Of Sentience and Predator

D2: Five Six Eight

I'm back! ... again. Sorry for like four, five-ish months of nothing, writer's block hit me hard. I should be out of it now, since I was able to find a way to write around what was giving me trouble. I'm hoping seeing interaction on this will give me motivation to finish the last chapter and a half of this I need to write until I can finally write the movies and Omniverse flashbacks.

Anyways, enjoy! And hopefully I'll be back next week.

Tetrax looked at Kraab. "We really should tell them," Tetrax muttered.

"We're stalling, which I say is a good thing," Kraab scoffed. "We have no idea what they're planning to do with the young Sotoraggian."

A beat.

"But how long are they willing to wait?" Tetrax asked. His voice was suddenly softer, causing Kraab to tilt his head at him.

"Is something wrong?" Kraab questioned.

"Torture," Tetrax suddenly snapped.

Kraab was quiet for a moment before musing, "The child was clearly unhappy."

"Is," Tetrax corrected.

More silence.

"Do you believe those 'knights' are torturing the child?" Kraab asked.

"You remember her voice?"

"Dry, harsh. Signs of dehydration."

"She was also chained to the floor. She isn't allowed to move. You saw how small she is."

"She's desperate, too. ... I believe you. Too many signs."

"Even if that wasn't the case, SixSix or any of his siblings would be after us."

"Assuming he's alive, of course."

"Why, for the sake of Chromastone, are they doing that to a child?"

"We should contact them. They're most likely already restless."

Tetrax nodded, but became silent.

-(...)-

Asani slept in Kevin's lap as the Osmosian hybrid played some sort of game on the tablet. Gwen was reading on a lifeform data pad, scrolling through whatever she was reading. Psychobos and Ben were next to each other, near the weird nest the Cerebrocrustacean had created when he joined them, with the crab-like seemingly talking with the boy, a lifeform data pad with the two. EightEight was in the driver's seat, the Dark Eagle wasn't on, as she looked through the news the badge presented her.

The Sotoraggian looked through the hologram. To be fair, the badge was just a badge when the Dragoon first came to be, but now it was just a holo-device in the shape of a badge. She looked at some of the more recent developments. The idea of the main hub being moved permanently to Sparksville, local events deemed as 'important' to humans, talk of the Wyrmlings- no surprise-, rumors around that 'Area 51' place, talk of the Plumbers, the Petrosapien tablet that was found, that weird situation with-

She blinked, then went back to the post. EightEight squinted behind her mask as she read. A Petrosapien tablet being left in the middle of nowhere with coordinates and Sotoraggian writing on it that roughly translated to 'tortured child' (because, like the vocal language it comes from, written Sotoraggian is near impossible to translate. Impressive they managed to do so that quickly). She went into the post and looked at the comments on it.

EightEight frowned. The coordinates were found to be at a base of those 'Forever Knights' idiots. There was speculation about what the 'tortured child' meant, but a big consensus was that whoever was within the fortress was captured. She sighed, then lowered the badge and rolled her head back. The Sotoraggian looked again at the post as it continued to be talked about in the chat.