Cheezey moaned softly and squeezed her eyes shut against the dim light that filtered through her slit lids, piercing her brain. She thought that games were supposed to be fun. Had she ever had a headache this terrible in real life? She didn't think so. She couldn't even remember hangovers this severe.

Then again, she was surprised that she could remember her own name, much less the fact that she was in a game. The pain burned so deeply that she felt as though her entire nervous system was on fire. And underneath it all was a low, yet grating, *shick shick shick* sound that she couldn't quite place. It scoured her brain like sandpaper and she was suddenly determined to discover its source despite the burning light.

Shielding her eyes as best she could with her left hand, Cheezey propped herself up on her right elbow and cautiously opened her eyes. She hissed as the brightness burned them before realizing that the room was really quite dark, the only light coming from a tiny window sitting nearly ten feet off the floor. *I must be worse off than I thought,* she decided and her brain sent out one more twinge of needle-like pain in agreement.

It was so dim that she could barely make out Sonarion sitting crossed-leg on a bunk (much like her own, she quickly realized) across the room from herself. He had in his hand a tiny knife and was slowly whittling a little twig down to a toothpick, each scrape of the knife making a little *shick* sound as it slid down the length of the wood and off the end."Oh," he said sourly, "you're up."

"Shhh..." whispered Cheezey. The soft sound scraped at her throat, making her realize just how thirsty she was.

"Do you know how long I've been sitting here? Five hours!" complained Sonarion. "Okay...so maybe it wasn't really five hours. My computer says only a few minutes. But it FEELS like five hours! I thought waiting was speeded up in games..."

"SHHHHH..." managed Cheezey in a slightly louder tone of voice. "Headache..."

"Well *I* don't have anything for you," replied the Hyperaudio Lunatak with some annoyance, but he did lower his voice as much as possible. "They took all our stuff! Even my woodworking tools! The only reason they didn't get this knife and my stick was 'cause I stuffed 'em in my boot so I wouldn't have to dig them out of my pack later. The knife's too small to do anything but cut splinters. Would you believe that this stick used to be an inch thick?"

"Yes, please shut up..." moaned Cheezey, clutching her head and flopping back over onto her cot. This proved to be a bad idea. The jarring motion sent white hot needles of pain into every part of her head and she moaned once more. This time, however, the sound caught in her throat and became a dry cough which only make matters worse as spots danced before her eyes, exploding in little bursts of agony.

"Be nice or I won't tell you where the water is," threatened Sonarion quietly.

Water?

Against her better judgement, Cheezey sat up quickly, hissing in pain as she did so. Despite her migraine she thought she might find the energy to strangle the water's location out of her fellow Lunatak if the occasion warranted, but she was relieved to see that he was only joking and had, in fact, slipped quietly off his got and fetched her a dipperful of the liquid while she had been coughing. With a murmur of gratitude, she lifted the dipper to her lips and drank it down in large swallows.

The shock of the cold water also sent violent tremours into her brain, but they were certainly preferable to those caused by her coughing fit. On the plus side, it also soothed her throat and, splashed over her face, even helped relieve some of her headache, particularly that part of it which had been building behind her eyes. Certainly the light didn't seem quite so severe now. Painful, yes, but bearable.

"Thank you," she repeated when she had finished.

"Hey," grinned Sonarion, still minding the volume of his voice, "you're my friend, right?"

"I thought powers were supposed to come naturally to people in a game," sighed the Psi Lunatak, rubbing her temples. "I mean, I know we have to increase our levels slowly, but I thought that we'd just not be able to do the things that were beyond us, not that we'd...oh...pull a mental muscle or something."

"Well, at least we're in Skytomb," grinned Sonarion, trying to make light of a bad situation. "More water?"

"No thank you...not right now," replied Cheezey watching carefully to see where Sonarion put the dipper. He placed it near a pail under the edge of his cot which could only contain water.

"Amok brought the water himself!" declared the Hyperaudio Lunatak proudly. "They knew I was too dangerous for them to send just anybody!"

Cheezey only managed to suppress her laughter because it would be too painful to let it out. Sonarion was tough, true, but he was a child character, and a new one at that. If this game were any closer to real life than the show had been...and so far it looked as though this were so...then the only Lunatak Sonarion would likely be able to defeat alone would be Luna. At least for now. "I wonder where we are in Skytomb," she mused, changing the subject.

"Dunno...but far away from all the activity," replied Sonarion glumly. "I can barely hear anyone moving around and I should be able to hear things way up in the control room even if we were way down in the furnace area."
"You probably have to grow into your full powers like the rest of us," said Cheezey.

"May-be, but sometimes...sometimes it feels like there's no one here at all..." The younger Lunatak's tone was enough to send shivers down Cheezey's spine, but the illusion was quickly dispelled as the youth continued. "But mostly I hear people walking around. I think I hear someone coming this way now. They're pretty far away though so I doubt they're coming all the way here."

Cheezey agreed, but decided that they should stay silent and try to guess by how long it took the footsteps to get to their cell. If they turned away...well, then they would speak again. The exercise would be useful and good practise and, she'd added silently to herself, would provide her with a little much needed silence.

Neither prisoner had thought that they were the purpose of the rhythmic step - the very fact that each step was distinct ruled out Tugmug - and so they were both suprised to find the subject of their study drawing ever-nearer until Cheezey herself could hear their approach.

"Too light to be Amok," said Sonarion quietly, "and besides, it's a two-legged step. Red-Eye? Only he could really see around *here*!"
"No. Alluro," said Cheezey. She had had a momentary twinge of doubt, worried that it might only be wishful thinking, but once she'd spoken his name, she knew. There was an unconscious blending of the footsteps with the environment, a low-level awareness that could only be achieved by sensitives. Although one did not necessarily need to be a Psi Lunatak to be a sensitive, Cheezey was quite certain that no one else in Skytomb had that level of psychic awareness.

The footsteps not only neared the cell, but stopped right outside the door, pausing there for several moments as though debating the wisdom of their action. Then a small partition slid back, opening a slot in the door.
"Well well well," the voice of Alluro drifted in to them, the small opening allowing the pair to see only one yellow-green eye and a portion of violet skin. "When we fixed up these old cells we certainly never expected to be holding other Lunataks! I hope you're not finding your stay *too* uncomfortable." The Psi Lunatak tried to sound smug, but his underlying curiosity lent an eagerness to his voice that Sonarion was quick to pounce upon.

"Well *I* like it just fine!" Sonarion informed him, sticking out his tongue. "It's a whole lot better than *some* of the places I've been, let me tell you! And escaped from! You're lucky my friend's sick or we'da ditched this place a long time ago!"

"And what kind of places could a little scrap of nuissance like yourself have escaped from?" mocked Alluro.

"Ha! You think I'm going to tell you and let you find a way to trap us?" Sonarion snorted. "I don't *think* so! You'll find out for yourself just as soon as my friend is feeling better." The young Lunatak carefully placed his inflection in his reference to Cheezey. It was his hope that Alluro would come in to investigate what was wrong with her, making himself vulnerable to attack.

"Ah yes...fainted dead away after crawling off the *yelthyr*. Overuse of powers is my guess...anyone fool enough to try and dredge through one of *those* minds is asking for..."

Cheezey took her cue and, still rubbing at her temples, moaned piteously. She wasn't sure what Sonarion had in mind, but anything that would attract Alluro's interest was certainly worth a shot. Besides...he might really be able to help her and that would equal a little slice of heaven right now. There was a moment of silence on the other side of the door which hopefuly meant that the Psi Lunatak was taking pity on one of his own. Cheezey whimpered again, but with more sincerity this time...her head really did ache.

It took several minutes, but Alluro relented. "There...may...be something I can do to help," he admitted reluctantly. "Such symptoms are not uncommong among Psi Lunataks. Most of us have our pet remedies. I'm surprised that you do not have one."

"You took all our stuff!" exclaimed Sonarion, in annoyance.

"And we've looked through it too," smirked Alluro from the other side of the door. "In any case, we found no preparations. But you will be of little use to us in your present condition," he contined, addressing Cheezey. "I suppose Luna won't mind my helping you with this matter. You...the both of you...will wait quietly. I'll be back and then we will see what task you are suited to."

The partition in the door slammed shut almost as though Alluro were disgusted with his own soft-heartedness on the issue.

When he was certain that the Lunatak was out of hearing range - average hearing range - Sonarion grinned at Cheezey. "Good show! When he comes back, we can convince him to come in here to help and then knock him out or something and get out of here!"

"NO!" exclaimed Cheezey, wincing at the sound of her own voice. "I mean...look...if we attack any one of them, they'll never trust us enough to let us stay here."

"So? They don't want us anyway...they put us in a cell! We can go to the Thundercats and tell them how badly we were treated and then we'll have a good fight, just like in the show!"

"Go ahead then, but *I* want to be *here*."

"Well, me too...but I don't want to sit around. Besides, if we just sit here and take everything they throw at us, they'll think we're weak and just leave us here," said Sonarion with authority. "That's what *I* think."
Cheezey sighed and had to agree that it was a distinct possibility. She couldn't be sure *what* Bast had done to the Lunataks in this game. Alluro had spoken a word in a foreign language, his native one according to the 'Encyclopedia of...', what was it again? Oh yes, 'Sirestis'. There was no telling exactly how they'd react to anything their prisoners did or said.
"Look," said Sonarion when she had been quiet too long, "how about we compromise? We get Alluro to come in here, attack him and take away his psyche club, then get him into a position where we *could* knock him out, but don't just to prove that we're tough, but that we really do want to join them?"

"I guess we could try that," said Cheezey, resigned. "But I get a chance to talk to him first. He might listen to another Psi Lunatak. If it looks like he's going to be unreasonable, *then* you can jump him. But nothing that will get us kicked out entirely, okay?"

"Okay, okay...I promise." Sonarion flopped back down on his cot. "You know what we need? More Lunatak players. Then we can convince them that a ship went down that they don't know about or something."

"You never know," said Cheezey, thankful that the brief flurry of noise and activity was winding down. "We haven't met everyone in the game yet, after all."

"I guess," sighed Sonarion, picking up his stick - about the size of a pencil now - and whittling at it some more.

The gentle *shick shick shick* almost soothing in the wake of their voices, Cheezey lay back and closed her eyes.

*********************