Keeper's Knowledge (Balancer's Soul cycle) (43 page)

He
took her hand and said “I’m Connor.”
Then he
saw a
lanky
shadow moving behind Jillian and Amber.

A well built man about
in his late teens to early twenties
walked up to stand at Amber’s side. He had s
hort and spiky red hair. L
eaf green eyes
contrasted with his slightly
red
dish
eyebrow
s
.
He was around four hundred years old himself.
A strong jaw
line was complimented by a thick neck.  He stood around five foot ten and one hundred and
eighty
pounds. He had on a white t-shirt and black shorts
. His footwear were also sandals, but no metal even touched his skin. His arms were long a
nd wiry, but Connor
knew that those kinds of arms would be quick and deadly. He smiled and said “Hello, Connor. My name is Ben. I am Amber’s mate.”
They
shook hands as well
, but Ben seemed very mature and logical
.

A minute later
two heavy landings
sounded from
behind
.
Connor slightly
turned to
witness
Mark and Kara making their way up to
them
. Ben took a
defensive
step forward to block their path from getting any closer to his mate. Kara pushed up on her back legs. She stood next to
her brother
saying “Hello. I’m Kara. It is also a pleasure to meet Sarah’s
big
sister. I think of her as my sister as well.” Kara grinned. “I think we can share her.”

Amber moved around Ben to look at Sarah with a confused look. “Do you really associate with Changers?”

Squarely she
admitted
“Yes.” Sarah moved to stand at
Connor’s
other side and
he
smiled just as she did. “Kara and Connor are siblings. I love her just as I do with you. Her mate is Ma
rk.” Sarah pointed and he
noticed
Mark
standing and waving
politely
. “He and Connor have been best friends for
many
years.
In human terms I mean…
” Sarah pointed behind herself. “That is not all. We are also f
r
i
e
nds with the Keeper’s Veronica,
that is
her son Firon and his mate Clarein.”

Amber’s g
r
in grew. “Little sister, you really
have
changed.”

Sarah
rested her palm on
his
shoulder. “I have. It is all thanks to Connor.”

Connor
took the initiative and
introduced Amber
and Ben
to the three Keepers.
Veronica looked at them and then to
her savior
.
“Have they heard about last night
’s incident yet
?”

Ben looked at Connor and then to her
. “We just arrived here about three hours ago.
We ran here all the way from Arizona.
What happened?”

Sarah grabbed her mate’s
hand tightly and said quietly “
Look around this room. What do you see?”

He and Amber
cautiously
glanced
around the room. Amber turned around to say “Why is everyone looking over here at us?”

Sarah said evenly as Mark stood by
his best friend’s
side. “Last night three Changers tried killing Kara and Mark as they slept
in the room beside ours
. Connor took out two of them and
I took care of the last one
before anyone was killed
.” A
mbers jaw dropped from her sister’s bluntness. “When we took them to Firon, one of the larger males took a bite out of my mate. Connor immobilized him with a single hit.”

“She’s not telling it right.”
Everyone turned their eyes to Firon.
“Yes, Connor did hit him only once, but there was more to it. He revealed to the other Changers that if they tried anything harmful
,
he could easily kill each one of them with his bare hands.
Their kind values strength, not tricks.
I doubt any Changers will challenge his dominance since he
proved
his
own
strength rather than relied on his powers.
None would dare challenge him at the moment and would be foolhardy to even consider those he associates with.
”

Ben looked at Jack. “He can’t be serious can he?”

Jack crossed his arms. “Ben as it is. I would instantly lose if I even
took a step against Connor
in malice
. Don’t worry he’s great kid, but it would be
ignorant
to underestimate him.
Your grandparents were foolish enough to try and they can tell you how dangerous your
new
brother-in-law is.
”

“Al
right that’s enough you guys.” Connor said because he
d
oes
n’t like to be praised continually. “
How about we all go upstairs and have some fun?”

“Sounds to me like you want to get away from all this attention
and admiration
!”
Veronica stated
,
giving
him
a one sided smile.

“You are right about that.” Sarah stated herself. “We like the quiet life, but we seem to have a knack for
large
situations
being attracted to
us.” Veronica stifled a loud laugh. “How about it? Do you want to meet with us upstairs?”

“We need to get something to eat.” Amber said quickly. “We need to finish with a few things first, but we will join you as shortly as we possibly can. Where should we meet up?”
Connor answered
her. “Baseball stadium it is
then
.”

Connor
leaped
back on
to
the table and retrieved
the barren
trays and returned to the floor.
Amber and Ben walked into the waiting line as
they returned the
tray’s and mugs. Jillian and Jack decided to spend some time with Ambe
r and told the others
to go on ahead. So the rest of
them
went up to level one and Firon had to be on duty again.

Sarah, Ver
onica, Kara, Clarein, Mark and Connor
watched the different baseball teams playing
amazing
ly for
several hours.
He noticed
that Keepers could only play with other Keeper teams for fairness.
Not only could the reptiles
throw the ball faster and hit harder than your average immortal
, but they were quickly able to adapt to any situation
. They even use a different bat
to play the game
. Their
baseball bat
s are longer so their large hands can grip the
shaft properly. Every pitcher Connor
witnessed
relied
heavily on
their tails to maintain their
b
alance
,
as they stood.
Without a
humanlike butt they’d have an impossible time moving around in their hind legs
with anything faster than a spirited walk
.
It was amazing at how adept they were at playing a game
humans created and one
that they could adapt for themselves.
There was even one time
he
noticed that when the sand on the field started thinning
out in areas or gathering in others
, a Keeper returned the sand back to the field.
Connor
knew she was using Terra herself to pull the sand from the outfield, dugouts, any remnants from shoes and even off the
player’s
clothes to fix the field.

Balancers were freer with the use of their abilities
in whatever way they wanted
. A
male Metal Balancer change
d
the shape of the bat and flattened it because he couldn’t hit the ball as it was. The referee made him change it back to its original shape and Veronica had a laugh at that.
A
Fire Balancer
one time mad
e a fire whip to snatch the ball straight from the air. Hers weren’t even in the same
league
compared to
his
.

Jillian, Amber, Ben and Jack showed up not too long ago. The four
of them sat in the row below them
and Amber
began
telling
them a story
about her trip up t
his meeting
. She said she was stopped once by a police officer because they were traveling through a city in a dangerous neighborhood. They escaped because Ben used his power over Pressure to make the officers vehicle take off on its own accord. They disappeared as
soon as
the officer turned his back.
They
all had a small chuckle at that. Apparently they ran day and night, from Arizona, to only rest when they couldn’t run any longer.
They all kept talking, but Connor
lost int
e
rest and
retu
r
ned focus to the game.
Things were more interesting
there
.

This game was
currently
the Keeper team Rampage, verses team
M
ortuary. The pitcher for team Rampage
has struck out every batter except for a single lucky hit, but it was caught by an outfielder. This Keeper had long
,
sinuous upper arms and a large muscled shoulder
perfect for pitching
. Each throw he made whistled through the air
and made it impossible for an
y
techniques to be used against it
.
Connor
could easily see the ball as it bolted from the pitcher to t
he catcher, but soon
realized that
nearly everyone
couldn’t and that led to a strike because their reactions were too slow. This was the last pitch of the ninth inning with a score of 7-0. It was
practically
a strike out
and
a
landslide victory
.

The pitcher roared in victory or outrage
when the game came to an end with their win
;
Connor
honestly couldn’t differentiate
the emotion he was using
. Everyone in the baseball stadium went silent
as hi
s mind
entered everyone’s.
“Isn’t there anyone who h
as the ability to hit off of me!
I issue a challenge that whoever can score a hit can ask me
one question pertaining to
anything
!
”
He looked absolutely prideful and dangerous.

Connor
looked around
to
see everyone deciding if they should
even attempt
this daunting task. A minute passed and no one could summon up enough courage to take his challenge.
Not even the local Keepers dared for some reason.

He
stood up and Sarah knew what
he
was going to do because she was inside
his
head as
the
decision
was made
. She only smiled when
Connor
yelled in the silent arena “I will score
two
hits off of you!”

Everyone
,
and
that means
everyone
,
turned
as one
to look at
him
. J
ust about everyone laughed
. That included Clarein, A
mber and Ben. The others knew his
words weren’t a bluff. The Pitcher turned his re
d and orange eyes right at the boasting challenger
. H
e grinned
,
show
ing
all of his teeth.
“Finally a person with
some
guts
!
Let me see what you
’ve
got, Ha
tchling. Come on down here and
try
to hit twice.”