Across the board?

Once Jump got everybody out of the tower, I was introduced to the new guy. He calls himself Scorch, or at least he does now, Jump looked confused at first. but he shared a look with FDiffy, who glanced at me, and backed him up. I hate people not telling me things because I'm from the past. I got annoyed. 'What aren't you letting on? TELL ME!'
Diffy actually smiled. A proper smile, as if he found it funny. 'Persuasion? Really? Please, it just about worked when I was little, if you caught me by surprise. I worked my way round that ages ago.'
'Whuh? How?'
'And don't bother doing the others, I'm the only one with more than a couple of pieces of your whole picture. now, who are we saving next?'
'I've got the location of Don. If we all hold onto each other, I should be able to jump us all at once.'
Next thing I knew, everything quivered and vanished again. We landed almost instantly, with no sign of disturbance. Seems smooth trips are easier if you're not being shot at.
I got up, looking round. 'We were fairly close then?'
'Nope. My Awesomeness has increased since you last saw me.'
Good old Jump, always could make me smile. I saw we were inside a huge room, that seemed to stretch impossibly into the distance. In the middle, so far away, Don was suspended in a harness, with a thin metal band round his head, and a power patch stabbed into his arm. Lights flashed on the metal band, and little booths based around the walls flashed in response. On a view screen nearby we could see another room, with at least twenty of the booths, all lined up against a wall. Every time a green light flashed on the band, green lights flashed on each of the booths, and a shadowy figure, as if made out of black smoke, but more solid, stepped from each one and walked purposefully away.
'What. The Hell.'
Centaur looked sick. He trotted on the spot nervously, staring at the screen.
'What?'
'Something...about them...so wrong...so very, very wrong..run, we should run. No, I need to focus.'
He held his nose, scrunching up his eyes and puffing out his cheeks, as if he was trying to clear his ears. His ears, nose, and eyes flashed wildly between between different animal features, a new one every fraction of a second, bat, dog, fox, wolf, bird, lion, too many to count, then it suddenly stopped, and he let go of his nose, tipping his head back, breathing deeply, and slapping his cheeks a couple of times. 'There, that's got it, I can't feel them anymore.' He noticed our looks of bewilderment. 'What now?'
'.......We get Don.'
I started forward, but Tingle, who'd been almost comatose since his rescue, only muttering occasional strings of gibberish quietly, suddenly spoke up, raising his head to me.
'Stop! Bzzzt! Rook can't move yet! Knight to C7!'
'What?'
'I think he's trying to communicate with us, but he's still messed up from his capture. His power is telling him there's a problem.'
I took an orange from my survival kit, and threw it towards the floor. As is passed over one of the nearest squares, the square lit up, and electricity flashed into being round the fruit. There was a flash and a smell of burning, and a wrinkled black lump fell to the floor.
We all stared, and several jaws dropped open. It was a couple of seconds before I could speak.
'Ah. So that's what you mean by 'Bzzzt'. Great.'