Of course, such a slow weapon even shot in advance to such a fast target missed.
But it succeeded in forcing Koa to dive behind a tree to avoid it. She hit a
few leaves and covered her ears as the blast shook the ground. She wondered
how much damage that Grand Lightning Beam could do.
Koa crawled out slowly and surveyed the area. She was quite far behind. "C'mon,
hurry!" Chiroke called from above. "They're going fast! You better get moving!"
Urged by her PetPet, Koa continued the chase. She could easily avoid the Grand
Lightning Beam with her Wocky speed. She swiftly caught up to her earlier position.
If Roque fired again, she decided that she would run around the trees and go
parallel to catch up. This would keep her from getting too far behind.
When Koa was close enough, she took a clean shot at Roque. The bolts missed
once again. It was looking feeble to even try to shoot before she stopped. Larson
must be having an even harder time, she thought.
"Roque! Roque! Roque!" called a dastardly voice from above. "I'm coming, my
master!"
"It's that Pirakeet, Chiroke!" Koa yelled. "Get her before it's too late!"
Chiroke obediently searched for and spotted the dark-feathered PetPet, Tarjha,
and flew swiftly after it. She listened to Tarjha call for Roque and swerve
around the trees. Suddenly, it dipped downward. Chiroke lost sight of it, but
she heard a yelp of pain and struggling. She looked down and saw her master
on the ground with red marks on the back of her neck.
"Koa!" squealed the Pawkeet.
"Aggh... that Pirakeet hit me... no, I'm okay. Chiroke, never mind! Go get
her!"
Reluctantly, Chiroke circled overhead and continued the chase. Koa eventually
got back up and ran a little slower.
Sergeant Larson the Gelert had been running zigzag to dodge the beams of light
that his nemesis fired from behind. The sound was extremely loud, and he could
see the bright light while even facing the other direction. But he couldn't
get shot and fail his team. He was lucky that he was a Gelert, slightly faster
than a Lupe, and with tremendous stamina.
He heard a squawk from behind. The Wocky's Pawkeet, he decided. How it could
help him, he was uncertain. Larson hoped the creature would strike Roque, but
that would be against the rules. If only he could put the pain of being struck
by a Grand Lightning Beam in the back of his mind!
And then he was struck. Or grazed, because at the second Tarjha's talons touched
his fur, the Pirakeet was hurled onto the ground by the diving attack of Chiroke.
It screeched in pain.
Larson turned around to see the dark PetPet in the thin, shaded grass. Chiroke
was still in the air squealing "No! No! Don't turn around! Run! Follow me!"
The Gelert was confused. In a split-second, Roque had succeeded in her plan.
She stopped, took aim, and fired that beam at him. Larson tried to dodge it,
but he was slow(and the beam was huge). He yelped as the blast rattled his bones.
Koa, who had caught up, and Chiroke jerked their heads away to shield their
eyes.
Larson was scorched from head to toe. He was used to the blazing hot sensation
on this skin from the Sakhmet War, where he'd been hit several times by Grand
Lightning Beams. Despite the pain, he didn't want either Roque or Koa to see
him sprawled on the forest floor in agony, so he wasted no time ripping the
red armband off and slowly treading away. Neither Koa nor Roque saw this; they
had already started their own dogfight.
Chiroke found Koa behind a tree with her Lightning Gun in her paws. Roque
was off somewhere else. Chiroke whispered, "Mr. Larson was hit. I'm sorry, Koa,
but he was too slow..."
"S'okay. We'll just have to find the tree ourselves," the yellow Wocky replied.
"But look out for that Pirakeet."
"No, I think Tarjha isn't going to be flying for a while," said Chiroke.
"Good. Hope you're right. Now... my plan is to frag Roque as quickly as possible.
She'll never tell us where the red flag is. Never. So we'll find it ourselves."
"But Koa, don't you think I should be looking out for her?"
"I was getting to that. Fly up and keep an eye on her. Tell me where she is."
Koa's loyal Pawkeet promptly heeded her orders. She swooped upward into the
convenient branches of the trees. Meanwhile, Koa stood, crouched behind a tree,
listening for the footsteps of her First Sergeant. A few minutes later, Chiroke
returned, saying: "She's gone! I don't want to fly too far, but she's nowhere
to be seen."
"Uh-oh. Maybe she went over to where the other Betas are. That would make sense.
Why risk one-on-one with me when you can get your other buddies to help?" Koa
said.
"She went that way," Chiroke stated as she pointed her wing behind Koa. "I'll
go see."
Koa nodded slightly, and Chiroke was off.
Koa was exhausted, famished, and parched after these long hours of war games.
She sat in the grass and leaves, admiring the woodland terrain. It was three
o'clock or so, she guessed. Her muscles ached. She began to hum NeoQuest music
to herself. She stopped when her little green Pawkeet fluttered to a branch
near her.
"You were right!" squealed Chiroke. "She was talking to the other Beta pets...um,
she gave her PetPet, Tarjha, to one of 'em. Dunno how she picked her up...oh,
and she said something, um, to get them to scatter... to run away. It was weird.
And she's coming back here, I think."
Koa thought for a moment. "Of course. So I wouldn't know which tree has the
red flag. I'm flattered that she thought I was too tough to risk pitting those
NeoPets against...But anyway, we gotta get Roque."
"You've been looking forward to this, haven't you?"
"Oh yeah."
And the brave Wocky and her Pawkeet set off to hunt down First Sergeant Roque.
Koa knew this was her chance to prove herself and to scald her mortal enemy.
Once they heard footsteps in the distance, Koa instructed Chiroke to check out
the figure.
"It's Roque, all right," she said.
"We'll move from tree to tree and get around her," Koa replied.
Roque knew that Koa was somewhere nearby, but she didn't know exactly where.
Wockys are fast, she decided. A yellow flicker could very well be Koa dashing.
But Koa was careful not to move when Roque was looking her way. She pounced
swiftly behind tree after tree with ease. Meanwhile, Chiroke watched Roque like
a hawk from above, in a tree. The Lupe didn't notice the soft snap of twigs
or the cascading leaves fluttering down. Roque stood perfectly still, gripping
her Grand Lightning Beam, eyes looking this direction and that. A yellow figure
bolted from behind her.
She clutched her Lightning Gun and held it up, then took aim. Her paws were
shaking with nervousness. Koa touched the trigger, but in a split-second, the
crimson Lupe turned around, and her dark eyes met Koa's! The young Wocky immediately
bounded back behind the tree and let her weapon hang from her neck. Roque had
seen her. And now she was trapped!
Koa prepared to run. But where? The visions of that horrible beam, that powerful,
deafening blast of the Grand Lightning Beam, appeared in her mind. That sweat
on her neck fur was beginning to recollect. There was a low chuckle on the other
side of the tree. She also heard berserk squawking and chirping from her PetPet.
To be continued... |