Post by Admin on Aug 13, 2009 0:57:05 GMT -5
Rian:
Rian had retrieved the blue box from where it had been hidden. He now toyed with it in his hands as he stood in the hallway outside the room where Diana and Drake were being held. Ember had been the last person on guard but he had sent her down to help Ray and Luce free the now free thugs.
Turns out some of them had been free humans anyway. Apparently Empire discipline was not strong in Las Vegas and gangs made up of low life controllers and low life freebies (which is what they called themselves) roamed the streets basically doing what they wanted.
None of the thugs had seen his faction morph so as far as they were concerned there was just a new, tough gang in town. Luce, Ray and Ember would make sure they understood that the hotel was now Animorph territory and stay away.
That left him free to give Diana and Drake their morphing power since they had passed their three day tests with flying colors.
He opened the door and walked in. "Ready to morph guys?"
Drake:
Drake felt ecstatic when Rian entered the room. The last three days had been a bit tougher than he had thought. “I sure hope so,” Drake said in response to Rian’s question. When he first met this group, Drake did not realize they were animorphs, but after talking to Diana for three days, and having more than enough time to think about it, it made perfect sense. And Rian just confirmed his assumptions.
During day two of his quarantine, Drake decided to search the hotel room (at least what he could reach) for possible morphs if they decided he was worthy of the morphing ability. All he could find were cockroaches, flies and moths. He was not quick enough to catch the cockroaches, the fly he caught died, so that left the moth that he had fluttering under a clear plastic cup from one of his trips to the bathroom. I hope they have something better suited for the desert that I can acquire, Drake thought to himself, not to mention something with a spine.
“So what do I do?” he asked Rian.
Rian:
Rian hadn't noticed the pet moth that Drake had acquired and had brought four vials of DNA with him so that the new recruits would get the traditional two starter morphs. But upon seeing the captured moth Rian rethought his decision. Having someone with an insect morph in the faction would probably be more useful than what he had had in mind.
He quickly tried to think of which morph wouldn't be needed. All the morphs he had brought with him had been more suited to the desert than many of the morphs the faction currently possessed though some hailed from foreign deserts, so all would be good choices but finally he decided which one the moth would replace and took out the other three vials from his belt that doubled as a pocket.
"Hello Drake. Hello Diana. I hope your three days here wasn't that bad. Sorry for being standoffish during my guard shifts but if you proved to be controllers I didn't want to give you any more knowledge than I had to." He held up the escafil device. "First thing first, you touch this cube. We're not sure how it works but it has to do with mind links so just touch the box and concentrate. Then I'll give you your first morphs. You can acquire morphs using real animals or you can use stored blood. Most of your morphs will come from our blood storage in the freezer we came with but if you want to use that guy," he said pointing to the moth, "you can. I think it'll make a good morph though it is your choice. The other three morphs I have with me are a Horned Lizard, a Meerkat and a Burrowing Owl. Who wants what?"
Drake:
Drake’s first reaction was to claim the owl and the lizard, but quickly realized that he did not want to force Diana to acquire the moth that he had caught for himself. “I guess I will claim the horned lizard and my moth,” he finally said reluctantly. If he remembered correctly, horned lizards were the creatures that could shoot blood out of their eyes, so at least that would be pretty cool.
Drake reached out towards the blue box and suddenly realized how much his life had changed recently. A few weeks ago he was an only child that sat around his house all day being lazy, then he was a homeless person out on the street, and now he was about to join a group of animorphs to help repel an alien invasion. He was amazed at how easily he could accept this. Hopefully it would not require as much work as it sounded like it would.
Diana:
When Rian mentioned there being a meerkat morph, she instinctively thought of a television show that some of her friends at school had mentioned. A meerkat reality show or something. They were clever little creatures. She smiled at the thought of the owl, too. Diana had always liked owls.
"The meekat and the burrowing owl, S'il vous plaît." She reached her had out and spread her slender fingers over the glowing, blue cube. For Diana, this was a turning point in her life. No longer would she be spending her days and nights on the stage, but underground. The prospect both frightened and excited her.
Rian:
After both of the members had touched the blue cube Rian put it down on the bedside desk. He tried not to feel too excited and proud but these were his first members and it was pretty cool.
"Ok, all you have to do is put a bit of the animals blood on your palm or finger or whatever and then concentrate on the animal itself. Then you morph into it the same way. You demorph by concentrating on your human selves." He handed the meerkat and owl dna vials to Diana and the horned lizard vial to Drake.
For a second he stood there, waiting for them to start morphing but then he hit his forehead with his hand. "Oh, I forgot something. You can't morph clothing, only skintight stuff. I don't suppose you have any skin tight clothing?" The chances were pretty slim considering neither had bags and had been here for three days. He should have thought about that and gotten some stuff for them before now.
Drake:
As Rian explained about what clothing they could and could not morph, Drake was pouring the lizard blood onto his hand and acquiring the DNA. At least he assumed that he did, but he could not really tell. Then he wiped the blood off of his hand onto his shirt and went over to the moth he had under the cup. He carefully slid the cup onto his hand so that the insect would not escape. As soon as the dusty grey bug settled down and landed on his palm, he acquired it as well. That was easy.
“I don’t have any skin-tight clothing, but I can get some later. For now I’ll just change back in the bathroom.” Drake was getting impatient with anticipation. He was going to change his shape! “Well, here goes nothing.” He began to concentrate on the lizard.
The first change he noticed was his fingernails. They migrated to the tips of his fingers and became pointed claws. Then suddenly his moth and nose pushed forward while at the same time his forehead moved backward. His nose flattened out and became little more than two holes, and his mouth grew so wide that he thought it was going to reach his ears. Speaking of which, where had his ears gone?
Then Drake could feel the horned-lizards many horns starting to emerge under his shirt along his sides and back. He tried to lift up his shirt with his clawed hand to get a better look, but it snagged. Next he could feel some horns on his head. They were growing out of the back, and they were a bit bigger than the others. He reached up to feel them and noticed something else. His hair was gone.
Every hair on Drake’s body was being replaced with yellow and brown scales. Not a very flattering sight. Finally he began to shrink. The floor loomed closer as his clothes grew looser. Just in time too, since at that moment his hips realigned and he fell face forward onto all fours. The last bit of his transformation was the spiky tail that shot out from the back of his spine.
At first Drake did not notice the lizard’s brain alongside his own, but then he saw Rian as he peeked out from under his shirt. He froze stiff, unable to move. If he did not move he would not be seen.
Diana:
Watching someone morph for the first time was unnerving to say the least. When the process was finished, she knew this would be a very strange experience. Diana applied the sample of blood from the meerkat and owl to her finger, assuming that the concentration she applied to them, she had acquired the DNA.
"Actually, I do have some clothes. But I'd like to get my others sometime soon." Diana glanced at Rian, smiling. Shedding her jeans and blouse, the petite dancer stood in a pair of skintight shorts and tank. Putting her index finger to her lips in contemplation, Diana decided that her first morph would be the meerkat. For just a moment, she doubted that the ability even existed in her body. Then Diana began to think about the small furry mammal and she could feel the changes begin.
Her slender fingers lengthened and claws formed at the end. Her insides shifted and became smaller and fur over took her skin. Diana was aware that she had become significantly more compact and that her face was lengthening. The process was slow, but then she was there, on the floor, standing on her hind legs, balancing with her newly formed tail.
<<Woah.>>
Rian:
Watching the two morph was, well, like watching anyone else morph. There was nothing special about the morphing itself, but as he watched them change he felt sadness at the realization that they had now picked a side in a war they had very little chance of winning.
"I guess you guys will be ok then, though I will try to get you all morphing suits as soon as possible or at least Drake since you seem to be ok," he said pointing at Diana who was now a meerkat. He resisted the blatant Lion King references and asked instead, "How are you guys doing with controlling those morphs? If you don't exactly get it right now don't worry too much. We'll all be training in the ballroom soon. You can decrease the time it takes to morph and even learn to control the morphing process a bit with practice so I figured I'd give you all a place to practice."
Drake:
Drake snapped out of his frozen pose as soon as Rian started to talk. Those horned lizard instincts were pretty subtle. Now that he was back in control, Drake could give Rian an answer.
<<I think we will be alright.>> Whoa! I just poke with my mind, Drake thought to himself, this is so cool! He struggled to crawl the rest of the way out of his pile of clothing, but his spines were snagging. He eventually managed to get loose.
<<You’re not going to try and eat me, are you?>> he asked once he caught sight of Diana in her meerkat morph. He was not sure if her morph was as easily controllable as his. <<Well, at any rate, I am going to try and pull my clothes into the bathroom so I can try my next morph.>> He tried to push his shirt and it barely moved because it was so heavy compared to his lizard body. This could take a while.
Diana:
The meerkat mind was very, very active. Diana almost felt twitchy. She turned her eyes toward the lizard, Duke, in the room.
<<Only if you don't run. This thing is so hyper, I think I might have a tick when I demorph.>> Diana sniffed the cheap comforter on the bed; the urge to burrow was driving her crazy. Bounding with great ease and speed, she dove towards the pillows and poked her nose underneath the sheets. She pawed at them briefly and them leapt underneath the covers.
Quite certain that she looked like a moving little lump to Rian, Diana poked her head of the end of the bed.
<<This is fun. But I'm sure this isn't always a picnic, huh, Rian?>>
Rian:
Rian thought of some of the close calls he had had with morphing and how often morphing out had been the only thing that had saved his life. "No. It's not always a picnic. If we could just morph for fun....well maybe it would be, but ifs a weapon we use."
He looked from Diana to Drake and saw that he was trying to move his clothes. He picked them up and put them in the bathroom so that Drake would be able to demorph in there. "How 'bout you guys demorph and try your second morphs. Then we can get Drake a morphing outfit and maybe stop by where ever you were staying before Diana and pick up your clothes. I haven't been out much since we got here and I wouldn't mind seeing the city a bit. You live here right?" His question was directed towards Diana but when he stopped to think about it he didn't know where Drake came from either.
Drake:
As Drake crawled into the bathroom and scooted the door shut with his reptilian body, he responded to Rian’s question, assuming he was the intended target of the inquiry. As he began to demorph he said, <<Yeah, I live here. Well actually I LIVED right near the edge of town. My parents were somewhat wealthy, so our house was pretty nice. But I am almost positive they are controllers now. What about y…>> Drake was about to ask Rian where he was from, but just then his ability to use thought speech cut out.
As he waited for his mouth to reform, he became tall enough to see himself in the mirror. His stomach wrenched for a second until he gained control of his reactions. He made a mental note not to morph in front of mirrors if it at all possible. He forgot about his question for Rian and said to the others through the door, “I’m going to try the moth now.”
Drake was a little worn out from the first morph, but decided a second transformation would not kill him. Besides, this way he would not have to get dressed before morphing again. He turned and faced away from the mirror and proceeded to concentrate on the moth.
Diana:
Diana did what Rian had told her; she concentrated on herself and she could feel her form reappear as she demorphed. She laughed shortly, still underneath the comforter. The petite young woman stood and straightened her clothes.
"Oui, I live here. I'm from France, but I boarded in New York until a few years ago to take dance. I came here after that and I've been staying in theaters and preforming. My stuff is at one of them."
Diana looked at the bathroom door. Drake was morphing his moth.
"This will be a good test of control. Moth meets owl. Yum."
Thinking about feathers and wide, golden eyes, Diana felt her body being to change again.
Rian:
Rian watched Diana begin to change. He was curios as to what a burrowing owl looked like. He didn't know much about them though he thought they lived in the desert. But that had been a guess. He reminded himself to try to get some animal books sometime soon. If animals were going to be their weapons he should know more about them.
When he thought that Diana looked to be doing ok in her morphing he went and peeked his head into the bathroom. He didn't want to intrude on Drake's privacy but he also didn't want Drake to lose control of the morph with no one around.
He was almost relieved to see that Drake was morphing as well. Almost because he got to see the morphing process and this was the first time he had seen someone change into a bug. Not pretty.
"How's it going Drake? I'm going to keep talking. Let me know when you can understand me. I think that insects have very different senses than ours so it might take a while to understand human speech," then why am I telling him this at a time when he won't understand me? He switched to something else. "This is the song that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was and they just keep on singing it forever just because, this is the song that never ends..." he could keep singing as long as it took unfortunately since his singing voice wasn't exactly pretty.
Drake:
Drake way about half way through his moth morph when he heard Rian say he would keep talking. Just as Rian started to sing the ending song from Lambchops, Drake could feel his ears sprout into long and feathery antennas and his sense of hearing completely changed. Up until this point he had kept his eyes shut so that he would not have to see all of the gross changes that he felt. Luckily his eyelids were one of the last things to go.
Now completely transformed, Drake tried to make sense of senses. His vision was little more than a grey sheet that could tell the difference between light and dark. His hearing was sort of like listening to someone from the inside of a vibrating drum. And his other senses were so bizarre that Drake did not even want to try and understand them at the moment.
<<I think I can understand you well enough now,>> Drake said after a minute or two. <<Just try not to talk too fast.>> Surprisingly, the moth's instincts were rather calm. However, it was always ready to fly away at the first warning of danger. <<I'm going to try flying now. Save me if I land in a spider web.>>
Drake kicked off of the tile floor and fluttered his little grey wings. He had expected flying to be much more fun, but he was so small, light, and had such bad vision that he could hardly get excited. Without realizing it, he flew straight into the light bulb above the bathroom sink (probably). Instantly, he corrected his embarrassing mistake and fluttered down to the countertop. <<This will take a little getting used to. How are you doing out there Diana?>>
Diana:
Changing from a mammal to aves was a bit disturbing to Diana. Her bones hollowed, arms shifted and sprouted brown and white feathers, and her eyes became more sensitive and keen. And the next thing she knew, Diana was an owl. Her form was small and long-legged. Flapping her new wings awkwardly, she flew to perch on one of the chairs in the rooms.
<<Fine. I don't think you should come out here though. I'm getting pretty hungry.>> There was laughter in her thought-speak as Diana joked. She turned her head to look hauntingly at Rian and gave a short hoot. It was fun, she admitted. With another, louder trill of 'who's', she bobbed her head up and down in a bird-like fashion.
<<So, my fearless leader, how do I look?>>
Rian:
Rian smiled. "You look amazing. Well done." He wasn't lying. The girl had talent. What she had just done with her owl morph had taken him a couple of months to learn how to do with his kestrel. "I think you might be an estreen. That is what we call someone who is naturally good at morphing. They are also called morph dancers." He thought she would like the name since she was a dancer.
"Do you guys want to stay in morph for now or do you want to go get your stuff from your prospective homes? Or maybe we will have to go shopping for you Drake." He realized after he spoke that he had assumed that Diana would be living with them at the hotel. In every other faction he had been part of the members had always lived together but that was because it had been necessary. But if Diana had her own place then she might not want to live with them. He better ask. "Diana, are you going to be living here or at your place?"
Drake:
<<I think I am done with this morph for the time being.>> Drake was starting to get a little annoyed with the tiny bug's lack of senses. He landed on the floor and began to demorph.
<<I think I would rather buy some clothes than to try and sneak something from my house. I am not sure I had any skin-tight clothes anyway.>> This was true, but he also did not want to go home to find out the truth about his parents. He was not sure which was worse, if they were controllers, or they just were not looking for him.
Diana:
<<Ça ne fait rien. The theater is a bit out of the way if there was an emergency, but if I need to, I can continuing living there. This place is much more comfortable, though.>> Diana paused and thought for a moment.
<<I think that it would be best if I moved here.>> As she spoke, she hoped to the floor and began to demorph. In just a few short minutes, Diana stood again in the middle of the hotel room in her leggings and tank. She smiled and pushed her brunette curls from her eyes.
"I am ready when you are, mon captain."
Rian:
"Alright, as soon as Drake's dressed we'll go. I don't know much about this city but I'd be happy for the chance to see a bit of it on our way to your theater Diana." A theater might be a good place to hold onto if they could. If they ever needed to run from the hotel it could be a fall back hq. It could also be a place to send free controllers until the faction could get them out of the city.
"I would really like to see your theater Diana and if you could hold onto it, at least in name, I think that would be good. Those controllers we fought when we arrived are all free humans now and we'll need a place to send them."
Drake:
"I'm ready," Drake stated as he pulled his smelly old shirt over his head. He definitely needed to find some new clothes. He had been wearing these for three day in this hotel room and for who knows how long before that.
Drake pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway. An odd sense of freedom washed over him as he left his and Diana's room for the first time in three days. He turned around and gave a small salute as he said, "Like she said, I am ready when you are, captain."
Rian:
"Let's take a walk then. We'll find some clothes for you Drake. And you'll probably want to pick them out yourselves since you'll be living in them. We still wear normal clothes sometimes but since we morph so often the morphing suit is always underneath it. First rule of being an animorph, well at least being a clothed animorph, always have your suit on."
He looked at both of them. "Well I guess that's it then. Welcome to the Animorphs. I hope you never regret your choice because there is no going back." He hadn't meant to sound so somber but all he could think of were people like Luce, and Matt and himself and how much they had changed since coming into this life. Drake and Diana would change too and he could only hope that the changes weren't for the worst.
Diana:
"Go back to living in uncertainty? At least now I know what side I will be on in this war."
Diana pulled her blouse back over her head, slipped on her favorite pair of jeans back on, and retrieved her shoes from under the bed. Bouncing past Rian, she checked her appearance in the mirror, hardly believing that moments ago she was an owl and before that, a meerkat. Diana fixed her sunglasses back on top of her head, her curly brown hair pushed back out of her face.
"Je suis prêt! I have some extra money if we need it." Diana shoved her hand into her front pocket and pulled out some bills, among them ones as large as one hundreds. She smiled sheepishly and made her way to the door, certain of her future. For the moment.
Rian had retrieved the blue box from where it had been hidden. He now toyed with it in his hands as he stood in the hallway outside the room where Diana and Drake were being held. Ember had been the last person on guard but he had sent her down to help Ray and Luce free the now free thugs.
Turns out some of them had been free humans anyway. Apparently Empire discipline was not strong in Las Vegas and gangs made up of low life controllers and low life freebies (which is what they called themselves) roamed the streets basically doing what they wanted.
None of the thugs had seen his faction morph so as far as they were concerned there was just a new, tough gang in town. Luce, Ray and Ember would make sure they understood that the hotel was now Animorph territory and stay away.
That left him free to give Diana and Drake their morphing power since they had passed their three day tests with flying colors.
He opened the door and walked in. "Ready to morph guys?"
Drake:
Drake felt ecstatic when Rian entered the room. The last three days had been a bit tougher than he had thought. “I sure hope so,” Drake said in response to Rian’s question. When he first met this group, Drake did not realize they were animorphs, but after talking to Diana for three days, and having more than enough time to think about it, it made perfect sense. And Rian just confirmed his assumptions.
During day two of his quarantine, Drake decided to search the hotel room (at least what he could reach) for possible morphs if they decided he was worthy of the morphing ability. All he could find were cockroaches, flies and moths. He was not quick enough to catch the cockroaches, the fly he caught died, so that left the moth that he had fluttering under a clear plastic cup from one of his trips to the bathroom. I hope they have something better suited for the desert that I can acquire, Drake thought to himself, not to mention something with a spine.
“So what do I do?” he asked Rian.
Rian:
Rian hadn't noticed the pet moth that Drake had acquired and had brought four vials of DNA with him so that the new recruits would get the traditional two starter morphs. But upon seeing the captured moth Rian rethought his decision. Having someone with an insect morph in the faction would probably be more useful than what he had had in mind.
He quickly tried to think of which morph wouldn't be needed. All the morphs he had brought with him had been more suited to the desert than many of the morphs the faction currently possessed though some hailed from foreign deserts, so all would be good choices but finally he decided which one the moth would replace and took out the other three vials from his belt that doubled as a pocket.
"Hello Drake. Hello Diana. I hope your three days here wasn't that bad. Sorry for being standoffish during my guard shifts but if you proved to be controllers I didn't want to give you any more knowledge than I had to." He held up the escafil device. "First thing first, you touch this cube. We're not sure how it works but it has to do with mind links so just touch the box and concentrate. Then I'll give you your first morphs. You can acquire morphs using real animals or you can use stored blood. Most of your morphs will come from our blood storage in the freezer we came with but if you want to use that guy," he said pointing to the moth, "you can. I think it'll make a good morph though it is your choice. The other three morphs I have with me are a Horned Lizard, a Meerkat and a Burrowing Owl. Who wants what?"
Drake:
Drake’s first reaction was to claim the owl and the lizard, but quickly realized that he did not want to force Diana to acquire the moth that he had caught for himself. “I guess I will claim the horned lizard and my moth,” he finally said reluctantly. If he remembered correctly, horned lizards were the creatures that could shoot blood out of their eyes, so at least that would be pretty cool.
Drake reached out towards the blue box and suddenly realized how much his life had changed recently. A few weeks ago he was an only child that sat around his house all day being lazy, then he was a homeless person out on the street, and now he was about to join a group of animorphs to help repel an alien invasion. He was amazed at how easily he could accept this. Hopefully it would not require as much work as it sounded like it would.
Diana:
When Rian mentioned there being a meerkat morph, she instinctively thought of a television show that some of her friends at school had mentioned. A meerkat reality show or something. They were clever little creatures. She smiled at the thought of the owl, too. Diana had always liked owls.
"The meekat and the burrowing owl, S'il vous plaît." She reached her had out and spread her slender fingers over the glowing, blue cube. For Diana, this was a turning point in her life. No longer would she be spending her days and nights on the stage, but underground. The prospect both frightened and excited her.
Rian:
After both of the members had touched the blue cube Rian put it down on the bedside desk. He tried not to feel too excited and proud but these were his first members and it was pretty cool.
"Ok, all you have to do is put a bit of the animals blood on your palm or finger or whatever and then concentrate on the animal itself. Then you morph into it the same way. You demorph by concentrating on your human selves." He handed the meerkat and owl dna vials to Diana and the horned lizard vial to Drake.
For a second he stood there, waiting for them to start morphing but then he hit his forehead with his hand. "Oh, I forgot something. You can't morph clothing, only skintight stuff. I don't suppose you have any skin tight clothing?" The chances were pretty slim considering neither had bags and had been here for three days. He should have thought about that and gotten some stuff for them before now.
Drake:
As Rian explained about what clothing they could and could not morph, Drake was pouring the lizard blood onto his hand and acquiring the DNA. At least he assumed that he did, but he could not really tell. Then he wiped the blood off of his hand onto his shirt and went over to the moth he had under the cup. He carefully slid the cup onto his hand so that the insect would not escape. As soon as the dusty grey bug settled down and landed on his palm, he acquired it as well. That was easy.
“I don’t have any skin-tight clothing, but I can get some later. For now I’ll just change back in the bathroom.” Drake was getting impatient with anticipation. He was going to change his shape! “Well, here goes nothing.” He began to concentrate on the lizard.
The first change he noticed was his fingernails. They migrated to the tips of his fingers and became pointed claws. Then suddenly his moth and nose pushed forward while at the same time his forehead moved backward. His nose flattened out and became little more than two holes, and his mouth grew so wide that he thought it was going to reach his ears. Speaking of which, where had his ears gone?
Then Drake could feel the horned-lizards many horns starting to emerge under his shirt along his sides and back. He tried to lift up his shirt with his clawed hand to get a better look, but it snagged. Next he could feel some horns on his head. They were growing out of the back, and they were a bit bigger than the others. He reached up to feel them and noticed something else. His hair was gone.
Every hair on Drake’s body was being replaced with yellow and brown scales. Not a very flattering sight. Finally he began to shrink. The floor loomed closer as his clothes grew looser. Just in time too, since at that moment his hips realigned and he fell face forward onto all fours. The last bit of his transformation was the spiky tail that shot out from the back of his spine.
At first Drake did not notice the lizard’s brain alongside his own, but then he saw Rian as he peeked out from under his shirt. He froze stiff, unable to move. If he did not move he would not be seen.
Diana:
Watching someone morph for the first time was unnerving to say the least. When the process was finished, she knew this would be a very strange experience. Diana applied the sample of blood from the meerkat and owl to her finger, assuming that the concentration she applied to them, she had acquired the DNA.
"Actually, I do have some clothes. But I'd like to get my others sometime soon." Diana glanced at Rian, smiling. Shedding her jeans and blouse, the petite dancer stood in a pair of skintight shorts and tank. Putting her index finger to her lips in contemplation, Diana decided that her first morph would be the meerkat. For just a moment, she doubted that the ability even existed in her body. Then Diana began to think about the small furry mammal and she could feel the changes begin.
Her slender fingers lengthened and claws formed at the end. Her insides shifted and became smaller and fur over took her skin. Diana was aware that she had become significantly more compact and that her face was lengthening. The process was slow, but then she was there, on the floor, standing on her hind legs, balancing with her newly formed tail.
<<Woah.>>
Rian:
Watching the two morph was, well, like watching anyone else morph. There was nothing special about the morphing itself, but as he watched them change he felt sadness at the realization that they had now picked a side in a war they had very little chance of winning.
"I guess you guys will be ok then, though I will try to get you all morphing suits as soon as possible or at least Drake since you seem to be ok," he said pointing at Diana who was now a meerkat. He resisted the blatant Lion King references and asked instead, "How are you guys doing with controlling those morphs? If you don't exactly get it right now don't worry too much. We'll all be training in the ballroom soon. You can decrease the time it takes to morph and even learn to control the morphing process a bit with practice so I figured I'd give you all a place to practice."
Drake:
Drake snapped out of his frozen pose as soon as Rian started to talk. Those horned lizard instincts were pretty subtle. Now that he was back in control, Drake could give Rian an answer.
<<I think we will be alright.>> Whoa! I just poke with my mind, Drake thought to himself, this is so cool! He struggled to crawl the rest of the way out of his pile of clothing, but his spines were snagging. He eventually managed to get loose.
<<You’re not going to try and eat me, are you?>> he asked once he caught sight of Diana in her meerkat morph. He was not sure if her morph was as easily controllable as his. <<Well, at any rate, I am going to try and pull my clothes into the bathroom so I can try my next morph.>> He tried to push his shirt and it barely moved because it was so heavy compared to his lizard body. This could take a while.
Diana:
The meerkat mind was very, very active. Diana almost felt twitchy. She turned her eyes toward the lizard, Duke, in the room.
<<Only if you don't run. This thing is so hyper, I think I might have a tick when I demorph.>> Diana sniffed the cheap comforter on the bed; the urge to burrow was driving her crazy. Bounding with great ease and speed, she dove towards the pillows and poked her nose underneath the sheets. She pawed at them briefly and them leapt underneath the covers.
Quite certain that she looked like a moving little lump to Rian, Diana poked her head of the end of the bed.
<<This is fun. But I'm sure this isn't always a picnic, huh, Rian?>>
Rian:
Rian thought of some of the close calls he had had with morphing and how often morphing out had been the only thing that had saved his life. "No. It's not always a picnic. If we could just morph for fun....well maybe it would be, but ifs a weapon we use."
He looked from Diana to Drake and saw that he was trying to move his clothes. He picked them up and put them in the bathroom so that Drake would be able to demorph in there. "How 'bout you guys demorph and try your second morphs. Then we can get Drake a morphing outfit and maybe stop by where ever you were staying before Diana and pick up your clothes. I haven't been out much since we got here and I wouldn't mind seeing the city a bit. You live here right?" His question was directed towards Diana but when he stopped to think about it he didn't know where Drake came from either.
Drake:
As Drake crawled into the bathroom and scooted the door shut with his reptilian body, he responded to Rian’s question, assuming he was the intended target of the inquiry. As he began to demorph he said, <<Yeah, I live here. Well actually I LIVED right near the edge of town. My parents were somewhat wealthy, so our house was pretty nice. But I am almost positive they are controllers now. What about y…>> Drake was about to ask Rian where he was from, but just then his ability to use thought speech cut out.
As he waited for his mouth to reform, he became tall enough to see himself in the mirror. His stomach wrenched for a second until he gained control of his reactions. He made a mental note not to morph in front of mirrors if it at all possible. He forgot about his question for Rian and said to the others through the door, “I’m going to try the moth now.”
Drake was a little worn out from the first morph, but decided a second transformation would not kill him. Besides, this way he would not have to get dressed before morphing again. He turned and faced away from the mirror and proceeded to concentrate on the moth.
Diana:
Diana did what Rian had told her; she concentrated on herself and she could feel her form reappear as she demorphed. She laughed shortly, still underneath the comforter. The petite young woman stood and straightened her clothes.
"Oui, I live here. I'm from France, but I boarded in New York until a few years ago to take dance. I came here after that and I've been staying in theaters and preforming. My stuff is at one of them."
Diana looked at the bathroom door. Drake was morphing his moth.
"This will be a good test of control. Moth meets owl. Yum."
Thinking about feathers and wide, golden eyes, Diana felt her body being to change again.
Rian:
Rian watched Diana begin to change. He was curios as to what a burrowing owl looked like. He didn't know much about them though he thought they lived in the desert. But that had been a guess. He reminded himself to try to get some animal books sometime soon. If animals were going to be their weapons he should know more about them.
When he thought that Diana looked to be doing ok in her morphing he went and peeked his head into the bathroom. He didn't want to intrude on Drake's privacy but he also didn't want Drake to lose control of the morph with no one around.
He was almost relieved to see that Drake was morphing as well. Almost because he got to see the morphing process and this was the first time he had seen someone change into a bug. Not pretty.
"How's it going Drake? I'm going to keep talking. Let me know when you can understand me. I think that insects have very different senses than ours so it might take a while to understand human speech," then why am I telling him this at a time when he won't understand me? He switched to something else. "This is the song that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it not knowing what it was and they just keep on singing it forever just because, this is the song that never ends..." he could keep singing as long as it took unfortunately since his singing voice wasn't exactly pretty.
Drake:
Drake way about half way through his moth morph when he heard Rian say he would keep talking. Just as Rian started to sing the ending song from Lambchops, Drake could feel his ears sprout into long and feathery antennas and his sense of hearing completely changed. Up until this point he had kept his eyes shut so that he would not have to see all of the gross changes that he felt. Luckily his eyelids were one of the last things to go.
Now completely transformed, Drake tried to make sense of senses. His vision was little more than a grey sheet that could tell the difference between light and dark. His hearing was sort of like listening to someone from the inside of a vibrating drum. And his other senses were so bizarre that Drake did not even want to try and understand them at the moment.
<<I think I can understand you well enough now,>> Drake said after a minute or two. <<Just try not to talk too fast.>> Surprisingly, the moth's instincts were rather calm. However, it was always ready to fly away at the first warning of danger. <<I'm going to try flying now. Save me if I land in a spider web.>>
Drake kicked off of the tile floor and fluttered his little grey wings. He had expected flying to be much more fun, but he was so small, light, and had such bad vision that he could hardly get excited. Without realizing it, he flew straight into the light bulb above the bathroom sink (probably). Instantly, he corrected his embarrassing mistake and fluttered down to the countertop. <<This will take a little getting used to. How are you doing out there Diana?>>
Diana:
Changing from a mammal to aves was a bit disturbing to Diana. Her bones hollowed, arms shifted and sprouted brown and white feathers, and her eyes became more sensitive and keen. And the next thing she knew, Diana was an owl. Her form was small and long-legged. Flapping her new wings awkwardly, she flew to perch on one of the chairs in the rooms.
<<Fine. I don't think you should come out here though. I'm getting pretty hungry.>> There was laughter in her thought-speak as Diana joked. She turned her head to look hauntingly at Rian and gave a short hoot. It was fun, she admitted. With another, louder trill of 'who's', she bobbed her head up and down in a bird-like fashion.
<<So, my fearless leader, how do I look?>>
Rian:
Rian smiled. "You look amazing. Well done." He wasn't lying. The girl had talent. What she had just done with her owl morph had taken him a couple of months to learn how to do with his kestrel. "I think you might be an estreen. That is what we call someone who is naturally good at morphing. They are also called morph dancers." He thought she would like the name since she was a dancer.
"Do you guys want to stay in morph for now or do you want to go get your stuff from your prospective homes? Or maybe we will have to go shopping for you Drake." He realized after he spoke that he had assumed that Diana would be living with them at the hotel. In every other faction he had been part of the members had always lived together but that was because it had been necessary. But if Diana had her own place then she might not want to live with them. He better ask. "Diana, are you going to be living here or at your place?"
Drake:
<<I think I am done with this morph for the time being.>> Drake was starting to get a little annoyed with the tiny bug's lack of senses. He landed on the floor and began to demorph.
<<I think I would rather buy some clothes than to try and sneak something from my house. I am not sure I had any skin-tight clothes anyway.>> This was true, but he also did not want to go home to find out the truth about his parents. He was not sure which was worse, if they were controllers, or they just were not looking for him.
Diana:
<<Ça ne fait rien. The theater is a bit out of the way if there was an emergency, but if I need to, I can continuing living there. This place is much more comfortable, though.>> Diana paused and thought for a moment.
<<I think that it would be best if I moved here.>> As she spoke, she hoped to the floor and began to demorph. In just a few short minutes, Diana stood again in the middle of the hotel room in her leggings and tank. She smiled and pushed her brunette curls from her eyes.
"I am ready when you are, mon captain."
Rian:
"Alright, as soon as Drake's dressed we'll go. I don't know much about this city but I'd be happy for the chance to see a bit of it on our way to your theater Diana." A theater might be a good place to hold onto if they could. If they ever needed to run from the hotel it could be a fall back hq. It could also be a place to send free controllers until the faction could get them out of the city.
"I would really like to see your theater Diana and if you could hold onto it, at least in name, I think that would be good. Those controllers we fought when we arrived are all free humans now and we'll need a place to send them."
Drake:
"I'm ready," Drake stated as he pulled his smelly old shirt over his head. He definitely needed to find some new clothes. He had been wearing these for three day in this hotel room and for who knows how long before that.
Drake pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway. An odd sense of freedom washed over him as he left his and Diana's room for the first time in three days. He turned around and gave a small salute as he said, "Like she said, I am ready when you are, captain."
Rian:
"Let's take a walk then. We'll find some clothes for you Drake. And you'll probably want to pick them out yourselves since you'll be living in them. We still wear normal clothes sometimes but since we morph so often the morphing suit is always underneath it. First rule of being an animorph, well at least being a clothed animorph, always have your suit on."
He looked at both of them. "Well I guess that's it then. Welcome to the Animorphs. I hope you never regret your choice because there is no going back." He hadn't meant to sound so somber but all he could think of were people like Luce, and Matt and himself and how much they had changed since coming into this life. Drake and Diana would change too and he could only hope that the changes weren't for the worst.
Diana:
"Go back to living in uncertainty? At least now I know what side I will be on in this war."
Diana pulled her blouse back over her head, slipped on her favorite pair of jeans back on, and retrieved her shoes from under the bed. Bouncing past Rian, she checked her appearance in the mirror, hardly believing that moments ago she was an owl and before that, a meerkat. Diana fixed her sunglasses back on top of her head, her curly brown hair pushed back out of her face.
"Je suis prêt! I have some extra money if we need it." Diana shoved her hand into her front pocket and pulled out some bills, among them ones as large as one hundreds. She smiled sheepishly and made her way to the door, certain of her future. For the moment.