOXOXOXOXO
They were in major trouble.
Kaya , Rocket, Jerome and Shaoran stared worriedly at the four humans in the middle of the interrogating chamber. When they had been told humans had been captured, they didn't imagine it was Luna's pack. Hukaro was staring sternly at the humans, who were cowering in fear. Kaz was trembling visibly, in fact, the room was emanating fear from the humans.
The interrogating room itself was big enough to hold a few of the Chezamon Nobles, who would decide the humans' fate after the questioning was done. There were a few Hunters present, them included, to prevent the humans from escaping or attempting to harm anyone, the Nobles specifically. In fact, Ryuu even had been asked to bring some of his Clawders to protect the Nobles (just in case). Ryuu himself was resting next to Jerome, staring at the humans amusingly; unlike most high-ranking Chezamon and Nobles, Ryuu had no particular objection in being close to Hunters. This chamber had no tree roots on the ceiling, however. Syena was sitting next to Hukaro, staring at the humans in a more curious way.
The room went silent when Hukaro spoke, "You know, we do not take kindly intruders who come into our territory."
Tom gathered enough courage to speak, "B-but we're not spies! We were just looking for-!"
The black-haired human froze as Hukaro snapped his teeth at him.
"Quiet!" he snarled, "I already have enough migraines around here to have intruders around!"
Syena rolled her eyes and, pushing Hukaro backwards (ticking him off), she spoke softly, "Listen, humans. We do not mean harm if you cooperate."
"C-Cooperate?" Peyton mumbled, "Girl, how can we be sure you guys won't eat us, tear us or even turn us into pupsitters?"
Hukaro and Ryuu opened their eyes slightly in surprise; how did he know about that? Secretly, Hukaro panicked that these humans could read their minds. Kaya couldn't help but let out a chuckle, but was cut short when Rocket elbowed him hard on the ribs.
Syena gave them a slight smile, "Don't worry, if you don't cause trouble…" she motioned Shaoran to get closer, and the Hunter, giving the humans a quick reassuring glance, walked next to her, holding the handkerchief in his mouth. He dropped it at her feet, and the scanners scattered at her paws, but quickly put her left paw to block it from the humans' grasp, "… We'll give you your devices back."
"Excuse me, miss," Peyton spoke, "Or missus, if you're married, but you don't look married so…" he started to tremble when he noticed Syena was narrowing her eyes, "… Anyway, those… devices are called Scanners, we need them to port back to-"
Tom, Sarah and Kaz gave him fulminating stares; he had given away their method of transport to the Chezamon; well, Kaya and the others already knew, but they hadn't told anything.
Hukaro snapped, "Ha! I knew you were spies!"
"NO!" shouted Kaz, "We're not spies! We just came to-!"
A beep startled Hukaro, making him jump a step back; most Chezamon present, including Ryuu, peered their ears to the front and started looking around for the source of the sound. The Underworld player grew nervous when he realized it was his scanner beeping.
Luna was calling him.
Syena was startled by the beeping, but she regained her cool quickly and stared down at the Scanners at her paws; the red scanner was the one beeping.
"Who is the owner of the red devi- Scanner?" the female lieutenant corrected herself
Kaz gulped as he stepped to the front –not before receiving reassuring looks from his friends- and stopped in front of Syena, staring into her slit pupils.
"M-me," he mumbled
"Why is it beeping like that?"
"I-I have a c-call. C-can I answer it?"
"Of course not!" Hukaro stepped to the front, showing his teeth, "How do we know you won't try to get away?!"
Kaz gathered enough courage to speak to Hukaro firmly, "Then could you at least let me talk to her? I'll tell you how to answer the call!"
"What are you-!"
Syena interrupted him, "Of course, young human. Tell me how to operate the Scanner, and I'll answer the call for you."
Kaz motioned at his scanner, "See the red button on the center of the cross-shaped button? Press it…"
XOXOXOXOXO
Luna sat in the group's usual table, and waited for her brother to answer the call. Really, he didn't usually take so long in answering her calls. She didn't know where they had gone, and it was annoying her. She wanted to tell him about her match as soon as possible, but there was no sign of them. Tom, Peyton and Sarah had not answered her calls either, so she was starting to worry.
Finally, Kaz seemed to pick up her call.
"Kazdan!" she spoke, "Where are you? Why don't you guys answer my-?"
Luna couldn't finish her sentence, for she realized it was not her brother on the screen, but a Chezamon. A female Chezamon, but she seemed a little… different.
"Are you… Kazdan's sister?"
Luna nodded.
Hukaro pushed Syena aside softly, taking most of the screen for himself, and took a look at Luna, "She does have some resemblance to him."
Syena pushed Hukaro aside and stared at Luna, "Dear, would you mind coming to the Den as well. We have a few questions for you and your pack. If you answer them, you may all go free."
"But I don't know where it…"
Syena spoke again, "I'll send Hunters to take you to the Den, but I'd like you to tell me where you'll… port, isn't it?"
Luna nodded again.
"I'll port to Mist Lake, but please promise me you won't hurt my friends." She spoke
Now it was Syena's turn to nod, "I give you my word. No harm will come to them."
Luna was startled when Syena finished the call abruptly, but apparently she had done it by accident. After all, she did not know how to use it. However, there was no time for that; the girl dashed towards the Port Court.
She didn't want to make the Hunters wait.