A Pipe Dream

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Drake:
"So what do you think is in there?"

Drake was standing with Aubrey and Suji at the entrance to a tunnel of some sort. He was itching find out what was inside, but did not know if they should enter it. It was about five feet high with round metal walls/ceiling, but also had a foot or two of gross looking water in it.

"I say we go in. There is bound to be something interesting in there. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?" He was about to head in, but then thought for a moment. "Nobody brought a flashlight, did they?" Seeing as how they were in their morphing suits, he knew the answer to that already.


Suji:
Suji looked over at Drake, arching an eyebrow. Bound to be something interesting? Why? Because it was a pipe leading into the ground outside of some abandoned buildings? She didn't follow the logic there, and maybe her sense of adventure was impaired, but she wasn't excited to trudge through that water.

But it was a chance to work with their morphs, and the Temple had been oddly... empty feeling the past few days. Maybe it was just the calm before the storm, but in any case, it didn't change the situation. Besides, this couldn't be too dangerous, could it?

"You do remember the last time we decided to trek into a hole, right?" Her words weren't overly accusatory in tone, but she figured it was worth saying. "I'm in, but only if we all agree that if anything weird starts to happen, we leave. Right?"


Aubrey:
Aubrey leaned forward, peering into the blackness of the pipe's innards. "Not sure anything could be in there, really. Just lots of dirty-looking water." Glancing down, she wrinkled her nose at the sight of the mucky water. There was no knowing what was mixed around in that stuff.

But there was also an intrigued look on her face. Even if it looked gross, exploring was fun, wasn't it? Even if there wasn't anything particularly exciting inside of it. And it seemed.. safe. Right? But then again, walking into a vent--as a bug--at the Temple had felt safe. Aubrey shook her head.

"Nope, no flashlight." She said, holding up her hands. Aubrey glanced over to Suji, who didn't appear too excited to explore. "Agreed, if anything weird starts going on we bail. I'm up for going in." She inched closer to the tunnel, waiting for the other two to start inside first.


Drake:
"I doubt we will get attacked by any spiders or centipedes in here, but yeah, if anything happens, we just leave." With that, Drake ducked his head and made his way into the entrance. He figured he should lead the way since he was the one so interested in doing this in the first place.

"I bet we find a whole group of tunnel dwelling people who moved down here after the war started," Drake said, trying to boost their enthusiasm. "Or maybe the yeerks dropped some sort of high-tech device and it washed down into here. Or maybe there will be some sort of room where we could store emergency supplies. Or maybe..." Drake just kept listing off ideas as they came to him. None were very likely, but they were keeping him entertained for the moment. He just hoped that there would still be at least a little light left once they got further inside.


Suji:
Suji followed after Drake, biting back a hiss of displeasure that rose in her throat as the gross water rose to her knees. She had to bend forward a well--they all would--but Drake even more so, and she kept enough distance that she wasn't uncomfortably close to his rear. The water was strangely cold, blocked from the sunlight, and the bottom of the pipe was slimy. It was a good deal of work to keep her balance, though she didn't dare let herself fall forward into the water--she didn't want it splashing up to her face.

"Either of you ever read IT? The Stephen King novel?" Suji hadn't read much fiction in the past couple of years, but during her childhood she swallowed books up at every given chance. "You know, evil clown that lives in the sewers, turns into your worst fear, and eats you alive?"


Aubrey:
Aubrey smirked as she listened to Drake, and as they started to make their way in she murmured lightly. "...Or maybe there are giant mutant spiders and centipedes crawling around." The tone of her voice suggested that she was joking, but the whole vent fiasco still bothered her once in awhile. She definitely had been avoiding her moth morph since then. Maybe it would come in use at some point, but she'd be happy not to use it until then.

They headed inside with Aubrey following after Suji. The water seeped in around Aubrey's legs, and she tried not to make a face at the cold touch of the liquid to her wetsuit. Against the soles of her feet, the bottom almost felt... slimy? Almost squishy. As they moved, Aubrey pulled her hair across her shoulders to keep it from touching the water.

"Never read it before, but I've heard of it." As they trudged forward, Aubrey felt her foot slip a small bit against the tunnel's floor. For a second she stumbled dangerously close to Suji--arms spread and trying to keep her balance--then caught herself. Ack. Falling face-first was a disgusting thought. Not only that, but she imagined there'd be some kind of domino effect, with all three of them ending up face-down in the water.

"There could be alligators down here. There was some urban legend about people flushing baby alligators down their toilets or something weird like that, then the things growing up and living down there." As her thoughts turned to that, she felt goosebumps tingling on her skin. Not the best thing to think of while you were slogging through knee-high, murky water. Had something just brushed her leg? "Of course this would have to be a sewer."


Drake:
"I have never read the book either, but it sounds creepy. And if we do meat any alligators, then I know a certain crocodile that could probably take them." Drake continued forward, stubbing his toe every now and again. His feet were probably going to be a bloody mess by the time they got out of there. Sure he could morph away the damage, but that did not make it any less painful now.

"I sure hope this is not a sewer," Drake continued honestly. "Or at least now the 'waste' type of sewer. They do not leave those wide open on one end, do they?"

Drake turned a corner, then stopped short as a hint of movement caught his eye. His heart skipped a couple beats and he was about to run backwards before he realized what it was. "Man, that scared me. I hope neither of you wanted a rat morph."


Suji:
"I hope there aren't any alligators. That urban legend was about New York, where it's probably too cold for an alligator to survive, but Dallas is a lot warmer. Don't know what it would eat though." She hoped she wouldn't have to morph her crocodile, for a couple of reasons. The most obvious reason being that it would mean they were in trouble, another reason being that she wouldn't be able to turn around in here.

Suji almost ran straight into Drake--it was getting much darker now, and he'd suddenly stopped. She slid forward on the traction-less pipe bottom, and it was only an act of luck that saved her from falling. "A rat morph would actually be pretty useful. Not sure I want to try to catch one down here though."

They were turning a corner, and Suji lightly reached out to touch Drake's back. "Aubrey, I'm reaching out my hand if you wanna take it. Drake, you're in front so you might want to keep both of your hands out. Do you see any light down there?"


Aubrey:
"Yeah, I hope it's not a sewer either." She really didn't want to imagine the water they were walking through as anything more than just dirty water. Dirty water. That's all it was. Slimy, dirty water. "I have no clue if they do. What else would pipes near buildings be for?" Aubrey shook her head, trying to keep her balance. "Ooh right, it was New York. Yikes. Maybe they eat rats or something. Or who knows what else could be down here they could eat." She paused. "Bodies."

Drake suddenly stopped, which made Suji stop, almost causing Aubrey to run into Suji. Slowly, with her feet slipping in the water, she took a few steps backwards to get some room. Straining her head sideways, she tried to look past Suji to where Drake was ahead. "What was that? What's wrong?" As she asked, she heard Drake's voice and felt a twinge of relief. Just a rat.

"Alright, Suji." Aubrey waved her hand around in the disappearing light until it connected with Suji's hand, then locked her fingers with hers. "Okay. Do you see anything up ahead, Drake?" Could he even still see?


Drake:
"Nope, I do not see anything yet. It is still pretty dark up ahead. Maybe there will be something around the next corner." Drake hurried forward to find out what sort of excitement awaited just ahead.

But nothing was behind the next corner. Or the next one, or the next one, or the one after that. After about ten corners and still no sign of anything interesting, Drake was starting to get bored. "You guys want to leave?" Drake asked, a bit disappointed by the question.

Then Drake heard a faint, rumbling boom coming from up above. It had been pitch black for a little while now, and the sound in the darkness was a bit unnerving. It sounded like thunder, which meant rain. "Yeah, so, um, Aubrey? You want to lead us back out now?" Drake really, really, really hoped she had been keeping track of how to get out since she was now in the lead.


Suji:
Why in the world are we doing this? Suji thought, over and over. She did not like the darkness of it, did not like the confines of it. It reminded her of the vent, and even moreso of a time (that felt longer than a lifetime ago) when she and Luce had gone to meet with a Taxxon under the subway system in NYC.

But she didn't voice her concerns. This was harmless, wasn't it? Only rats so far. It was gross, but no one had fallen in yet, which was good. Suji focused on trying to remember the turns they took--her mind thought back to that book, IT, and the scenes of the kids wandering in the dark through the sewer system. Getting turned around in here would be horrific. They might be able to follow the rats out eventually, but there was something the human brain hated about utter darkness--or at least her's did.

Suji heard the boom as well--hard not to when your non-sight senses were working overtime. Suji stopped. Drake didn't sound like he wanted to go any further, and Suji had to say that she agreed. She turned into Aubrey, though she was still momentarily holding the other girl's hand. Suji hadn't realized it at first, but she'd given in a small squeeze when the thunder (was it thunder?) boomed overhead. She had already started trying to calculate how fast this tunnel might fill up with water. It was possible that what they were standing in now was from the storm that Drake and her and been caught in the other day.


Aubrey:
"Ooh maybe." It was dark, it was mucky, but Aubrey was still enjoying herself for the moment. However as they turned corner after corner, it looked like they weren't getting anywhere fast. After a few more turns, Drake asked the question Aubrey was beginning to think. It had been fun at first, but now it was getting tedious to march through the slippery water, in the darkness.

Then, overhead, Aubrey heard the low rumble. Was that thunder? That had been thunder, right? Her body tensed a little. Aubrey was maybe, sort of, a tiny bit, afraid of lightening. And thunder usually followed lightening. But they were underground, lightening couldn't get here. She was safe. No lightening here.

"Yeah, so, um, Aubrey? You want to lead us back out now?"

"Um, right. I can do that." Everybody had turned around now, and Aubrey could make out the dark blob that was Suji in front of her. "Right. Gotta turn around." Loosening her grip on Suji so she could keep her balance, she slowly turned until she was facing the way they had come. With her arms spread forward, she began walking forward into the darkness blindly.

Was it a left, left, right, right, left, right, left turn? Or was it left, right, right, right, left, left, right, left? As she turned corners, Aubrey really wished that she could see where she was going. Her fingertips brushed another corner. Or am I backwards? If we came from that way, than everything is reversed. So, then...

Her foot slipped across a rather slimy patch of floor, and Aubrey felt herself beginning to slip again. Suddenly she was stumbling forward in the water and flailing her arms to keep herself from falling forward. The water sprayed and splashed up around her waist, and she was about to fall over when she ran into a wall. "Oomph!" Pain throbbed in her head. Slowly, she pulled herself back. Well, it wasn't exactly a wall. It had bars. Aubrey traced her fingers up, then around. Shit. It's a wall of bars. She'd led them the wrong way.

Turning around quickly, Aubrey waved her hands in the air to try and find Suji. "Sorry, almost tripped! Alright, can't see you guys..." She started moving back. "I think we ran into a dead end. There's bars up ahead." Another, almost ominous, rumble sounded overhead.


Drake:
Drake heard a lot of splashing and moving as Aubrey struggled to keep her balance. Although he did not know that that is what was going on until she told them. They had run into some bars? They did not pass any bars on their way in, so logic dictated that they should not run into any on their way out.

"Are we lost?" Drake asked plainly. Right about now he was wishing Fin was with them. He had a bat morph and bats could see in total darkness, right? It was something like that anyway. If they really were lost, Drake did not know how they would find the way back out. He was not worried though. If they were here for a day and still did not find a way out, then he would worry.

Yet another rumble of thunder could be heard up above. Only this time it was louder. The storm was probably right on top of them now.


Suji:
Aubrey fell forward, and Suji wasn't grasping her hand anymore, which was good and bad: good because it meant Suji didn't get pulled down too, bad because there was no chance for Suji to try steady her. There was a whiff of air in front of her face and Suji instinctively moved her head back, thinking that she might have just narrowly avoided getting slapped as Aubrey tried to place her.

Bars? Bars? Suji hated the dark. She hated how powerless it made her feel--not the simple dimming that came when you turned off the lights, but the dark of a place like this, underground. You couldn't see what was coming, couldn't plan for it, could only listen for it. Her chest began to feel tight. Why had she agreed to this? Why had there been so many damn twists and turns? This had to lead to part of the sewer, that's what the bars had to be about. Right? Maybe the part of the pipe they were in just handled overflow water, and further in (somewhere after the bars?) it became a sewer.

Either way, the shiver went down her spine at the sound of the thunder. Drake asked the question that felt like a vice starting to close around her, but didn't sound at all worried about it. Neither of them sounded really concerned: just like it was a fun trip gone wrong.

Afraid of the dark, Suji? It was a mocking voice, but the answer was yes. She was. Not knowing what was coming meant you had to rely on your imagination, and that was even worse than reality. And right now reality told her that they were already standing in about two feet of water, and could very well be in a pipe that might fill completely with water. Had it risen since the thunder started? Maybe an inch or two? Or was that her mind playing tricks on her? No way to tell. God she hated the dark.

"We're not lost. Just took a wrong turn, right? We need to find a way out. God I wish there was a way to mark where we've been." She placed her hand on his back, and reached behind her--her hand hit Aubrey's arm fist, and then slid to her hand. Getting separated in the dark was the one thing Suji thought she had any room to control, and she wasn't about to fail at that.


Aubrey:
It felt like ages before her hand finally touched with Suji's again, and Aubrey let out a small huff of relief. Those few moments of total disconnect from the two of her teammates was enough to make her skin crawl. Being in a dark, watery tunnel was terrible enough. But being by yourself, lost in a watery dark tunnel--that had to be worse.

"Lost? Um. I hope... I don't think we are. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it was just wrong turn somewhere. This place can't be that complicated, right?" Just one too many turns. Aubrey sucked in a slow breath. She was trying not to let all the things happening bother her; the sound of the thunder was hard enough to deal with. Every time it rumbled through the tunnel, Aubrey felt herself involuntarily flinch. She was also beginning to realize they had to worry about being lost in a pipe that could become flooded very soon. Aubrey swallowed dryly.

"Okay. Let's go." There was urgency in her voice now, as another lazy rumble rolled above the tunnel. Aubrey was stuck at the back of the line again, her hand clasped tightly in Suji's hand. She really, really didn't want to become separated in here.


Fin:
Fin let out another blast of echolocation and called out in a bored voice as he turned another corner. <<Paging all animorphs in the area. You are requested on aisle five.>>

He was having a hard time flying in these tunnels. His bat was a bit big for the confines of them and he had to be very careful not to scrape the tips of his wings on the concrete. He hadn't completely succeeded and his right wing tip was sore from a collision with a corner he had cut just a little too close.

<<There is a spill on aisle five. Slimy, sewer water alert. Bring your mops.>> He fired off more sound waves and as they returned they painted an image in his head of the tunnels he was flying through. He had tracked Drake's, Suji's and Aubrey's scent to the tunnel entrance and had sat around outside there for a while hoping they would come out since he had no desire to go in. But as the storm that he had been sent here to warn them about in the first place broke he had reluctantly morphed and started his search.

Ray had somehow overheard one of the yeerk transmissions on one of the neat little devices he and Fin had rigged about a coming storm that was grounding all yeerk air traffic in atmosphere in the area. Apparently the Bug Fighters weren't at risk but some of the bigger, slower moving and clumsier carrier ships wouldn't fare well in the weather if they were in the air. They had been warned against trying to fly since this was going to be one of the worst storms in recent years.

Fin had been excited. He loved holing up during storms and watching the lighting from the safety of inside. He especially loved black outs. The whole experience just perked Fin's sense of adventure and made him feel like something magical would happen. Maybe, driven to more sedentary pursuits by the rain, Fin would begin reading a book and get sucked in. Or maybe he would discover a cupboard with a tiny Indian or was it Native American or American Indian now man inside who walked and talked. Or maybe aliens would land and he'd be given the power to turn into random animals and fight a war where he almost got killed again and again and then-

Hey wait a minute. That one had already happened.

<<Seriously, guys are you out there? We are supposed to get back to the Temple and stay there.>> Fin turned another corner. He had been honestly excited about the storm until someone had pointed out that they were down three members. Drake, Suji and Aubrey weren't scheduled for patrols or fly overs of the city or missions or anything. So where were they?

Worried slightly by the unusual absence and lack of checking in Fin had been sent out to find them. <<I really hope you guys are down here and I'm not just flying around tunnels for no reason at all.>>


Drake:
It was Drake's turn to lead again since they had to turn around, but he had no clue where to go. He was leading them to where he thought the exit was, but he had no sense of direction in the total darkness. Just when he was going to mention that he thought the water was getting deeper, he heard Fin's thought speech. Barely.

"Hey you guys, I hear Fin." He said it as if it were actual sound that they might not have heard. "Hey Fin! We are over here!" There were terrible echos in the pipes, but he hoped that Fin would still be able to discern their location.

Drake continued leading the group, yelling every once and a while. Even if Fin was in the tunnels, they still needed to get out. And that would not happen if they sat still. "Okay, am I just imagining it, or has the water gotten deeper?" He was not going to mention it, but it was over his knees now and it had started out at the top of his calves. Hopefully they would be out of there soon.


Suji:
Suji's hand had clenched into a fist in Drake's shirt--as if he'd someone escape if she didn't hold on tightly. Behind her, she squeezed Aubrey's hand, which was squeezing back firmly. Drake didn't seem to be unsettled yet, but Suji thought that maybe it was starting to get to Aubrey. She just had to hope that it wasn't obvious how much it was getting to her.

When it was almost getting to be too much, and Suji felt herself getting ready to snap, she suddenly heard Fin's thoughtspeak. All at once she let out a very audible sigh of relief, and her body relaxed. "The water has gotten deeper," she confirmed, working to keep her voice from getting caught in her throat. "We're in an overflow pipe. This whole thing might fill in a bad storm." She paused, and then quietly added, "...the kind of storm we got caught in the other day, Drake."


Fin:
Fin heard the voices and the splashing long before he found the group but when he spotted them groping around in the dark ahead he was grateful. He had been down here too long and he and the bat didn't like it much. <<Drake don't freak but I'm going to land on you because there is nothing but water beneath me.>>

Fin pulled in his wings and landed right on Drake's head, not trying to be graceful about it since he had zero maneuver room, just trying to get there safely.

He made sure to keep his claws away from Drake's face but that meant they ended up in his hair a bit. It couldn't be comfortable but Fin soon got himself situated so that he was facing forward. If anyone had been able to see anything down here Fin would have looked like a very odd hat.


Aubrey:
As they marched, she kept herself focused on not falling, as well as staying latched to Suji. Awhile back she had noticed how hard she was gripping her hand, but initially didn't think much of it. Was it possible that Suji was a little nervous? It wouldn't be hard to feel that way in this place, it was almost like trekking through a life-sized version of the Temple's vent. Except there was dirty water everywhere. Possibly alligators.

Aubrey kept getting this creepy, tingling feeling across her back that something was going to stalk up behind her and grab her. Like a monster or axe-murderer or maybe some mutant. And for some reason, she kept thinking she heard another set of footsteps. Or it could just be the water against the pipe. Or maybe something was swimming in the water... splashing... It was nonsense--really, could anything survive down here?--but it didn't stop her from imagining all sorts of things. "Guys, you don't think people live down here right? Or, anything. Right?"

The two of them mentioned the water getting higher, and Aubrey blinked in the darkness. "...Has it?" She'd been too distracted with everything else to notice the mucky water was lapping up over her knees now. Not good. That creepy sensation behind her was growing. Now she was imagining some kind of massive flood of water smashing into her back and toppling her over. Great.

Then she heard the faint call of Fin's thought-speak. "I hear him too!" Relief spread through her, and her hand stopped squishing Suji's so hard. If Fin was close enough to be within thought-speech range, then they weren't completely lost. Aubrey could just imagine them working their way deeper and deeper into the twisting path of the pipes without even realizing it. And now that the water was definitely rising...

Once Fin had landed on Drake, Aubrey let out a short sigh. He'd found his way in, so he could probably find his way out. Hopefully. "Woo, so. We're kind of lost in here." All the fun, let's-go-exploring tone had slowly drained from her voice. Now she just sounded like she wanted out.


Drake:
When Fin landed on hiss head, Drake's first instinct was to swat him. Luckily he kept that instinct under control just like he would if he were in a morph. "Yeah, we are kind of lost in here," he said, agreeing with Aubrey. "If you could point us towards the exit, it would be much appreciated." They had been in these pipes for a couple hours now and Drake was well past the point of wanting to leave.

"Say, Fin, why are you down here anyway? Did you mention something about heading back to the Temple?" Drake was thinking back to one of the first things that he heard Fin say. "Why do-"

Drake stopped mid-sentence when he heard another low pitched rumbling. Only this time it was not thunder. "What is that?" It was definitely coming from inside the pipes. Then his mind flashed to what Suji said about these pipes being for sewer overflow. Drake really hoped that sound was not what he thought it was.


Fin:
<<Oh, right. I'm here to warn you that there is a storm coming, a really bad one. But it already came so that is kind of pointless. Anyway, we are all suppose to be hiding and huddling in the Temple right now enjoying the lightning show and sipping hot drinks. Also dry, we are supposed to be dry. So basically this is the exact opposite of what we are supposed to be doing. I hope we don't get reprimanded by Ray.>> Fin tried to imagine that for a moment. Ray looking uncharacteristically stern and saying, "guys, you are stuck in a sewer getting wet when I ordered everyone to stay dry. You're in trouble." The ridiculous scene amused him at least.

<<So let's get out of here.>> He "looked" back the way he'd come but the sound of rumbling was distorting his sound sight. Not too much but everything wasn't as clear as it had been a moment before. <<Mmm. What is that sound? Where are we anyway? I mean I must have been flying through these tunnels for like an hour and this place is like a maze.>>


Suji:
"You don't know the way out?" Suji hissed, words squeezing venomously from behind her teeth. There was a dull roar of sound behind them--likely the water beginning to fill into the overflow tunnels somewhere behind them. It might be enough to disperse and raise the water level another foot where they were, or it could be enough to drown them.

She couldn't hold the anger in check now. Fear had constricted around her chest. "You FLEW in here looking for us, not even knowing if we were in here, during a storm, without tracking here you were going? Do you even remember the last turn you took? Start using your eco-location, at least tell us what our options are for where we can turn out of here!"

The noise was getting louder, and Suji was feeling the unfamiliar edge of panic.


Fin:
If Fin had eyebrows they would have been raised. As it was all he could do was move around a bit on Drake's head to show his agitation. He had been fine a minute ago but now he was scared. If Suji, someone he had rarely seen shaken was scared, then he was starting to feel like he should be terrified. She was his group leader and he'd followed her into seemingly more dangerous situations than exploring some sewer pipes and she had always remained calm. But now she sounded like she was panicking.

<<I uh...>> Fin fired off echolocation but it was definitely being distorted by something and the rumbling was more pronounced now. <<No, I can find my way out. I mean bats do it all the time right?>> Not his sort of bat. His bat lived in dense jungles and slept on branches like birds but he wasn't about to tell Suji that.

<<Um, there is, uh, well there is a tunnel in front of us and I took...a right. So we go left right?>> In truth he hadn't taken note of where he was going. Fin had never gotten lost a day in his life, that was the beauty of having a near perfect photographic memory. But he wasn't a human right now and whatever connections there were between his eyes and his brain were not the same in morph. He had noticed the decreasing of his normal abilities months ago when he couldn't make up and envision a simple patrol route that would incorporate six of the Vancouver members with three in the air and three on the ground. But he had forgotten about it.

<<I can find a way out,>> he snapped back. <<Just give me a minute.>>


Suji:
Plan. Think of something. Contingency. Yes. Yes that would keep the panic at bay. That would keep the acidic burning of fear in her chest from eating through her heart and ribs and oh God-

No. Reign it in. She had to reign it in. The water was rising, and the roaring wasn't diminishing.

"All right. We need a plan for if things start getting really ugly in here. If that happens, it'll be best if everyone got into the closest thing they had to a water morph, or something that doesn't need much air. Aubrey, I'm not sure what you have, but I know Drake has a fish. I'll go crocodile, and I'll need to be in the back, because I'll be in the way too much. I might... if we get a quick current in here, Drake, you might need to stay... in my croc's mouth. Or something. Somewhere where you can't be carried away. Unless-" Suji pinched the bridge between her nose and forehead. "Unless we're sure that the current goes to where we came in. But it's impossible to know if it does."

Suji took a few deep breaths. Okay. Yes, this was more productive than fear. She could do this. "Fin- I don't think we're in the sewers yet, but we might be close enough. If you see any tunnels that look like they open into well-like structure with rungs on the wall leading up, that might be the way up to a manhole. If... if things get bad, might have to take the chance that we pop up in an inconvenient area."


Drake:
Drake stood silently as Suji 'yelled' at Fin for not knowing how to get out. He felt kind of bad since it was pretty much his fault that they were all down here in the first place, but he was not about to direct the wrath of Suji towards himself. Besides, Fin seemed to think that he could find the way out anyhow.

But then Suji started coming up with plans for a sort of worst-case-scenario and Drake's nervousness was on the rise. Partly because the danger seemed so much more real when you planned for it, but mostly it was because the rumbling was so loud now that it was getting hard to hear and because he could definitely feel the water getting higher and higher. It was now just a little below his waist.

"Fish is sounding pretty good right now," Drake said loudly over the noise. "I think I am going to morph now." Hopefully the water would be clean enough to breath. However, one thing was for sure. He was not going to swim into the crocodile mouth no matter how bad the current was.


Fin:
Fin chirped in anger. It was a sound he hadn't known his bat could make until now. <<I can find a way out!>> he almost yelled as Suji and then Drake suggested morphing water morphs. His otter could probably follow the current better and find a way out faster than his bat could. But a part of him didn't want to morph it now that Suji had told him to. He could figure this out. She hadn't needed to get mad.

But arrogance was not too high on Fin's list of vices. He much rather get out of the tunnel alive than die being stupid. He hopped off of Drake's head and landed in the water with a small plop. The fall from Drake's head to the water's surface hadn't been that far at all since the water was almost to their waists now.

Fin spread his large wings out on the surface of the water to keep him floating while he demorphed though, half way through, there came a time when he sunk under. But he was soon tall enough to stand up and feel the water swirling around his torso. It was cold and disgusting and he didn't want to think about what his bare feet were touching.

He began shrinking into the otter morph. "The current will probably lead us out. The pipe I came in was one of those where the water is coming out and forming a mini river so we just have to go downstream." He stopped there because his mouth began morphing and long, black whiskers poked out the sides of his face.


Aubrey:
Aubrey could feel the mood in the tunnel getting a little more tense. She couldn't see anybody's face, but it felt heavy. Aubrey herself was beginning to feel some anxiety welling up in her body. She'd been distracted with her own thoughts when Drake spoke up. Tilting her head towards the back, Aubrey listened. "What was what...?" Just barely she could hear a low rumbling. Was that thunder, too? Or...?

Silently, Aubrey listened to the small spat between Fin and Suji. Things were definitely getting a little stressful, she hadn't heard Suji snap like that before. The sound of the rumbling behind them was getting louder, and Aubrey bit her lip. Not good. Not good. Aubrey took a slow breath. "About the only water morph I have is a sea lion." The morph hadn't really come in handy in Los Angeles as much as Aubrey had thought it would; It was a little humourous to think that all the way here in Dallas the morph would finally come in handy.

"I guess... we're morphing now?" Aubrey said. The water was swirling around Aubrey's waist now. The others were beginning to morph as Aubrey began concentrating on her sea lion. Almost immediately her fins began forming out of her limbs, which sent her falling face forward into the water. "Ahbleg--" trying to say something meant that she got a mouthful of the digusting water. Immediately she spat it out, scrunching her face in disgust. Whiskers popped out of her upper lip as her face began to melt into the sea lion's muzzle. As she morphed, she struggled to pull her head from the water.


Suji:
There is no guarantee of a "downstream"! Suji wanted to scream. Sure every tunnel let somewhere, but what happened if instead of leading out, the water just rushed past another set of bars before exiting somewhere? Drake's fish might get through that, supposing that the gushing water didn't involve falling down on rocks. There wasn't a chance in hell that a sea lion or a 20 foot crocodile would.

But panic seemed to have caught them like a wave, and rather than staying in his bat morph and looking for rungs or tunnels, Fin was turning into something else. She had no idea what. "Drake," she called out patting him to get a sense of where he was. His body was shifting awkwardly, but he was still mostly there. Hopefully his ears hadn't changed yet. "Drake, I'm not going croc yet because I think I'll get stuck. But if water rushes us, your fish might get carried away and separated. So I'm going to hold on to you, I'll keep you in the water or whatever, but this should be somewhat safer."

If she could keep a hold of a morphing person in the slimy darkness.


Drake:
Drake felt something touch his shrinking, slimy skin in the darkness. At first he recoiled, but then remembered he was not alone in here. Not that he had actually forgotten, but even in in a group it was easy to feel alone when you could not see.

He heard, for the most part, what Suji's plan was for him when he was in fish morph. It sounded fine to him, but he could not respond due to his lack of a voice box. His response would not have mattered anyway since at that moment his half-morphed body got knocked over by a wall of rushing water.

He wanted to scream, but fish did not scream. He wanted to yell in thought speech, but he did not yet have thought speech. So instead he just grabbed for whoever was closest with his finned fingers. Drake was finally in full panic mode now that the rushing water had reached them.


Suji:
No response from Drake, but he didn't thrash away from her. It was hard to hold on to him, especially because his morphing suit quickly turned into scales. For now, the scariest thought in her mind was losing hold of him. In still water the fish probably wouldn't be too badly off--but these were creatures that lived in peaceful oriental ponds, right? The thought of him being carried away into the darkness, split off and lost, was terrifying. Because you're really afraid for him, or because you could be next?

Just then a wall of water hit Suji's back. Aubrey had probably gotten the worst of it--for all Suji knew, the blonde girl was knocked straight into her. Hard to tell though, if it was elbows and knees hitting her or just the water pummeling. Suji sprawled forward, fingertips pressing harder into Drake as he shrunk. Don't let go, she thought, for whose sake she didn't know.

It wasn't enough water to fill the tunnel--not yet. But it was flowing in faster now, easily up to her bent forward chest. It was cold, and she accidentally swallowed a few mouthfuls: gritty with dirt that tasted like the smell of wet asphalt. A road somewhere above them? Impossible to know.

I have to morph, she realized with horror. She was left in the dark, and her human body could go maybe a minute without air. Morphing took longer than that--she had to pray that it would take more than that to fill the tunnel with water. She couldn't even talk to any of them, which was the worst part: she was utterly alone, in the dark, going to drown.

Suji pulled Drake closer to her. Sooner or later it wouldn't matter. Crocodiles didn't have hands. She couldn't even tell someone else to take him. She could only pray that someone had a morph suited to catching fish without swallowing them whole, and would think to do it. Keep your arms and hands as long as possible, Suji thought, and rough scales began to grow on her body. Above all else, she pictured a strange crocodilian beast with human arms--something out of an Egyptian nightmare.

If she'd been able to see, Suji might have been equal parts proud, surprised, and horrified to know that that was what she was becoming. It was about to get a lot smaller in the tunnel.


Aubrey:
The water was sloshing against Aubrey's chest as she concentrated on her morph. Her thoughts kept wandering to the fact that some wall of water could be bearing down on them at any moment, and she didn't want to end up in a tunnel filled with water and no air. Then, another even less pleasant thought came. What if they ran into bars? Drake's fish would be fine. But Aubrey's big, bulky form? What would--Just as the thick layers of seal fat began to bubble underneath her skin, a wave of water crashed into her back.

Her heart jumped in her throat. <<Ahhh!!>> Aubrey's mouth was fully sea lion now, so the yell came out in thought-speak. The cold water hit her square in the back like a wall, toppling her over and sending hot pain rolling up her spine. Since she was already half-floating, the water had swept the ground from underneath Aubrey's feet and pushed her forward. It felt like she was floating.

Except, in the next second, her body--almost fully sea lion--smacked into Suji's half-crocodile form. The water around her was churning against the tunnel's walls, and she felt another cold wave seep past her as more water drained into it.


Fin:
Fin was about two thirds otter when the water hit. He was strongly reminded of Disneyland. There was this tidal pool there that he'd gone in as a kid. They tell you not to get to close to the wave generator and Fin being Fin had stayed far away. And he'd patted himself on the back for that all the way home because some other kid had gone too near and had to be rescued by life guards which pretty much had ruined the party for everyone.

So he'd gotten home and gone out on one of those perfect beaches Florida seemed to sport everywhere and had gone bodyboarding in the small waves out there. And one small wave had completely flipped him and he just remembered what it was like to be completely and utterly powerless, surrounded by a whirlwind of water. He had realized he just had to let go and hope that the ocean was nice enough to spit him onto shore.

It had and he had scraped his stomach and chest on the sand so bad he'd had scars for about three months that had faded with time. But he'd been grateful just to get out. It had been scary to be so powerless and it hadn't even been a big wave. He had realized that day the difference between the Wave pool and the ocean.

Well once again cold water surrounded him and swept him along and the lesson that had been ingrained him that long ago afternoon made him just pull in his stubs of arms and legs, curl into a little ball, and hope that the water let him go someplace nice. He felt one webby something grab his quickly shrinking ankle but he couldn't grab back.

He just concentrated on getting fully otter as fast as possible. The springy brown fur completely covered his body now and his eyes, ears, nose and lungs had crossed over so he had maybe four minutes before he ran out of air. But his tail was still growing and his paws were still half hands and feet.

He swirled through the water, a small ball of fur, and felt the hand holding him lose its grip. Ah, alone. He kicked his paws experimentally and found them fully formed at last. He popped his head above the surface and the water split and bubbled past it. He took a breath and then dived back under the water, his eyes and nostrils closing against the gritty, dirty liquid.

He was navigating by touch now but he knew which direction to go in. His streamline body cut through the water as he swam against the current. He couldn't tell if he was making any headway. He was probably still being pushed the other way actually, but so were his team mates and he would be going slower.

He whiskers warned him there was a large mass in front of him before his nose bumped into it and he reached out and touched it, his sensitive paws feeling a disturbing melting of flesh. <<Who is this?>>


Drake:
Drake would have certainly been swept away from the group during the initial onrush of water if it had not been for Suji holding on to him. For that, he was grateful. He did not want to be left alone in a dark tunnel as a koi fish. But still, every one of his fish instincts was telling him to squirm away from whatever was holding him. And Drake was in no mental state to ignore those instincts.

He thrashed and squirmed in Suji's grip until his slimy scaly body managed to wiggle free. The moment his escape instincts kicked off, however, Drake managed to gain enough control to try and fight the current and stay with the group. He had the control, but not the power.

Drake was almost positive that he was still being pulled away, but at least he could slow himself down somewhat. He was about to ask where everyone was when he heard Fin ask, <<Who is this?>>

<<Not me,>> Drake replied frantically.


Suji:
Suji felt what seemed like tiny furry paws on her growing snout. <<Me.>> Drake had slipped through her hands--which has still been mostly human. Now she just hastened to complete the morph. The situation was out of her control for now. <<Whatever you are, Fin, try to find Drake and grab him--the current is going to be way too strong in here, and I don't want anyone to get separated!>>

That, and there was no way she was going to try to use her massive jaws to hold him. At least, not when she'd have to find him and catch him in the dark, with rushing water. It'd be way to easy to snap down on his body, or bite someone else. And she doubted they had morphed into animals that could shrug off a bite from a huge crocodile.

The pipe was beginning to feel cramped, and Suji felt Aubrey's form jumbling against her. She was fully crocodilian now, and she rose to where there was still maybe a foot, or half a foot, or air. <<Can anyone sense which way the current is flowing strongest? I'm too big to tell.>>


Fin:
Fin darted away. The darkness of the tunnel was actually no hindrance to him though the soon to be lack of air was. He could only hold his breath for four minutes so if there wasn't air at the top to refill they would be in trouble, or at least him. But since otters hunted with their eyes closed anyway and relied mostly on their sense of touch he was fine navigating the waters for now.

The eager, playful otter mind below his own was a little worried. There was a large predator in this underground river and it didn't like it much. It definitely was not in the right mood to be hungry but Fin forced it to hunt anyway. Find the fish little otter body. Eat the fish. Find the fish.

He paddled through the water waving his head back and forth in an attempt to give his long whiskers a chance to touch any and everything. It was a little like being a bat, relying on another sense to navigate. His back and front paws paddled through the water. Come on, find the fish. You know you want to eat the fish. Find the-

His head snapped around before he could stop it and his small, sharp little teeth almost bit into the cold flesh of Drake's fish morph. He had brushed Fin's whiskers and the otter had reacted the way he'd been telling to, hunted. Fin closed his mouth at the last minute but his nose ended up colliding with the small fish and pushed it away.

He had to chase it down again before he could grip it between his front paws. He tried to be gentle but his otter was focused on eating now and all it wanted to do was dig into its fishy treat. <<Got him!>> Fin said overly excited from the otter's mind. <<And I can tell which way the current is flowing strongest, at least I think I can,>> he said twitching his whiskers, <<but it is all flowing one way right now. No turns, I think we got carried past the first one. What does a tunnel with no exits mean?>>


Aubrey:
Aubrey finally finished the morph, feeling the sea lion's calm mind surfacing beneath her own. Taking a deep breath, she ducked down beneath the water--she would be good for a whole forty minutes or so without air. The sea lion was very comfortable in the dark waters because it was used to the vast, empty darkness of the ocean. It also had a set of loosely attached whiskers across its upper lip, which were very sensitive and used to 'feeling' for prey.

As the water swirled around her, Aubrey's whiskers brushed against the other animals that were squished in the pipe. Suji's bulky, scaly form was an annoyance to the sea lion, and it pulled itself sideways in an attempt to get around her. The sea lion didn't like being cramped in this small space. It was wary of the crocodile; it was big, but it wasn't an animal the sea lion ever came across, and so it was unsure what to do with it. But it had noticed the fish especially, and the little furry animal that had just grabbed it. Or, in the sea lion's mind, stole it.

Now that everything was a confusing mess or darkness and water, Aubrey was feeling panicky and having trouble reining in the sea lion's instincts. And the sea lion's mind, strong and playful, was fighting. Fin's form was so small that it could easily ram into the small otter and steal the fish. That's exactly what the sea lion wanted to do, and Aubrey's sleek body had squeezed away from Suji long enough to bump into Fin. At the same time, his thought-speak had hit her.

Realizing what was happening, Aubrey tried to pull away. <<Gah..!>> The anxiety had returned in full force--where were they? They couldn't even tell if the way they were being pulled would be the way out. What if they ended up trapped inside here? Trapped. Aubrey was not claustrophobic, but the thought was scary. <<Okay, okay, okay, I'm freaking out a little here. A little.>> Even the sea lion's playful mind--which was kind of enjoying the ride through the tunnel--wasn't helping.


Drake:
Drake might have been able to help tell which way the current was going if he could have gone two seconds without being grabbed. Koi fish were not meant to be handled with claws and paws and teeth and feet. He was the only one that did not need to breath air, so realistically he should have been the last of their concerns. Even if he got swept away, he would have had two hours to find safety. What did they each have? A couple minutes? What were their water morphs again?

However, Drake definitely was grateful that he was not being swept away by the current, so he was not about to complain. At least he managed to control his instincts when Fin grabbed him so that he stayed grabbed. Now they just had to find a way out. In the dark. While being pushed by a roaring current.

Aubrey seemed to be getting somewhat freaked out. He cold not blame her either since he felt exactly the same way. <<I think we should just follow the current to wherever it happens to take us. We do not know where we are going anyway.>> Drake almost did not say his next sentences. <<And you could even send me out ahead in case there are any obstacles. I think I would drift the fastest and I do not need air.>>


Suji:
The crocodile's mind was calm, serene even. But Suji remembered the last time she gave herself over to that tranquility: the crocodile had gotten the better of her, if only for a moment--it'd been long enough to mangle a juvenile boar. As much as she wanted to let that cool assurance fill her, there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that she was going to risk it while jammed in a tunnel with three of her comrades, who were all much smaller and therefore easily qualified as prey.

Fin had Drake. That was good. He sounded bubbly: he probably wasn't a reptile. She still didn't have much of an idea what he was. Aubrey, on the other hand, was very close, and the crocodile all but demanded to take a bite out of the blubbery creature. It might not have been something the predator would have encountered in the wild, but a reptile as large as this one didn't really get picky about meals: you bit it to find out if it was worth the next bite, and generally, things were.

<<It's all right,>> Suji said to Aubrey privately, forcing herself to be calm. Now that she was in morph, now that they were all in at least some kind of water-navigating morph, and Drake was secured, they had time to think. Maybe not much time, but some. And if other people were beginning to lose it, that meant that she had a good reason to fight down her own panic.

The crocodile's mind beneath hers, calmly uncaring, if irritated by the confines, didn't exactly hurt either.

<<These things can swim faster than our human morphs could walk,>> she continued in the private thoughtspeech. <<And the current should help us at least a bit. We'll be fine.>> Suji just had to hope that it wasn't obvious that she was reassuring herself as much as she was trying to reassure Aubrey.

Drake, however, mentioned them sending him ahead. It took every ounce of restraint Suji had to resist shouting the "NO!" that immediately rose in her mind. He was her co-Second. She didn't just get to shut him down like that. But the idea of one of them getting separated from the rest was unbearable. Especially in the dark, underwater...

Two things that likely don't bother the koi fish.

Yes, but they bothered her. <<Maybe we can do that,>> Suji said, through the mental equivalent of clenched teeth. <<Fin, what are you? If you're agile enough, I want you to try to swim beside Drake. Drake can drift with the current, but I want you to take point. If something feels wrong, grab him again.>>

It was a sort of compromise. It made the original idea... bearable.


Fin:
<<No problemo,>> Fin said. The otter's playfulness was getting to him but he didn't mind. It was a hell of a lot better than being scared and it wasn't affecting his ability to think, just making him happier. It was like a drug without the nasty side affects. He wondered if, after the war, he could try to find a way to sell it. He'd been a weed dealer back in New Canaan where getting high was the only thing CT kids had to do with their time so he knew how desperate most people were to chase an artificial high.

If he could find a way to package otter happiness, or even better, dog happiness, he would be rich. Too bad his chances of surviving the war or even the day were always small and getting smaller all the time. He often felt like a noose was slowly tightening around his neck. How long could someone survive living in a war anyway?

<<I'm an otter.>> He was surprised Suji didn't know this. He had certainly run around as an otter enough times around the church and she was sure to have noted it at some point. But perhaps it had just slipped her mind. Then again not many things slipped Suji's mind so he had to wonder just how much being in this tunnel was affecting her. And it's not affecting you? a voice asked. Nope! he answered blithely before releasing the koi fish and turning into the current.

Now that he wasn't trying to fight against it he was moving quite fast. It was almost like an underground, water roller coaster and he concentrated on that feeling instead of wondering how long it would be until there was no air left to breath. He quickly darted to the surface and refilled his lungs, hopefully not for the last time. <<Let's go Drake!>>


Aubrey:
The water was surging and rushing around Aubrey's body, jostling her around inside the cramped space of the pipe. In the back of her mind, where the sea lion's instincts were still present, she was feeling the exhilaration of racing through the tunnel. For a girl who had surfed most of her life, being engulfed in churning, erratic water was something she had dealt with before. In fact, she lived for it. But that had been out in the open ocean. That had been in a place where the water was vast and embracing. A place she knew well and loved.

Down here, in the murky dirty tunnel, the water felt different. It threw her soft, round body against the tunnel walls and scraped her fins against its rough sides. It was like a reminder that any second they could run into another set of bars--and Aubrey's large body would be crushed easily against something like that. They had no clue where the water was taking them and no control.

<<It's all right,>>

Suji's thought-speak seemed to draw Aubrey out of her thoughts, and gave her a small bit of comfort. Listening to Suji was something easy enough for Aubrey; Suji was strong, and Aubrey respected that in her. <<I hope so.>>

The bumping of the crocodile against Aubrey's large body continued to intrigue the sea lion's mind. There were other creatures in the water, and the sea lion wanted to see if they were up for playing. And in Drake's case--as he was a fish--if he could be caught and swallowed whole. Aubrey wasn't paying much attention to the urges; instead, she was trying to keep a firm grip on what was happening.

<<...How long can this pipe go?>> Aubrey asked, forcing her tone to be light. What she wanted to ask was if any of them thought they were almost out of this thing. Of course nobody knew. But it made her feel a little better to know that Drake and Fin would go ahead. Maybe it was a little greedy, but that way the group of them would know if some death trap was waiting for them before it hit.


Drake:
Drake followed Fin in near silence. All he said was a, <<yup,>> just so that Fin would know he was following him. Probably. There were no words to describe just how nervous Drake was at that moment, shooting through a pitch black tunnel at high speeds into the unknown. Probably the only thing that was keeping him sane was the koi fish's indifference. Well, besides the fact that it preferred calm and clean water.

Drake tried to stay in contact with Fin as they moved. But in all honesty, Drake could have been keeping tabs on a piece of trash and he would not have known the difference.

It was not long before Drake suddenly felt like he was being pushed in the opposite direction. They must have shot past a turn in the water flow because as he got pushed backwards, he also got pulled to the side. <<New direction! Fin, Where are you?!>> Drake assumed Fin was close by, but he had lost him for a moment in the turbulent water.


Suji:
An otter. Someone had been running the halls as a furry creature, hadn't they? Then that fit. And it meant that he could probably keep up with Drake easily enough, which was the larger concern. Aubrey sounded less panicky, but Suji knew that it was likely just a mask over the fear underneath. Suji knew because it was how she felt, but at least she felt that the situation was now more under control than less, and that helped her secure the fake authority better.

<<It could feasibly connect to the sewer, and then run under the entire city, But there are likely barred off sections keeping it from the sewer like we saw before, and there are probably stops keeping the sewage from ever dumping into the open, unless the Yeerks have rerouted the place.>> It sounded feasible enough, but of course that was because Suji wasn't saying anything any of them couldn't have come up with on their own.

<<Which way are you turning? Fin? If Drake can't tell, you have to tell us which direction you're going in, or we're going to be just as screwed!>> Privately, she said to Aubrey, <<I want you to keep closer to Fin, if you can. I'll be right behind you. We need to know which turns they're taking.>>


Fin:
Fin reached out and touched Drake's fish. <<Right here,>> he said and then moved so that his whiskers were just touching the fish at all times. It was driving his otter mind a little crazy with the desire to eat him but it was better than losing him altogether. <<As for Suji, we are going left. No right. No, I'm just kidding, we actually turned south.....which is left btw.>>

He was running out of air again. He briefly surfaced and was alarmed to feel there was less surface there. The pipe was filling up and they had to get out of her. <<Starting to get a bit tight in here Suji. Where are we going?>>


Suji:
<<We're following you and Drake at the moment. I have no idea where we're going, but I'm hoping it's out. And stop playing around with the directions. Being lost is bad enough, being lost and separated is worse.>> She took a left, though less than gracefully--the crocodile was long, but at least it the tunnels were fairly wide.

Then there was a burbling sound, somehow different from the rushing water before. <<Do you guys hear that? It sounds like there's another exit point for the water around here--I don' t know if it'll lead us out, or where, but what does it sound like to you? Maybe it's just my morph.>>


Aubrey:
<<I'll try,>> Aubrey said in response to Suji. Her large sea lion form had already squeezed past Suji's crocodile before, and it only took a few seconds for Aubrey's whiskers to brush against the small form of Fin. She tried keeping pace with him. At the same time the water changed around her, and she veered left with the rest of them.

<<I think...>> Though the water was splashing and rushing around her, she could pick out the noise Suji was talking about. The difference was small, but it was definitely different from the other sounds of the water. <<Yeah, I hear it too Suji. Kind of a gurgly-bubbly sound.>> Maybe what Suji said was true, and they were close to escaping from the pipe.

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Drake:
Drake was about ready to give in to the water and just let it take him. If he was alone, he probably would have. Granted, what he was doing now was not too different, but at least he was trying to stay with the group. He thought he could feel Fin nearby.

Then they turned another corner and he saw it. Light! It must be an exit, although he cold not be positive with his fish eyes in extremely dirty, moving water. <<Is that the exit!?>> Drake did not wait for an answer and sped towards it. Even he could hear the bubbling sound now. Down the length of pipe... Almost there... Through the bars and he was out! Even with his fish eyes he could see the sunlight, the rain clouds, the buil-

<<Bars!?>>

It took too long for that though to register. Too long for him to warn his companions. He was small enough to fit through, and maybe Fin, but the other two...


Suji:
An exit? Drake's excitement made it sound like that, and Aubrey had confirmed that she heard the change in noise too. Suji's eyes had no problem staying open under the water, and she saw glimpses of light once she was more firmly in the tunnel. The water pressure was much greater here too, surging on its way out. Suji was following not far behind Aubrey when the cry of 'bars!' went up.

<<Shit!>> Suji swerved hard, throwing her tail against the wall of the pipe--which, even full of water as it was, seemed to shudder with the impact for a moment. Her body jammed in the tunnel awkwardly, blocking some of the water flow, which created an almost instantaneously wall of pressure behind her. She was pushed forward, colliding with someone. Probably Aubrey.

All of this served to actually upset the croc's inner tranquility. It was testy now, and she clamped down control on it as tight as possible.


Fin:
Fin ran into the bars nose first. It hurt a little but it was more of an indignant hurt than an actual hurt. Fin felt around the bars with his sensitive paws and then determined he could squeeze through. <<Bars ahead,>> he said calmly as he felt the larger animals on this team run into them. <<Gotta be quicker,>> he said almost to himself as he wiggled through the space between two of his bars. <<I don't know what this otter has been eating but he needs to lose some weight, do some laps around the pond, swim against the river. He's a little paunchy,>> Fin concluded as he finally squeezed through.

The water on the other side was just as turbulent as the water in the tunnels had been but it didn't have a direction attached to the movement and he felt a bigger space around him. He immediately headed up to try to figure out where they were. His head popped above the broiling surface of the sewer lake they were in and he opened his eyes and he took in grateful breaths. There were pipes all along the walls that were spilling their overflow into this chamber. The animorphs had been lucky to be in one that was under water level. Or maybe they were unlucky, time would tell but Fin at least was grateful they hadn't dropped through the air to get in here.

<<We are in a chamber of some sort. I assume Drake is in here too somewhere though I'm not sure where. There is a very small current, at least at this end of the pool but I think it would get stronger towards the big pipe at the end of the chamber. I'm guessing that is where the water is going. So good news, it heads out somehow. Not sure if it is the best option though. Especially since there are working work lights and stairs which is why I can see.>>

He took a breath and swam back down to the tunnel they had come from. HIs eyes were closed so he couldn't see Aubrey or Suji but he felt his way to it along the wall. When his paws encountered bars he stuck his head through. <<So what'chy in for?>> he asked sadly. <<Anyway, how do you want to get out? Don't think humans can fit through here but bugs will, if we can keep you from drowning that is.>>


Aubrey:
<<Bars!?>>

It was perhaps the last word Aubrey ever wanted to hear at the moment. The next thing she heard was Suji cursing, and felt the crocodile's body slam into her own. The sea lion was officially out of play mode and into escape mode. Aubrey wanted to squeeze around Suji and try to fight her way back, against the current, away from the impeding crash with the bars. It was far from working.

In the few seconds after Drake's warning, Aubrey's large form collided with the bars. Since she had been attempting to wiggle her way back, she had turned onto her side. The brunt of the impact was absorbed into the thick layers of sea lion fat, but it still managed to knock a good amount of water from her lungs. A bunch of bubbles were forced from her nose, floating to the surface. Suji's large body was practically pinning her to the bars.

Dazed, and in pain, Aubrey felt the water swirling around her. She heard Fin's words, but couldn't quite grasp at it. After a good long minute of black dots spiraling around in her vision, Aubrey seemed to get a handle on things. <<What.. what do I do?>> The thought-speech was mostly directed towards Suji. Her first instinct was to demorph. But she didn't want to end up human, crushed against a set of bars by a heavy crocodile.


Suji:
<<Clear from the bars if you can. I think there is space if you push under my tail, Aubrey. Just don't be near the bars. You too Fin, you're going to want to move.>> Suji did her best to roll on her side and give Aubrey some more room. The crocodile was surprisingly agile, but it was cramped as hell at the moment.

After some smooshing and wriggling, Suji's snout hit the bars. She did a cursory sweep with her head: no one was too close, as far as she could tell. <<Just say back. I'm going to try to remove these bars, and I don't want any of you too close to the croc's jaws. I doubt any of you want to be there either.>>

That said, Suji waited a moment. She had no idea if this was going to work. She had to hope these bars weren't too strong... Then again, crocodiles had the best crushing power of any animals alive, right? She was practically a goddamn dinosaur. The positioning was just going to be the hard part.


Drake:
Drake had begun demorphing almost as soon as he knew he would not get carried away by the current. There was not much he could do to help as a fish. Although there was probably not much he could do to help as a human, either. But apparently they were not outside like Drake had first though, and were instead inside of some sort of chamber. Drake trusted Fin's judgement better than his own, since Fin likely had much better eyesight with his morph than Drake had as a fish. Underwater. Under dirty, turbulent, flowing water.

Drake was nearly a third of the way demorphed by the time Suji warned them to stay away from her jaws, and he was all to happy to comply. At least now he could get a good look at his surroundings. What Drake thought was sunlight was just normal lighting, what he thought was rain was just water from other pipes, and what he thought were buildings were plain old walls. Drake's heart sunk a little in disappointment, but at least he could see. Unfortunately Aubrey and Suji were not yet in a position to enjoy that luxury. To bad Drake could not do anything to help them, other than stay out of their way.


Suji:
Suji felt Aubrey press by her. Once she was past the crocodile's midsection, Suji felt safe enough to start. This is going to be awkward, she thought. Also possibly painful. With one swish of her large tail, Suji rammed the bars, jaws open. There was a creaking sound, but the bars didn't seem to give. Maybe if she could actually get her jaws around some part...

She rolled the way the reptile would if it was dragging prey underwater, trying to line up her massive jaws vertically with the bars. They fit, though not all the way. Still, it was something. Suji bit down. It was nothing like biting into the soft flesh of a water buffalo, or even the sharp skin of a shark. There was pain in her mouth, but there was also--yes--the bars bent together.

Thrashing with the strong muscles of her throat, Suji pushed forward, biting down again and again on the three bars between her jaws. She worried at the metal even though the crocodile was ready to give up--this clearly wasn't food. Suddenly two of the bars gave, falling to the bottom of the tunnel and then rolling out with dull clinks. The bar in the middle snapped instantly when her jaws crushed it. Turning to her side, she broke through the last remaining bars with much less difficulty that the first two.

<<I need air, I think we're good.>> Suji commented, and then swam through the fresh opening. A jagged piece of metal from one of the bars scraped her belly, but she didn't pay that much mind. The crocodile could hold its breath for quite some time if it wasn't exerting too much energy. Now, though, it wanted to surface and fill its lungs.

With a few thrusts of her tail, Suji rose to the center of large room they were in. She opened her eyes, but it was very, very dark... not pitch black though. She could hear water coming in from different areas. Suji scanned for a light source, and found it: it looked like there was a hallway above them, as well as a catwalk. Probably emergency lighting for any crews that come down. <<I think we're at some kind of maintenance station. There might be a ladder up and out of here somewhere. I'd prefer to search for one before taking my chances in another tunnel.>>


Aubrey:
Squeezing past Suji, Aubrey did her best to try and keep out of the way of the crocodile. The tunnel was small, and she was beginning to feel a bit of claustrophobia creeping up on her. Then, suddenly, Suji's form disappeared past the broken bars. The current pulled Aubrey out along with her. Relieved, Aubrey swam further into the open area.

<<Well that wasn't too fun,>> She mumbled. Smashing into the bars earlier had taken some of the air from her lungs, and she surfaced almost immediately to take in a deep breath. The air was cold and musty, burning in her lungs. Floating along the surface, Aubrey peered through the dim lighting. <<I agree. I'd rather go for the possibility of a ladder instead of another tunnel. I don't really want to run across anymore bars.>>


Fin:
Fin had swam to the top as soon as Suji began thrashing around. He didn't like that crocodile morph. It was big and had way too many teeth. He had seen what it had done to the pigs and, while he could acknowledge that it was useful and dangerous and certain to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, he didn't like that it struck fear into his heart as well. He swam away and up to the surface and just floated on his back in the water waiting for Suji to free herself and Aubrey from the tunnel.

When Aubrey surfaced near him he swam over and patted her. Not for any particular reason, just in greeting and good cheer. As crazy as this day had been (and it was not yet over) it had been pretty fun. How often did you get to explore underground rivers and tunnels. It felt like an adventure that he'd always read about as a kid but never thought he would have.

Fin stayed clear of the croc that had also surfaced and paddled around in the water. Now that there was no fear of suffocation he liked swimming. If it had been sewage he may have felt differently but as far as he could tell it was mostly run off rain water which the otter didn't mind.

Fin paddled over to Drake, his black hair hanging in strands around his face, and patted his head too. <<Free.>> He swam over to a wall and began circling the chamber, counter clockwise looking for a ladder up to the walkway.


Suji:
<<I'm going to demorph, then maybe try morphing my owl.>> Gliding easily through the water, Suji put as much distance between her and the big tunnel at the other end of the chamber as possible. She didn't feel too much of a pull from it, but being 20 feet long probably helped in that area. She began to demorph. <<Aubrey, can you come towards me? When I go owl I want to stay as dry as possible--and I don't want to get carried by any sudden current. It's a small bird, your seal can probably keep it from going under too much.>>

Suji's scales had receded, and she was half the size of the crocodile now. She still had a huge tail, and laying belly down in the water was getting uncomfortable as her neck realigned. That, and as she demorphed, the water got colder and colder. A couple of minutes later, she was a human girl in a big overflow chamber, getting splashed by the spray of the other tunnels feeding in. She could actually see a little better though.

"Fuck, this is cold. I think this is the coldest I've been since I left Chicago. Ugh." She spotted Drake (he looked mostly human, but wading in water might have obscured any fish-like appendages), and Fin zipping around as an otter. Aubrey wasn't too far away either. Suji liked this better now that she wasn't a huge predator. Being human, she could appreciate the playful mammals more... though she did envy Aubrey's seal. It was probably nice and warm.

"Fin?" Suji called out, her voice echoing a bit and getting distorted by the sound of rushing water. "Your bat might actually be better than my owl for this--at least for an aquatic take-off. Water-soaked feathers might not be a good idea." She felt a lot calmer now that they had some room, some light , and some air. "You can hear me, right? What do you think? You'll know more about its capabilities than I would."


Drake:
Drake was human now, doing the doggy paddle. He had never been a strong swimmer, so right now most of his focus was going into staying above the surface. The only real swimming experience Drake had was in nice clean swimming pools, where the water was calm and he could usually touch the bottom. Still, it would be a while before Drake drowned due to exhaustion, and he could always become a fish again if he had to. But that did not stop him from heading towards the wall in order to find a place to hold on.

Luckily he found a crack in the wall that he could use to steady himself. His grip was not very good, but he would not float away. "I can probably help you, Fin," Drake said through chattering teeth. The water was not exactly warm. "I could throw you into the air or something."


Fin:
<<Waterlogged wings won't do me any good either but the water might slide off of flesh better than feathers,>> Fin said as he continued to follow the wall. He swam a bit further, enjoying the feeling of gliding through the cool water before he turned back towards Drake. It was much easier to swim as an otter than to swim as a human so he wanted to be as close to Drake as possible before he demorphed.

He glided up behind him and popped his head out of the water near his face. <<Boo,>> he said, not really putting effort into trying to scare him. He took a breath and then sunk back under the surface as he began to demorph and grow heavier. As the thick fur got sucked back into his skin and the layer of insulating fat disappeared Fin got much colder than he had been before. <<Oh this isn't so fun,>> he said right before his thought speak cut out.

Fingers that were still half webbed clawed through the air as he tried to get back to the surface. His head popped into the darkness as the whiskers shrunk way to nothing and his ears turned back into their normal shape. His tail was the last thing to disappear but since it was below the surface of the water that wasn't really noticeable.

He grabbed onto Drake for a moment while his other hand groped the wall looking for his own crack to cling too. "This just got la-la-lame," he said as the cold began to seep in and his body began shaking. He treaded water for a few moments, resting in between the morphs. "Thanks for the-," his teeth tried to chatter and he clenched his jaw together until they stopped, " for the offer of help." He paused to shake some water free of his curly hair so that it stopped dripping in his eyes. "I think I'll need it. Do you think you can keep me from sinking while I morph?"


Aubrey:
Aubrey floated along the surface, head extended above the water. She felt the small pat from Fin's otter on her head. At least it felt like the worst part of this tunnel ride was over, so far. Her side was throbbing where she had smashed against the bars, and she was beginning to think she may have bruised--broke?--her ribs. Now that she was actually breathing, it was hurting. She could hear a small wheezing sound each time she took a breath through her nostrils.

<<Right-o, Suji.>> Turning her head a little, she drifted towards the large, demorphing crocodile. The sea lion hadn't been sure what to make of the crocodile, but she could feel its curiosity bubbling up over the demorphing creatures all around. However, sadly, there wasn't anymore prey around--the fish was gone.

The water sounded like it was a lot colder than it felt, and Aubrey was thankful that her morph had some layering to keep her warm. She could also feel a gentle pull from the other tunnels, but it was nothing at all compared with the tunnel they had just come out of. Blinking water from her brown eyes, Aubrey began treading water as she waited for either Suji or Fin to start morphing and find the way out. <<Unless I'm needed, I think I might stay as sea lion for a bit. Sounds cold in here.>>


Suji:
Suji clung to one wall as well as she could, trying to stay abreast of the water. She kept getting splashed from the falling water on either sides of her, and her hair stuck to her face. Aubrey was closer now, and Suji felt better. Wading here was taking more energy than she'd realized at first, and she was tired from the morphing and terror from before. It wasn't enough to be dangerous yet, but it wasn't pleasant either, and it was good to know that a sea lion was near enough to help her out if she needed it.

"If it doesn't work Fin, let me know. I'll try out the owl." She fought to keep her teeth from chattering. "Also, if anyone starts getting too tired, either morph or ask for help. Better safe than sorry and all of that." Suji concentrated on trying to grip the wall, but it was slick. She dug into the concrete with her fingernails, and it felt like running them against a chalkboard. A wet chalkboard. "By the way, Fin, in case no one told you. This was Drake's idea."


Drake:
"I can try," Drake said in response to Fin's question. It was difficult to talk and hear over the sound of all the falling water. "Of course, the smaller you get, the easier it will be. I am not sure I can promise anything though." And with that, Drake reached out to make sure he had a firm grip on Fin before he started turning into a bat.

Drake tightened his grip on the small crack in the wall. His fingers were going numb, but he would only have to hold on for a few more minutes, right? Drake peered around the dark dark room as he waited for Fin to morph and noticed just how eerie it looked. The water looked pitch black and he could just barely make out the forms of his teammates poking above the water in the dim light. It almost seemed like a scene from a horror movie.

"This was not my idea," Drake said meekly in response to Suji. "I wanted to explore some tunnels, not drown in rain-filled chamber." Drake knew what she meant, but could not bring himself to admit that he nearly killed them all out of curiosity for the unknown.


Fin:
"Well Drake," Fin said chattering, "way to go." Fin didn't say it to be mean, in fact he meant it to be funny, but he was finding it a little harder to judge what was funny when he couldn't see his team mates reactions. He pulled himself as close to Drake as he could get without things getting awkward and then closed his eyes and began to morph.

The morph was so familiar by now that he didn't think much of it. His ears rotated to the top of his head and got bigger. Brown fur sprouted out all over his body, instantly getting soaked and providing no extra warmth. In fact, as he shrunk and lost body fat he got colder. <<This is like Vancouver all over again,>> he remarked to no one in particular. His tropical bat had not fared well in the Vancouver cold and it wasn't too happy now either.

Fin's teeth stopped chattering as they grew pointed and his nose flattened into a leaf shape, the tip pointing up. He could smell better than he had before but there was nothing to really smell here. As he shrunk and his nails turned into claws Fin scrambled up Drake's arm trying to keep his growing wings dry.

Soon he found himself repeating the earlier scene in the tunnels of sitting on Drake's head. <<De ja vu, huh?>> he asked as he shook himself and tried to shed some of the water on his fur. His small, sharp claws were tangled in Drake's long hair and he hoped he wasn't hurting him.

As dry as he could make himself Fin didn't launch into the air immediately. Instead he fired off a burst of sound and the echoes that came back were fractured and confusing. He flattened his ears against his skull in disapproval. <<Agg, damn water.>> The lake they were in was confusing his sound sight. Some of his sound waves went right through the water while others bounced and the surface of the lake was painted in a silvery, constantly shifting haze in his mind. But it was also somehow affecting the echoes he got back about the chamber in general and all the water falling through the air wasn't helping one bit.

<<Shit.>> Fin said, launching off of Drake's head. Trying to fly in here was like flying half blind but at least it was half blind and not fully blind. <<Give me a minute. If I crash into a wall and die you can try next,>> Fin said has he flapped through the sodden air, fighting for lift.

He managed to make it to the walkway around the top of the chamber and latched onto it. He wondered if any of their bird morphs would be able to make it up here. The bat, which was used to flapping, had hardly made it. He crawled along the metal mesh of the walk way but quickly realized he wasn't going to get very far that way.

<<Demorphing. Gonna look for a ladder or something,>> he reported and began demorphing. Soon he was back to shivering as a human and blind once again. He felt the walkway beneath him and decided that trying to walk along it as a cat would probably be a bit dangerous. The gaps between the bars that made up the walk way were a little big for kitty paws to easily navigate. He would have to settle for feeling his way along as a human. At least there were work lights.

He walked along, the metal digging into his bare feet with each step, squinting into the darkness. "So what else did everyone do today?" He called conversationally down to the others. His voice echoed in the chamber. "I ate some Cheerios and then-" he was cut off as he tripped and stubbed a toe. He cursed quietly before putting his hand back on the railing he'd been following and kept walking. "But we are out of milk so I had to eat them dry. Also, I think we have a winner," he said as he came abreast of a ladder. He looked down it to see if it extended to the water level. It didn't quite but it was close enough. Fin wondered how to signal to the others where he was.

He looked around and spotted one of the work lights. He walked over to it and blocked the light with his body and then moved back and forth so the light flashed on and off. "Can you guys see the flashing light? There is a ladder beneath it. The bottom is about two feet from the surface of the water."


Suji:
Over the water falling around her Suji could only barely hear Fin's voice. He was babbling, something about cereal, which she figured wasn't too important. Instead she focused on waiting to see if he found anything. Suddenly there was a gurgling noise above her, which she couldn't place, and then a torrent of fresh water gushed out above her. Another pipe must have filled enough to start dumping its overflow here. With a tiny blip of a yell, she was pushed under the fresh (well, not so "fresh") gout of water, and nearly panicked when she felt the sting of it going up her nose. Swimming in the dark was not fun.

Suji resurfaced more towards the middle of the chamber--at least that was her assumption, according to her new position relative to the light she'd been able to see before. Her teeth were chattering now and she couldn't stop them completely. "A-Aubrey? Can you l-lead me to some part al-l-long the wall? A-another pipe opened where I was." Even if chattering meant showing just how cold she was, she was somewhat glad for it. Maybe it would hide the wave of fear that being submerged again, in the dark, had seized around her heart.

Then she head Fin's voice, this time the tone was slightly different. Whatever he was saying must have been more important than Cheerios. After listening to him, she looked up, searching for a blinking light. She could just see it from where she was, though the ladder that must have been below it was too deep in the shadows to make out from here. Two feet above the water? That shouldn't be too bad. They should all be able to reach that easily. It would probably be slippery though.

"O-okay. Aubrey, i-if you take me over there, I'll climb out first. Then you can l-lead Drake over. D-do you mind going last?" Suji outstretched her arms, hoping to meet the somewhat rubbery feel of an aquatic mammal.


Aubrey:
Aubrey felt a wave of new water filter into the room, colder than before. She dipped her head under, then emerged blinking the water from her eyes. The current wasn't enough to pull her anywhere, so she wasn't too worried. However, she had noticed Suji's disappearance. A brief moment of panic gripped her, thinking Suji might have been swept away with the water. Turning her head, Aubrey searched around the chamber in the dim light. Once she spotted Suji near the middle, she felt herself relax.

<<Alright, sure. I don't really mind, just as long as I can get out too.>> Aubrey said. She was morphed anyways, and she didn't mind helping. Swimming slowly over to Suji, she felt her hand connect with the slick fur of her shoulder. <<Right-o, this way.>> Once that was done, she began leading Suji towards the wall.


Suji:
"Tha-anks," Suji said. The feel of the sea lion was reassuring, though also oddly curious. It was like being picked in an aquarium show to come up and pet the animal. She'd always been intensely jealous of the kids who got to do that on field trips. Looking back sometimes it was hard to know if that had been because she was just a normal kid who wanted to poke at the dolphins, or if it just some sort of removed scientific interest. Couldn't it have been both? She asked herself, and then put the question aside. It didn't help right now.

With one hand on Aubrey's back, Suji swam awkwardly towards the place where the light was blinking. A few times unexpected water (it was hard to judge what small waves were about to hit you in the dark) splashed into her face. She swallowed more than a couple mouthfuls of the rather un-tasty water. After what felt like a trip across the North Atlantic--by rowboat--Suji reached the wall. She stuck one hand up blindly, reaching around for the end of the ladder. With a thud, her knuckles collided with it.

She let out and instinctive wince, though it didn't really hurt. She was too numb... at least there was some benefit to the onset of hypothermia. "I g-got it. You should go help D-Drake. T-Thanks," she said again, and began to pull herself out of the water. Her limbs were tired, and she felt that all the more acutely when she was dragging her water-soaked, freezing body up the ladder. It was slick under her feet and she clung her body to it as best she could, taking each rung slowly. It would probably be a few moments before Drake got over here to climb up behind her, so she was taking her time. Better to go a bit slowly than to fall back into the water.


Fin:
After Fin flew away, Drake waited silently in the water. He still had his handhold on the wall and he did not want to let go in case he could not find it again. Drake was chilled to the bone, but knew that if he managed to stay conscious, he could morph away any other ill effects the water was causing. That was one good thing about being an animorph. Free health care. Although Drake had a feeling that their dependancy on morphing to stay healthy would come back to haunt them one day.

Drake's thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of his teammates. Apparently they had found a ladder. Thank goodness, Drake thought to himself as he attempted to see the ladder in the darkness. It was no use. However, he eventually spotted what must have been Suji floating somewhat above the water's surface. That must have been were the ladder was. Drake began to use the doggy paddle to swim over to the escape. He was too busy swimming and freezing to death to say anything as he moved.


Fin:
Fin reached down as Suji reached the top of the ladder and gripped one cold, wet arm and helped her the rest of the way up onto the walkway. "Ho liege lady," he said cheerfully in greeting. "So I found a way up to the walk way but not up to the surface. Want me to look for a way out of here or stay here and help with the others while you do it?"

He looked back down and realized he couldn't really see Drake or Aubrey down there and figured they might not be able to see them either. He began waving his hand back and forth in front of the light again to create the flashing effect. He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard another pipe start adding to this chamber's contents. The sound of mini waterfalls was already all encompassing that it was really a moot point. He wondered if overflow chambers could overflow themselves. "Hey guys, just wait another half an hour and you can swim up here," he called down to the others. "Joke, it was a joke," he said as he saw Suji's expression. He wasn't sure if it was caused by just being wet and cold, because she was annoyed with him or it may have even just been the shadows on her face playing tricks but he decided to add a disclaimer anyway.


Suji:
Suji stood on the walkway shivering. The metal under her feet was cold, though probably not as cold as the water. "There's a d-draft up here," she said, turning back and forth, as if looking for a source in the dim light. It was only barely noticeable, but when you were wet, it was easier to feel stuff like that. She rubbed her arms in a vain attempt to return feeling to them. Groping for the safety bar along the walkway, she called down to Drake and Aubrey. "Hey, w-when you guys get up here, you might want to m-m-morph to get dry."

She didn't add what she also meant: that they were likely all hypothermia cases, and morphing would help that too. "You should st-stay and help the others--there's enough l-light up here that I sh-should be able to test out my owl. And I gotta morph. I'm f-freezing." Fin had also spent at least a bit less time swimming in the cold than her, he probably had more of his strength left. Suji closed her eyes and tried to shut out the shivering, focusing on the tiny owl.

Finally she began to shrink, though the morphing was going slower than normal. It wasn't the exhaustion so much as the cold: Suji was pretty decent with endurance morphing, ever since her flight to Chicago and the two or three sleepless days she spent from David and Karl to the Toby crisis. At least the feathers that erupted from her skin were warm and dry.


Aubrey:
Suji made it up to the ladder, and Aubrey turned her head to look for Drake. He was attempting to swim over to the wall, and so Aubrey slowly floated over until her nose bumped against his arm. Her breathing was still bothering her--her breaths were coming out in small wheezes--but some point soon she'd be demorphing. That is, if the current didn't decide to whisk her away at the last minute.

In the corner of her eye, she could see the flickering light far above. <<Ahah hah hah. Yeah.>> Another wave of fresh water poured into the chamber, drawing Aubrey forward to bump against Drake. <<Omph, sorry.>> Swimming around against the small current, Aubrey moved up alongside Drake's shivering, paddling form. <<Kay Drake. Grab ahold and I'll help you get over to the wall.>> Once he did that, she'd lead him over to where the ladder was.


Drake:
Drake grabbed hold when Aubrey instructed him too. He would have said thanks, but he was too busy concentrating on keeping his head above the water. Once he had a good hold on Aubrey, it was a pice of cake getting to the ladder. Aubrey was practically a living paddle board. However, once they got to the ladder, it still took Drake a couple moments to find it hanging in the air above him.

Drake grabbed hold and pulled himself up. His arms were extremely tired by this point, but he was not about to give up now. Once he got one foot on the ladder, he lowered his other leg down into the water. "Y-you can hold my leg while you d-demorph if you want," he said to Aubrey. He was freezing and wanted to get up top and morph into something warm, but he did not want to leave Aubrey in the dark water to be swept away either. As soon as she got a hold on the ladder, he would climb up it to where Fin and Suji were.


Fin:
Fin gave Suji a thumbs up and turned to look back down the ladder and he began to whistle. If someone called him on it he would have said he was doing to help Drake, Aubrey and Suji know where he was but the truth was he was doing it because he enjoyed it.

He wasn't sure what song he was whistling, just a tune stuck in his head somewhere, but the sound comforted him. He had used to whistle all the time, it was his way of making music without having to sing, without having to admit that he liked singing, a form of expression that had always felt too personal for his liking.

He didn't like sharing and he didn't like showing anyone anything less than a cheerful demeanor at all times. To be anything less than calm and happy seemed like admitting defeat to him. There was plenty of things in this world that were fucked up, why feel bad about them? It wouldn't stop them from happening just because you had shown everyone that this latest tragedy had affected you personally. All that did was show people a weakness, one they would remember and one they would use....eventually. Even those that cared for you hurt you. Most times they hurt you worse than a stranger ever could because they knew where to aim.

Fin tried to make sure no one knew where to aim.

"Need any help down there?" he called as Suji finished her morph. Fin turned and could hardly see the small puff ball of feathers sitting on the railing in the dim light. He held out a hand to the small owl, offering Suji a launching pad if she needed it.


Aubrey:
Aubrey didn't have hands to speak of yet, and so she bit down gently on his leg to keep herself anchored so she wouldn't float away or sink down. Concentrating, Aubrey felt her fur begin to recede all along her body. Her back fins split her spine down the center, forming into human legs. The sea lion's blubber began to melt off, and she shivered as the cold of the water sucked the heat from her limbs. Her front fins began to melt and extend, forming fingers and hands. Releasing her hold, she brought her hands around and gripped Drake's leg with her hands. As she grew smaller, she felt the current from the tunnels pulling at her.

"Got it..." Aubrey said, as her mouth formed. "T-Thanks Drake." Fully human, Aubrey reached up until her fingertips connect with the ladder. Curling her hand around a rung, she hoisted herself up. "We got it, we're coming up." She called up to the other two, climbing up behind Drake.


Suji:
After what felt like ages, Suji felt the owl's mind bubble up underneath her own. There. Finished. She opened her eyes, and almost let out a yelp of surprise. Everything was so clear! How long had it been since she'd used this morph? She hadn't had any night patrols since coming to Dallas, plus she'd been relying on her vulture mostly for flying anywhere, given that the thermals were so good and there seemed to be other vultures around. Ah, she'd missed this. Though the last time she'd used it for an extended period of time had been half a world away in Indonesia. That mission didn't recall very many fond memories.

Suji began turning her head side to side, scanning the chamber. It looked a lot less impressive when she could actually see all of it--seemed smaller than it had when she'd been freezing her ass off in the well of water. She saw Drake come up the ladder, and then Aubrey. Fin offered her help, but Suji declined. <<I think I'm okay--it's a lot drier up here. Besides, small as they are, don't think my talons would tickle on bare skin.>>

Flapping for lift, Suji pushed off. The air was sodden, but she'd flown this thing in a downpour before, and this was nothing compared to that. <<Let me know when you guys have morphed, I'll start heading back as you demorph. If I find anything, I'll shout.>> With that she set off down one of the hallways, turning clumsily in the air. Inwardly, she resolved to keep track of any turns she took.


Drake:
Drake began climbing the ladder as soon as he was sure Aubrey was going to make it up alright. It was a longer climb than he expected. Every rung of the ladder felt like a mile up the side of the mountain. If Drake had not just gotten done swimming for his life in a pitch black tunnel, did some morphing, and swam in a water-filled room with a current, the ladder would not have been a problem. Unfortunately for Drake, he had done all those things.

By the time he got to the top he felt as if his arms were made of jelly. He hung his torso over the edge of the landing and rested for a moment on its metallic floor. If Aubrey was not coming up behind him, he probably would have stayed there for a while longer. "A little help?" Drake asked Fin, reaching out his arm towards him. Drake felt like if he exerted any more energy than necessary he could pass out. He probably would be just fine, but that is how he felt.


Fin:
Fin reached down and grabbed Drake's arm and began hauling him to his feet. The arm almost felt like it was shaking and it was cold to the touch. Then again his hands weren't much warmer and felt a little numb. Combined with the water on Drake, Fin was having a hard time getting a grip on him but he managed.

He acquired the faction mate almost without thought. It was such a common thing to him now to add to his human DNA bank that he no longer even had moral qualms about it and never gave a thought to the consequences if someone was to find out what he was doing.

He patted Drake on the back. "You were a little slow on that last lap buddy. If you want to be Michael Phelps one day you have to do better but good try."


Aubrey:
Aubrey slowly pulled herself up the ladder after Drake, feeling the muscles of her arms burning. She felt tired, mentally and physically. After Drake cleared the ladder, Aubrey hauled herself over it and onto the metallic floor. Shivering, she rested a couple seconds. The cold felt like it was seeping the energy out of her bones, she just wanted a hot shower and maybe a nap. "Man that water is cold." Rubbing her arms with her hands, she looked around in the dim light, but there wasn't much to see.

Concentrating, thick fur began sprouting down along her body. Her spine extended into a tail, filling in with fur as it curled over and touched her back. Her legs twisted backwards, and hands melted together to become dog paws. After a few more minutes she was an Alaskan Malamute, sitting on the ground. Everything felt much drier and warm, and she was thankful for that. Tilting her head back a little, her nose twitched as she took in the scents of the small room. Smelled like dirty rain water and slime. <<I'm morphed.>>


Drake:
Drake was too tired to respond to Fin's comment when he was pulled up the ladder. That, and he felt a bit... tingly? The water must have been getting to him. When Drake saw Aubrey starting to morph he decided it was probably a good idea. He mustered up all of his remaining energy and concentrated on the form of a turkey vulture. Hopefully that would warm him up some.

The morphing process went extremely slow, but Drake had no reason to rush so he was taking his time. He felt his bones hollow out and his head went bald and red. Next his feet molded into the clawed feet of the scavenger bird and his arms began to shrink. Then a feather pattern etched itself over his morphing flesh and erupted in a wave of warmth. As soon as he finished shrinking, he was a vulture. <<Me too,>> he said in response to Aubrey's comment.


Suji:
Suji cut through a couple turns, but the path was increasingly well lit, and it was dry. This definitely had to lead to some sort of entrance, it wasn't part of a pipe. Turning a sharp corner, Suji almost collided with a metal bar protruding from one side of the tunnel. Banking around it, when she turned she saw that it was in fact a ladder. It led a long ways up... had they really gotten so deep?

Could leader up to a whole different area of the city, she thought, not without some concern. Still, she was anxious to be out of this place. Drake and Aubrey said they were morphed. Suji began to flap back to them. <<Found a way out,>> she called out to the group. <<At least it's a ladder going up. We'll have to be careful when we leave--if it opens up anywhere populated we might have to keep searching down the worker's tunnel for another stop.>> She did not like that idea much at all, but she figured she would warn them.

It wasn't too much longer that she came upon a vulture and a husky and Fin.