Black to move.

'So, Tingle's going to, what? Chess us across to Don?'

'Looks like it.'

'But he's talking all technical. Who's Knight supposed to be?'

A discussion was starting up, mostly about which chess piece looked most like a suit of armour. Centaur hardly knew the game, and Broadcast was used to the belgian names and his set looked different. FDiffy was straining to remember, and looked at me.

'Oh! You showed your set when I was little, and I got confused and made up different names because they didn't look right! Argh! Which one was it!'

I sighed. 'It's the one that looks like a Horse? You know, that Knights ride?'

'Oooooooh. Yeah. Now what?'

'May I suggest the one of us with hooves moves where Tingle wants him?'

A look of understanding came over Centaur's face, and he reached down to run a hand through his horsehair.

'Oh yeah. Duh.'

He approached the board, and, once he'd been told how a Knight moved, started acorss. There were two possible squares he could start from, but one was where I'd thrown the orange, so that decided that. Nervously stepped across three squares, and then one to the right. Nothing happened.

FDiffy grinned. 'Haha, I knew it! The man has skills. Let the game begin.'

We looked at Tingle. 'What next?'

'Pawn to D9'

FDiffy looked puzzled. 'Pawn? Which one of us that?'

'Oh come on. The smallest member, that has the potential to transform himself?'

He blew a raspberry at me, just like his old self, and took his place on the board.

'Rook to F13'

'That'd be me.'

So Tingle started guiding us across the giant board. Jump was Queen, Broadcast was a Bishop, and Scorch was King. Slowly, one move at a time, we started making our way towards Don. FDiffy wondered at one point why we couldn't just all follow one path, but I found out with an apple that the electric squares moved around every few seconds. Only Tingle could see some sort of pattern, a way across, the safe tiles, and he called out instructions, guiding us on our way.Jump wanted to know why she couldn't just teleport over to Don, and tried, but as she vanished, the edges of her square glowed and she reappeared. She stepped forward, crossing one of the lines, and made it to the next one with no trouble. It seems that lines need crossing manually, by walking or in the air, but you cant skip squares, you need an actual path. You've got to admit, HG has serious skills, for all his faults.

Then Broadcast seemed to trigger something. He'd just been directed two squares forward on the diagonal North-West (assume North is forwards) and was now the furthest ahead, one square ahead of centaur. All the squares on his row flashed blue, as did every square beyond it. Don's headband beeped, and from the booths at the side, shadowy figures, like those we'd seen on the screens, walked calmly out and took up positions at the other side.

'Oh Goody' I sighed. 'I thought this rescue was missing something.'