The Eyes of Fate (Currently in Rewrite)

Fight Smarter

Sentinel

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Washington State, USA

October 8th, 2019

A loud knock at his door drove Sentinel out of a dead sleep. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was 4:00am. Too early for him to have overslept anything, which meant whoever was there wasn't on official business. When whoever it was knocked again, Sentinel drug himself out of bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He opened the door to find Fang and Oracle standing there, both fully dressed and looking much more awake than he felt.

"Good morning," Fang greeted him. He sounded positively chipper, something Sentinel wasn't sure he could muster at this hour.

"Morning? Is it not still night?" Sentinel asked. Surely morning didn't start until the sun rose.

"It's close enough." Oracle shrugged. "Get dressed, we've got a game to play."

"Game? What game?" Sentinel's brain may have still been half asleep, but he was pretty sure he would've remembered the others mentioning something about a game tonight.

After he and Fang returned from their little scavenger hunt, Fang had taken him to the gym (which he somehow hadn't found in his previous exploring) and put him through his paces. They had worked out for a couple of hours, Fang taking it slow so Sentinel wouldn't be too sore to move the next day, then broke to wash up before dinner with everyone else. After that they had split up, and Sentinel had wound up being shown a game called Stardew Valley by Chesyr. They had played until bed, and Sentinel didn't remember Chesyr once mentioning a different game being played tonight.

"We're going to play capture the flag," Fang said. He held up several zip ties before continuing. "Or at least, our own version of the game."

"What are those for?" Sentinel turned around and walked into his room to dress, not even bothering to close the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fang and Oracle walk further into the room so he was still in their line of sight. He also noticed that neither of them bothered to look away while he got dressed.

"This is human capture the flag," Fang explained. "One person is the flag, and that team is the defenders. The other team is trying to capture the flag. Right now, Chesyr and the twins are setting up somewhere out in the woods. Once you're ready, we're going to go out and find them."

"Who's the flag?" Sentinel asked, more to keep the other's talking while he pulled on a shirt and socks. He had a pretty good idea who it would be.

"Chesyr," Oracle confirmed his suspicions. "You'll have to get her on the ground and put zip ties on her, then bring her to the house. Same goes for the twins, if you can tie them then they're out unless somebody take the ties off. Fair warning, they've got ties too, and the same rules apply."

"Got it," Sentinel said. It all seemed straightforward enough, though he suspected that wouldn't be the case once they were out there. He slipped into his tennis shoes and stood up. "Ready."

"Let's get out there then," Fang said, turning and walking towards the door. Oracle followed him, and Sentinel raced to catch up after grabbing a jacket out of the closet.

They went out the back door, and Sentinel saw that all the lights around the house were turned off. It was dark out, but the stars were bright and the moon was full, so it was more than bright enough for Sentinel to see even without his powers. They reached the edge of the woods, and Fang held up a hand for them to stop.

"We're not expecting any kind of ambush in there, so you're on point kid." Fang said, nodding at Sentinel. "I'll be right behind you, and Oracle's bringing up the rear. Bring us to a halt if you see any of them."