Chapter 16: Prelude to battle
Vaughn walked down the long hall towards his room. No one escorted him anymore; he had proven that he could be trusted. He stepped in front of the door and slid the little key they gave him through the slot there. The door slid open and he stepped in. this Vaughn was a changed man. He had grown to six foot three inches tall in the three and a half weeks he had been here. He had gained a large amount of muscle mass too. No longer was he a scrawny little guy like the mercs had called him. He let his hair grow out now, just a little shaggy now, but he planned to make it look like the Yautja's. It had darkened as well, from blonde to a light brown. He barely noticed these things though, it just felt right to him, he could tell that his body was adapting at a super fast rate, and he was grateful. He fell down into the hammock of netting, and stared at the masks now mounted on his wall. They were his trophies, them along with the Tak'kah skull that rested on a pedestal right below. He was proud of them, mostly because the Yautja said he should be. Honor was everything to a Yautja hunter, and trophies of the kill were markers of that honor. Ka'jeal had told him of the games many times, and now it was time to fight in them. The day was coming, and it was coming soon.
The synthetic man lay there staring at the trophies. He played back the events in his mind. All that happened on that day in the desert. Then it hit him, the reason that the acceleration hadn't worked before! He had burnt it out; he had used it so many times that it had been shorted out or something. He sat up and thought for a moment. He then pulled off the sweaty tunic and tossed it across the room. And he was there to catch it. Vaughn stood there laughing, holding his shirt and standing alone. He had regained the acceleration by simply not using it for a while. He threw the tunic back down and walked over to the hammock and slumped down, for a very pleasant night's sleep. He woke in the morning to the computer consol bleeping. He rolled out of his hammock and slowly staggered to the computer. He pressed a few buttons and Ka'jeal's face appeared. "Ah!" Vaughn jumped back and said "man I really don't wanna see your ugly mug so early in the morning kaj". Ka'jeal laughed and replied "you are not so pretty yourself, disgusting ooman cheeks, and no mandibles! You look like a woman!" Vaughn chuckled and sat down in the chair that was there. "So what's the special rise and shine occasion?" Ka'jeal lit up and proudly replied "today, we reach the place were the games will be held!" Vaughn sat up in his chair and grinned. He had been waiting for this ever since he got here, and whether he stayed or went when he won didn't even matter, the fact was that he was going to win.