Post by Admin on Sept 23, 2009 3:09:16 GMT -5
Ray:
Today was looking to be a little uneventful. That was putting it nicely. The previous night Rian had told Ray that he needed to check out the surrounding areas for anything useful or yeerk related. Ray was still sitting in the kitchen because he had just woke up. Ray rubbed his eyes as he was finally getting around to being balanced with the day. He figured he'd probably see nothing but desert all day, but that didn't bother him too much. Boring didn't seem like such a bad word to Ray as it did other people.
Ray went over to the fridge and got some OJ. He noticed that it was near the end and drank it straight from the jug. He threw the jug away when he was done, feeling wide awake now and sat back down at the counter. He really didn't know what his hold up was. Maybe if he had someone to go along with him so he could have someone to talk to...
Drake:
Drake got up early to get a drink of water, then he was going to go back to sleep. He had run out of cups in his bathroom so he went down to the kitchen to use one of the nicer cups. As he pushed opened the kitchen door, he noticed Ray through his squinted eyes. “What are you up to?” he asked while yawning casually.
Now that someone else knew he was awake, Drake felt guilty going back to bed. He decided to stay up and eat some cereal. As he waited for Ray’s reply, he pulled out a box of stale Lucky Charms and poured some into a bowl. Then he poured a lot of sugar on it to help bring back some of the taste.
Ray:
The higher powers must have heard Ray's request because just then a drowsy Drake entered the room and poured himself a bowl of lucky charms. Ray wasn't much of a people person in the morning but kind of forced himself to talk because he was just about fully awake and out of that state. "So, Rian asked me to me to go check out the surrounding desert to see if there was anything to see" Ray replied to Drake's question.
Ray was too tired to be persuasive or anything so he figured he'd just be blunt "You can come along if you want. It'd be a good opportunity to do some morphing along the way. We can both go through our list of morphs because there's some I've got that I want to use." He figured the appeal of morphing would be a good enough reason for Drake to go. Hell, it was actually starting to sound appealing to him.
Drake:
Drake rubbed the corners of his eyes in a weak attempt to become more awake as he listened to Ray's proposal. It was Drake's day off from cleaning pools and he was planing on lounging around all day. However, Drake enjoyed Ray's company and knew that a boring job became much more interesting if you did not have to do it alone.
"What the heck," he replied lazily, "I got nothing better to do. Just don't expect me to be all the way awake before noon." Drake picked up his bowl of cereal and took it with him as he shuffled his way to his room to get his morphing outfit.
Ray:
Ray lounged in the kitchen as Drake prepared to leave. Ray was already ready and was just awaiting Drake. He hoped that this day would actually be fruitful, but knew that the odds were against him this time. He figured they could kill some time by walking through some of the city. Sure it would be hot, but he'd have to travel ground anyway to be able for Drake to talk to him.
Ray wondered how he could do this efficiently. His dog morph might work well in this scenario if Drake was willing to play the owner. Running through his list of morphs brought him to think about how he'd aquired Duke, the owner of the Bellagio. He thought about the endless possibilities that could come from that one particular morph and wondered if he should try pushing his luck sometime soon.
Ray pushed those thoughts aside when Drake reappeared looking groggy, but ready none the less. "I figure I could travel as a dog if you'd care to act as the owner. That way we would have a little protection." Ray opened the front door to the hotel and felt the heat wave. "On second thought, that morph miiight just be a little too hairy for this weather..."
Drake:
Drake looked down at his biker shorts and tight-fitting T-shirt. He had to admit he was relieved when Ray started having second thoughts about being a dog and his owner. "Maybe we could take a taxi... but that would cost money. Besides, we wouldn't have a destination."
Drake thought for a second before coming up with yet another alternative. "Maybe, since this is your assigned task, you could fly and I could hitch a ride as a moth. At least until we find a different mode of transportation anyway." Drake did not particularly enjoy the thought of piggybacking on Ray, but it was at least an option.
Ray:
"Yeah, we could do that" Ray replied. Carrying the moth would most likely be the fastest way out of the city. He walked over to the closest window and opened it so that he could just fly out when he was done morphing. There was nothing more frustrating than forgetting to open a window and having to morph back to human to open it. He'd done that a couple times, each one more frustrating than the last time.
Ray began to morph his crow thinking about how often he used the morph. Perhaps he could even get away with getting a third bird morph when the time arrose to get another morph. Ray knew it was pointless to have so many morphs that served the same purpose, but the thrill of flight and having a choice in the matter of what he morphed when he flew was grounds enough to justify another one.
Ray gave them both a couple minutes and once he was fully morphed into his crow he thought to the bird I'm back. He was sure that the bird couldn't even hear him. The animal didn't actually exist, he just shared instincts and sometimes opinions on things with it, but he liked to think that the bird lived on inside of him in spirit. It was odd and uttery ridiculous he had to admit, but there was something about having another presence inside of him that comforted him.
Ray waited for the now fully morphed moth to jump aboard Crow Inc. airlines...
Drake:
Drake finished his moth morph and attempted to find Ray. "I really need to get a bug morph that can see." Actually, Drake did not mind morphing into the moth. At first it had really grossed him out, especially the sound of most of his organs dissolving, but now he was somewhat fond of it. It was useful in many ways that everyone else's morphs were not.
Finally he found a feathery body on the floor. He crawled to the base of his neck and nestled firmly into the feathers. "Alright, I think I'm ready. Lets not tell anyone about this though. OK?" Drake was slightly embarrassed by the situation, but he would get over it.
Ray:
<<Whatever works man.>> Ray replied. The situation was a little odd, but it was what worked. Ray took off out the window and flew up until he was above most of the buildings. He flew west of town where there wasn't much but desert. That's what everyone thought and he would hope to prove them wrong. He hoped to find anything at all of interest. Anything but sand that is.
It took them about a half hour of flying and some talking here and there before Ray was near suicide. They had reached a conservation area and it was the most exciting thing they'd seen so far. There were a few small buildings down below, but they seemed vacant enough. He flew down lower to take a look. <<Want to get out and look around a little bit? Looks like an area of at least slight interest.>> Ray figured that it was the least he could do for Drake. He thought he was bored...he tried to imagine not being able to see much ontop of being this bored and it scared him.
Drake:
“Sure. Sounds good to me,” Drake said in response to Rays question. Drake was a patient person who could tolerate a lot of boredom, but there was no reason to be bored when you did not have to be. “Lets see what you see.”
Once they landed and demorphed, Drake took a look around. They were a lot further from the city than he had originally thought. It looked like they were at some sort of emptied conservation area. “Wonder what this place was. Whatever it is, it looks like the type of thing Rian wanted us to find.”
Ray:
Ray demorphed as well and a couple minutes later he was walking around between the buildings and looked in when he could. The place seemed dead enough, and he could tell that nothing had happened with it since probably the holocaust had happened. "Theres no one around here at all, but all the doors are locked..."
There were a couple small houses with nothing of interest. He walked over to the third and final building which was longer than the others. After peering inside he assessed the building to be a garage. He took a second to think about what he was about to do. Technically whatever was inside didn't have an owner. If it did, they probably were yeerked. He figured he was justified in what he was about to do. Ray looked around and found a small rock and without warning through it through a window. The glass broke, not the entire window, but a small hole. Small enough for a moth at least...
"Think you can go in and unlock the door?" Ray said with a grin.
Drake:
Drake nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the sound of breaking glass. He was about to run for it when he realized it was just Ray. "You almost gave me a heart attack, but yeah, I can check it out." Drake was not big on committing crimes, but this seemed minor compared to the other activities he had been up to lately. Besides, this place seemed pretty well deserted.
Drake began his moth morph once again. He would likely be tired from morphing again so soon, but he could handle it. This time the first change was the wings. Two enormous grey wings sprouted from his shoulder-blades and flowed behind him like a cape.
"Wow! That is the coolest transition I have gone through yet." He spoke too soon, because the next change was the segmentation. His neck pinched inward so far that he was sure his head would fall off. At the same time his butt was expanding into the large abdomen of the moth.
Next his skin became hard while at the same time his bones started to dissolve. His organs rearranged and melted away as he shrank down towards the ground. Then an extra pair of limbs erupted almost violently from his chest. To finish it all off his ears became long spindly antennas and his eyes compounded and dulled.
Drake took a moment to collect himself, fluttered up and through the hole, then reversed the process on the other side. He found the door then clicked the lock on the doorknob and flipped open the dead-bolt before opening it to let Ray through. "Access granted."
Ray:
Ray pushed open the door which fought him a little because it hadn't been opened in some time. He could see well enough through the light from the windows and door to locate a light switch though, and he was glad for that. As the lights came on, the first thing he noticed was how well kept the garage was. Apparently every thing did have a place and it was IN it. It was probably the most well kept garage he had ever come across. This was mainly due to him not being able to upkeep his own garage back home.
Ray began to get a little bit of a rush as he noticed quite a few items that had covers over them. Vehicles it seemed would be a likely item to be stored in a garage. He uncovered the one closest to him and it turned out to be a near-mint condition dune buggy. He looked around the garage and sure enough there was a wall of keys. "Somebody must really want us to have these..." he mumbled as he felt this being almost too easy.
"I guess the only thing in our way right now is the garage door and I even know where the switch to that is..."
Drake:
Drake was starting to feel the onset of nervousness. Exploring an abandoned structure was one thing, but taking these dune buggies was another. Drake thought about it for a moment then realized nobody would actually care. Judging by the thick layer of dust that covered the well organized garage, nobody was going to come back for these machines.
Drake ran and grabbed the keys from the wall that were labeled for the dune buggies while Ray opened the garage door. He tossed one set of keys to Ray and hopped into his own buggy. It was bright yellow with blue flames. "Lets roll!"
Ray:
Ray grabbed the keys suprised that Drake was fully ready to proceed in taking the dune buggies. "Hold up a second" Ray said as he began to morph Duke, the Bellagio owner. The only notable differences to Ray was the little extra weight and the fact that we was slightly taller.
<<This way I can at least comunicate with you.>> he explained as he got another dune buggy that was bright green. He fired it up after having to crank it a bit. He was even forced to use the choke because of how long it had been. He figured they would work fine, they just hadn't been used in awhile was all. Ray tested out the accelerator and it worked fine as he was propelled out into the desert heat. He figured that once he got up to speed the heat wouldn't be too much of a problem. Now they WERE having fun...and working too.
<<Alright, lets make tracks and keep our eyes open.>>
Drake:
Drake nodded in agreement, even though Ray was not looking. He pushed down on the accelerator and pulled out into the desert sun. Drake had never driven a dune buggy before, but he quickly got used to the way it maneuvered. "WAHOO!" he yelled as he pushed down a little harder on the gas.
Drake did a few loops around the buildings then headed for the open desert landscape. He hit a small dip and the buggy popped into the air a little bit. Not quite so fast, he scolded himself. He let up on the gas a bit and started cruising at a fast, yet comfortable pace. He made his way to where Ray was driving and decided to follow in his tracks. After all, this was technically Ray's mission. He was just along for the ride.
Ray:
Ray took a few minutes to get down the handling and terrain on the dune buggy. He opened it up as they hit a patch of flat sand. This was the most fun he had since he was in Vancouver and thought that Fin would enjoy himself if he was here. Mainly because it was crazy and had no rhyme or reason.
Although he didn't know what he was exactly looking for, Ray kept a sharp eye as he headed north. He wanted to keep about a fifteen to twenty mile perimeter around the town so that it would be close. If he had to do this again, he'd just go about five more miles aound and do the same perimeter.
After another ten or so minutes of driving, Ray made his first big observation of the day: A tower. Under the tower were some semi-circle buildings. <<Found something I think.>> Ray called out as he turn a little ways to the east to go straight at the buildings. Getting ever closer, he figured the tower to be an air tower as it was like the one he usually perched on and hung out in. That particular airfield was rubble though. This one had some wear and tear, but at least the buildings were still up.
Ray turned into the dirt landing strip and raced up. As he got nearer to the tower, various hangers began to surround him on either side. There was what looked to be a large garage with two huge doors on it up near the tower at the other end of the strip. It was apparent that this airfield had been deserted even long before the conservation houses had been abandonded.
Ray stopped and cut the engine, getting out to look around.
Drake:
Drake followed Ray's lead and pulled over. He got out to take a closer look at the abandoned airport. Actually, it was not so much an airport as it was just a landing strip with the associated buildings necessary for such a facility. There were no fancy parking garages or gift-shops at this place, but that did not make it any less interesting at the moment.
"Amazing," was all he could say at first. Then he snapped back to reality. "Wow, Rian is going to be very happy with your report. What do you think this place was?" Drake started walking towards the closest building to start investigating.
Ray:
"Yeah" Ray agreed. "It's large enough, I'll give it that." The field wasn't extremely large or anything. It looked like a privately owned airfield for that matter. Someone probably just had a little too much cash on their hands and decided to blow it on an airstrip and some buildings. At least it had enough buildings for storing things.
Ray began to demorph into his old self. This didn't take but a little under a minute because all it really did was change some minute details. He then began to walk around the airfield checking things out. There was enough space to house whatever they really needed to hide. They could hide a lot of stuff here actually...
"Maybe later, not today, but later we should go get the rest of those vehicles out of that garage..."
Drake:
Drake agreed that they should move all of the vehicles here, but at a later date. Hopefully it would be a day Drake was not available to help. Making trips back and forth to move them all sounded a bit too tedious for Drake's tastes.
"I just can not get over the fact that a place like this is free for the taking. If I was not here, I would not believe it." Drake tried a side door on one of the hangars. It was locked. That did not surprise him. "You want to do the honors this time?" Drake asked, grabbing a rock off the ground.
Ray:
"Sure" Ray said and waited for Drake to hurl the rock through a window. He morphed into a pigeon, his smallest morph as he heard the glass shatter. They'd probably have to fix it later since he suspected they would soon take ownership of it if it really did belong to no one. Ray took to the sky once he was sure he could fit through the window.
He doubled around and made a straight shot through the window. Once he was inside the large dark room he morphed human. This time it was harder to find the lightswitch, but he didn't trip over anything because the room was completely empty. It was a huge garage, enough for a couple large planes and it had two garage doors. He hit the switch for one of doors as the door creaked to life.
Walking outside, Ray met back up with Drake. "I guess we can park these dune buggies inside. We can keep them here while we go report back. This is probably enough searching for the day. I doubt we're gonna find anything better than this."
Drake;
Drake peeked inside before he want to get his dune buggy. The place looked even bigger from the inside! Drake figured he could morph into a blue whale and still have plenty of wiggle room. Drake started his buggy and parked it inside.
"Moth again, then?" Drake started to morph before Ray could reply. In a few minutes Drake would finish his disgusting morphing process, and then they could go home and relax. Drake was not really used to hanging out with friends, and his new friend Ray always seemed to keep him active. Hanging out with Ray was usually exhausting, but worth it in the end.
Ray:
"Yeah, that'd work best." Ray said already beginning to morph crow. The place needed work, but it'd make an awsome hangout for Ray if he ever needed a place to be alone. If this place really was just up for the taking and unknown, it could be a huge asset. It's not like they found a brigade of Abrams tanks, but raw land and some buildings worked out just fine anyway.
Once Drake was aboard crow airlines, Ray took off into the desert sky. It took them about twenty minutes of straight flying to get back into the city which, Ray figured wasn't too bad. At least it wouldn't be too out of hand on getting there, yet it was far enough away to run to if they ever needed a retreat or to hide something out of the city.
They were almost there when Ray's crow eyes spotted a couple goons cornering a promiscuous looking lady in an ally. He figured it may be trouble so he set down on rooftop nearby. After some obvious shouting by the lady it was apparently she needed help. He sighed inwardly thinking to himself he should just let it go. Stirring something up as an animal was just begging to tell the yeerks that the Animorphs had arrived in town and were ready to be slaughtered. It was BROAD DAYLIGHT for crying out loud. How in the hell was he supposed to handle this? Even if he went as a human they'd be out to get him if they seen him again.
Thinking quickly and running through a list of possible attack strategies, Ray finally came up with one: attack as Duke. They wouldn't come looking for Duke, he was too well protected. If it came down to it, he could still fight with Duke's body. The Bellagio owner was also older than he was and could possibly be even more intimidating. <<Drake, theres a lady being cornered by two thugs down in an allyway.>> Ray explained to Drake. << I'm going to morph Duke and see what I can do to help her out. Just watch out for trouble as best you can.>>
Drake;
Drake landed on a giant boulder, at at least it seemed like one to him, and began to demorph. He would need to be something other than a moth if he was going to be a lookout. Once his transformation was done, he looked around to see where he was. He was on a rock-covered rooftop overlooking an alleyway.
Drake decided to go lizard. That way he would still be able to see, he could communicate with Ray, and if anyone saw him then he would not be recognized. He finished his lizard morph and hoped he had gotten ready fast enough. Ray was a faster morpher than him. Drake crawled up onto the ledge of the building to see a scene unfolding in the alley below.
Ray:
After flying down a block to another ally and hiding behind a dumpster, Ray finally got to morph Duke again. Once he was finished, he sprinted down the sidewalk to aid the lady that was screaming about something or other. Once he rounded the building and got to the two men he shouted at them to get their attention. They saw Duke and looked suprised that someone actually cared enough to try and stop them. They could have even possibly been connected to the same goons that used to own the hotel that the animorphs called home.
They both came up to Ray and one of them even mumbled "We didn't mean nuthin'." and walked past him like they didn't even want to be told off. Looking closer they were a lot younger than Ray appeared to be, and he figured that he held an air of authority over them which is why they wern't resisting him. Ray approached the lady, but she too seemed afraid and ran out into the street with a whimper and ran away.
<<That was weird>> Ray called to Drake in thoughtspeak as he walked back out to the main road. He took a moment and scratched his head and stood there in awe at how chaotic the streets of Las Vegas were. It was broad daylight and those two goons had the nerve to try something like this. He never even got to figure out what the hell the yelling was about.
The traffic was even light. One car in particular seemed to be going too slow. One such particular bearded guy even had his finger pointed in Ray's direction. He probably saw the whole thing. It was good that he had Duke's face to hide behind though. The car pulled up and stopped as Ray walked over to the car to speak with the people inside, whom probably wanted to know what the hell just happened. He almost felt annoyed that he wouldn't have anything to tell them.
As he approached the passenger side, the bearded guy pulled a gun. In a drawn out thick Russian accent he said "You son...of...bitch." Before Ray could ask what the hell the guy was talking about, another guy sitting in the rear stepped out and pulled a shotgun on him. "Get da fuck in." The bearded guy said in a dangerously calm voice. Ray had no choice but to take a seat in the back with some guy that was probably also Russian. He was about to turn around and message Drake, but as he did he thought he saw the butt of a shotgun before blacking out.
Drake:
What should I do? What should I do? Drake thought to himself as a couple guys abducted Ray. <<Ray, can you hear me! CAN YOU HEAR ME!>> It was no use. They must have incapacitated him somehow.
Drake was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. SOMEONE JUST STOLE RAY! He did not have any morphs that could effectively chase a car, and he did not have time to change morphs anyway. He would have to get help.
He looked down the side of the building with his lizard eyes. He would have to drop a few stories to get to street level so that he could run the last few blocks back to the Den. Drake hesitated for half a moment, then took the plunge. His lizard morph was small enough that it should not take too much damage, but he aimed for a pile of trash just in case.
Thud. Crack. It felt as if one of his tiny ribs fractured, but Drake had no time for pain. He ignored it as best he could and started on his way back to the Den, trying not to attract too much attention.
Today was looking to be a little uneventful. That was putting it nicely. The previous night Rian had told Ray that he needed to check out the surrounding areas for anything useful or yeerk related. Ray was still sitting in the kitchen because he had just woke up. Ray rubbed his eyes as he was finally getting around to being balanced with the day. He figured he'd probably see nothing but desert all day, but that didn't bother him too much. Boring didn't seem like such a bad word to Ray as it did other people.
Ray went over to the fridge and got some OJ. He noticed that it was near the end and drank it straight from the jug. He threw the jug away when he was done, feeling wide awake now and sat back down at the counter. He really didn't know what his hold up was. Maybe if he had someone to go along with him so he could have someone to talk to...
Drake:
Drake got up early to get a drink of water, then he was going to go back to sleep. He had run out of cups in his bathroom so he went down to the kitchen to use one of the nicer cups. As he pushed opened the kitchen door, he noticed Ray through his squinted eyes. “What are you up to?” he asked while yawning casually.
Now that someone else knew he was awake, Drake felt guilty going back to bed. He decided to stay up and eat some cereal. As he waited for Ray’s reply, he pulled out a box of stale Lucky Charms and poured some into a bowl. Then he poured a lot of sugar on it to help bring back some of the taste.
Ray:
The higher powers must have heard Ray's request because just then a drowsy Drake entered the room and poured himself a bowl of lucky charms. Ray wasn't much of a people person in the morning but kind of forced himself to talk because he was just about fully awake and out of that state. "So, Rian asked me to me to go check out the surrounding desert to see if there was anything to see" Ray replied to Drake's question.
Ray was too tired to be persuasive or anything so he figured he'd just be blunt "You can come along if you want. It'd be a good opportunity to do some morphing along the way. We can both go through our list of morphs because there's some I've got that I want to use." He figured the appeal of morphing would be a good enough reason for Drake to go. Hell, it was actually starting to sound appealing to him.
Drake:
Drake rubbed the corners of his eyes in a weak attempt to become more awake as he listened to Ray's proposal. It was Drake's day off from cleaning pools and he was planing on lounging around all day. However, Drake enjoyed Ray's company and knew that a boring job became much more interesting if you did not have to do it alone.
"What the heck," he replied lazily, "I got nothing better to do. Just don't expect me to be all the way awake before noon." Drake picked up his bowl of cereal and took it with him as he shuffled his way to his room to get his morphing outfit.
Ray:
Ray lounged in the kitchen as Drake prepared to leave. Ray was already ready and was just awaiting Drake. He hoped that this day would actually be fruitful, but knew that the odds were against him this time. He figured they could kill some time by walking through some of the city. Sure it would be hot, but he'd have to travel ground anyway to be able for Drake to talk to him.
Ray wondered how he could do this efficiently. His dog morph might work well in this scenario if Drake was willing to play the owner. Running through his list of morphs brought him to think about how he'd aquired Duke, the owner of the Bellagio. He thought about the endless possibilities that could come from that one particular morph and wondered if he should try pushing his luck sometime soon.
Ray pushed those thoughts aside when Drake reappeared looking groggy, but ready none the less. "I figure I could travel as a dog if you'd care to act as the owner. That way we would have a little protection." Ray opened the front door to the hotel and felt the heat wave. "On second thought, that morph miiight just be a little too hairy for this weather..."
Drake:
Drake looked down at his biker shorts and tight-fitting T-shirt. He had to admit he was relieved when Ray started having second thoughts about being a dog and his owner. "Maybe we could take a taxi... but that would cost money. Besides, we wouldn't have a destination."
Drake thought for a second before coming up with yet another alternative. "Maybe, since this is your assigned task, you could fly and I could hitch a ride as a moth. At least until we find a different mode of transportation anyway." Drake did not particularly enjoy the thought of piggybacking on Ray, but it was at least an option.
Ray:
"Yeah, we could do that" Ray replied. Carrying the moth would most likely be the fastest way out of the city. He walked over to the closest window and opened it so that he could just fly out when he was done morphing. There was nothing more frustrating than forgetting to open a window and having to morph back to human to open it. He'd done that a couple times, each one more frustrating than the last time.
Ray began to morph his crow thinking about how often he used the morph. Perhaps he could even get away with getting a third bird morph when the time arrose to get another morph. Ray knew it was pointless to have so many morphs that served the same purpose, but the thrill of flight and having a choice in the matter of what he morphed when he flew was grounds enough to justify another one.
Ray gave them both a couple minutes and once he was fully morphed into his crow he thought to the bird I'm back. He was sure that the bird couldn't even hear him. The animal didn't actually exist, he just shared instincts and sometimes opinions on things with it, but he liked to think that the bird lived on inside of him in spirit. It was odd and uttery ridiculous he had to admit, but there was something about having another presence inside of him that comforted him.
Ray waited for the now fully morphed moth to jump aboard Crow Inc. airlines...
Drake:
Drake finished his moth morph and attempted to find Ray. "I really need to get a bug morph that can see." Actually, Drake did not mind morphing into the moth. At first it had really grossed him out, especially the sound of most of his organs dissolving, but now he was somewhat fond of it. It was useful in many ways that everyone else's morphs were not.
Finally he found a feathery body on the floor. He crawled to the base of his neck and nestled firmly into the feathers. "Alright, I think I'm ready. Lets not tell anyone about this though. OK?" Drake was slightly embarrassed by the situation, but he would get over it.
Ray:
<<Whatever works man.>> Ray replied. The situation was a little odd, but it was what worked. Ray took off out the window and flew up until he was above most of the buildings. He flew west of town where there wasn't much but desert. That's what everyone thought and he would hope to prove them wrong. He hoped to find anything at all of interest. Anything but sand that is.
It took them about a half hour of flying and some talking here and there before Ray was near suicide. They had reached a conservation area and it was the most exciting thing they'd seen so far. There were a few small buildings down below, but they seemed vacant enough. He flew down lower to take a look. <<Want to get out and look around a little bit? Looks like an area of at least slight interest.>> Ray figured that it was the least he could do for Drake. He thought he was bored...he tried to imagine not being able to see much ontop of being this bored and it scared him.
Drake:
“Sure. Sounds good to me,” Drake said in response to Rays question. Drake was a patient person who could tolerate a lot of boredom, but there was no reason to be bored when you did not have to be. “Lets see what you see.”
Once they landed and demorphed, Drake took a look around. They were a lot further from the city than he had originally thought. It looked like they were at some sort of emptied conservation area. “Wonder what this place was. Whatever it is, it looks like the type of thing Rian wanted us to find.”
Ray:
Ray demorphed as well and a couple minutes later he was walking around between the buildings and looked in when he could. The place seemed dead enough, and he could tell that nothing had happened with it since probably the holocaust had happened. "Theres no one around here at all, but all the doors are locked..."
There were a couple small houses with nothing of interest. He walked over to the third and final building which was longer than the others. After peering inside he assessed the building to be a garage. He took a second to think about what he was about to do. Technically whatever was inside didn't have an owner. If it did, they probably were yeerked. He figured he was justified in what he was about to do. Ray looked around and found a small rock and without warning through it through a window. The glass broke, not the entire window, but a small hole. Small enough for a moth at least...
"Think you can go in and unlock the door?" Ray said with a grin.
Drake:
Drake nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the sound of breaking glass. He was about to run for it when he realized it was just Ray. "You almost gave me a heart attack, but yeah, I can check it out." Drake was not big on committing crimes, but this seemed minor compared to the other activities he had been up to lately. Besides, this place seemed pretty well deserted.
Drake began his moth morph once again. He would likely be tired from morphing again so soon, but he could handle it. This time the first change was the wings. Two enormous grey wings sprouted from his shoulder-blades and flowed behind him like a cape.
"Wow! That is the coolest transition I have gone through yet." He spoke too soon, because the next change was the segmentation. His neck pinched inward so far that he was sure his head would fall off. At the same time his butt was expanding into the large abdomen of the moth.
Next his skin became hard while at the same time his bones started to dissolve. His organs rearranged and melted away as he shrank down towards the ground. Then an extra pair of limbs erupted almost violently from his chest. To finish it all off his ears became long spindly antennas and his eyes compounded and dulled.
Drake took a moment to collect himself, fluttered up and through the hole, then reversed the process on the other side. He found the door then clicked the lock on the doorknob and flipped open the dead-bolt before opening it to let Ray through. "Access granted."
Ray:
Ray pushed open the door which fought him a little because it hadn't been opened in some time. He could see well enough through the light from the windows and door to locate a light switch though, and he was glad for that. As the lights came on, the first thing he noticed was how well kept the garage was. Apparently every thing did have a place and it was IN it. It was probably the most well kept garage he had ever come across. This was mainly due to him not being able to upkeep his own garage back home.
Ray began to get a little bit of a rush as he noticed quite a few items that had covers over them. Vehicles it seemed would be a likely item to be stored in a garage. He uncovered the one closest to him and it turned out to be a near-mint condition dune buggy. He looked around the garage and sure enough there was a wall of keys. "Somebody must really want us to have these..." he mumbled as he felt this being almost too easy.
"I guess the only thing in our way right now is the garage door and I even know where the switch to that is..."
Drake:
Drake was starting to feel the onset of nervousness. Exploring an abandoned structure was one thing, but taking these dune buggies was another. Drake thought about it for a moment then realized nobody would actually care. Judging by the thick layer of dust that covered the well organized garage, nobody was going to come back for these machines.
Drake ran and grabbed the keys from the wall that were labeled for the dune buggies while Ray opened the garage door. He tossed one set of keys to Ray and hopped into his own buggy. It was bright yellow with blue flames. "Lets roll!"
Ray:
Ray grabbed the keys suprised that Drake was fully ready to proceed in taking the dune buggies. "Hold up a second" Ray said as he began to morph Duke, the Bellagio owner. The only notable differences to Ray was the little extra weight and the fact that we was slightly taller.
<<This way I can at least comunicate with you.>> he explained as he got another dune buggy that was bright green. He fired it up after having to crank it a bit. He was even forced to use the choke because of how long it had been. He figured they would work fine, they just hadn't been used in awhile was all. Ray tested out the accelerator and it worked fine as he was propelled out into the desert heat. He figured that once he got up to speed the heat wouldn't be too much of a problem. Now they WERE having fun...and working too.
<<Alright, lets make tracks and keep our eyes open.>>
Drake:
Drake nodded in agreement, even though Ray was not looking. He pushed down on the accelerator and pulled out into the desert sun. Drake had never driven a dune buggy before, but he quickly got used to the way it maneuvered. "WAHOO!" he yelled as he pushed down a little harder on the gas.
Drake did a few loops around the buildings then headed for the open desert landscape. He hit a small dip and the buggy popped into the air a little bit. Not quite so fast, he scolded himself. He let up on the gas a bit and started cruising at a fast, yet comfortable pace. He made his way to where Ray was driving and decided to follow in his tracks. After all, this was technically Ray's mission. He was just along for the ride.
Ray:
Ray took a few minutes to get down the handling and terrain on the dune buggy. He opened it up as they hit a patch of flat sand. This was the most fun he had since he was in Vancouver and thought that Fin would enjoy himself if he was here. Mainly because it was crazy and had no rhyme or reason.
Although he didn't know what he was exactly looking for, Ray kept a sharp eye as he headed north. He wanted to keep about a fifteen to twenty mile perimeter around the town so that it would be close. If he had to do this again, he'd just go about five more miles aound and do the same perimeter.
After another ten or so minutes of driving, Ray made his first big observation of the day: A tower. Under the tower were some semi-circle buildings. <<Found something I think.>> Ray called out as he turn a little ways to the east to go straight at the buildings. Getting ever closer, he figured the tower to be an air tower as it was like the one he usually perched on and hung out in. That particular airfield was rubble though. This one had some wear and tear, but at least the buildings were still up.
Ray turned into the dirt landing strip and raced up. As he got nearer to the tower, various hangers began to surround him on either side. There was what looked to be a large garage with two huge doors on it up near the tower at the other end of the strip. It was apparent that this airfield had been deserted even long before the conservation houses had been abandonded.
Ray stopped and cut the engine, getting out to look around.
Drake:
Drake followed Ray's lead and pulled over. He got out to take a closer look at the abandoned airport. Actually, it was not so much an airport as it was just a landing strip with the associated buildings necessary for such a facility. There were no fancy parking garages or gift-shops at this place, but that did not make it any less interesting at the moment.
"Amazing," was all he could say at first. Then he snapped back to reality. "Wow, Rian is going to be very happy with your report. What do you think this place was?" Drake started walking towards the closest building to start investigating.
Ray:
"Yeah" Ray agreed. "It's large enough, I'll give it that." The field wasn't extremely large or anything. It looked like a privately owned airfield for that matter. Someone probably just had a little too much cash on their hands and decided to blow it on an airstrip and some buildings. At least it had enough buildings for storing things.
Ray began to demorph into his old self. This didn't take but a little under a minute because all it really did was change some minute details. He then began to walk around the airfield checking things out. There was enough space to house whatever they really needed to hide. They could hide a lot of stuff here actually...
"Maybe later, not today, but later we should go get the rest of those vehicles out of that garage..."
Drake:
Drake agreed that they should move all of the vehicles here, but at a later date. Hopefully it would be a day Drake was not available to help. Making trips back and forth to move them all sounded a bit too tedious for Drake's tastes.
"I just can not get over the fact that a place like this is free for the taking. If I was not here, I would not believe it." Drake tried a side door on one of the hangars. It was locked. That did not surprise him. "You want to do the honors this time?" Drake asked, grabbing a rock off the ground.
Ray:
"Sure" Ray said and waited for Drake to hurl the rock through a window. He morphed into a pigeon, his smallest morph as he heard the glass shatter. They'd probably have to fix it later since he suspected they would soon take ownership of it if it really did belong to no one. Ray took to the sky once he was sure he could fit through the window.
He doubled around and made a straight shot through the window. Once he was inside the large dark room he morphed human. This time it was harder to find the lightswitch, but he didn't trip over anything because the room was completely empty. It was a huge garage, enough for a couple large planes and it had two garage doors. He hit the switch for one of doors as the door creaked to life.
Walking outside, Ray met back up with Drake. "I guess we can park these dune buggies inside. We can keep them here while we go report back. This is probably enough searching for the day. I doubt we're gonna find anything better than this."
Drake;
Drake peeked inside before he want to get his dune buggy. The place looked even bigger from the inside! Drake figured he could morph into a blue whale and still have plenty of wiggle room. Drake started his buggy and parked it inside.
"Moth again, then?" Drake started to morph before Ray could reply. In a few minutes Drake would finish his disgusting morphing process, and then they could go home and relax. Drake was not really used to hanging out with friends, and his new friend Ray always seemed to keep him active. Hanging out with Ray was usually exhausting, but worth it in the end.
Ray:
"Yeah, that'd work best." Ray said already beginning to morph crow. The place needed work, but it'd make an awsome hangout for Ray if he ever needed a place to be alone. If this place really was just up for the taking and unknown, it could be a huge asset. It's not like they found a brigade of Abrams tanks, but raw land and some buildings worked out just fine anyway.
Once Drake was aboard crow airlines, Ray took off into the desert sky. It took them about twenty minutes of straight flying to get back into the city which, Ray figured wasn't too bad. At least it wouldn't be too out of hand on getting there, yet it was far enough away to run to if they ever needed a retreat or to hide something out of the city.
They were almost there when Ray's crow eyes spotted a couple goons cornering a promiscuous looking lady in an ally. He figured it may be trouble so he set down on rooftop nearby. After some obvious shouting by the lady it was apparently she needed help. He sighed inwardly thinking to himself he should just let it go. Stirring something up as an animal was just begging to tell the yeerks that the Animorphs had arrived in town and were ready to be slaughtered. It was BROAD DAYLIGHT for crying out loud. How in the hell was he supposed to handle this? Even if he went as a human they'd be out to get him if they seen him again.
Thinking quickly and running through a list of possible attack strategies, Ray finally came up with one: attack as Duke. They wouldn't come looking for Duke, he was too well protected. If it came down to it, he could still fight with Duke's body. The Bellagio owner was also older than he was and could possibly be even more intimidating. <<Drake, theres a lady being cornered by two thugs down in an allyway.>> Ray explained to Drake. << I'm going to morph Duke and see what I can do to help her out. Just watch out for trouble as best you can.>>
Drake;
Drake landed on a giant boulder, at at least it seemed like one to him, and began to demorph. He would need to be something other than a moth if he was going to be a lookout. Once his transformation was done, he looked around to see where he was. He was on a rock-covered rooftop overlooking an alleyway.
Drake decided to go lizard. That way he would still be able to see, he could communicate with Ray, and if anyone saw him then he would not be recognized. He finished his lizard morph and hoped he had gotten ready fast enough. Ray was a faster morpher than him. Drake crawled up onto the ledge of the building to see a scene unfolding in the alley below.
Ray:
After flying down a block to another ally and hiding behind a dumpster, Ray finally got to morph Duke again. Once he was finished, he sprinted down the sidewalk to aid the lady that was screaming about something or other. Once he rounded the building and got to the two men he shouted at them to get their attention. They saw Duke and looked suprised that someone actually cared enough to try and stop them. They could have even possibly been connected to the same goons that used to own the hotel that the animorphs called home.
They both came up to Ray and one of them even mumbled "We didn't mean nuthin'." and walked past him like they didn't even want to be told off. Looking closer they were a lot younger than Ray appeared to be, and he figured that he held an air of authority over them which is why they wern't resisting him. Ray approached the lady, but she too seemed afraid and ran out into the street with a whimper and ran away.
<<That was weird>> Ray called to Drake in thoughtspeak as he walked back out to the main road. He took a moment and scratched his head and stood there in awe at how chaotic the streets of Las Vegas were. It was broad daylight and those two goons had the nerve to try something like this. He never even got to figure out what the hell the yelling was about.
The traffic was even light. One car in particular seemed to be going too slow. One such particular bearded guy even had his finger pointed in Ray's direction. He probably saw the whole thing. It was good that he had Duke's face to hide behind though. The car pulled up and stopped as Ray walked over to the car to speak with the people inside, whom probably wanted to know what the hell just happened. He almost felt annoyed that he wouldn't have anything to tell them.
As he approached the passenger side, the bearded guy pulled a gun. In a drawn out thick Russian accent he said "You son...of...bitch." Before Ray could ask what the hell the guy was talking about, another guy sitting in the rear stepped out and pulled a shotgun on him. "Get da fuck in." The bearded guy said in a dangerously calm voice. Ray had no choice but to take a seat in the back with some guy that was probably also Russian. He was about to turn around and message Drake, but as he did he thought he saw the butt of a shotgun before blacking out.
Drake:
What should I do? What should I do? Drake thought to himself as a couple guys abducted Ray. <<Ray, can you hear me! CAN YOU HEAR ME!>> It was no use. They must have incapacitated him somehow.
Drake was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. SOMEONE JUST STOLE RAY! He did not have any morphs that could effectively chase a car, and he did not have time to change morphs anyway. He would have to get help.
He looked down the side of the building with his lizard eyes. He would have to drop a few stories to get to street level so that he could run the last few blocks back to the Den. Drake hesitated for half a moment, then took the plunge. His lizard morph was small enough that it should not take too much damage, but he aimed for a pile of trash just in case.
Thud. Crack. It felt as if one of his tiny ribs fractured, but Drake had no time for pain. He ignored it as best he could and started on his way back to the Den, trying not to attract too much attention.