Free The Unseen by Jake Lingwall

intimidating but everyone laughed when she said it. There was nothing telling her which color represented which player, so she sent her gorilla mech toward the green marker, as it was the closest.
    “Really, Herm?” Motorcad said. “You didn’t think I’d see that coming?” Hermes didn’t respond but just kind of growled in frustration. Kari searched intently for any attackers but didn’t find any.
    Her gorilla mech was taking a long, roundabout way toward the green flag to try to sneak up on it. She switched her perspective to Birdy and ordered it to fly several hundred feet into the air. Her mech engaged its jet engines and rocketed up from the forest and into the sky. Kari could see all locations where fighting was happening on the map. Far away, between the purple and red flags, energy blasts and explosions lined a section of the forest. That must be where Motorcad and Hermes are fighting, which means SeptemberMist is green.
    Kari scanned the section of the forest around the green flag, searching for signs of mechs. She located two of them circling their flag vigilantly, but the third was nowhere to be found. Alerts flashed into Kari’s eyes, warning her that her flying mech was under fire. Well, there’s the third . Kari ordered the mech to try to move away, but the jet engines lacked the mobility she desired, and the mech only managed to fly higher into the sky as large energy blasts flashed beneath its feet.
    “Sitting duck,” SeptemberMist said. Her voice wasn’t malicious or even excited; it was just simply stating a fact. More alerts warned her of increased fire coming from multiple directions. All three of SeptemberMist’s mechs were unloading on Birdy. A second later, Birdy was floating down to the ground in burning pieces. A message flashed across the screen alerting everyone to the fact that Kari had lost a mech.
    “Wow, way to go—easy on the new girl, Misty,” Hermes said.
    “Don’t you have your own problems to worry about, Herm?” SeptemberMist said.
    “Oh, he does,” Motorcad said, just as a message flashed across the screen stating that Hermes had lost a mech. Kari focused Karold to where SeptemberMist’s third mech had been and ordered it to fire energy blasts in that direction. It was a long shot, but Kari didn’t know what else to do. Meanwhile, her gorilla mech was approaching the green flag, so she switched her perspective to keep an eye on it.
    “Why don’t you come help me out with Caddy instead of picking on her?” Hermes said.
    “I can’t always take care of you, old man,” SeptemberMist said, causing Hermes to laugh. Despite being down a mech and playing a game she wasn’t all that interested in, Kari couldn’t help but enjoy herself. She’d never had a chance to hang out with talented people like this and just have fun. I guess this is what it’s like to have friends who can hack.
    One of SeptemberMist’s mechs had returned fire at Karold, and now the two of them were locked in a firefight. Karold had more power, but the opposing mech had more agility. Kari wanted to stay focused on that battle, but she wanted to strike SeptemberMist while she was distracted. She ordered Gorilla to run in and physically assault the closest mech. It lurched forward and made a direct line for the nearest enemy.A second later, the opposing mech found Gorilla and started to fire at it, but Gorilla dodged the lethal shots and sustained only minor damage.
    It extended its blades and heated them to a point where they glowed a brilliant red . Gorilla collided with SeptemberMist’s oversized mech and rammed its blades into its chest.The heated blades cut through the mech with relative ease, dismembering it, which sent showers of sparks flying in all directions.
    “There we go!” Kari shouted as the message announcing the elimination of one of SeptemberMist’s mechs arrived for everyone in the game.
    “Freelancer got some game!” Motorcad said.
    “Impressive,” Hermes