Look No Further

[Aubrey]

Aubrey
Aubrey wheeled high above LA, a white dot against the dark sky. The dawn was just beginning to break over the city, casting a soft blue light over rooftops and trees. The cold air seeped through her feathers, sending a shiver down her body. However, nothing right now would ruin Aubrey's good mood.

She was following the familiar twists and turns of streets, heading towards her old house. Sophie was along for the ride as well, flying as a seagull somewhere below Aubrey. She had insisted on coming with Aubrey to make sure nothing happened to her. Sometimes Sophie acted way too much like an older, very protective sibling. Still, Aubrey didn't mind her company. There were a couple other Animorphs that were coming with as well, floating somewhere in back of Aubrey. They were the "back-up", but Aubrey didn't expect anything exciting to really happen.

Before Matt had taken off for the faction leader meeting, he had given the green light for Aubrey to start scouting her old house for activity. Once that was finished, they would develop a good plan for going in and grabbing Aubrey's mom and Nathan. So, since then, they had spent the last few days taking turns watching the old house.

The first couple days had been exciting for Aubrey--she was so close to having her mom back now!--but quickly turned boring. Nothing had happened. Nobody had walked in or out of the house, no cars had gone in the garage or gone out. Either they were Yeerk hermits, or they had moved. So this time a couple of them--Aubrey and Sophie--were going to go inside. They needed to make sure the Yeerks hadn't moved out before they started making plans. That was what the back-up was for, just in case things went wrong.

<<Just up ahead.>> Aubrey tilted her body, flapping lower. Nestled neatly between two other suburban houses was her old house, its driveway empty of any cars and curtains drawn. Nothing had changed since they had been here last. Aubrey circled until she was close enough, then landed on the roof. She ruffled her feathers, waiting for Sophie to land next to her. She had this creeping feeling that her mom and Nathan weren't here, and that the Animorphs were wasting their time doing this. She clung to the small hope that she was wrong.

Aubrey sent her thought-speak up to the other two Animorphs. <<Find a good place to watch the house. We should only be in there a couple minutes, it should be easy to see if they've gone or not.>> Okay, now she was feeling a small bit of nervousness in her gut. Scouting the house was easy. Getting inside was nerve-wracking. Especially when she thought of what happened last time she had snuck into this house. The memory brought up some bad feelings, and Aubrey shifted on her webbed feet.

<<Let's go,>> She said to Sophie. The two of them dove off the roof, aiming for the scruffy backyard lawn. It looked like the Yeerks hadn't cared to keep it looking nice since taking over. Aubrey waddled to one of the bushes, shoving her way past branches and leaves. Close by, Sophie had disappeared into a separate bush.

Aubrey concentrated on her own form. Branches scratched and tore at her suit as she got larger, and within a few minutes she was herself. She took a deep breath, resting for a moment, then closed her eyes again. She began shrinking, rich golden fur growing all over her body and bones cracking and shifting. Within a few minutes she was a squirrel monkey, furry face peering out from the bushes. <<Sophie, you ready?>>

<<Yeah, heading over now.>> Something rustled in a nearby bush, then something black and scaly slithered lazily out. It was a snake--more specifically, a spitting cobra. The monkey's first reaction was to stiffen and run, as the squirrel monkey was terrified of snakes. Aubrey knew it was Sophie, but she couldn't stop the shudder from running down her spine. Sophie had asked Matt for a more useful morph before doing this, and the snake had been what she chose.

After calming the monkey mind down, Aubrey crept out of the bushes carefully, her eyes trained on the curtained windows. Their movements would still be masked by the night, but Aubrey wanted to be careful. The two of them crept the small distance from the bushes to the house. Aubrey pressed herself against the stucco of the wall, tilting her head up. Sophie would need to go in first, but Aubrey knew she would handle herself well in her snake morph. <<Okay. We're about ready to go in.>> She said to the two Animorphs above.


Jullian
<<Alright, you're all clear,>> Jullian called down from where he was floating above, and identical copy of the seagulls Sophie and Aubrey had been moments before. Jullian hadn't wanted to give the girl the go ahead. This felt wrong. Well maybe not wrong. They had taken every precaution possible. They had watched this house for days. So it should be safe and Sophie was even going in as a cobra so everything should be ok.

But Jullian had to wonder that if this was such a good idea how come they didn't do it too often? So this must be a bad idea. Maybe not the most solid logic but it was sound enough for him to want to go home. But what could he say to Aubrey? No you can't rescue your mother because I have a bad feeling based on nothing.

Still, Jullian didn't like it. <<Can you stay up here, I'm gonna head down,>> he said to his fellow backupee before spiraling down to the ground and landing in the yard across from Aubrey's house. He demorphed quickly and only took a moment before heading into his next morph. He had only morphed this one once and even then only yesterday. It felt wrong to use this morph, really bad for some reason. It made Jullian feel sick and like something was watching him. But there was no doubt that this morph was his most dangerous. Of course he could be a danger to himself but lets hope not.

He crouched down and then at the last moment changed his mind and laid down full out on his belly on the ground and concentrated on the morph. He grew longer, limbs all eloganting and his neck growing most of all. Blades began to pop through his skin as it turned leathery and green and his mouth was replaced by a wicked sharp beak. Talons grew from his finger and toes and his knees reversed direction.

When he was a hork-bajir Jullian brought his legs up under him and crouched behind the house across the street watching the house Sophie and Aubrey had gone into, ready to run to the rescue if something went wrong.


Kovu
Kovu hovered above the house, looking for any signs of trouble, this felt so dangerous, there should have been a different way to do this. Neverless Kovu was here trying to help in any way possible, after all he knew how Aubrey felt, Kovu's own sister was a controller, and he planned to rescue her soon enough. He watched as Julian landed and became a Hork-Bajir not exactly a creature Kovu was fond of.

He went around the house, <<No one is coming out, you should be fine, if you need any help, give a shoutout, Juian is ready if you need him>> Kovu felt somewhat helpless at this point. He didn't have any morph that was useful for fighting. So here he was hovering in his magpie morph, desperately relaying information to the peoplee on the ground. At least he was able to be some sort of lookout.


Aubrey
<<Okay,>> Aubrey said again. She was hesitating, head turned up and eyes watching the sky. She was afraid of what she was going to find in here. Not controllers--that didn't seem probable at this point--but empty rooms. Everything from her past, gone. If her 'parents' had been moved, that might mean she would never find them. LA was a big place to find just two people, so they would be gone. Forever. Just like her father. Gone, without a word. Lost somewhere. I'm going to change it this time.

Aubrey glanced over at Sophie, who was coiled up patiently by the kitty door, waiting. <<Let's go, Aubrey. Now.>>

<<Right.>> Aubrey answered. She pushed her thoughts down and away, concentrating. This was supposed to be easy, but she wanted to be ready for anything. She crawled her way over to the kitty door, pausing outside of it to listen for any sign of life inside. Squirrel monkey ears weren't much better than a human's, as it turned out. After a few moments of silence, she sent one last thought-speak up. <<Okay, we're going in.>> She paused. <<Thanks for coming, guys...It means a lot.>> She felt more secure with the two of them around, even if they probably felt uneasy about this.

It was action time. She wrapped a small hand around Sophie's snake body and lifted her up, then pushed the kitty door slightly open with her other hand. Sophie slid in with a soft thud, swallowed by the darkness of the house. Aubrey pushed her head against the kitty door and began to quickly wiggle her way inside. Suddenly, Sophie's voice filled her head, yelling. <<No Aubrey, wait!>>

Aubrey was halfway through the door when meaty fingers clamped down on the back of her neck and yanked upwards. <<Ahh!>> She let out a squeal of pain, finding herself floating in the air, hanging by the neck. Another hand came up and grabbed her thrashing legs and arms, holding them still. Then the fingers holding the scruff of her neck shifted, wrapping fully around her neck. It was suddenly harder to breathe, and she couldn't twist her head to bite or see who was holding her. All she could tell was that whoever had her was big.

<<Aubrey...they have me in some cage...or something...can't see much.>> There was something wrong with the way Sophie was talking.

<<Sophie?? Sophie? Where are you? Are you okay?>> There was no response. Had they done something to her?

"Grab the carrier! Now!" The voice was thick and low, and came from above the hands holding her. A man's voice.

Somebody had rushed over with a pet carrier, and the man holding her began shoving her down into the small opening. She squirmed wildly, trying to free even one hand or leg. It was futile, however, and she could feel the plastic of the carrier closing all around her, trapping her. Inside it was pitch black.

Then the hands loosened. Aubrey twisted her head sideways and bit down as hard as she could, teeth sinking into soft flesh. She could taste the disgusting, coppery flavor of blood touch her tongue. The fingers around her body spasmed, and somewhere far above there was a loud yelp of pain. Both hands let her go and disappeared from the carrier. With her heart pounding, Aubrey lunged forward towards the opening. But it was too late, and she slammed against the metal bars of the cage as it was closed. She fell back in the carrier, dazed.

"Little shitter bit me!" The man that had been holding her hit the cage, causing the whole thing to shudder. Terrified, Aubrey pressed herself against the back of the carrier just as the man's face filled up the space. His eyes were dark and small, black holes in the vast white of his round face. His lips were cracked in a large, triumphant grin. "Filthy Animorph--"

"Let's go, Veeke. We don't have time to waste." It was another voice, another man. But he had said a name. Veeke? Must be controllers. "Call the Sub-Visser."

The carrier jerked, and the man's face disappeared. Aubrey was shaking now, her mind swimming and stomach turning. She had been caught. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She should have known this. She should have realized they'd be ready. But, no, she had been selfish, and that had blinded her judgement. She had assumed what she wanted was true--that her parents would still be here. That the controllers wouldn't figure her intentions out. That she would still have a chance at saving her mom.

Her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. She wasn't exactly claustrophobic, but she couldn't move very well and it was very dark in the carrier. And she was scared. Desperately, she sent her thought-speak out to Jullian and Kovu, hoping they could still hear her. <<Help! Guys, help! Somebody has us--I'm in some kind of cage. I don't know where Sophie is, I think they did something to her. She doesn't sound okay.>>

Aubrey could feel the carrier moving as she spoke. She pressed her face to some of the air holes, trying to see what was going on. The house was still dark, but down the hallway there was a light on. It shone on the forms of more controllers. She couldn't tell how many.

<<We're moving somewhere, there's a few controllers here. Hurry, guys!>> A door was opened, and her nostrils filled with the faint scent of gasoline and grease. <<The garage!>>


Jullian
The minute Jullian heard Aubrey calling for help he was up and running towards the house. Or at least he should have been. He was running but he wasn't running. He knew he was sending the command to his body to run but it was like it wasn't getting through. Except it was. It was like he was watching a split screen of his life. In one he was running towards the house, ready to rescue his team mates. In the other he hadn't moved. Only problem was the two screens kept over lapping and he couldn't tell with one was real.

What is happening?

AGAINST THE RULES BRAT!

Jullian heard the voice and was filled with a horrible sense of dread as the version of the world where he was running to the rescue faded away. For one moment he felt like he would die of fear as the heart he could hardly feel threatened to beat itself out of his chest. In fact, unless he was hallucinating (a very real possibility at this point) this hork-bajir morph had two hearts and both of them were going crazy.

Then the feeling was gone and Jullian found himself standing in the bushes across the street, human. He began to morph dingo as fast as he could but he knew he would never get there in time.

<<Kovu! You have to try to stop them! Distract them.>>


Kovu
Kovu flew toward the front of the house, he was panicked, What was going on? Why couldn't Julian help? Kovu dived toward the two men. Screeching loudly <<Hang on Aubrey!>> Kovu couldn't do much in a garage, But he could at least distract them. He flew inside and screeched loudly he batted his wings and scratched with his talons. He couldn't exactly save Aubrey but at least he could stall while Julian did what ever he was doing.

Kovu flew all around the place, trying to keep the men occupied. He wasn't doing so well, He clearly needed a bit more powerful morph, at least something that could fight. However right now, he was stuck in the magpie. He flared his wings and flew into the man's face.. Their only hope now was Julian.


Aubrey
Not good, not good, not good. Aubrey's heart was racing in her chest. The monkey's mind felt trapped and cornered. Aubrey was feeling dizzy from all the stress. Oh god, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. I gotta get out of here. The metal bars of the carrier's door were too small to shove her arm through, so Aubrey wiggled her fingers between the spaces in the bars and tried reaching the lock. <<C'mon, c'mon!>> It was useless, the lock was too hard to grasp from inside. Aubrey sat back in the carrier, pressing her hands to her face and trying to control her breathing. She didn't know if Jullian and Kovu would be able to get to her. She was trapped. Caught. The thought made her mouth go dry and stomach turn.

A light was switched on overhead, flooding the garage with a bright, blinding light. Aubrey pressed her face against the breathing holes of the carrier, looping her fingers around the plastic openings. She could see the second man hauling another carrier, probably Sophie's. The other controllers were hastily getting into a car parked inside, and the garage door began slowly lifting up.

"Go, go!"

The man carrying Aubrey rushed around to the back of the car, opening the back and shoving her carrier in. Sophie's was next. <<Sophie! Sophie! Are you okay?>> Aubrey struggled to catch a glimpse of the carrier next to her. Then suddenly, her world went dark. What the? Somebody had thrown a blanket over her carrier. <<Sophie!>> The back of the door slammed close and the car bounced. <<Where are you guys? They put us in some car or something.>>

<<Hang on Aubrey!>> It was Kovu.

Suddenly, Aubrey heard shouting and yelling from outside the car. She couldn't see this, but the two controllers were being attacked by Kovu's magpie. They thrashed around, trying to smack the psycho bird to the ground. One of the controllers inside started the car up, then leaned out of a rolled down window. She shouted at the two controllers being attacked by Kovu, slamming her hand against the car's horn. Aubrey jumped inside the carrier, startled by the sound.

"Veeke! Ajiron! It's a stupid bird, leave it for now! We don't have time. Get in! Now!" Outside the car, Veeke barely dodged getting his face raked again by Kovu. He escaped long enough to jump in the car with Ajiron.

<<Bloody hell! What's happening??>> Aubrey paced in small, tight circles in the space, anxious. <<Is everything okay? Kovu, Jullian?>> The car jerked backwards, and Aubrey felt dread creeping up her spine. It was seeming less and less like she was going to get out of this. Okay. It's okay. I can still figure this out. She was trying to calm herself, but it was far from working. <<Guys??>>

The car screeched backwards out of the garage, tires squealing against the driveway's gray pavement. Aubrey's body thudded against the sides of the carrier as the car hit the curb. Then it jerked forward, beginning its trek to wherever they were headed.

Aubrey slumped down inside the carrier, wrapping her tail around her small feet. She had given up trying to see what was going on--the blanket had fallen partially away, but it still masked the space around her. She could hear excited chatter from in front, where the controllers were sitting. Something about a Sub-Visser.


Jullian
Jullian ran out just as the car was leaving and realized he was in the wrong morph for the second time that day. He almost cried with frustration but sitting here beating himself up would not get Aubrey and Sophie back. He ran after the car, a yellow blur. He wouldn't be able to keep up if the car was going to be going straight but it would turn and Jullian could cut corners where it couldn't. He just hoped it would be enough. It had to be enough. They only had two hours and then both girls would be trapped.

<<Aubrey! Sophie! Hold on. Kovu, go back to HQ, tell Kat what happened but don't move until I get back ok? I'm going to find out where they are going and then we are going to get them back.>> His thoughtspeak voice was fading and fading as he got further away until it was hardly a whisper.


Kovu
Kovu was stunned, he was sue he could dive and land on top of the car, but had been given direct orders not to. He paused almost hovering, unsure of what to do. He definately didn't want to leave Aubrey, but It might be best if he went for back-up. He looked at Julian, then the car. He truned away, and flew as fast as he could toward the familiar cabin they called the Haunt.

Kovu was worried, what could happen to Aubrey? Where were they taking her? Had they set up this whole trap, just to catch us? Kovu pushed theese thoughts to the back o his head. They needeed back-up. Kovu wondered about the safety of the plan, what if Julian was caught? Why couldn't Kovu just bring the peole with him and try to figure out where the veichle went?

Kovu landed on the porch and began his demorph, it wasn't as easy as usual, his thougvht were so scattered that it was a bit difficult to focus. Slowly, but surely his human form emerged from the magpie. Full human, he opened the door to the Haunt, and went inside to spread the news.


Aubrey
Aubrey could hear Jullian's thought-speech at the back of her mind, distantly. She couldn't concentrate, couldn't think of what to do. She had been caught--and worse--she had let Sophie be caught. Now they were heading to some place somewhere, and the Yeerks would have her killed or infested. She could remember all what Matt had said about them when she had first met him--he had explained how they squeezed through your ear, invaded your mind. How terrible it was. And now she had ruined everything. She had put everybody in danger, again, and now the consequences would be worse. So she slipped back, away, let the monkey's mind deal with what was happening.

She wasn't sure how long it was until she felt the car stop for good. She heard the click of seat belts, then the sound of car doors sliding open. The monkey's mind perked up, suddenly wary. It didn't like the sound of movement, especially since it wasn't able to see. The back door of the car was opened, and she braced herself against plastic as her carrier was lifted.

<<Jullian? Kovu?>> Aubrey called out meekly. There was still a hope in her that they could somehow get her away from the Yeerks. Distract these controllers somehow, grab her carrier and run off. Were they even close enough to hear her thought-speak? She tried Sophie again. <<Hey, are you okay?>>

As the carrier bounced, Aubrey shifted against the far back. She caught the quick scent of grass and asphalt before they moved inside somewhere. The blanket was still covering most of the holes, but Aubrey could see flashes of bright light. A hallway? Feet shuffled against carpet, and she heard gentle murmurs all around her. She heard a couple doors open, then felt a cold rush of stale air seep into the carrier. The controllers' footsteps echoed off the walls and floor. Wherever it was, the room was large.

"Is the Sub-Visser here yet?"

"He's just arrived."

Aubrey bumped against the sides of the carrier as it was set down. She wrapped her arms around herself, anxiety eating at her stomach. What was a Sub-Visser? What did the word mean? Aubrey shivered. She felt alone. She had nobody to help her, nobody to reassure or tell her some magical way of getting out of this. Then she heard a voice in her head.

<<...Aubrey?>>

<<Sophie! Sophie! You're okay!>> Relief hit her hard at the sound of Sophie's voice. She clung to the fact that Sophie was here, now. Sophie would know what to do. <<We've been taken somewhere. I don't know where we are or what to do.>>

She waited eagerly for Sophie's response, heart beating. It came after a long pause. <<...Shit.>> Another pause. <<It's really dark. Shit, Aubrey. What's happened?>>


Rian
Luij stepped out of the limo that had pulled up outside of Studio 56 and looked around, eyes shaded by Dolci Ghabani sun glasses. He was dressed in a nice black suit that was currently causing him to burn up in the LA heat but since you moved from heavily air conditioned area to heavily air conditioned area in this city he didn't spend too much time worrying about it.

In fact Luij didn't spend too much time thinking about anything.

He walked into the studio, a large smile plastered on his face, his cronies and assistants following along behind him in a swarm. "When is that lunch with Sub-Visser 30?" He directed the question to thin air knowing that someone would answer him as he strode into the building.

"She canceled Sub-Visser. Something about a dam project. Couldn't make the trip out from Vegas," a young female voice answered with the correct amount of groveling in her tone. Jake Romero had no use for people around him that didn't grovel.

He snapped his fingers and made a tcht sound. "That's right! I forgot about the dam." He paused in walking for a moment almost causing his whole retinue to fall over as everyone came to a screeching halt trying not to bump into him. "Did I send flowers?"

"You sent a cake to the announcement party," another voice answered, a male this time. He didn't really know all their names he just refereed to them as Monkey 1, Monkey 2 and so on and so forth.

"Right then, good." He began striding down the hallway and the group of assistants worked to catch up with him. He entered the studio where his men were waiting with two cages with a large smile on his face. He pulled off his sunglasses and looked around the studio quickly before heading over to his operatives.

"I hear you have some good news for me?" He said looking eager.

"Yes sub-visser, we got them."

"Good, that's good," he said already losing interest in the man and crouching down so that he could see some ugly yellow creature cowering in the corner of one of the cages. "What is that a rat?" He asked looking up at the man who'd brought them in.

"I believe it is a monkey sub-visser." Luij looked back at the creature and smiled. That terrible sleazy smile.

"Oh, a monkey! How cute." He rattled the cage a bit. He stood up suddenly, his face showing that a new thought had struck him. He snapped, "Daniel!" He didn't bother to wait for a response. Daniel was one of his more competent assistants, he would be ready. "Memo this, get pet monkey after meeting."

He began to walk over to the other cage. Today was a good day it seemed.


Matt
Ydurt stepped out of the limo after Luij. Ydurt's job was to act as Luij's personal assistant, one of many, as well as gather new behind his back to give to his fellow YPM members. Ydurt 906 was a Yeerk Peace Movement member, though he would never let the Sub-Visser know this. That would cost the lives of both him and his host, Daniel Apollo.

He followed the Sub-Visser, clad in a black polo shirt and khaki pants. The black shirt wasn't all that comfortable in the heat outside, but he had to look somewhat decent when he was following the Sub-Visser around. It was expected of the lot of them to be presentable. There were about five or six of them not counting Ydurt himself. Currently speaking was a female in a skirt and a neatly pressed blouse. Ydurt couldn't remember the names of his fellow assistants that well, but the Sub-Visser only remembered Ydurt's name, or rather Daniel's, but it counted for something. He was, in a way, the favored assistant and only because of his competence and speed.

They entered the studio and approached the cages. Ydurt's clipboard and pen were already ready when the Sub-Visser said to make the memo. "Yes, Sub-Visser," he said, jotting the note down. At the same time Daniel's voice welled up in the back of their shared mind.

<<It must be an Animorph. This isn't good. We'll have to get a message to Tess and Nomar 527 somehow, so she can contact their leader is he isn't one of them.>>

<<Agreed, but let's wait and be sure they didn't just catch a long surviving zoo escapee.>> Came Ydurt's response. Tess and Nomar were the only YPM yeerk and host with direct contact the the L.A. Animorphs, and not because they wanted it that way. The rest of the Los Angeles Peace Movement felt that one controller with contact info was enough and less of a chance of the information getting out.

<<Do you think it's true, what they say about Tess and the L.A. leader?>> One of the other YPMs had seen Nomar's host and a boy who'd been seen both morphing and in the black outfits that the L.A. Animorphs supposedly wore, or so they said. Nomar wasn't saying a word on the subject.

<<If it is the case it isn't like we can do much. It's Nomar's choice to entertain the wants of his host. If she's in love with him, well.... there's no danger in it yet.>> By now they were following Luij to the second cage and what would wait in there.


Aubrey
<<I don't know, I don't know. They grabbed us back at the house and brought us somewhere. I don't know how, but they knew we were going to come.>> She paused. <<...It was a trap.>> And I'm stupid for not thinking ahead and realizing. She curled up tighter into a ball. Even though it wasn't cold, she felt a shiver roll through her body. <<I don't know where we are, and I don't know if the others know where we are.>> She took a deep breath. She'll know what to do. She will. <<What should we do?>>

Sophie sighed in thought-speak. <<I don't know, Aubrey.>>

Aubrey didn't realize how much she'd be hoping Sophie would have the answers until she heard those words. She felt a sinking in her gut, cold and empty. Okay, okay. We can still handle this. The thought didn't seem to help--Aubrey couldn't help feeling that it was becoming less and less likely that this was going to turn out well. <<Shit. Shit. Oh my god. Sophie, what the fuck. I don't know what to do, what can we do? We're fucking caught. The Yeerks have us. I've fucked everything up.>> Suddenly, the carrier was feeling very very small. Was there enough oxygen in here, even? It seemed like there wasn't enough. Aubrey was gasping for breaths. This was all wrong.

Beneath her own mind, she could feel the monkey's mind reacting. It was on high alert. It didn't like being in here, it didn't like that this whole place smelled like predators, or that there were sounds that it couldn't see. It wanted out.

<<Aubrey--Don't freak right now. You need to keep calm. Listen to me.>> Sophie said, her voice urgent. But it wasn't registering with Aubrey. She was pacing frantically around the small space of the carrier, shoulders bumping against the carrier's walls with each turn.

Then suddenly, Aubrey heard the sound of shuffling feet and voices. She paused, her whole body tensing. More people were entering, and she could hear snippets of conversation floating from around her carrier. Sub-Visser. There was that word again.

There was a man's voice speaking near her carrier, then the door to the cage darkened with the voice's face. Aubrey scampered against the far back of the carrier and crouched over, tail curled around her feet and hands, trying to disappear. The man's smile made her skin crawl, and the way he looked at her made her sick. She was frozen, unable do to anything but stare back at him.

Then he rattled the cage, and Aubrey jumped. The monkey wanted to run, Aubrey wanted to run. But all she could do was pivot in a small quick circle. From the back of her throat came the involuntary chirping noises that squirrel monkeys made when they were alarmed. After a few moments the man seemed to lose interest and move onto Sophie's cage. When he was gone, Aubrey leaned heavily against the side of the carrier, clutching her tail in both hands.

[image]

The cobra's black, scaly body was coiled patiently within the second carrier. Sophie was close to the carrier's metal door. She couldn't see out of the carrier, but she could feel the vibrations of people talking and walking. She could smell them, too, along with Aubrey's monkey morph.

Sophie listened to Aubrey's panicked thought-speech, then felt the vibrations of movement from Aubrey's direction. <<Be calm, Aubrey. Don't talk to them. Just keep quiet.>> Unlike Aubrey, Sophie herself felt very calm. The snake was partially to blame for it; its mind was peaceful, confident. It held only a passing interest in the vibrations and smells coming from outside the carrier. The snake felt content where it was, waiting. The carrier was dark and hidden.

<<Aubrey? Answer me.>> Sophie knew Aubrey was freaking out. She couldn't do much to help, and it seemed like Aubrey had stopped listening to her. Even though she didn't want to admit it, a part of Sophie felt very frightened--they were alone here, surrounded by controllers, unsure of what was going to happen. On top of this, she didn't know how long they had both been morphed. The warning about staying in morph too long was rattling around in her head.

However, the other part of her was cold. Plotting. They couldn't escape from these cages, no, but Sophie's morph wasn't useless. In fact, the moment the Sub-Visser's shadow fell over the carrier, Sophie was beginning to tense, getting ready. Her pink tongue flicked out. Once the controller's face got near the front door, he would get a face full of venom.


Jullian
Jullian crouched behind a car across the street form the movie studio where the van had stopped and the controller had gotten out and gone inside carrying the cat carriers that held his team mates. He was scared for both them and himself. A part of him had hoped that after being an animorph for so long and going on so many missions and all there would come a point where he stopped being afraid. But it never came. He was always afraid, he had just learned to live through it, to keep going.

Well staying here would do no more good. He couldn't get in there and get the carriers, not with out help. He was about to turn around and go back to the Haunt to get back up now that he knew where the girls were being held when he saw the limo pull up and the swarm of controllers get out. But all human, so far all of them were human which meant they had a chance. The LA members had plenty of morphs under their belt that could handle humans.

<<Guys, just hold on ok. I'm outside but I'm going to go get some help. Just be strong but,>> he paused, he didn't want to tell them what he had to but he forced himself to say it anyway. <<You've been in morph for about an hour.>> He didn't say anymore. They both knew that the timeline was coming up and he didn't know what else he could say. If they could safely demorph then they would do so and he didn't need to tell them to do it. If they couldn't...

He demorphed and remorphed seagull. The sooner he got back the more likely they wouldn't have to chose.

((If someone wants to rp out Jullian arriving back at the Haunt and telling everyone what happened they can. I'm not sure who is at the Haunt right now but anyone can go.))


Rian
Luij heard the, 'yes Sub-Visser,' and began moving towards the second carrying. <<A jewel that boy,>> Jake said in their shared mind. <<Yeah I guess so,>> Luij said. Luij didn't really like talking to Jake, he always ended up feeling like...well the nice way to say it was that he felt like he was being left behind. The blunt way to say it was that Jake made him feel stupid.

Jake watched the yeerk's thoughts and worries. It was kind of sad really, how easy Luij was to read. The yeerk really should have been able to hide his thoughts from his host but he had never been the smartest person alive. In fact, Jake was pretty sure that Luij had been given to him to get the yeerk out of the way. No one had expected Luij to make something of itself and without Jake everyone would have been right.

But Jake hadn't given over his head to a yeerk just to be some lowly throw away controller. He had wanted to own LA and that was what he had been promised when they had asked him to accept the yeerk. But Jake had quickly realized that the yeerks didn't give you anything. Not that he expected them too. After all Hollywood wasn't that different.

Fighting and outmaneuvering his competition Jake had made sure that Luij, and so he, had risen in the world and when the invasion had finally became open the controller had found themselves in a prime position to take over LA. Now Sub-Visser 36 and in charge of the city, Jake was partially satisfied. Still, he wanted more, if more was to be had.

<<Don't lose Daniel to some other sub-visser. Maybe give him a raise, a promotion or something.>> <<Right, right,>> Luij said.

"Daniel," he said suddenly, turning away from the cage he had been about to peer into, "you're promoted effective immediately." He heard a sigh of disappointment come from all the other assistants around him but he waved it away. "You're now, uh Sub-Visser 99." He thought for a moment, checking with Jake that the position was open to find out it was. Sub-Visser 99 had been in charge of San Diego a while back but Jake had suggested he "have an accident" and add his lands to Luij's own.

"Right, Sub-Visser 99. But you still work for me." He waited a moment, looking Daniel in the eye to make sure he understood this essential point and then he turned around and crouched down so that he could look in the second cage.


Aubrey
The second his voice filled her head, Aubrey's heart leapt. She perked up, taking a step forward in the carrier. <<Jullian!>> She felt a small wave of relief hit her body. He was here, maybe he could do something to help them. She had thought they had lost the car, and that Sophie and her were alone. <<I--Wait-->>

<<You've been in morph for about an hour.>>

Aubrey suddenly felt cold. An hour? Already? She knew they had been in morph for awhile, but maybe a half hour at most. Right? That meant they only had an hour to get out of here, just one hour for Jullian's back-up to arrive and for them to get them out of these cages. Before they were stuck as a monkey and a snake. It seemed impossible.

Aubrey stared blankly out across the carrier, to the front part of her cage where the room's light spilled in. The controllers were crowded near Sophie's cage now, talking. An hour? To get out of this? Aubrey went back to leaning against the carrier walls, tail curled. What could she do? She heard the talking going on outside of her carrier, but the words were meaningless right now. All she could think about was the time, ticking away...

[image]

<<Thanks Jullian. Try to hurry,>> Sophie said, trying to keep her voice calm. <<And Aubrey. Remember. Keep calm, don't talk.>> She hadn't heard anything from Aubrey since she had started to freak out. Maybe she had fainted or something. She hadn't known Aubrey to faint before, but they also hadn't been in this sort of situation before. The closest Sophie had ever come was when they had been on the run, and Sophie had been caught. It was only by luck that she had not been infested and escaped.

Sophie had guessed that their time would be around an hour or so. Hopefully Jullian could get the other Animorphs wrangled fast enough to get back here. Otherwise the two of them would have to deal with what was going to happen. Being trapped as a cobra wasn't the most ideal thing, but Sophie didn't want that to distract her right now.

Maybe if these guys thought they were just a couple of normal animals, they'd do something like free them. Right. That's a stupid thought. There was no chance of that, especially since they had been caught sneaking into a house--squirrel monkeys and snakes usually didn't work together to break into houses. They had also been caught sneaking into a house that had been set up as a trap to catch shape-shifting humans. So if she couldn't escape, she would do the damage that she could.

She tensed again, tongue flicking out to taste the air. Who are you people. Sophie could hear the vibrations of the controller's talking near her cage. Blah, blah blah, come on. Get closer. Look in here. That's right. Calmly, Sophie watched as the controller's face filled her vision. The snake's instincts kicked in, and she lifted her head. The cobra was angry, she was angry. She let out a sharp hiss, then, before he could move, the muscles in her jaw squeezed, spraying the cobra's venom right into the Sub-Visser's ugly face.


Rian
Luij looked down and only looked into the cage long enough to get in trouble. He fell backwards and landed painfully on his butt as the venom hit his face but that was the least of his pain. He let out a sharp shout and then began screaming.

<<Shut up you fool,>> Jake said in his head and took control of the body. "God damnit! Give me some water!" He held out his hand and before he could even think about asking a second time a bottle of water hit his hand, its cool surface a contrast to his burning eyes and face.

He popped the top off instead of bothering to unscrew it and poured the whole bottle on his face and then used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe away some of the poison. He held out his hand again and he didn't have to ask to have another bottle of water placed in it.

He repeated the process with the second bottle. Now that the most intense pain was gone Luij had gotten his wits about him again and he took back control of the body like a child might snatch back a toy. <<Presumptuous human,>> he said, trying to sound annoyed and angry but not having the enough power to really carry that tone. Jake stayed silent knowing which battles were worth fighting and which weren't.

Luij got to his feet slowly, his eyes still tightly closed. "Get me medical attention!" He yelled to the controllers around him and he heard many pairs of feet scurry off to find him what he wanted, "and kill the snake!"

Jake kept himself from showing Luij his disgust. First of all Daniel would be intelligent enough to simply call for medical attention instead of running off for it like an idiot. Jake probably wouldn't have been able to get half as far as he had if it hadn't been for Daniel. The kid was almost as good as Jake in covering for Luij's stupidity. And because of that Jake didn't point out how stupid it was to kill the snake animorph since Daniel probably would.


Matt
((Well, whatever you're trying to do it's helping me develop the personality for Daniel so I don't really care or mind. Oh, as a note, be sure you post a profile for Luij and Jake as characters in the NPC list at some point. I'm going to do the same for Daniel and Ydurt and I'm going to add them all the RP List after I post this. ))

[image]

Daniel had merely been following the Sub-Visser, part of the pack of agents and assistants. The next thing he knew the Sub-Visser turned to him and promoted him to a Sub-Visser. Admittedly a low ranking one, but Daniel, or rather Ydurt, was now Sub-Visser 99.

<<Huh...>> Daniel thought as the Sub-Visser turned to the cage.

Ydurt controlled their mouth to say a very quick, "Yes Sub-Visser" then turn his attention to Daniel's thoughts. <<We've impressed him, which will most likely be a good thing. The higher a rank we can work ourselves to the better chance we have of making a difference.>>

Daniel didn't respond, just turned his attention back to the Sub-Visser who, at this point, was falling backward after the cobra had spit the venom. Even before the Sub-Visser had yelled for water, Daniel was grabbing a nearby bottle and thrusting it into the man's hand. With one hand he pulled out his cell phone and dialed for medical attention, with the other he grabbed another bottle that he thrust at the Sub-Visser as he held his hand out again.

Even as the Sub-Visser shouted for medical attention, the medics were already on their way. Daniel had an innate ability to stay calm under pressure, one that became useful to him as the Sub-Visser's assistant, obviously one that had earned him quite a bit of favoritism.

Daniel hung up the phone, cursing as if it had disconnected and dialed again. This number was one for Tess in Union. Staying well away from the Sub-Visser, and thus away from the screaming so his voice could be heard, he heard the woman pick up the phone.

"Tess, this is Daniel. Sub-Visser 36 may have captured two Animorphs. You need to contact your Animorph friend and let him know what's up if he doesn't already know."

He hung up for the second time, seemingly satisfied that the message had gone through this time. He pocketed the phone and went to the Sub-Visser's side, keeping his calm instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off like most of the other assistants were at the moment. "Sub-Visser," he said, "killing the snake would be a very unwise move. It is very likely an Animorph after all. Turning in two Animorphs to be infested will allow for quite a lot of additional power and a possible promotion. You would be killing off a choice host and a very useful weapon."


Rian
Luij got a petulant grimace on his face. He was still in a lot of pain though Jake had made sure that they probably wouldn't lose their eyes for Luij's mistake. "Right. Well then that makes sense," said after a moment. "Fine, we won't kill the snake but shoot it just for good measure, low power dracon beam."

He would have done it himself but he couldn't see well enough to aim. "We don't want the vermin thinking they have the power in this situation. In fact how about we show them just how foolish they are. Claire!" He called. "Come control your offspring!"


Aubrey
Sophie pulled herself back, her head still lifted and hood spread menacingly. The snake's mind was irritated. It didn't like using it's venom, but it didn't like all the activity and closeness of these humans. But the threat was gone. Calmly, Sophie tilted her head, catching a glimpse of what she had done to the controller.

The venom had the desired effect; the stupid controller was flat on his butt and screaming in pain. It was almost comical, and if Sophie had had lips, she might have smiled. However, it didn't solve anything. It might delay the Yeerks for awhile, but not forever. Their time was slowly ticking away, and Sophie could almost feel every second wasting away. She was beginning to feel more and more apprehensive.

<<Sophie!>> Aubrey's thought-speak surprised her. The girl hadn't been speaking for the past few minutes. There was a pause, then her voice came again sounding urgent, frightened. <<They're talking about killing you. What did you do??>>

What? Ack. That caught her off guard. A bad reaction had been expected from the controller, yeah, but not an order for her death. Sophie was an Animorph, she had assumed the Yeerks would want her alive to infest. Maybe she had been wrong, and the thought sent pang of uneasiness through her. She curled herself back, resting her head against the soft scales of her body. If they wanted to kill her, she would attack them again with all the venom she had left. It was the best she could do, given the circumstances.

However, the assistant--Daniel was it?--convinced the Sub-Visser not to kill her. Any sort of short relief she would feel was wiped away by the mention of shooting her. Urg, not again. Sophie knew how unpleasant being shot could be. She had been stunned earlier by a dracon beam when Aubrey had dropped her inside the kitty door. It had taken about an hour or so to clear the fuzziness from her head.

Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. Despite the snake's calm, easy mind, the frustration of it all was starting to get to her. Come on guys, get here. We need your help.

[image]

---

Aubrey's ears picked up the commotion happening outside of Sophie's cage, and the screaming. What was going on? Curious, she inched forward in the carrier, each movement stiff and slow. She wasn't feeling like herself, and most of her thoughts had wandered off to better things for the past few minutes: To Australia, to the beach, under the water, on her surfboard. Anywhere but here--trapped in a tiny carrier by parasitic aliens, trapped where there was a possibility that she would spend the rest of her life as a squirrel monkey. Or worse.

She crept forward, urged on by the monkey's simple curiosity. Nobody was sticking by her cage, so she felt safe enough to curl her fingers around the metal bars and peer out. People were rushing and buzzing around the Sub-Visser in a fuss like something major had just happened. Then she heard the Sub-Visser called for the snake to be killed.

The snake. Sophie... Aubrey's breaths came in short gasps. No, no they can't kill her. No no no. She pressed her face harder against the bars, shifting her body closer. Did Sophie even realize? <<Sophie! They're talking about killing you. What did you do??>> There was no response. Aubrey shifted her weight, the tip of her tail hitting against the carrier's floor in agitation. Then the Sub-Visser called out a name.

"Claire! Come control your offspring!" The Yeerk's words stung in Aubrey's ears. She knew that name. Very well.

<<...Mom?>> She said meekly.


Rian
Claire walked out and stood next to Luij. He didn't bother paying her much attention, after all she was just a pawn. "Right, how do you feel about that," he said taunting the animorphs he still couldn't see. "Take them out," he said motioning in the wrong direction for the cages, "and where are my doctors?" he said since the pain was really starting to get to him.

Neither Jake nor Luij had dealt with pain much and neither enjoyed it though Jake was dealing with it a bit better than Luij was. To console himself he began taunting the animorphs again as he heard their cages being opened. "You walked right into our trap. What did you think? That Ire 398 wouldn't tell us her host daughter was an animorphs?"

<<Is this the scene where the super villian reveals his master plan?>> Jake asked with calm scorn. Luij shut up too angry by his host's tone to go on.


Aubrey
"Of course, Sub-Visser." Ire398 walked forward, a calm smile on her face. When the call had come about the Animorph's capture, Ire had been filled with joy. She was sure to get recognition, sure to be praised for helping capture the Animorphs. Her host's daughter had been driven to return--just as Ire had expected--and from what she had heard, they had even caught a second one.

<<...Mom?>> The thought-speak reached her, and Ire took a moment to pause. The voice had stirred her host, causing the woman's slow, tired thought-process to turn towards what was happening. Ire had her host beaten down, and she wouldn't have this little run-in with her host's daughter change that.

Passing by the cage with the snake--she had seen what had happened to the Sub-Visser, and as funny as that had been she didn't want to end up like him--and knelt by the cage with the monkey. It was bunched up against the back of the carrier, shivering. Ire gave the Animorph a toothy grin, jiggling the cage. "Stupid Animorph. Where are your friends now?" The grin widened. "Nobody to save you this time."

The hope was that the other Animorphs would take the two here as bait, but these two would not know that. Until then, Ire would enjoy tormenting the two of them. They had done enough damage back when Aubrey had dropped in on their old house, and Ire would enjoy paying them back for it.

Ire398 glanced in the direction the Sub-Visser pointed, momentarily confused. What was he pointing at? Then a couple assistants tripped over Ire trying to reach the cages, jostling her out of the way. She stumbled back with a grunt.

She watched as one of the stronger assistants reached into the first cage with gloves, fumbling around for a few moments before drawing out the monkey by its neck. It was squirming and yelping, but the grip around its throat and body was too tight to escape. The other assistant moved towards Sophie's cage, shooting nervous glances over at the Sub-Visser. He still looked to be in pain from the venom, and everybody in the room was scared of getting near the cage door again.

"Now, Aubrey." Ire moved closer to the monkey, forcing a frown on her host's face. The monkey had stopped struggling, its brown eyes fixed on Ire's face. Her talking seemed to be working, and Ire had to keep from smiling. "Listen to me, your mother. You're nearing your time-limit, you don't want to be stuck as a monkey. We need you to demorph. Do it for me, Aubrey. Do it for your mother." The monkey stared at her, one hand gripped around the assistant's finger, then its head twitched a little as if it had heard something. It began struggling again. Ire sighed a little, not breaking the monkey's gaze. "How much time is it, now? Half an hour? Less?" She opened her arms. "You're out, you have space to demorph now. There's nothing holding you back."

By this time, the other controller assistant had drawn the snake out of its carrier. It was curling and twisting around his arm, head trapped in his hand. The assistant--smartly-had turned the head in a direction away from the group so it couldn't spit its venom.

***


If there had been any doubt in Aubrey's mind, it was scattered the moment she heard the voice. Mom! Her mom was here. They had brought her mom--no, the thing controlling her. It was the thing controlling her that was here, not her mom. She had to remember that.

Then her mom's face appeared in front of the cage, and Aubrey lost it. She froze, she couldn't move or speak. She wanted to reach out, to run to her and hear from her that it was okay. But everything was far from okay, and the crazy grin on her mom's face almost seemed to cement that fact. The words coming from her mother's mouth didn't even reach Aubrey's ears.

Then, they started opening the cage. What was happening. Aubrey braced herself, her heart suddenly jumping into her throat. "You walked right into our trap. What did you think? That Ire 398 wouldn't tell us her host daughter was an animorphs?" Hearing the Sub-Visser's voice was beginning to make Aubrey feel sick.

<<Sophie! Sophie, they're taking me out...>> The gloved hand had reached inside and was trying to grab Aubrey. The plastic of the carrier bumped hard against her small body as she struggled to get away from the hand. The monkey's mind was officially freaked, letting out short chirping noises again. <<Help...Help...!>>

The hand slipped forward and got a hold around her neck. Her breaths came out in gasps as she was dragged, scratching and biting, out of the carrier. Suddenly, the cold air of the studio hit her. She squirmed and thrashed in the controller's grip, trying to pull away. She was out, but she couldn't escape! In frustration she bit down on the hand, getting a mouthful of rubber.

"Now, Aubrey."

She froze. It was her mother. Aubrey twisted her head, brown eyes staring at her mother's face. Aubrey felt her stomach turn, grip growing weak. She wanted to break down and cry, but she couldn't. She wanted things to get better, but they weren't going to. She listened to what Claire said. Do it for your mother. Demorph. How much time was it now? How long until Aubrey was permanently a monkey? How long until Sophie was a snake? Would they even be rescued? There were no Animorphs in sight. What could she do?

<<Aubrey! Don't listen to her. You know she's not your mom, she's a controller. We still have time left. Just listen to me.>> Sophie's thought-speak cut through Aubrey's thoughts. She jerked her head sideways, trying to catch sight of Sophie's carrier being opened.

Aubrey knew--somewhere she knew--that the person standing in front of her wasn't her mom. That the thing standing in front of her was a lie, some alien wearing her mother as a mask. And now that she was out of the carrier, she needed to get free. Weary, Aubrey began struggling again, trying to slip out of the rubber gloves holding her.

[image]

Sophie was out. One of the controllers had an iron grip around her neck, thumb pressed against her head and index finger pressed underneath her chin. She had gotten one bite before the controller had grabbed her, but he had been wearing some type of gloves and her fangs hadn't sunk all the way through. Now, she couldn't properly open her jaws.

Instead, the controller had grabbed the lower half of her body and turned her head away from the group of controllers. Now she had a great view of the place they had been taken. It looked like some weird movie studio--lots of open space, a couple dusty props torn up and thrown around. There were a few overturned chairs. However, the area around the controllers had been cleared and cleaned up.

While she was scanning for a way out, she heard the Sub-Visser's attempts at taunting them. Sophie had never been an angry person, she had a long fuse when it came to most situations. But this guy was really pissing her off, and she wished she had just one more chance to sink her fangs into his face.

She directed her thought-speak to him, as well as the rest of the controllers so they could hear. <<Laugh it up now slug-brains, but in a short while you're going to have a couple nothlit Animorphs. I'm sure your bosses will enjoy hearing about how you caught a monkey and snake.>>


Rian
<<If you would,>> Jake asked kindly. Luij knew when he used that tone that it was probably best to listen to him. Luij may not be the smartest yeerk around but he recognized a good thing when it was sharing his head and Jake was a good thing. The human had taken him farther than he could have gotten alone and he was just smart enough to get out of his way at the right times.

Luij relinquished control and Jake came forward. The demeanor of the Sub-Visser subtly changed. He stopped squirming in pain and straightened his shoulders. He now looked much more in control than he had before. He had become the leader that the other controllers both feared and respected though they never knew that it was the human, not the yeerk, in control.

Jake stood calmly and didn't try to address his comments in Sophie's direction since he didn't know where it was and didn't particularly care to look like a fool. Instead he spoke loud enough, in a carrying voice, so that all the people in the studio could hear him. Once upon a time Jake Romero had been an actor and he still had the presence that went along with it.

"Young lady, Sophie I presume? Since your friend seems to be the coward I can only assume that is Ire's daughter," he said rebuking Ire slightly for how forward she had been. These were his prisoners to interrogate and intimidate, not hers. He appreciated her help but only when asked for. "I have no boss that you'll ever see, I'm the boss here. And be assured that whether I get snake or human, you will get nothing but a life of pain. Your morph can feel pain yes? And even one as brave as you," he said mockingly, "will break and you'll tell us what you know. And nothlit or not, your friends will come for you and we'll have them too."


Matt
Daniel was watching the whole scene helplessly. There was only so much he could do without giving his loyalties away. Calling Tess would do something he hoped. Also, there was always the chance that the other Animorphs were on their way here already. There had to have been more than these two on this mission. Someone had to know..... and yet Daniel's confidence was starting to fade and Ydurt wasn't able to suggest much.

<<Their fate is in the hands of others at the moment unless we can somehow get the Sub-Visser away from them.>> Ydurt said.

With a sudden idea, Daniel glanced down at the clipboard in his arms and then at the watch in on his wrist. The Sub-Visser had a meeting in a few minutes with one of the other Sub-Visser's in the California area. It had been scheduled for after the lunch with Sub-Visser 30. Luij and Jake were very busy at times.

Daniel cleared his throat. "Not to interrupt your fun, Sub-Visser, but you have an appointment that was scheduled after your lunch with Sub-Visser 30. It's with Sub-Visser 81, from the San Fransisco area. You have an hour until it, but if I remember correctly she's very picky about punctuality."

<<Damn that was lucky. The only problem is I have no clue whether he will leave me here to watch them or take me with him.>> Daniel said.

<<There isn't a whole lot we can do either way.>> Ydurt said.

<<If I stay here and convince them we're YPM I might get them to demorph and buy their friends some more time. They have to be running out. I don't know how long we have until they're both stuck that way and once that happens there won't be anything we can do for them.>>

[Aubrey]

Aubrey
The snake's mind was irritated, and the free parts of Sophie's long body squirmed in the controller's tight grip. She couldn't see what was going on behind her, where Aubrey was. But she could hear the Sub-Visser loud and clear. And she heard him use her name. It sounded vile on his lips, and Sophie wanted to shudder. How had he known her name?

For the first time in a long time Sophie felt helpless, with everything out of her control. It was disorientating and uncomfortable--even the snake's cold mind wasn't holding her up now. The time was ticking in her head, a second wasting away with each and every one of the Sub-Visser's words.

Sophie took a moment to get herself under control, making her voice steady as she spoke. He was trying to provoke her, but she didn't care. <<No. You're mistaken thinking that. Even if they don't come to save us, I'd rather die or be stuck than tell you or your kind anything. And I like knowing that they'll starve your slimy little body to dust once they realize how you've botched this up. And that's exactly what they're going to do.>> The snake's tongue flicked out, and Sophie felt a small bit of her confidence return. <<How are the eyes doing? Are you blind yet?>>

[image]

***

[image]

Ire frowned heavily at Luij's small rebuke, watching him chat with one of the Animorphs. She was used to walking all over other Yeerks, and Luij, even being a Sub-Visser, was obviously weak-minded. But she noticed the change in demeanor, and part of her--the part that was easily scared off by any sign of a threat or power--wanted to just sit back and watch him work.

But here were the Animorphs, right in their hands. A promotion, or anything really, Ire would take anything, was in sight. What was Luij waiting for? The time was running out, and Ire was getting antsy. What if the Animorphs didn't demorph? What would happen to Ire? What would the higher-ups think of her? She had helped catch them, but being unable to infest them would drive her crazy.

She lowered her voice. "Demorph, Aubrey. You don't want to be stuck as a monkey. Nobody wants that, do they?" Ire snatched a glance over at the Sub-Visser--he seemed distracted, so what would it hurt if Ire said more?--and moved closer to the monkey. The controller holding her shifted uncomfortably. "I'm your mother, Aubrey." Its eyes were locked on her face, drinking up each word. "Please, hon. You have only a couple more minutes before the time-limit is reached. Only a couple minutes. Nobody is going to get harmed. You can't save anyone doing this, you need to demorph. You can't fight as a monkey."

***

Aubrey's bones and muscles felt heavy and weak. Her efforts to struggle had, no surprise, not worked. Now she was hanging limply in the controller's hands, eyes glued to the woman who was her mother. Or the Yeerk, but the distinction was getting harder and harder to make the more Aubrey heard her voice and watched her movements. Claire's voice made it to Aubrey's ears, the sound of it laid lightly over the background noise of the Sub-Visser's talking.

"You can't fight as a monkey."

It was absurd, but suddenly the thought was overwhelming. You couldn't fight as a monkey. You couldn't do anything...It was like giving up. She would be giving up fighting, giving up the chance to save her family, to make everything right again. Giving up fighting for the human race. For what?

Sophie was the only one telling her not to do this, and what good did Sophie know? Aubrey was the one who had helped Sophie back in high-school. Aubrey had been the one with the common sense to say 'Sophie, you can't run off with your boyfriend. You need to stay in school, get an education.' So what good would it do now to be stuck? I can't fight as a monkey. I won't ever see dad again like this. My life will be gone, forever. I can't do it. I can't do this. I can't stay like this.

<<I'll do it.>> She broadcasted, and her own words rang in her head almost painfully. In her chest, her heart was thudding. But the smile that sprouted on her mother's face was comforting. Easy. Aubrey's voice grew quieter in the quick silence that had followed. <<I'll demorph. Please let me go. I'll demorph.>>

<<No, Aubrey! No!>> Sophie's voice was far away from Aubrey, even though she could hear it. She watched as her mother turned her head to look at the Sub-Visser, an expectant look on her face. There was no time for Aubrey to listen to Sophie, or think of what she was doing. She began to demorph.


Rian
Jake looked over at Daniel. He was a good assistant. But that didn't mean he could interrupt him. "Thank you Daniel, but I am busy. Sub-Visser 81 will wait or she will not. I do not believe I am mistaken in my understanding of the yeerk hierarchy and Sub-Visser 81," he said emphasizing the number, "is of a lower rank than I. If it grows too late you can go in my stead Daniel, you hold a Sub-Visser rank now."

As he finished the medical team finally arrived. He heard them come into the studio, their shoes hitting the wooden floor and making a racket as they ran up to him and the snake responded.

"Child you mistake me. I am not under anyone's orders here. I wanted to capture you for my own personal amusement and in the end you'll tell me what I want to know because you will have no choice." He didn't bother clueing her into the fact that most creatures broke under torture.

The doctors quickly scanned his eyes and identified the poison that had been squirted into them however their instruments would need a sample before they could make an antidote. He motioned impatiently as they told him this. The snake was right there after all, get some poison from it.

He heard them head off, supposedly to get a sample of the poison.

The noise of the doctors had distracted him from Ire but now he could hear her talking to his prisoner...again. Well, that was the end for Ire in his mind. She had now disobeyed his orders and taken the pleasure of breaking the young human from him. Well maybe not an order but really, she should have gotten the hint.

"Tri, Groni, please take custody of the monkey. Hilar, Uren, take custody of Ire. Take her to Santa Monica. I'll deal with her later." Jake made his home in Santa Monica on a house by the water. He also kept a few holding cells on his grounds for his special prisoners, the ones you had pissed him off enough that he wanted to enjoy their punishments personally, show them once and for all that he was the one in charge. Ire had just joined their ranks and perhaps Sophie.

The doctors came back to him. Apparently they had gotten whatever they needed from the snake. He felt a fine mist sprayed in his eyes. "Don't open them right away Sub-Visser. Just a moment." Jake waited patiently while his eyes burned and slowly the burning faded. When he opened his eyes they were bloodshot and red but they worked and for now that was enough.

He looked over and watched the monkey grow into a human girl and smiled.


Matt
((Partially double posted from Racing the Clock))

Matthew finished the morph to his bat in record time. All the while he morphed Matt kept thinking along an odd line of thoughts. I am Batman, because Tim always called me Bruce. So L.A. is my Gotham City and it's time to kick some criminal's butt. The fact that he could be so nonchalant and make that sort of a mental reference at this time was.... well both unnerving and kind of relieving. He wasn't letting the stress get to him yet, and that might be a good fact.

Kovu said something about come on, and Matt dropped off the railing he'd climbed onto and winged after them, ignoring the bat's dislike of the daylight. He had to be fast right now and he had to fly. He didn't have another morph that worked and so he'd go with what he did have. <<Lead the way Jullian. Every minute is one less minute Aubrey and Sophie have in morph and I'd rather not have them become nothlits.>>

**************************************


They arrived at the building and Matt hovered around outside with Jullian and Kovu. Things inside didn't look good. Aubrey was demorphing and Sophie wasn't though was probably coming up on her time limit. <<Kovu, Jullian, I know this may sound like a suicide mission, but we're going to have to morph the most dangerous forms we have and charge the building. We need to cause a lot of commotion so Sophie and Aubrey can get away.>>

[image]

Daniel mentally cursed Luij and Jake for putting so much emphasis on the numeric ranking system. The girl in the monkey morph, Ire's host's daughter, was starting to demorph and Daniel's only idea for getting the higher ranking Sub-Visser away hadn't worked. There was nothing he could do at the moment. The whole situation was out of his hands and he didn't like it, but there was nothing he could do.

<<You have to try letting the Animorphs handle this one.>> Ydurt said. <<You knew hiding our loyalty wouldn't be easy. This is the times when it's the hardest, when we have to choose between our lives and theirs. You just got a promotion most YPM controllers wouldn't make it to. You are a powerful tool in our cause. We can't lose that. Not right now.>>


Jullian
<<Wait, Matt, that is how they got Aubrey and Sophie,>> he said his voice full of guilt. <<They went right in and they were waiting for them. They knew they were coming so they have to know we are coming. I mean, they could have just taken them half way across the world in a bug fighter but they didn't, they took them to a place we could see. It has to be a trap.>>

Jullian circled the studio on his white wings and just wanted to drop down and do as Matt had asked knowing that the minutes were ticking away. But even has he told Matt he realized the truth of his words. Why had Aubrey and Sophie been brought here? And how had they known the animorphs were coming anyway? It had to be some sort of trap.

But what to do about it he didn't know. He had once been told that one of the best ways to deactivate a trap was to spring it but that felt like an awfully dangerous thing to do right now when springing it might mean their deaths. Besides, he didn't even have any morphs that looked scary...except for the Hork-Bajir one.

He winced internally remembering what had happened last time he had tried to use the morph. That taunting voice that had laughed at him as he stood frozen outside of Aubrey's house and watched them get captured. And then he'd found himself human again, and he didn't remember demorphing.

He didn't want to try the Hork-Bajir a second time today but he had a duty to remind Matt that he had it. <<I have a Hork-Bajir morph. Maybe we can sneak in with it?>>

((I'm not sure what happens when animorphs morph aliens. What happened when Tim morphed the Taxxon besides for getting sick?))


Matt
So that was how this mess had been started. They'd tried going inside. He couldn't blame them for trying, but he hated that Jullian could be right about this. Heck, it might not be a trap but they'd know that the Animorphs would come for their teammates and they'd be expecting them. Jullian mentioning the hork-bajir morph didn't really help the matters right now from Matt's point of view either.

<<Jullian, that morph might get you in, but it doesn't do me or Kovu any good. We can't acquire it off you either.>> Besides, there was just something that felt doomed about using such a morph. It would get them in and it would be perfect to fake them being controllers. There was just something eerie he felt even contemplating the idea though.

<<I admit that morph would work for getting you in, maybe, but it leaves you on your own because Kovu and I don't have anything like that.>> He didn't like shooting the idea down, but it wasn't like a hork bajir controller was going to come walking along for Matt and Kovu to acquire.

((Tim was allergic to the DNA like Rachel was to the crocodile, but we can't just have all the Animorphs be allergic to alien DNA. His isn't a case we can really go off of. I don't know what we should do about that or if we need some sort of special rule.))


Aubrey
Sophie's voice was still in the back of Aubrey's head, screaming for her to stop. She ignored it. The lush, golden fur was melting off her body, turning into flesh and cloth as thick blond hair sprouted from her head and fell across her shoulders. The long, furry tail shriveled back into her spine, and her insides began churning and shifting. As she began growing, the controller holding her placed her on the ground. Human features began forming, and there were hot tears flowing down her cheeks and little hiccuping noises coming from her throat.

Aubrey felt humiliated, terrified, ashamed--but above all, disgusted with herself. She was betraying her whole faction, she was giving herself to the Yeerks, giving all of what she knew of the Animorphs to the Yeerks. And as she became more and more human the dawning came on her that she wasn't strong enough to do this, not strong enough to fight this fight. It was so glamorous, right? Save your family, save the world, turn into animals, fight aliens. It all seemed so romantic and heroic.

She had thought that saving her mother would prove something. Maybe her worth in this war, or prove something to herself, like she wasn't weak or scared. Maybe it would put back together the family Aubrey felt she had lost, or change whatever she had done wrong to make her father leave. But it wouldn't. All her thoughts were greedy, self-serving. Even now, as she demorphed to save herself from a life as a monkey.

It was with these thoughts that Aubrey stood up from the floor, fully human, dressed in only her wetsuit and feeling naked. Strong hands snaked around her arms, keeping her from running away. There were still tears in her eyes, blurring the dusty footprints in the floor, the small monkey paw-prints that had been hers a couple minutes ago. There was no way that she could bring her gaze up to the controller's face, or her mother's. Now it was out of her hands.

[image]

Horror sparked through Sophie's body. She couldn't see Aubrey, but she knew what was happening behind her. How could she? How could she think that doing this would work? More than angry, Sophie narrowed her thought-speak to the demorphing monkey.

<<Aubrey, what the fuck! How could you be so stupid! You're screwing us all over! Think about what you're doing, Aubrey!>> It was probably wasn't helping, but Sophie suddenly couldn't control herself anymore. Her slender body shifted in the controller's plastic gloves, aching to slip from his grip and escape.

Where were the Animorphs? Hadn't Jullian said he would be coming? Shit. Where are you guys? This is going all wrong. We need to get out of here. It sounded like the Yeerk talking to her--Sub-Visser what's-his-face--had some sick, twisted thing in mind for the both of them. What was worse, Sophie was realizing her assumption that he was under some other uptight Yeerk might not be true, and her own threats were dropping away, useless. Had she misunderstood the Yeerk hierarchy, or was she missing something?

Sophie's voice came out as a growl, low and angry. She couldn't let the Yeerk get to her with his stupid little taunts. <<Just try it, slug-brains. We'll see.>> She had this feeling that she didn't know what she was getting into. But everything was falling apart as it was, and Sophie had this small, little feeling that she was going to be living the rest of her life as a snake, dead or not.

[image]


***

[image]

Not what Ire had expected. She had turned to Luij, grinning that she had gotten the Animorph to demorph for him. Even though he had been irritated at her actions earlier, she had assumed the Sub-Visser would have been overjoyed to see some progress happening. Instead, he ordered her to be taken.

"Excuse me?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she realized she had said them. The smile had slowly faded from Ire's face and turned into a scowl. The two controllers he called walked over to her, grabbing her arms. They began trying to hustle her away, but she was digging her heels in. "Sub-Visser, what's going on--"

Her eyes landed back on the demorphing Animorph, and something happened. From within the depths of Ire's body came her host's mind, pushing Ire back. Her host seized control, making her stumble in the two controller's grips. She couldn't control her lips from murmuring the name. "Aubrey." Then, with all the force of a mother's anger, Ire broke one of her arms free. "NO! Aubrey!! Aub--" Ire, dismayed and embarassed that her host had wrestled back her body for even that short of time, clamped down control. The controller's hand was back on her arm, dragging her away. "Sub-Visser--!!!"


Rian
Jake watched Ire get dragged away and had to smile as she screamed her outrage. It was unfortunate that she hadn't had much direct interaction with him. If she had she might have known that everything had to be on Jake's schedule. Jake Romero freely admitted that he was a control freak.

He had to be in control of his environment and hated when anything happened without his say so. It had gotten him this far and he wasn't about to change now. He even controlled his yeerk and how many humans could say that. Ire would learn and maybe next time she would let him terrorize the prisoner.

His smile only grew wider as the snake began to struggle. He could see it clearly now and he could all too easily imagine the small body being crushed by something. But he turned his attention to bigger things. His people knew better than to make any reports to the Visser about his activities that he hadn't approved. As far as the Visser was concerned there were no animorphs in LA, at least officially. But he wasn't stupid enough to think that the Visser had no spies here and he should probably put his plan into action soon.

He pulled out his phone. It wasn't really a cell phone anymore. It was a communicator that was much more advanced but he had always liked cell phones so he'd had his remade to look like one. "Glar, are you hork-bajir in place?"

"Yesh Sub-Visser," the gravelly, harsh voice of the captain of his hork-bajir troops came back to him clearly.

"Good. Stand by. There time is almost up, only five minutes to go now. If the animorphs are going to make any move it will be now. Don't fail me, kill them all. I have the two I want, the others don't matter."

"Yes Sub-Visser." Jake clicked the phone off.

Luij decided to speak up. <<Wouldn't it be better to capture the others?>> Jake dismissed his opinion, annoyed. Animorphs were hard things to hold onto. And besides, if he captured them he'd have to have them infested and then there might be someone around more powerful than him. No, he would use these two to tell him where the morphing cube was, get the morphing power for himself, and wipe the animorphs from his city before they had a chance to become a problem.


Jullian
<<Yeah, you're right. If I go in then that does no good. Dang it Matt what are we going to do?>> He circled around the studio knowing that time had to be up, knowing that Aubrey and Sophie would spend the rest of their lives as an animal and they could do nothing about it.

<<There has to be something we can do.>> He was almost crying but he didn't realize it. He almost called out to Aubrey and Sophie but there was no way of knowing if they were still free or not.


Matt
Matt was starting to get desperate, grasping at puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit together. Then suddenly he had and idea. It was as if he'd found the missing piece and all the rest had just fallen into place. That might work, but we don't have much time. It's got to happen and it needs to be now.

<<Jullian, morph the hork-bajir. We're merging the plans. Kovu and I set off the trap and you run in and save Aubrey and Sophie in the commotion. We should be able to hold them off long enough that you can get them out because you'd blend right in.>> Even as he said this he was landing, the bat starting to grow larger and turn into the human boy.

He completed the morph in a record time, his panic fueling the speed somehow. As soon as he was done one way he started morphing again, seemingly continuing to grow as he started turning into the Siberian tiger he'd acquired just before leaving. This was his first chance at a fight in this form. Bad move yeerks. You mess with my team, you mess with me. And I'm not someone you want to mess with.


Jullian
<<Alright Matt,>> Jullian said even though he wasn't too keen on the idea of not only morphing a hork-bajir but of pretending to be a controller. He wasn't sure he could pull it off and he didn't like to think about what would happen if he failed. Well then I won't he told himself. He wouldn't fail because Aubrey and Sophie were counting on him.

He circled down and began the demorph before he even hit the ground. Soon he was standing across the street from the studio in only his morphing suit and looked over to see Matt beginning his tiger morph. He closed his eyes and began the hork-bajir morph.

The first thing he felt was himself getting heavier. Nothing else had changed yet but he felt like he weighed a hundred more pounds than he had before. He tried to lift an arm and was surprised at the weight of it. His bones had gotten denser to be able to support the Hork-Bajir's weight but he hadn't grown the muscle to operate those bones yet.

But the muscle bunched up under his skin next and for a second he looked like a body builder before his skin began turning green and getting thicker. "Green is not a good color for me," he muttered under his breath as his legs extended and his knees reversed with a sickening crunch.

He held his hand in front of his face and watched as his nails extended and became claws. He flexed the hand experimentally and was a little relieved by the feeling of strength in it. This was definitely the strongest morph he had and if he was going to run into danger he was glad to have it.

He looked up at the sky as he continued to grow and his neck extended. His lips and nose melted into a large beak and he opened his mouth as his tongue thickened. The claws on his feet dug into the soil beneath him and his spine extended (with the appropriate skin and muscle thankfully) out behind him forming his long tail.

His eyes, now a bright yellow, closed as he concentrated on the last bit of the morph. Blades popped out on his wrists, then his lower arms, and then his elbows. On his legs they first grew on his heels then his ankles before growing on his knees. They travelled up his neck in a wave; one, two, three. Two horns more than blades popped out of the end of his tail and with that last addition his morph was complete.

<<Cool,>> he remarked to himself, momentarily forgetting what he was about to do.


Kovu
Kovu was right behind Matt, he couldn't morph as fast but he morphed as fast as he could. The first thing to happen was his feathers retracted back into his body. He was now a completely naked bird. His insides started to shift, and he started to grow. His talons became soft toes, and his beak became a soft mouth. He finished growing, and was now fully demorphed.

Kovu then started his next morph, it was one he particularly liked. He started growing short ur, and began to grow larger. His feet and hands started to harden, tey soon became hooves. Distinct black lines of fur appeared under his eyes. Then his horns began to grow. Curved black spirals, spikes of dark danger. Kovu now stood, a full blackbuck, ready for any kind of action.

<<I'm ready Matt>> He didn't want to wait, Aubrey was in trouble, and something, anything must be done to get her, and Sophie to safety. Kovu stamped his hoof into the dirt he was getting ready to charge. No doubt there were Hork-Bair around, i he needed to charge, or escape, he had to be ready. He waited for the order, soon, they would spring the trap, and all hell would break loose.


Matt
Matthew glanced to either of the others as they completed their morphs. Kovu was the blackbuck that Matt had given him just before leaving for the faction leader meeting in New York. Jullian was a hork bajir. The morph bugged Matt, making him worry he'd mix his second up in the fight and end up hurting him accidentally. He had to hope that wouldn't happen though. This plan was their only option and he couldn't think about all the ways it could go wrong right now.

Kovu and Jullian both said something, and Matt figured from that that they were ready. <<Alright then. Let's do this.>> The words rang of confidence and were reminiscent of an original Animorph, though Matt would never know this. He didn't have time to contemplate it at the moment anyways. The tiger charged forward, jumping and crashing it's way through the door into a warehouse where several hork-bajir stood ready to fight them. So it was a trap. Too bad they didn't count on this.

<<You picked the wrong Animorphs to mess with.>> His thought voice growled as did his tiger morph. He roared a challenge as several of the hork-bajir started his way. He could only hope that Jullian could handle is part. Matt and Kovu could probably take the hork-bajir for long enough. But their time was very limited. He pushed his worries aside though as he slashed the gut of a hork-bajir with his massive paw. There was no turning back now.


Kovu
Kou stamped his hoof into the dirt. Right behind Matt he carged. He saw the Hork-Bajir, but he didn't slow down, he angled his head and plunged one of his horns deep into the chest of one of the controllers. He twisted his head and the horn came out of the controllers stomach. Kovu turned and kicked, nailing a Hork-Bajir with his rear hooves. Kovu wasn't going to slow down now.

He turned, and a Hork-Bajir slashed down and made a thin cut in the Blackbuck's side. <<AAh!>> Luckily it wasn't too deep. He rushed up and rammed the controller with his horns, crushing his ribs. Jullian better hurry, there were about 17 Hork-Bajir left, and Kovu wasn't sure if Matt and him could take them all. Kovu turned to the rest of them, he lowered his head, and charged.


Rian
Jake turned and watched as the animorphs finally made their appearance and the guards he posted near the door procceeded to give the most sorry show of warrior prowess that he'd ever seen. As they fell and died all Jake could think was that it was really shameful....shameful for them, not for him of course. He hadn't counted on quality when coming up with this plan. Jake was a quantity man, the more the better.

"Bring them in," he said clearly into his communicator. He was hoping that whatever animals the animorphs had chosen for themselves would have good enough hearing to know they were about to be killed as he ordered the reinforcements to attack.


Jullian
Jullian rushed in after Matt and Kovu. He stayed as far away from them as he could and still look like he was trying to attack them. His seven foot height let him see over the fight and see many human controllers standing over on the sound stage. This studio must have been a place where they shot talk shows or sitcoms, something shot in front of a live audience instead of the movie shoots because there was no way to block off unwanted sound.

There were rows and rows of empty chairs between the fight and the stage where the controllers were standing all watching the melee with wide eyes. Except for two men, one had a worried look on his face and the other just looked calm and as he raised something that looked like a cellphone to his ear and called in reinforcements Jullian realized why. Whoever that guy was he was the leader and he was so calm because he'd knew he'd win.

Well, we'll see about that Jullian thought using the amazing power located in the Hork-Bajir's legs to leap partially over the fight and land in the aisle, between the seats. He didn't try to stick his landing because he needed a reason to get down to the stage and falling seemed like a good one to him.

As he fell he tumbled down the stair like aisle and received multiple cuts from his own blades and one serious wound as his tail blade penetrated into his thigh. He hadn't thought through the tuck and roll plan very well obviously.

He got to his feet near the stage, favoring his right legs, and turned his back on the human controllers to look at the fight, trying to make it look like he was about to start charging in again. He hadn't spotted a snake or a chipmunk in the brief glimpse he'd gotten of the stage as he'd jumped and he was panicking. He had somehow thought that Aubrey and Sophie would be right there and he'd be able to grab them but no such luck.

<<Aubrey, Sophie, I'm the hork-bajir near the stage. Where are you?>> He hoped they would answer quickly before the human controllers on the stage got too suspicious about why he wasn't running back to the fight.


Aubrey
Somewhere behind Sophie, Aubrey was fully human now. There wasn't any set way that Sophie knew how to react to that fact. What are you supposed to feel when the person you trust, the person who's supposed to be your best friend, betrays you? Inside, she could feel her heart sinking. There was resentment, slowly filling her thoughts with each second. She was angry at Aubrey for giving in so quickly, so easily. For not being strong when it counted the most. For making the sacrifice Sophie had just made mean absolutely nothing.

Some part of her was also disappointed, partly with herself. If she would have told Aubrey this sounded too dangerous, that going inside the house wasn't that great of an idea, then Aubrey probably would have listened. Probably. But Sophie had been overwhelmed by her best friend's excitement and joy at the prospect of saving her mom. It was so tempting to give into that impulse, that gut reaction to go bouncing off at the drop of a hat to save your loved ones, screw anyone else or any danger that might come of it. This was what going out oh-so-valiantly and looking to save your loved ones entailed. Capture. Infestation. Death. Well there went your mom, Aubrey. She thought, bristling.

Sophie went quiet. There was nothing more to say to Aubrey. There was nothing she could do but wait and listen to the Sub-Visser talking to other controllers. It sounded like he had something planned for the Animorphs, when they did finally get here for the 'rescue'. Unless the Animorphs had decided it wasn't worth the risk. Yet, for the short time Sophie had known their faction leader, it didn't seem like something he'd do--just abandon members. Especially with all the risks. Sophie wondered, briefly, if Matt expected that they had both stayed in morph, time-limit or not. Being stuck as an animal was so much better than being a controller, wasn't it? There was some motto floating around like 'better dead than a controller'... Right?

Almost as if the Animorphs were answering Sophie's thoughts, she heard the crash of the tiger through the door. The thug holding her tensed up, and Sophie could feel the thrum of his heartbeat through the plastic gloves. However, even in the face of a tiger bursting through the doorway and roaring, the controller's grip didn't loosen on Sophie. Was he that interested in pleasing this Sub-Visser guy, that he'd keep holding onto her even in the face possibly getting hurt? Sophie squirmed in the controller's grip, wishing she could just sink her fangs one time into his arm.

Then she heard Jullian's thought-speak.

<<We're over here...! Ahh-->> Sophie realized that wasn't much help. <<--Um!!>> The controller had turned to look at the fight raging by the exits, giving Sophie full view of what was happening. She noticed the Hork-Bajir, and called out. <<We are on the stage, near the guy that's been talking on the phone. I'm being held by some guy with gloves, and Aubrey is being held by a couple guys. She's demorphed.>> Hopefully that was enough. She couldn't exactly wave her arms around, seeing as she had none.

[image]


***

Aubrey's head jerked up at the sound of her name on her mother's lips. She could only stare as the two controllers dragged her away. It felt like things were just happening. Things were just happening, and Aubrey couldn't do anything but stand here, rooted to the ground. Her fingers were tingling, and her gaze dropped back to the floor.

Sophie's frantic thought-speak had ended, and Aubrey was left to listen to the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. For a long second it was the only thing she could hear, the steady thump, thump, thump--until she heard the sound of the doors bursting open. Her stomach did a flip, and she looked up. It was them, finally! Instinctively she had flinched at the tiger's roar, and the two controllers holding her tightened their grip. The momentary excitement at the Animorphs' entrance was quickly doused by the sight of the mass of Hork-Bajir going to attack them. Shit. What if they were killed? What if she had gotten the faction killed, by being here? No, no, no.

Aubrey closed her eyes, hearing Jullian's thought-speech in her head. She could hear him, but there wasn't any way to actually respond back. Opening her eyes, she spotted Matt and Kovu gutting Hork-Bajir near the exits. The thought kept repeating in her head: What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

What have I done?


Jullian
Jullian whipped his head around quickly. It was a jarring motion. He hadn't been prepared for quite how fast the hork-bajir's body would respond and the extra long neck made the motion more disorienting than he was used to. But it was a small distraction and he was able to see Aubrey now that he knew where to look and even spotted the small snake that was Sophie. He realized there was nothing for it but to charge in and hope he could take down the controllers holding them. There was no way to sneak any closer, a hork-bajir controller had no business on the stage when the fight was in the aisles.

<<Get ready to run,>> Jullian gathered the significant power of the Hork-Bajir's legs under him and leaped over the line of controllers standing on the edge of the stage including the smirking one with the cell. The jump hurt and it was no where near as powerful as his other had been because of the injured leg but the stage was only raised an inch above floor level so he cleared them.

His arm, and the wrist blade attatched to it, came down on the arm holding Sophie, slicing through it at the shoulder while his tail lashed out and stabbed one of the men holding Aubrey, the horn-like blade on the end sinking into his stomach. He doubled over as if he had been punched and then just dropped. Just like a puppet with his strings cut like the books always said. The other guy holding Aubrey was so surprised that he let go and backed away and it was a good thing he had because Jullian probably wouldn't have been able to attack him.

To say that he wasn't aware of what the blades would do to the controller when they bit into him would have been a lie. Jullian had aimed and jumped with the intention of hurting another creature, most likely fatally, and he'd known that when he did it. It was the first time he had ever attacked anyone on purpose. He felt like crying.

And when the arm that had been holding the snake fell to the ground and the man's life blood sprayed all over his chest like grotesque war paint Jullian felt like screaming as he bent to pick up the severed arm Sophie was still curled around. Picking up the arm was surreal. He just stared at it stupidly and time seemed like it had stopped but time was flowing at his usual pace, it was his mind that had stopped. His mind could not process what it was seeing, what had happened, and so everything had just stopped.

When it needs to the mind can process things at a super fast speed making the world seem like it was going in slow motion or, like now, not process anything making time appear like it was passing at all. The ability to do that personally made Jullian doubt the existence of a standard perception of time. What if time was just like light? What the passing of time was no more solid or real than their vision which was nothing but bounced light waves? Flies saw the world differently than humans did. Did they experience time differently too? If they did maybe they didn't have moments like this. Maybe they never had to worry about what it was like to kill something else. Their brains never stopped working.

He realized he was screaming. His thought speak was open, everyone in the studio could hear the sound of his horror in their heads as a part of him just screamed.

<<Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. No, no, no, no.>> He would have kept on like that but he saw the other controllers pulling dracon beams on him out of the corner of his eye. He began running. He had forgotten about Aubrey. He had even forgotten about Sophie and she probably would have been left behind except for the fact that he already had the arm in his hand, in his claw, and he didn't have the presence of mind to let go.

He bowled the controllers on the stage over in his desperate need to get away from what he'd done unconsciously leaving the way clear for Aubrey to get away through the hole he'd created. He had to get out of here, he had to get away from the blood, he had to get it off.


Aubrey
Upon being freed, the first thing Aubrey did was stand there, shocked. Of course she had heard Jullian's thought-speak; the long, drawn-out scream after he had sliced the arm off the man holding Sophie, and then gutted the second controller. Aubrey felt both of the guard's hands gone from her arm, but couldn't move. Her gaze was fixed on the lifeless, severed arm that was sitting in a rosy pool of the controller's blood. She watched Jullian pick it up.

<<Aubrey!>> The thought-speak tore through her sluggish thoughts, bringing her back. It was Sophie. <<Aubrey, GO!>>

The controllers around Aubrey were beginning to pull their dracon beams, realizing quickly that the Hork-Bajir was not their own. Glancing up, Aubrey saw that Jullian had cleared a path off of the stage. With a sudden burst of energy Aubrey sprang forward, bare feet slipping on the slick, bloody stage floor.

Her heart was thudding in her chest and her eyes were fixed on the battle raging further ahead, where Matt and Kovu were. Her whole body seemed to be on auto-pilot, as she couldn't seem to get a solid thought together as she ran. At the moment, she didn't even care if Sophie had made it out. The thought wasn't even on her mind. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.


Rian
Jake was livid and, for once, Luij was right there with him. Unfortunately Luij was too mad to be wise and, upon seeing the animorphs impersonate one of their own and free the humans, he seized control of their shared mind. He may be the weaker will of the pair but he was still the yeerk and, yeerk vs. human, yeerk still won.

"Get them!" He screamed as the hork-bajir impersonator and human girl began to run up the theater towards the exits. He turned to the nearest assistant. "Shoot them you fools!" he screamed enraged. No! You fucking idiot! Jake screamed in his head but it was too late.

The controllers around him turned their dracon beams up and began firing. And every time they missed, which they did a disgraceful amount, the hork-bajir in the doorway fell due to friendly fire that was no such thing. You are making it easier, god damnit! Jake screamed.


Matt
Matthew roared loudly as a hork-bajir's blade sliced into the tigers hind leg. Not enough to cut it off, not even close, but it was enough to draw blood. The red soaked onto the orange and black fur as the pain burned in Matt's senses. He glanced in time to see one of the controllers raise a radio to his mouth, and though there was too much noise for him to hear what was said Matt almost knew what the man was doing.

<<Jullian, they're calling reinforcements. Get the girls out fast and let us know. Kovu and I are having enough trouble holding this group of hork-bajir off let alone more.>> It was two against 16 last Matt had counted, because he'd bitten the neck of one of the other hork-bajir and broken it.

Matt glanced around. He could already see more hork-bajir on their way. More than two animals, even a tiger and a blackbuck, could handle. <<We've got serious problems. Kovu, we need to hold them off as long as we can, but this fight is horribly unbalanced. Jullian was right about the trap. We need to make sure we don't get surrounded do that we can retreat when Jullian has the girls out of here. I'd rather not get us killed.>> All of this was said as Matt pounced a hork-bajir, toppling it backwards onto it's own tail. Apparently one of those spikes hit home or close enough. And Matt's full weight on it's ribs couldn't have helped any.

I will get all four of us back to the Haunt. And you will wish you'd never decided to mess with me.


Kovu
((OCCness: I asked Aurey if I could do this, IT IS NOT Godmodding))

Kovu carefully listened to Matt's instructions as he impaled a Hork-Bajir, blood stained his horns and seeped from cuts from his side. One horn was gone, sliced from his head.<<Matt, I'm not sure how much more I can take, theese guys are tough>> Kovu leaped out of the way of a wrist blade, and quickly kicked a controller to the ground. This fight was getting nowhere fast, and Kovu wasn't sure where Jules and Aubrey were.

Then he saw Jullian, and heard the screaming. The only way he knew it was Jullian was by the arm he was carrying and the fact that he was barreling to the exit. "Oh great, Jullian's lost it" Kovu thought wearily. They were out of time, Kovu saw that Jullian had Sophie, but where was Aubrey? Kovu turned, knocking aside a Hork-Bajir for good measure, and then his blood froze.

A Hork-Bajir was closing in on Aubrey, Kovu reared up, and charged. Blades sliced at his sides, but he made it to her. He gored the Hork-Bajir in one sinister charge, and pushed it aside. <<Aubrey! Get on!>> After she had done so, Kovu turned toward the entrance, and charged. Blades licked his hide, he twisted and jumped, trying to get away, but still, he got hurt. Pain screamed in his ears, but he managed to get out.

<<Matt, this is over, we need to get out now! The others are safe>> Kovu called back to his leader behind him. Kovu raced ahead, blood was getting in his eyes, he hoped they could demorph soon. He saw Jullian running still, Kovu reached him, and in private thought-speak said <<Jules, get a grip, now's not the time, people are still in danger, WE are still in danger, I understand you're upset, but we need to get back to the Haunt first, we need to get safe>> Kovu prayed the words reached him.


Crayak
((OOC: just for clarification, this goes on entirely in Julian's head, so no one else sees anything but the end result of him being thrown by some force to the ground. It most likely looks like he just jumped/tripped/fell. His instant demorph, however, will be more suspicious.

Also, sorry for the fact that this is horrible. My Crayak muse has gone.))

"They never learn do they?" The voice echoing in Julian's head overrode even his mental screaming. It was mocking, amused, and unquestionably evil. "Shouldn't have broken the rules."

There was darkness then. A flash of red light, followed by a wave of intense energy. The malice behind the first voice paled in comparison to what was present now. Just as the power neared where Julian stood, however, a burst of blue light appeared around him, enveloping him in a shield. The impact still shook the barrier, however, and Julian was tossed out onto the ground, out of the dream world, and human, right at the feet of a Hork-Bajir controller.

Though it was impossible, at that moment, the alien's voice was that of the light that he had felt a moment before.

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. LEARN THE PRICE


Aubrey
Aubrey ran as fast as she could, adrenaline burning through her veins with each step. She had gotten away from the Sub-Visser and the controllers, but she wasn't sure where to go. In front of her the battle between the Animorphs and Hork-Bajir was raging, and alien blood was pouring all over the floor. Aubrey was too busy trying to dodge that she hadn't noticed the Hork-Bajir gaining ground on her, and almost slipped when Kovu's thought-speak filled her head.

Without thinking she jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck to keep herself on. Something felt wrong suddenly, like a heavy presence was weighing over the studio. "Where's Jullian!" Twisting her head around, she caught sight of Jullian tripping and falling to the ground. He had been holding the arm, and as Aubrey realized, Sophie as well. Somewhere in the back of her mind the thought registered that he was human now, and not Hork-Bajir, but it wasn't processing completely. "Kovu! Jullian fell!"

Jullian
Jullian froze and for the second time that day he felt the terrible presence. It was this presence that he'd feared encountering if he morphed the Hork-Bajir again but this time it was so much worse. He felt like a mouse caught between the claws of a cat and he had no where to run. He had to get out! But there was no where to go.

The mantra of escape repeated in a rising spiral until it was nothing but one long shriek of mental fear and anxiety. He was no longer even thinking rationally he was just squirming madly and trying to throw himself against the mental walls that held him captive. Let me go!

And it did, with a sick sound of fading laughter. Jullian landed sprawling on the ground. His hand grasped the dead arm of that had held Sophie so tightly that the owner of the arm surely would have been complaining of pain by now if the limb was still attached. His fingers left white pressure marks that were quickly fading because the blood was draining from the limb as a whole.

His other hand had not even been thrown out to catch himself and he felt his fingers just brush industrial carpet and something that felt like bone. He looked up, dazed, and saw the tyrannosaurus feet of a hork-bajir right in front of his face. If he had taken the time to look further up and take in the form of the entire alien he would have been dead. But whatever survival instinct that Jullian possessed kicked in and he scrambled backwards and to the side.

A wrist blade sunk into the wood beneath the carpet where his head had been seconds before with a dull thunk. The monster above him let out a gutteral curse and tried to pull his wrist blade out of the ground. The slight time it took was all that saved Jullian's life as he scrambled to his feet.

But as he stood up a dracon beam lanced past his ear and he ducked his head instinctively. He shot a look behind him and saw that the human controllers on the stage were firing their weapons at him and into the fight in general. The dracon beam that had narrowly missed him hit the hork-bajir in front of him and bore a neat hole through its shoulder. The creature bellowed in pain and Jullian dove into the cover of the seats before more shots could be fired at him.

He ducked below the level of the seats and tried to figure out what to do, logical thought slowly returning to him. First thing he did was drop the arm and grasped the black form wrapped around it. "Sorry," he said, not sure if he was hurting her. But that was all he could do. He was pinned, stuck between the controllers on the stage and the hork-bajir in front of the door.


Matt
"Where's Jullian! Kovu! Jullian fell!" That faint voice was like a trigger had been pulled. Matthew wasn't sure if tigers got and adrenaline rush like humans did, and yet he would have sworn he was having one. He'd been trying to cover the retreat for a moment, and so he was still in the theater. Now there was only one mission on his mind, and he'd be damned if any controllers would stand in his way.

Things started to seem so slow. It was as if everything around him was moving through something much thicker than he was. The memories would later just seem to blur together as the blood and death became more than Matthew as a human could handle, and yet right now it was all in perfect focus and super-vivid color. It was like all his sense had gone on the red alert as he fought his way to Jullian....except, not all his sense.

Matthew roared a challenge as a dracon blast flew past, only it didn't miss him as he though it had. His tail had been cut down to about two thirds of the original length, and yet he didn't feel the pain right now. All he could do was get to Jullian, tiger stopping in front of the boy. The large, panting beast probably would do nothing to help Jullian's fear, but hopefully he'd trust Matt to be in control of the beast. <<Get on, now. We need to get out of here. I am not going to lose anyone to that pathetic excuse for a controller.>>


Jullian
Jullian didn't question Matt, he just threw himself at the 600 pound Siberian tiger with teeth like knives. He scrambled onto the tiger's back and briefly wished that Matt had liked lions more than tigers because then he would have something to hold onto. He ended up grabbing franticlly at the fur around Matt's neck and hope that would be enough to hold him on through whatever it was Matt would have to do to get them out of here.

As he did so he was reminded strongly of the day they had met Ember. Matt had been a horse then but the idea Jullian had had on that day seemed as good now as ever. He closed his eyes tightly and began to morph the monkey in record speed. It was smaller and its grip was doubled and stronger. Definitely the way to go.


Matt
As Jullian threw himself at Matt and clambered onto the back of the tiger, obviously trusting Matt's control, the L.A. leader sent a message to Kovu in thought speak, extending his voice to include Aubrey. <<Kovu, keep running. I've got Jullian, and I will make sure we both get out of here. You have Aubrey and need to get her back to the Haunt. That is your priority. I'll see you when we get there.>>

As he spoke he could feel Jullian grabbing at the fur on his neck and then the weight seemed to start decreasing. It only took Matt a moment to realize what was happening. Jullian was utilizing his squirrel monkey morph, which meant Matt wouldn't have to worry as much about the other Animorph falling off. <<Smart idea, Jules>> he said, using Ember's nickname for the boy. He didn't even catch the connection, but his mind was very much focused on the present.

<<Hold on tight. I'm going to get us out of here.>> He roared as he jumped out of the seats and began barreling toward the door. The roar would probably scare Jullian's monkey morph, but being that it was one of the his first morphs Matt figured the level of control would keep his second from panicking.

The hork bajir at the door didn't know know what to make of him until it was too late. He slashed his way through a few of them until he was out the door and charging down the streets of L.A. As he left he shot a message back at the controllers inside. <<Consider this your warning. You don't mess with the Los Angeles Animorphs.>>