"The battle is about to begin."
"Let's see what happens."
"I hope they work together again."
"They got along once so why not again?"
"Let's just hope he can get through to her."
"She's his weakness. He'll do anything for her."
They all awoke to Bonzo banging on the side of the door shouting. "Wake up!" That meant one thing. A battle.
"Battle with Leopard in ten minutes. Oh and Wiggin, I changed my mind. Maybe by watching my army you'll learn something and I can trade you faster." The leader explained. Cayla smirked; she knew this would happen.
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," Ender said gratefully.
"Salamander is Number one!" They all chanted as they all jogged up to their gate. They stopped in their five lines.
"What's the play?" Petra asked.
"Four wins. Toon A up. B left. C right. D down," Bonzo explained. "You," He pointed at Ender. "Wiggin hang back near the gate."
"Bonzo my toon will be a man down without him," Dink pointed out.
"He knows nothing about our formations Dink. He'll only get in the way," He looked over at Ender again. "You come out last, hang back and observe. We don't need you. Step aside."
Ender walked away from his line to the gate opened and one after the other, every Salamander jumped out of the gate into zero gravity with Bonzo cheering them on.
Tom and Cayla shot beams at two of the leopards at once. They quickly hid behind a star and watched Dink, Petra and Fly knock into a frozen member of Leopard. Petra began spinning and couldn't stay up one way.
"Oh, Petra's down," Cayla said wincing. Someone began shooting at them. Cay shot at the boy once and he, too, was frozen.
"What's that?" Tom said, tapping her on the shoulder and pointing in a direction. She followed where he was pointing to see Ender shooting at all the enemies. He got hit but kept shooting.
Petra and Ender were practicing hand to hand combat. They didn't even notice Cayla standing in the doorway watching them.
"Where did you learn all this?" Petra asked.
"I had a brother," He said quietly.
"Had?"
"Have."
"Funny," She laughed a bit. "Cayla said the same thing except she said about her sister and a bully,"
"Stilson. He's the reason I came here. She won't have to worry about him," the blue eyed teenager said guiltily.
"How?" She asked confused.
"It's not something I want to talk about. Alright; let's go again but this time use your arms not your hips," He said quickly changing the subject and got into a offensive stance.
"Officer on deck," Fly said as he pulled Cayla forward along with them.
"I thought I told you not to train with her," Bonzo stated.
"I thought we agreed free time was free, sir," Ender replied glaring.
"At ease," Bonzo said then he punched the fifteen year old in the gut.
"Stop it Bonzo!" Cayla shouted.
"I don't want to hear another word out of you or I'll trade you!" Bonzo threatened. That silenced her.
Bonzo whispered something in Ender's ear and shoved him backwards before turning on heel and walking back out the way he had came, the two others hurrying after.
"You okay?" Petra asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied.
Cayla, too, turned to walk out but Ender stopped her.
"Cay?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," He smiled. She smiled back at him and walked out.
After the run in with Bonzo, it was lights out. While everyone else slept, Ender sat awake. He got out his desk and continued his game. Valentine appeared in his game. Explosions began to go off and the computer Val ran away. The mouse followed her to the castle. Once inside, his character turned into himself. There was a giant dome in the middle of four narrow paths. Inside the dome stood his sister. The carpet on the walkway turned into a snake and attacked him. The computer version pushed it down and kept fighting until it stopped fighting him.
Once down, it turned into Cayla.
Dead Cayla.
"Well done. You're a killer now," Peter said. Peter? Ender thought. The character moved to face to dome. Peter's face was there smirking.
The fifteen year old screamed and pushed his desk away.
"Nightmares, launchie? Keep them to yourself," Fly said from the bunk next to his. Then he gave a grunt of pain. "Oww!"
"What?" Ender asked.
"Something hit me on the back of the head!" The boy cried
"Wasn't me!" Ender defended.
"I know that, idiot! Who was it, though?" he asked looking around to see anyone. Out of the darkness, Cayla appeared.
"Are you old grandmas finished your conversation? Some of us are trying to sleep in here y'know?" Even in the dark, it was clear she was glaring. "Get some sleep idiots and no bullying." Fly turned the opposite way and tried to get some sleep. The blonde crept around to the other side of his bunk.
"What?" Ender asked when she crouched to his height.
"What happened? Nightmare? Valentine? I had the same thing happen to me when I came here." She reassuringly placed a hand on his shoulder. He hugged her tight. "Get some sleep," she said when they broke from the hug. He nodded weakly.
"You said the game would reveal his state of mind not screw with it! How did his psycho brother get in the game!"
"He's obviously feeling some physiological problems-"
"Of course he's feeling pressure Anderson! This is a boot camp for kids that are going to face a real enemy!"
"The game is a thought relationship between the child and the computer. Together they create stories."
"You need to change the story! The dead snake turned into his biggest weakness! That's not right!"
"The stories reflect on the child's emotional reality. I can't change that!"
"Erase the game. Their relationship needs to be fixed not further broken!"
Thanks to juholer for reviewing this. I have a lot of muse for this at the moment so expect some more chapters!
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See you next time,
suprnerdyfangirl
