"OK, Michael." Ianthe's voice was ice. "You're the brilliant expert. What do we do?"

Michael stood up, trying to work the kinks out of his 6'3" body. He rubbed his watery blue eyes and looked at Ianthe.

"Beats me."

"What?!" Nine very angry voices came at him from all sides as their owner's jumped up and he blinked.

"What?" He genuinely didn't know what they were so upset about.

"How could you not know?" demanded hairy Benjamin. "You created this game!"

"Yeah, but Hiltbrand said changes have been made," Michael pleaded. "I honestly have no idea what to expect." He sounded whiny now, and Benjamin turned away in disgust. Beside him, David took what looked like deep, calming breaths. It didn't look like they were working.

"What," Nicholas ground out, "did you put first?"

"Uh, a small skirmish at the top of that hill." He pointed out the hill in question, and Rynna groaned.

"That's not a hill, Michael. That's a freakin' mountain!" She yelled the last word. Michael looked at her and turned back to the 'hill'.

"Hill. Mountain. There's a difference?" Sudden movement caught his eye, and he turned back around in time to see Logan grab his sister's arms. Rynna glared at Michael, murderous thoughts racing through her brain. Christopher stepped between them.

"Chill! Just...relax, Maurynna."

"Rynna."

"...Sorry?"

"Don't call me Maurynna."

"Oh. Well, then. Rynna. Deep breaths, OK? You're not helping." Rynna glared but did as she was told. Logan let go when he felt the tension leave her arms.

"And you. Michael. Lead on."

Michael led on.

They approached the hill/mountain, walking on nice, level terrain, and Rynna was just telling herself that this really wasn't so bad when...

BOOM!

The rocks around them started exploding. Looking up, they could see blue and red...things...firing rockets and launching grenades.

"Pogs!" Michael shouted over the din. "The blue ones are the males – and they're quite strong! The reds are females, and they are incredibly fast – damn! That was close!" A large boulder had just smashed about 10 feet from them.

"How do we kill 'em?" yelled Logan. Rynna wasn't surprised to see him unsling a rocket launcher from his back.

'He has no sense of subtlety!' she thought in amusement, completely oblivious to the pot/kettleness of it all.

"That won't do any good!" replied Michael. "These are nasty little buggers! Only way to kill 'em is to get up close and personal. They have a natural defence shield that'll stop bullets and rockets, even crossbow bolts!"

"I could've had a crossbow?" said Rynna, momentarily distracted.

"Ryn! Focus!" Logan hit her on the arm. She looked slightly apologetic and motioned for Michael to continue. He gave her an odd look.

"Anyway, use your blades, and don't let them spit on you."

"Ew!" Ianessa wrinkled her nose. "Why would we?"

"Their saliva is acidic," he explained.

"Must put a dampener on snog sessions," said Rynna brightly. Logan elbowed her. "Sorry." Behind her, Rynna could her sniggering, and beside her, Logan's shoulders were shaking. Michael again gave Rynna an odd look before turning to the others.

"Any questions?"

"Ianessa and I don't have blades," piped up Ianthe.

"Here." Before Michael could respond, Rynna held out a knife to each sister.

"What about you?" Ianessa said. In response, Rynna unsheathed her samurai sword and grinned.

"Do you know how to use that?" demanded Cyrus.

"Not a clue," she said cheerfully. "But I'll figure it out. Now, shall we?"

Her team mates looked at her, then each other, before releasing their blades. The team let out a battle cry and jumped into it.

Hacking, thrusting and jabbing, Logan and Rynna fought back-to-back. They soon discovered Michael wasn't exaggerating about the Pogs' abilities. Their arms – and everyone else's – were soon numb. The Pogs' natural shields may not have been able to stop the slow-moving blades, but their skin was actually an exoskeleton, making it very difficult to cause damage.

"Michael!" yelled Nicholas, close to panic. "Why can't we hurt them?!"

"I don't know!" panted Michael. "They're not supposed to have armoured skin!"

Ten minutes later found the team grouped together – hot, sweaty and out of breath – completely surrounded by the Pogs. A particular large and ugly male leered at them while he began to arm what the serious gamers recognised as plasma grenades.

"Crap," Logan said simply.

"Do we want to know why?" asked Rynna warily.

"No."

"OK, everyone," Michael said, speaking quietly. "Tell me. Can anyone here sing?"

"We can," said Ianessa and Ianthe smugly, while everyone else muttered "no".

"Fine. Bowman's? Keep quiet. Everyone else? Sing the most annoying song that comes to mind, as badly and as loudly as possible."

Confused looks were shared amongst the players, and there were murmurs of "what?" and "why?".

"Please, just trust me. On the count of three: One..."

Everyone (minus the Bowman's) took a deep breath.

"Two..."

Everyone (minus the Bowman's) took a deep breath.

"Three!"

Eight voices burst into very bad song. There were snatches of "this is the song that doesn't end" mingles with "I know a song that'll get on your nerves"; "my heart will go on and on"; "I...will always...love you..." and even some "you are sixteen going on seventeen" coming out of the sudden din. The Bowman sisters clamped their hands over their ears, but this was nothing compared to what was happening to the Pogs.

They had covered their ears as soon as the singing had started, but Rynna (who was getting really annoyed with her choice of song) noticed blood seeping from their ears. Well, she assumed it was blood – it was a murky brown; the same colour rivers turn after heavy rains.

The male who had been charging the plasma grenades dropped them, turned and ran. He was obviously the leader, because the others immediately cut their losses and followed.

Michael, Cyrus, Logan, Nicholas and Benjamin quickly scrambled to disarm the grenades. They succeeded with most, but two had to be shot out of David's grenade launcher, as they couldn't be disarmed in time. As soon as the grenades were away, Michael signalled for the singing to stop.

"Get behind these boulders!" he screamed, running up the hill to a mini-ridge of boulders. "Hurry!"

the others, panicking, raced up the slope as quickly as they could and dropped behind the rocks into a trench.

"Be grateful they didn't change this," Michael muttered darkly.

There was a deafening BOOM! followed by a second, and the ground shook. Hot wind blasted dirt and rocks overhead and they cowered in their trench. After a brief while, the wind above subsided and Michael gave the 'all clear'.

Cautiously, ten heads rose above the ridge, which would have looked comical in another circumstance.

"Whoa," David said.

Whoa pretty much summed it up. The grenades had come to rest a quarter of a mile away, and a crater with a diameter of roughly 100 metres now stood where they had landed. The rock was melted for a further 200 meters (A/N: not too sure if that's plausible. Let me know?) and all the plant life they had observed had been seared away.

Rynna tried not to think of the birds and animals that would've been cooked in the blast. She was hungry, and her stomach began to complain about its distinct lack of meat. She opened a packet of her M&M's and began to eat, sinking back down into the trench. The others followed suit. Rynna reached for a water bottle and drank, closing her eyes as the refreshing liquid slid down her throat. She opened her eyes, put the water away and looked straight at Michael.

"I think you'd better tell us all you can about this game."