Watching from the rafters as the Teknoman who'd managed to track them back to her barn, Cassie couldn't help but wonder if this was Gunnar. She knew that Teknomen could come out of their armor, from working so long alongside Slade and Shara, but she'd have been the first to admit that she didn't know what he looked like out of his armor.
(Fritz.)
(Who?) she asked, looking over at Shara, who didn't quite seem to have realized that she'd spoken, if the way the other girl jerked slightly in surprise was any indication.
Shara seemed to sigh, over the mental link that the pair of them currently shared. (His name was Fritz Wallace. He was a friend of Cain's – Ness' younger twin, one of my older brothers – he came on the camping trip with us. That's why he's here right now.)
(I'm sorry, Shara,) Cassie said, wanting to at least say something, but not quite knowing how or what to say, besides that.
It still felt inadequate.
xxxxXxxxx
An easy leap took him up into the barn's hayloft, and Gunnar made his way toward what seemed to be a deliberately hidden part of the loft, only to find himself distracted by what seemed to be that same hawk from before. Lightly catching the bird as it tried to dive at him, Gunnar tossed it out a nearby window and continued forward. The fluttering of another pair of wings drew his attention, and Gunnar snapped his attention to the rafters.
A whole flock of various raptors stared back at him; even a raven, which only served as a bittersweet reminder of Sam, since ravens had been the youngest Carter's favorite bird.
Strangling the idle musing, forcing his attention back to the matter at hand, Gunnar summoned his bow. Sure, those birds might not have been any kind of threat to him, but the Radam instincts he'd been imprinted with when he'd been unfortunate enough to survive the transformation process dictated that any attack was to be answered with superior force. Even such a feeble one as the birds in the rafters were capable of.
xxxxXxxxx
(Gunnar,) Slade growled, and Jake found himself wondering just when the pair of them had encountered each other, for Slade to hate the Teknoman as much as he seemed to.
(You know him, Slade?)
(Cassie and I encountered him on our second mission to Fenestre's compound,) Slade said, and Jake felt a distinct chill as he realized just who had caused the destruction he'd read about in the paper a few days ago. (He said that he was there to bring me back to Darkon, but Cassie ordered me to ignore him, so I hit him with a Tekno-bolt and left. Looks like he survived.)
(Looks like,) Jake said, turning back to Gunnar, as the Teknoman hopped up onto the hay bale and looked down at the blanket that Slade and Shara used while they slept.
He also found himself more than a little annoyed with Cassie, not so much for the way she'd gone behind his back, but for the way she'd used the way Slade so clearly thought of himself as a weapon to treat him like one. Even the fact that Slade hadn't said anything made sense, since he'd probably figured that she would have already reported it to him or something.
Still, there would be time to corner Cassie about what she'd done to Slade once they'd all managed to keep both of the siblings from being caught by Gunnar and dragged back to Darkon.
xxxxXxxxx
It was clear from everything he'd seen that Slade and his sister had been in this barn when he'd managed to track them to it, but the both of them had also clearly managed to escape through some means, and now Gunnar was left with the question of what to do next. Darkon hadn't ordered him to wait for them, and even though he'd previously emptied himself of feeling and curiosity, Gunnar could almost feel them coming back.
Leaping lightly out of the hayloft, Gunnar made his way back out of the barn again, and as he felt the sunlight on his skin once more, Gunnar transformed and flew back to the Radam's underground base.