Training

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Rian:
Rian stood outside the Haunt in the early morning sunlight. In fact it was the light of dawn. He looked out over the water, the sun at his back and watched the patterns the light made on the waves.

He wasn't a morning person at all. In fact if he had been told to to be up this early he never would have been able to do it. Instead he had just stayed up since last night. When false dawn had arrived, and he had had some light to work with, he had prepared the area around the Haunt for training the new recruits. He had even set up some things for Matt to train with, though they were off to the side so that he wouldn't be part of the regular exercises.

He turned away from the water and looked around one last time to make sure everything was as it should be and then walked towards the Haunt. He didn't really have a guide for how to train new animorphs so he was kind of making it up as he went along. However this technique seemed to work for all armed forces, at least it did in the movies.

He tapped on Matt's door and stuck his head in to wake him up so that he wouldn't be part of what was about to happen and then he walked up to the attic. He found Jullian sleeping quite soundly in one of the three beds. He looked relaxed, calm, peaceful.

I hope this works and doesn't backfire on me, was his last thought before he took a big breath and then roared, "What are you doing still in bed! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW! UP, UP, UP, RECRUIT! TIME FOR TRAINING!

Jullian:
"Why no Daniel Craig, I did not know you worked out. I thought you just looked like that naturally."

"Jullian, did anyone ever tell you how cute you are. I mean really, you could have anyone you wanted. You're cutter than me."

"You think so Daniel Craig. I try."

"It's working for you. You should really WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"

Jullian jumped about a foot off his bed, fell off the side of it and landed on the floor, all dreams of Daniel Craig gone. "Wha-" was all he managed to say. His mind still clouded by sleep. He rubbed his eyes and tried to understand the voice that was screaming at him. Training? What?

Rian:
"OUTSIDE IN FIVE MINUTES WITH YOUR MORPHING SUIT ON!" He turned and walked back down the stairs. He hoped Jullian would be shocked enough that he would follow without really thinking about it. That was the point of waking people up like this, at least he thought that is why they did it.

He came to a stop outside of Ember's room and paused. Did he really want to do this? He knew the new recruit had a bit of a temper, not to mention bad dreams. Did he really want to wake her up this way? He didn't want to scare her off, he didn't want her to decide that the animorphs weren't for her and run off. That would be bad. The ruthless part of him did not like the idea of Ember running off with a morph-capable body, even if it was her own. The more human side of him would feel badly if she left because of something he did.

Still he couldn't treat her any differently than he treated Jullian, it wouldn't be fair. So, hoping that their brief conversation would be enough to keep her from attacking him, he stepped into her room. Still he only stepped inside the door and stopped, far out of her range.

She too was sleeping and, hoping that he wasn't interrupting her first sound sleep, he took a deep breath and began to yell. "WAKE UP RECRUIT! WHY ARE YOU LAZING AROUND IN BED WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE UP AND TRAINING. IN YOUR MORPHING SUIT AND OUTSIDE IN FIVE MINUTES!"

Done he turned and left the room.

Ember:
"AHH! Geezus christ!!" THUD. Ember was out of bed, or to be more exact, she was tangled in the bedsheets on the floor. Scraping and tugging her head free, she blearily looked around for the source of the yelling. For a second she thought it had been in her dream... but then she realized that she knew that voice, on a much quieter decibel. "Rian?"

That's when it hit her. "TRAINING? WHAT??? Oh no! No no no no NO!" Pulling her way out of the sheets she managed to reach the door, but he was already gone when she got there. "Nooooooo" Her groan resonated off the walls. "I knew it. I knew this was a bad idea. There had to be a trick, I just knew that there would be." A glance in the mirror confirmed her worst fears. Ember, above all, was not a morning person. But she grabbed the wetsuit and a hair brush, wielding it like a weapon. "I'm gonna kill him. I hate to do it, but some things just have to be done!"

Rian:
Rian waited calmly for the new recruits to meet him outside. They probably didn't like him much right now but that was ok. They weren't suppose to. The first day was about respect, not liking and as much as he hated to admit it, both Jullian and Ember had a authority problems which would not work if they were going to be going into battle together. Rian didn't want to be given an order to do something dangerous with Ember or Jullian as back up and have them decide they didn't want to watch his back.

So he didn't mind if they didn't like him today. They would like him later, today they would learn to morph to the best of their ability. And hopefully that would keep them alive, he added quietly to himself.

Jullian:
Jullian scrambled up and yanked his morphing suit off the floor next to his bed where he had left it. He hurried to pull it on and tried to walk at the same time. This resulted in his falling flat on his face. 'I'm going to kill Rian. I mean as in dead. I thought I liked him but now I've changed my mind. No one interrupts my Daniel Craig time. That is just over the line.'

He managed to get the suit on and stood up and ran downstairs. He almost ran into Ember on his way out of the Haunt and she looked as mad as he felt.

He got outside to find Rian standing there calmly. "Alright Rian! What's the deal?! A good morning wouldn't have worked?"

Ember:
Ember pushed roughly past Jullian to get to Rian, poking him heartily in the chest with her hair brush. "Hey! Just because I made eggs with you does NOT mean I want to be woken up at..." Blinking, she looked around for a watch "What time is it? The crack of daylight? I don't even think that counts on a normal clock!" While she talked she swung the hairbrush around wildly, having yet to actually use it. Her night shirt slipped off her shoulder and she had to rearrange holding the wetsuit and the brush to tug it back into place.

Looking over she noticed the runt already had his on. What a goody two shoes, didn't he know that teenagers were naturally insubordinate? Actually, she wasn't sure why she'd brought hers out here... From their meeting she'd liked Rian, even begun to respect him. It was in that frame of mind that she'd grabbed the suit, but now she could see that he was not the same person in daylight. He was probably trying to intimidate them. Ugh, like she needed another guy trying to tell her what to do.

Rian:
Rian was amused when Ember poked him with a hair brush. Then she began ranting about the early hour. Inwardly he agreed with her but outwardly he couldn't.

He didn't yell this time. Instead he spoke softly so that they would have to strain to hear him. "Why don't you have your morphing suit on. In fact why are you wasting valueble time talking to me when you could be getting your morphing suit on. If the yeerks had attacked us would you still be standing there ranting about how early it was. No, in fact you should already be half way morphed and either ready to fight or to run. So again I must ask you why you are still unprepared."

As he had been talking he had begun to morph into his kestrel form. He concentrated on keeping his mouth human until the last moment. When he had finished talking to Ember he let his mouth morph with the rest of him.

<<Ember, get that suit on and get in the air. If I was a hork bajir you would be dead by now. Jullian, you too. Go seagull. Get in the air people!"

Jullian:
Jullian scowled at Rian and Ember alike. This was no way to start a morning. Already it seemed everyone was angry. He got the dubious pleasure of seeing a half Rian half kestel talk to a very angry young woman in a night gown. That was not Jullian's ideal way to spend a morning.

"Forget this. I'm going back in side. We can just as easily train as soon as I get some more sleep." He turned to go back into the Haunt.

Rian:
Rian, now fully kestrel, worked to get off the ground and landed on the roof covering the porch.

<<You can go back inside Jullian but if you don't learn to morph then you might not make it back from a mission. This isn't a game, you don't have the option of just quitting. You took on a responsibility. So what's your choice, go back inside and laze around while all of us are out here working to learn new skills that might save our lives, your life and the human race, or stay and learn something?>>

Matt:
"Come on people," Matt siad coming outside in his morphing suit. He was roughly as crabby as everyone else not being a morning person at all, but he'd put on a good face and train just like the rest. He wasn't above his faction members in anything but rank and he was going to make that a point. "I'm training too, Rian woke me up just like the two of you. No one around here is getting any more sleep than anyone else is."

With this he began to shrink and turned into his ferret morph. The first thing to sprout was his tail, giving him a very amusing appearance. Why can't I ever morph and not make it look amusing? He pushed the question aside though and finished the fairly smooth transition to the ferret morph he'd acquired. Once done he wandered over to the course Rian had set up for him. <<Now I need to figure this thing out.>> And he began to circle the course looking for how to get through it. Mostly he was hoping to set an example right now and get Ember and Jullian to follow in suit.

Ember:
Ember grabbed Jullian roughly by the neck and dragged him back outside. "Oh no you don't. You stay out here and keep Captain Kestrel busy. I'm going to go change and when I get back there's going to be hell to pay. If you don't want to face it, you'd better get your - in the air!" She stopped herself from swearing at him. After all, even an early morning was no reason to not behave like a lady. It was for that exact reason she did not also change right in front of them, although completely unashamed, fearing it might traumatize the kid. And she didn't want to make a habit of it.

Locking the door behind her, it took barely three seconds for her to strip and re-clothe. The rest of the ten were spent checking hair and removing smudges from the previous days makeup. Then she was back outside, morphing into her Cardinal as she walked, getting better and better, or at least at that one. Ember and her morph had a unique bond and similar goals, so much so that she was considering changing her favorite color to red.

Up in the air she chased after Rian, not waiting to see if Jullian would catch up. She was a fighter, and although she didn't like it, training could give her an edge. And if she worked hard enough, then perhaps she could finally stop being patronized. The boys may have a head start on her but she planned to put that to the test soon enough. <<Alright Rian, you got me up and angry. You'd better have something good for me to vent on.>>

Jullian:
Jullian hadn't needed Ember to haul him back outside. Rian's little speech had been enough. He had always been the baby of his family. Everyone had always taken care of him. You would think he would have loved it but instead it just frustrated him. No one had ever given him any responsibility, no one had ever counted on him before.

Rian's speech made him realize that his team mates were counting on him now. This was the first time anyone had ever trusted him with anything important so he wasn't going to screw it up.

While Ember took forever to change he morphed into a seagull. The morph was a new one and one he wasn't happy about. Jullian didn't like the idea of flying at all but even he had to admit that a flying morph would come in handy.

He concentrated on the picture of a seagull and felt the changes begin. The first thing to happen was the shrinking. He was glad. It was pretty gross to morph but it was worse when you were morphing at full size. At least it would be harder to see the disgusting changes. Then he remembered Rian was in a falcon morph and would be able to see the smallest details no matter what. 'Too bad for Rian.'

The next thing to change was his legs. Even as he shrunk they began to grow hard and scaly. Jullian sighed inwardly. There was just no way to make any of this look pretty. As he had that thought feather patterns began to be drawn on his skin. He was surprised to find how beautiful they looked. 'Ok, so it's not all bad.'

The feathers soon went three dimensional even as the rest of him changed. His internal organs moved, squished, some disappeared. His eyes moved away from each other and took up new locations on the side of his head. His nose and mouth melded together and began to form the hard beak of the seagull.

Lastly his finger bones elongated and hollowed out. His arms reshaped themselves to form wings and his breast bone grew in proportion to support them. Three minutes later he was done.

He flapped up to the roof and landed next to Rian. Then they waited for Ember. And then they waited some more.

Rian:
Rian perched on the roof and tried to figure out how things were going so far. They seemed to be going ok. No one was having a good time but that would change with practice. And Jullian had decided to train. Whether it had been his words or Matt's appearance he didn't know but that was fine.

The only thing that had really gone wrong was Ember taking 10 minutes to change. Well he had a solution to that. When she got back outside he waited for her to join them on the roof. He had used the time she was changing to tell Matt about the obstacle course.

<<It's not just obstacles you have to get around. There are a bunch of things buried all over the beach. 10 things to be specific.>> If Rian was human he would have smiled. No doubt Matt remembered the 10 flags. 10 just seemed like a good round number to him. <<Your ferret morph should be good at finding the items. They are all different though and I hid them in different morphs hoping my scent wouldn't be too obvious.>>

Then he turned his attention to Ember and Jullian. <<Alright, you may have noticed that it took Matt and I a lot less time to be ready. That's because we already had our morphing suits on. You never know when you are going to need to morph so the first lesson of the day is wear your morphing suit all the time. Get some extras if you can so that you can alternate and wash them. You two might even have to wear some of the scruffy morphing stuff we have in the store room.>>

With that he lifted off and worked for altitude in the cool morning air. As he did he called back to the two. <<First exercises are gonna be easy. First we want to make sure you can fly before learning any fancy flying. This isn't an insult to you. When I first morphed an air morph I fell flat on my beak because I was trying too hard to control the bird. The bird knows how to fly, you don't, so let it fly for you. We are going to play a game of follow the leader. So on me, let's get some altitude.>>

Matt:
<<Hidden items eh? This could be interesting. Reminds me of that contest with the flags back in Chicago. That was before I got the ferret morph though.>> Matt watched the birds for a moment, wanting to see what Rian had planned for the other faction members. He was already ratting them out for not being ready quickly, which Matt suspected would make them not very happy with his most experienced member. Matt didn't think this would affect his popularity any though. He was still doing his usual, try to set the good example and be everyone's friend at the same time. Keeping this in mind he decided it was time to get to work on the obstical course.

The ferret turned to the first obsticle, a wooden plank creating a balance beam. The beam was just big enough for Matt to cross and he suspected there wasn't an item below it since Rian had put the beam over a puddle. The object was to not fall in and the first item would probably come after this. <<You really know how to test a person's control on a morph. I've never done a balance beam in ferret morph before.... not that I can stay on one as a human either.>> With this Matt started accross. Maybe Rian wasn't going to be very popular with Jullian and Ember, but he was going to be sure that this faction knew every trick their morphs had. That wasn't a bad thing when it came to emergency escapes.

Jullian:
Jullian lifted off from the roof and followed Rian's kestrel into the sky. He still wasn't happy about what was going on but at least he was starting to wake up a bit.

He dropped off the roof and had a moment of panic before his wings caught him but then he began to fly. 'Ok, this is cooler than I thought it would be.' His pristine white wings beat the cool morning air letting him go higher and higher. The first exercise seemed to be about getting height. 'Ok that's not too hard.'

Five minutes later when he was still flapping and his wings felt like they were about to fall off he decided he hated Rian again, and he was made for flapping, at least more than a falcon or Ember's cardinal. He wondered how she was doing.

Stevert:
Steve Kinley had been heading toward Los Angeles for days, ever since the tips he was given by the free refugees about a human resistance based in L.A. He was wandering along the beach in the early morning, just after the crack of dawn and was just enjoying the day as much as he could before he entered the city. He kept walking along the beach until he saw something in the distance. He walked for several minutes before he figured it out that it was a house. The house looked abandoned so he decided to raid it and salvage whatever he could. He went inside and walked immediately to the kitchen, which was only separated from the living room by a counter.

When Steve looked in the cabinets and the refrigerator, he discovered that they were fully stocked with fresh food. What if this house isn't abandoned after all?he thought. He decided to go ahead and take as much food as he could. Suddenly, he heard a noise from the front of the house. He went to the door and cautiously looked out. The only things out there were a couple of birds., but it was kinda weird the way they kept staring at him so he decided to go back inside to finish what he started. When he got back into the kitchen, the front door slammed. Steve whirled around and saw four people standing there. Quickly he grabbed the funny-looking gun that he took from the person who killed his brother and aimed it at the people.

Matt:
Matt had been sniffing in the sand for the first object when he saw the boy approach. The kid went straight into the Haunt as if it was abandoned, not that it didn't look like it was. That was the point of using it as their headquarters. <<Guys,>> he sent to Ember, Rian, and Jullian <<we have an unexpected visitor who just invaded our home. I think we need to make it clear that this house isn't as abandoned as it looks.>>

With this the furry ferret who was their leader left the course Rain had set up to investigate the house. He was actually kind of pissed because they all needed the training and now they would need to deal with whoever the invader was. They would have to return to their session later, though not all of them since they'd need to tie the kid up and set a gaurd on him. They couldn't let him escape if he was a controller because their hideout would be compromised.

Matt got to the steps just as the kid came out again and stared at the kestral, cardinal, and seagull that were the members of the faction. Matt was just out of his view, hidden by the edge of the deck. The kid retreated back inside and Matt said <<Everyone demorph. We'll catch him by surprise. He's probably guess from what the inside looks like that the Huant is inhabited, but he won't expect us to turn up out of nowhere. He saw birds... and I don't think he saw the ferret, but I'm not sure.>> While talking Matt was already demorphing and his mouth returned just as he finished this. He wouldn't say anything more since he didn't want to risk the kid hearing him.

When the others had demorphed they all entered the Haunt, someone accidentally slamming the door shut as they all got inside. The kid whirled around and pointed a dracon beam at the four members of the L.A. Faction. Matt kept a very cold look on his face and stepped forward a little from his faction members. They made quite a group to look at with Ember and Jullian in wetsuits and Rian and Matt in the skin tight clothes that were their morphing suits. "You have some explaining to do, like what you're doing in our home. I'd point that dracon beam somewhere else. You don't seriously want to mess with us." Matt could look kind of threatening when he wanted to, even with looking younger than his 17 years of age and wearing an a-shirt and skin tight shorts.

Rian:
Rian had been the first to spot the boy walking down the beach. His kestrel morph was one of the few birds of prey that was good at flapping. It often hovered for minutes at a time while hunting and so he hadn't had a completely bad time of it. Still his wings were aching by the time he reached the height he wanted and he imagined Jullian's and Ember's weren't doing any better.

<<Alright, first rule of flying, height equals distance and speed. So if you->> he stopped in mid sentence as his keen falcon eyes spotted the boy in the distance. This was bad. No one came this far out of the city, there was nothing out here for them. That was why the Haunt was a good hiding place. This boy probably wasn't out here randomly. He could be a controller, probably was a controller.

If the three of them stayed up here they might have a better chance of attacking him, turning their height into speed and going for his eyes, but Matt was down on the ground and what if the boy got to him first.

He was about to call down to Matt for directions when the kid made up their minds for them by going into the Haunt. <<Guys>> he heard Matt's voice in his head, no doubt Ember and Jullian heard it too, <<we have an unexpected visitor who just invaded our home. I think we need to make it clear that this house isn't as abandoned as it looks.>>

<<Alright boy and girl,>> Rian said, directing his thought speak to his faction mates, <<you heard Matt, down we go. Let the bird land. Learned that the hard way.>> They flew down and landed on the railing that surrounded the porch outside the Haunt. When the kid came out he saw a kestrel, a cardinal, and a seagull watching him and decided to go back inside.

Matt came up and told them all to demorph. When they were human they slipped quietly inside the door. Might have taken him by surprise but someone hit the door and it slammed shut behind them. The kid was surprised alright, but the bad kind of surprised where he turned around and pointed a dracon beam at them.

Matt stepped up and told the kid to drop the weapon.

Rian stepped up to stand right behind Matt. He had seen what a dracon beam could do and he wasn't about to let Matt get vaporized. If it came to it he could push Matt out of the way and hopefully get out of the way himself, but to be honest Matt was more important than him. I really wish I had some dangerous morph to get this guy with or even was a fox, foxes are quicker than humans.

<<Matt,>> he said in thought speak only Matt would hear, <<do you want me to try to jump him and get that dracon beam away from him?>> Rian didn't use thought speak often, actually never. It made him feel like his body was fake, just a morph. But technically it was a morph and he could use thought speak if the situation was dire. An unknown boy standing in their hideout with a dracon beam pointed at their leader's chest seemed pretty dire to Rian. <<Just nod yes or no.>>

Ember:
"Ow Ow OW..." The rythym of Ember's complaining matched the beat of her wings. She'd managed to glide most of the training but her cardinal was easily distracted and she had to fight the whole way to keep on course, which naturally was not easy to do so early in the morning. Left... right... up.. down... yawn. Then they started going so high she'd caught herself before thought-shouting at Rian, noticing that he was having a hard time of it too. Well if he could grunt it out there was no way she was being left behind!

Suddenly she heard Matt's voice and looked back to see some guy in their house. Oh Hell NO.

Sure it was an odd blessing that she got to go back down and demorph, but she did it really well, managing to demorph midair and keep running once she touched ground (very difficult) yet nobody even noticed! She decided to take out her aggressions on the stranger/house wrecker. The three of them met Matt inside only to end up not kicking as much tail as she'd hoped. Instead they got the wrong end of a dracon beam pointed at them.

"Yeerk Scum" She growled under her breath, taking a slight step in front of Jullian. Rian and Matt had already stepped up to take first dibs, but if something went wrong she could at least do her part and get the kid out. In the meantime she used her favorite trick and cracked all of her knuckles with an eerily cute smile. It didn't matter that she was too far away to jump him if he decided to use that weapon, or that she was barely able to stand after such rigorous training, this is what she'd signed up under the animorphs for and she'd be damned if the opportunity to intimidate a yeerk passed her by.

That just left what Matt and Rian were going to do. She sincerely hoped it wasn't anything stupid.

Jullian:
Flap, flap, flap, gliiiiiiiide, flap, flap, flap, gliiiiiide. Jullian's world had reduced to the movement of his wings and nothing else. He was so tired and he just wanted to glide right down but he couldn't. He was almost surprised enough to run into Ember when Rian leveled off and started lecturing them about height and speed.

Jullian tried to pay attention but then Rian cut off. Jullian had no idea why and he just floated in the air waiting for something to happen. It was actually much easier to ride the air currents up here than getting up here had been so now he wasn't in so much of a rush.

That all changed when he heard Matt's voice in his head. 'Intruder? What?' Matt's thought speak voice seemed calm. Much calmer than Jullian felt. He was very glad to be listening to orders and not have to give them.

He spiraled down and landed on the railing next to Rian. The new kid came out and saw a kestrel, a seagull and a cardinal coming into land, since Ember was slightly behind them. Matt came up and told them to demorph but it looked like Ember was already on her way. She morphed mid air and actually landed quite gracefully, completely human. 'Can she do that? Can I do that?' He didn't think anyone else saw.

He completed his own demorph and followed the others into the Haunt. As he did his foot hit the door and set it slamming it. 'Uh-oh,' he thought and then the new kid turned around and pointed a gun at them. 'Definitely uh-oh. Did I do that?'

As the gun came up Matt stepped up to talk to the kid and Rian stepped as well. 'I got your back,' a stupid voice said in Jullian's head as he saw Rian step forward. Probably just a nervous reaction. He told the voice to shut up. Then Ember stepped in front of him and cracked her knuckles. He didn't know if she was doing it to protect him or if she just wanted to see better, get into a better position to attack. He didn't know but he muttered, "thanks," anyway.

This felt like a high noon shoot out. What would happen next?

Matt:
Matt heard what Rian sent in thought speak. He'd never heard Rian use thought speak in the body he used most of the time. True it was actually Rian's twin's body and really a morph, but Rian treated it like his real form because in a sense it was. This must have seemed like a situation that called for unusual measures.

Matt stared down the dracon beam pointed at his chest. Ember had called the kid a controller, and the beam certainly made him look like that, but the kid could just as easily be free. It was unfortuante that with him they would need to do the three day holding period to be absolutely sure. Actually, it was unfortunate for all of them because all four would need to take turns on watch.

All the while this was passing through Matt's head he was thinking about what Rian had said. He couldn't comunicate an order to anyone else without the boy knowing, but Rian he could. They did need some way to get the boy under their control so they could avoid getting themselves fried. That would be a rather sad ending to the short-lived L.A. Faction. Matt weighed the options, but there wasn't much else they could do. Not knowing anything else they could do, Matt nodded and hoped Rian would make it out of this.

Rian:
Rian's step closer to Matt had also brought him closer to the kid with the dracon beam. Quickly, before the kid could wonder what Matt's nod had meant, Rian dove for the kid's legs and under the dracon beam. The move wasn't graceful, but it did have power behind it and was enough to knock the kid down.

As he passed under his arm he tried to knock it up, maybe even knock the dracon beam loose altogether. The arm did swerve up but the dracon beam went off. Rian didn't even have time to hope it didn't hit someone.

Once the kid was down he grabbed for his arm and knocked the Dracon beam away. He knocked it back towards Matt and the others who were hopefully still there and not particles floating on air.

He sat on top of the kid , pinned him and waited for more orders.

Ember:
It happened in slow motion, but not like the movies where the hero has plenty of time to react while the villains are all stuck. No, this just felt like a bad dream where your feet get frozen to the floor and your muscles won't move even though every piece of your mind is screaming to "DUCK!" Well at least her voice worked. Rian dove and she already knew what he was going to do, and she also knew how outrageously stupidly heroic it was. The stranger and the gun were barreled over, Rian knocking him down from the legs. But that kind of move left a lot of fall time for the gun to go off.

And that's when everything slowed down. Ember knew there was only one choice for her to make: Matt... or Jullian?

Matt was in front of her, the kid was behind, and she had barely two seconds to think. But in the end it was obvious, Matt was the leader and could take care of himself... she hoped... Turn, Grab, Yank! Jullian was pinned under her weight on the floor as she covered his head with her arms. A shot of red light went off above her that pierced through her eyelids. Oh god oh god oh god don't let it have hit Matt...

She opened her eyes and looked back to see a thick cloud of dust, either from whatever the beam hit or.. whoever the beam hit. Her hands clenched tighter, still protecting the kid and not daring to let him up, her strangled voice calling out "Matt?! Rian?!"

Matt:
Matt watched as Rian dove, hoping he hadn't given a signal that would send his most experienced faction member, one he viewed as a friend, to his doom. Time slowed to a crawl as Rian and the boy fell to the ground and a red beam of light shot out of the dracon gun. The beam was directed at Matt, and he dropped to the floor. As he was falling he felt a searing heat pass above his head, the dracon ray.

Matt landed and rolled over in time to see the dracon beam demolish the door to the Haunt. Thank goodness the deck had two, so they only lost the screen door and not the main one. He glanced around, seeing everyone was okay and smelling burned hair. "Everyone is in one piece, Ember," he said as he got up. He couldn't say nothing had happened. If you were to look at Matt's head it looked like the tips of his brown hair had been dyed black. In truth his hair had been scorched, showing how near he'd come to being killed.

Matt bent down and picked up the dracon beam Rian had kicked toward them. He set this on the coffee table that was in the living room. "Let's take our guest to the storage room. There's a chair and rope in there, so we can tie him up for the three day period and be sure he's not a controller. It means we'll all need to take turns watching him and no matter what he says we can't let him go. I don't like this part, but it's necessary for our safety."

Jullian:
Just like the first time Jullian had met Ember, he found himself on the ground. He was about to make some form of protest when the red beam burned through the air above his head and hit the screen door he had accidentally slammed on their way in. 'Oh.' He hadn't even seen Rian dive because Ember and Matt were in front of him and so he hadn't seen the danger.

Ember had grabbed his shoulders to drag him down and as she called out to Matt and Rian her hands tightened painfully. "Ow. Ember, um Em, I think you can let go now. Thanks for the save." His pride hurt a bit that that was the second time he had thanked her in as many minutes but he recognized the fact that his head probably would have been incinerated without her help so he gave thanks where thanks was due.

All three of them stood up and saw that Rian had the kid pinned. When Matt announced that they would be tying him up and keeping watch the only thing that Jullian's stunned mind could think of was, 'well this has been a fun day. Maybe I'll get out of training.'

Rian:
Rian pulled the kid roughly to his feet, his hands behind his back and maybe twisting his shoulders painfully. He was unbelievably grateful to hear the voices of the rest of his faction-mates. If he had lost them he had no idea what he would do.

He began marching the kid towards the storage room, not really caring if he was hurting him or not. Rian had a very odd morality. He cared about his faction-mates and he would follow Matt anywhere but he didn't care about anyone else, especially not some kid who had endangered the lives of the very people he cared about.

He supposed the kid could become a member of the group if Matt oked him, and maybe at that point Rian would care if he was hurting or not, but not right now. In some small part of his mind he knew that this was probably not the way to live. He should care about the suffering of his fellow human beings, especially some kid that was probably scared out of his mind, but it was as if he only had a limited supply of affection and it was all being spent at the moment. Even before the invasion he had kept to himself and had only really confided in his family. Now he was even more reserved.

He pushed the kid down into the chair and got the ropes figuring he wouldn't do anything stupid while Matt had a dracon beam pointed at his chest, not like me, and began to tie him up. When he was secured he stepped back behind Matt and watched to see what would happen next.

Ember:
Ember breathed. It was all she could manage at the moment.

Then she heard everyone speak up and knew they were alright, but that didn't help until several minutes later when the whole thing finally got through her mind. She shook even as she helped Jullian get to his feet "S-sorry... I..." She sucked in a deep breath and squared her shoulders, knocking him lightly on the head "Oh what are you talking about? I was just using you as cover." With a roll of her eyes she turned to Matt as he came back from stashing the gun. The black marks on his hair looked like typical LA hairstyle but she knew that the burned smell and the scorched door completed the picture of just how lucky he'd been. Mentally she beat herself for not being able to do more... if he had been two steps slower... She bit her lip so he couldn't see and then ruffled his hair with her fingers "Nice look Short-stuff, but next time just go to a salon."

Rian had dragged the supposed controller in the storage room and bound him up by the time she got there, still keeping a close distance to both Matt and the Kid although she didn't notice she was doing it. "Are you sure those are tight enough?" She leaned, but didn't move any closer, and inspected the knots without so much as a glance at the kid. To her he wasn't a person, not until she beat the truth out of him... or three days, y'know, whichever came first. "If he's a controller we don't want to be shy about cutting off blood circulation."

Stevert:
As Steve aimed the gun at the people, one of them stepped forward. Then another. Then a third. Then the first person told him to put the gun down. Steve's thoughts started racing. Could these be free people? The people who killed my brother acted as if they were under some kind of mind control. They didn't even show any expressions. These people on the other hand do look like normal people, else they would have pulled out some weird guns and killed him. Steve decided to chance putting the gun down like the kid said, but suddenly, the second kid tackled his legs. As he fell, his fingers automatically pulled the trigger and a burst of red light stabbed out toward the first guy. The beam singed the person's hair and Steve thought in horror, I might have just killed one of the last free people in the world!

But then the second kid had him pinned down and wrestled the gun away from him and pinned him to the floor. Then he heard the girl's voice cry out, "Matt, Rian?" Then the first guy called the girl Ember and told her that everyone was OK. Before Steve could think of anything else, the person who tackled him, jerked him up and twisted his hands behind his. Steve gave a short cry of pain before the kid started pushing him down a hall to a room that looked like it was used for storage. Then the kid pushed him into a chair and began to tie him up. Then the girl named Ember walked into the room and spoke to Steve's jailer and asked if the ropes were tight enough and something about Steve being a controller and wondering about cutting his blood circulation off.

Steve had had enough of this so he looked his captors square in the eye and asked, "Who are you people? And what do you want from me?"

Kat:
Katrina's mind wasn't on the streets of LA, or the small cabin like building not far from where she'd chosen to hide at for the time being. Her thoughts were of home. There was a duplex in a small town in Eastern Pennsylvania that she might never see again. She wasn't even sure if it was still standing. From what she understood, these alien creatures had done a lot of damage to the country, but why would they have done anything to her town. There was nothing special about it. Even if it didn't make sense to her it didn't change the fact that she hadn't gotten any answer from anyone she'd tried to contact back home.

With a heavy sigh, she lifted her hand to the brim of her black cabbie hat and pulled it down a bit to slightly hide her gray eyes, not that anyone was around to actually see them. She was trying to hold it together. She'd given herself a bit of time to freak out over the news of her sister. She'd cried, cursed, pledged revenge and unruly threats, but now she needed to keep it together. The pain was still there, but she needed to ignore it and push it away in order to work on finding her mother and survive. Hopefully her mom was still alive. Katrina had been hesitant on leaving the LA area since it was where she had last seen her, but by now her mom could be out of the area.

"Damn.." She muttered, closing her eyes a bit and keeping them that way as the thought. How was she supposed to go about doing this? It wasn't like she could file a missing persons report. From what she'd learned from the refugees, anyone could be controlled by those Yeerk aliens. ...Even her mom. Her mom could have been taken by them... or her mom could be dead. Katrina shuddered, unable to decide which was worse.

For a long while she just sat and thought over things. She needed to come up with a plan, but something pulled her out of her thoughts and brought her back to the reality. Noise. Something was going on near by. Her eyes snapped open and she tensed, trying to find where the commotion was coming from. It took her a moment to pinpoint it's direction. It was coming from the cabin Just along the beach.

"Yea, Great. Perfect. Just what I need, ya know." Her voice was low with a sarcastic bite and she glanced up at the sky a second. "Thanks a lot." She didn't know if there was an actual greater power up there, but, hey, whatever.

The brown drawstring back was open in a moment and she rumaged around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Pajama pants. No. A Flashlight. Eh.. maybe. MP3 player. No. Jacket. Not really. A "Breaking Benjamin" pin that she didn't even remember putting in. Not exactly the best of weapons... Way to be prepared. It didn't help that she'd only had what was in her suitcase to select from when she filled the bag, and she wanted to travel light. So it looked like the flashlight was the best choice. Maybe she could... knock someone out... yea sure.

Leaving the bag behind, Katrina began to move. She was cautious, trying not make anyone, or anything, aware of her presence as she crept towards the building. The commotion had come from inside, there didn't seem to be anyone outside, so she began to peer into windows. She was careful about it, not wanting to be seen. Some held visions of empty rooms. In one she'd caught sight of what looked like a gun on a coffee table, a gun she recognized as a yeerk weapon. She'd seen one before.

However, one window really caught her attention. She saw a total of five people, four males and one Female. A boy who looked younger then her was tied to a chair. He was surrounded by the others and by putting two and two together, Katrina guessed this was some kind of Yeerk building from the hostage and the gun from the previous window. The kid had to a be a free human, maybe they were trying to infest him. She could help, maybe gain a companion.

Her mind formed a plan. Sneak in. Get the gun. Call the shots. Go.

Her head was bent low as she passed the windows and she made it to the front door, praying it didn't squeak. It didn't and she had to catch herself from breathing a sigh of relief. Bad idea. No noise what so ever, Kat. None. She moved quick and as silently as she could, coming to the living room. The gun was there, on the coffee table and the four were all preoccupied in the storage room. There attention was on the boy so no one could notice as she reached for the gun, took and snuck to the door way.

Should she warn them? Tell them to let the boy go, or shoot first and take them by surprise. Both? In the movies there was usually a warning. The guy with the gun walked out and said demands, but she was outnumbered. If she could take down a few with the gun, even just one, it would even the odds and that was better by surprise.

She stood at the side of the door way, keeping most of her body shielded, poked her head and arm into the space between the door and aimed poorly in the groups direction, though in a way that she wouldn't hit the hostage. There was a second of hesitation before she pulled the trigger and the blast went into the room.

Rian:
Rian didn't even really feel it when it happened. It felt like maybe he had an upset stomach or something, like maybe he'd eaten something he shouldn't. He looked down and was surprised to find a hole where his stomach should be, a hole neatly burned through his body.

What? Dracon beam I guess. Good thing it wasn't on maximum, I would just be particles right now if it was. These stupid thoughts ran around his head even as his legs buckled and he began to fall to the floor. As he fell his vision started going dark, he could no longer see the others. I should do something, I should morph I guess. Yeah, morphing, that will hel...

Matt:
Matt had been about to explain everything to Steve when a dracon beam shot into the room and hit Rian in the stomach. It wasn't on full because Rian still stood there,but both he and Matt glanced at the spot where his stomach had been at the same time. "Rian!" Matt shouted. Time was going in slow motion again as Rian dropped to the ground. "Rian, demorph! NOW! That's an order!" Matt shouted.

Panic was starting to grip his mind and at the same time he was thinking clearly enough to try and sort everything out. What was wrong with him, or was anything wrong? He wasn't sure, all he knew is he felt like he was suddenly thrown into a personality he didn't realize existed inside of him.

"Ember, Jullian, keep the kid here. We'll explain who we are later. One of you get Rian to demorph. If he doesn't he'll die and we still need him. I'm going to see who has the beam. I was stupid to leave it sitting." Matt really did feel like this was his fault, but somehow he was keeping his cool in the time that seemed to inch by and yet go all too fast at the same time.

Matt stalked out the door and turned on the girl he saw there. "Drop the dracon beam. I don't know if you're a controller or not, but you just shot one of my faction members so I'm not going to be nice if I have to take it from you. Welcome to the home of the Los Angeles Animorphs." Matt had a very serious look on his face, emphasised somehow by his scorched hair. This was frighteningly out of character for him. Who am I becoming?

Kat:
The beam had hit someone and Katrina found herself a bit stunned as she ducked her head and arm back around the frame of the door so she was hidden from their view. The image of the hole in the boys abdomen disturbed her a bit. She hadn't been quite aware of the kind of damage she would cause and the realization struck her a bit. Focus! She mentally yelled at herself, though thoughts of how there was actually still a person trapped in the head of the person she'd hit bugged her.

She hesitated too long. She could have reached around and shot again but one of the remaining three members had come through the doorway while she'd been bothered by morality. Stepping backwards she aimed the gun at his chest as he spoke to her. She could tell he wasn't happy, of course not, why would he be? She just blasted one of his companions, he was probably furious.

"Welcome to the home of the Los Angeles Animorphs." His words reached her ears and she was a bit puzzled. Animorphs? What the heck was that? Should she care? Or was it some kind of trick? Crap... Hesitating to long could get her into trouble again. Just shoot. Just shoot! Her brain urged her, They killed your sister. DO IT! The urge was strong, but her lips moved before her fingers did.

"Let the kid go or I'll put a whole through you as well," Her voice sounded way to fluent, way to at ease, but she was glad it didn't betray her fear, and hoped her eyes wouldn't either.

Matt:
Matt's eyes drifted from her face to the barrel of the dracon beam and back. That was the second time he'd had that stupid dracon gun leveled at him today and he still hadn't morphed and gotten rid of the scorch marks from the first time. "Are you a controller trying to free a friend or a very confused free human? I've delt with both before. See, this place is a hideout for the only resistance force this planet has. There's three factions of the Animorphs in existance and you've run into the one that resides in L.A."

Matt's mind drifted to Rian. Oh god, let him make it out of this. I need him. I can't face Raven if I lose Rian to something as stupid as people wandering upon our hideout and getting the wrong idea. "I can't let the kid go. We can't risk the safety of the Animorphs by letting a potential controller go. In three days, after he's passed the screening for yeerks, he's perfectly free to leave." Matt's voice was amazingly emotionless. If Sara had run into this side of him she would have though he was a controller, but this girl didn't know who Matt was. War was changing him slowly, and he hadn't really noticed the changes until now. "So go ahead and shoot me if you think you can live with having the blood of free humans, resistance fighters, on your hands. You already may have killed my most experienced faction memeber.Why not kill the faction leader too?" That could very well surprise her, a boy younger than herself being the leader of a resistance group. It certainly wasn't age that made Matt a leader.

Kat:
Katrina kept the beam pointed in one hand, her other occupied by the stupid flashlight. Now the kid had her all confused. The words he spoke put doubt into her mind, and without meaning to, it showed on her face. He was talking about a resistance, but she hadn't heard of anything like that from the refugees. Then again she hadn't exactly stayed too long to find out.

If he was speaking the truth, then she may have just murdered some innocent kid, and from the sound of it, someone essential. She'd just made a horrible misunderstanding. ...But how could she know he spoke the truth. How did she know he wasn't just pretending, playing some part to fool her and the moment she let her guard down she'd be finished. His voice made her weary of this.

He told her to shoot, but her mind was no longer pushing the urge to do so. Had she really made such a horrible mistake? Was this kid really the leader of some resistance fighters that called themselves the animorphs?

"...Prove it." Good, her voice still sounded smooth, unlike the unsure one in her head. The dracon beam lowered just slightly, no longer pointed at the boy's chest, but still pointed at him.

Stevert:
Meanwhile, Steve was tied to his chair. The first person was about to answer him when a flash of red light that resembled the blast from the weird gun stabbed through the kid who tackled him's gut. The kid just stared at the hole while the the first kid yelled, "Demorph!" THen the person walked out of the room and down the hall to the front door. For a second, he thought that someone had come to rescue him! He heard the guy talk to someone else about the people and himself were a faction of Ainmorphs and other things that were to low for Steve to hear. Suddenly, Steve's eyes widened as he remembered the n ame of the resistance that the refugees had told him about. He had found the Animorphs!

Then Steve heard the intruder, from the sound of the voice it was a girl, say that she would kill the first guy if he moved any closer. Steve then yelled to the girl saying, "Don't shoot! You don't understand! I am not in danger! These are the good guys! They are a resistance against the monsters that are controlling everyone! Listen to me! You don't know what you are doing!"

Matt:
"...Prove it," she told him. Matt knew what that meant to him, and he only hoped she wouldn't freak out.

"Fine," he said as he heard the kid they had tied up shouting. Apparently he was free, and amazingly must have gotten the dracon gun from some yeerks he'd run into. He knew about the Animorphs, but not everyone did. "You may not like what you see," he warned. Part of him didn't care if she liked it. Part of him was beyond caring right now.

He focused on the DNA of the first animal that came to his mind, his palomino horse morph. The smooth transition took over and Matt let his anger fade into it. Legs and arms elongated. Hands hardened into hooves. Hair changed color and grew, also spreading all over the rest of his body. His thin frame was bulking up, growing multiple times it's original size. WIthin minutes the girl faced a palomino horse that had once been a 17 year old.

<<Normal humans can't do this and niether can the yeerks. If this doesn't prove anything else it at least shows that you're in over your head.>> He said. His mental voice projected into Kat's head. All of this would be a lot to take in. Hopefully it wouldn't frighten her into shooting him.

Jullian:
The new boy was sitting in a chair in the middle of the storage room. Matt was standing right in front of him and Rian was standing on his left and behind. When he and Ember had come in she had taken the spot behind and a little to the right of Matt. All this meant Jullian could hardly see the kid who they were interrogating. He moved around a bit until he found a spot where he could just see him if he stood on tip toes and looked over Rian's shoulder.

Jullian was looking at the boy who looked about his own age. 'I wonder if he's free. I hope he's free. Nice eyes.' These were the simple, normal thoughts running through his head. For a while, back in the common room, his body had been flooded with adrenaline. But the crisis was over now.

Then Rian's stomach disappeared. Jullian just stared at the hole where flesh should be. Before he had had to lean and stand on tip toes to see the new kid but now he could look right at him. His face was framed by the hole in Rian's body. He looked right through it and saw the shocked expression on the kid's face. His own face probably looked the same. His mind didn't even process what had happened, not even when that perfect picture of the new kid was gone as Rian fell to the ground.

He heard Matt yell something about demorphing. He even heard his name in there somewhere but he just couldn't understand the words. What had just happened?

Ember:
She had wanted so badly to see the look on the new person's face when they told him who they were. It would be the first time that she would get officially included in the LA Faction, and then the yeerk would finally know who he was up against. The expression, she knew, would be priceless. 'Not so tough now are ya?' Ember grinned, already playing the whole scene out. Good cop and bad cop, interrogating... her first encounter with a controller where she hadn't been on the losing side. In her mind it ended with the new guy begging for his alien life, dying, then reviving as the most grateful human and praising them all (mostly Ember herself) for their valor and pursuit of justice. Or something like-

A chill trickled down her spine as Ember stared blankly at Rian, having turned to give him her approval of how bravely he'd acted. But something was wrong. His expression was the oddest one she'd seen, a mild look of interest as he glanced down at the wound that suddenly appeared, opening up his abdomen in a perfect circle of red light.... without warning he dropped to the ground like a stone, his head lolling with that same blank expression as the shock of what happened set in. She could see his eyes dilate... his mouth slightly open as he tried to say something...

And then there was shouting..? Matt said something... a girl... Oh god, Rian.. oh god oh god... no no this can't be happening........

Ember dropped to her knees, feeling her entire body flood with hot fear... numbing over her senses until all she could see was him laying there.. blood oozing from the crusted circle where most of his stomach used to be... And the smell, of death and anger and chaos and... She crawled weakly toward him "r-r-rian.." no one listened. "R-RIAN!" Her hands were on his chest, padding over him desperately trying to find a way to... "MORPH RIAN!!" Wet tears rained on his still form from where they dropped from her chin... She shook him so hard, dragging his head into her lap and holding his face in her hands, ignoring everything else. The yeerks or controllers or people could all just go screw themselves... "Rian please... please please.. oh god..." The constant quickening thud of her heart in her chest pumped a rush of blood into her ears and her vision became a tunnel. "Rian dammit!! Focus!" She couldn't hear her own screams but they felt raw in her throat... She only prayed he would listen "Get out of your morph, you have to save yourself!" Even while she forcibly opened his eyes he never looked directly at her... He couldn't leave... No, it wasn't possible, this couldn't happen... not again

"NOW! Morph now or I'll kill you! You big idiot!" She wrapped her fists in his shirt and gave him a hard shake, her eyes shut against the tears even as she gasped out anything she could think of to get him to come back "rian..! no... let go of the morph!"

[Admin]

Rian:
"You're ok with it? I mean really?" He didn't dare to look at Bryan. He couldn't face the world without his brother at his side. He didn't know what he would do if Bryan abandoned him.

"Ari, you're my twin. I can't say I understand, but I love you. That's not gonna change." He looked up to see Bryan smiling at him. Ari's felt like he would faint. He had been holding himself so tightly, he had been preparing himself for the worst, getting ready to be hurt and now all that tension just slipped away. He wanted to hug Bryan, to cry to do something to show how grateful he was but he wasn't the emotional type and even now he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he just smiled back.

"Thanks Bry." Bryan nodded. Then he seemed to shake himself, dispelling the heavy mood.

"So what ya gonna do now Ari, and 'Ari,' are you going to keep that name?"

"I don't know, I hadn't thought about it. I guess not, I'm not sure."

"Well what about something like Rian except spelled with an 'i' instead of a 'y'. You see, that way it is part of your orginal name but new."

"Rian." He thought about it for a second. Said the name again and again in his head just to test it out. "I like it."



I had liked it. I do like it. But I don't need Rian right now. Rian is dying. Only Ariana will save me now.

Rian held the image of his old self in his head. He tried at least, it was so hard. He could hear Ember screaming at him to demorph but it was so far away. He wanted to reassure her, reassure Matt that he was still there, that he was demorphing. But was he? He tried to look down but he couldn't move his head. He let his eyes close again. Ariana. I have to become Ariana. Slowly, so slowly, maybe too slowly he felt his body shrink. As always the change wasn't very dramatic. He got slightly weaker, slightly smaller, his face softened, his hands grew more delicate, more dexterous. He didn't like it, he hated changing back, it was like going back into a prison, but if he wanted to fight this is what he had to do, this was his sacrifice. He sacrificed his momentary freedom to hopefully get it long term.

One thing was different from all the other times he had done this morph. This time new flesh grew, new flesh to cover the hole, organs, muscles and blood to fill it. Soon he was lying on the floor a complete human being. He looked up and could see Ember crying above him. Crying? I guess I scared everybody.

Rian stood up. He looked like he had just lost about 3 years of growth. In fact he didn't look much older than Jullian, or the kid who was causing all this trouble. That was enough. He was done being snuck up on. Now that he was in his birth body he decided not to become the human most people knew him as. Instead he began to shrink and feathers began to form on his skin. He didn't know how Matt was going to handle this situation but he knew no one else was coming in here.

Once kestrel, he flapped away, fighting to fly in the dead air inside the cabin. He flapped past Matt, past someone new, out the front door. Somewhere he knew he shouldn't have, that he should have waited for Matt's orders, that he should have thanked Ember since she had probably saved his life, that he should have taken care of Jullian. But that voice was small indeed. It was being drowned out by another sound, also completely mental. It was like a low droning that you could feel more than hear, a background noise. At least it would have been if it had been a real sound. He knew what it was. It was fear. And he couldn't let the fear catch him. So instead he flew.

Kat:
Katrina's gray eyes were fixed on the boy as she waited for his proof. Her mind was attempting to piece things together, make sense of things and sort out just what to believe. She didn't enjoy the large possibility that she could have made such a drastic mistake. It seemed the more she thought of ways they could be yeerks, the more doubt came to her mind.

Now the boy she'd seen tied up was yelling from the other room.

"I am not in danger!" Oh no... "These are the good guys!" Crap "They are a resistance against the monsters that are controlling everyone!" Three strikes and you're out, Kat.

If the boy was being held to be infested she doubted he would be yelling those kind of things. His words basically echoed what she'd just been told. She had misunderstood... Oh god...

Her eyes closed a bit and the hand with the dracon beam dropped, now pointing at the floor. What was she supposed to do now? Open her mouth and just say sorry? Sorry I murdered you're team mate... Let's be friends! Sure, that would go over well... But she had to say something.

Her eyes opened, her mouth as well, but no sound came out as she caught the middle of the boy morphing in front of her. The thing before her was a mix of two creatures, and definitely a bit disturbing. She watched as it became more recognizable, forming into a horse where the boy had just stood. Kat was baffled and speechless, not to mention just a bit freaked out.

The boy's voice was in her head as she continued to stare with wide eyes. She couldn't respond. She could barely think now, just gawk. She remained that way for a moment, letting her mind slowly try to process what she'd seen. Yea, she was over her head, WAY, over her head.

"..What.. the hell...was that!" She managed to stammer.

Matt:
If a horse could smile Matt would have been. Then everything came crashing down and he realized that he'd done this just because he was pissed. He hadn't needed to morph, she'd been acting like she believed it when she heard what the boy in the storage room had said. Suddenly he was shocked at the side that had reared it's head when Rian had been hurt. Oh god! Rian!He demorphed as quickly as he could and faced the girl. A bang in his eyes told him the black tips hadn't disappeared in the morphing process. That's odd....

A kestral came flying out of the storage room and down the hall. The only kestral morph is Rian. "Rian what are you doing? Where are you going? Hey!" Matt shouted at Rian, but the kestral flew out the door and away. Rian was alive, but something wasn't right. A large part of Matt wanted to follow him, but his duty was to his whole faction. Besides that Matt wasn't sure even his bat morph could catch Rian's kestral.

He turned back to the girl, his heart torn and his spirits dampened. "That was morphing. It's where our resistance gets our name. And the bird was the guy you shot, so he's fine. I hate to have to do this, but we need to tie you up. Standard procedure so we can be sure new faction members are clean. It's what we were doing with the other kid too." Matt's voice was very businesslike. His mind was on Rian. You had better come back Rian. I'll be just as big a mess if you don't as I would be if you'd died.

Ember:
In stone silence Ember rose from the floor, her hair hanging over her red rimmed eyes. He'd changed back. She'd gotten through to Rian and forced him to change back to the person he never was... in order to save his life.. yes, of course but...

He'd shifted to a kestrel almost as soon as all his abdomen healed, brushing past her and her useless tears, back out into the sky to fly away from this mess these strangers had caused. The girl... Ember knew, she was the one who attacked them when their back was turned. Had shot rian without knowing he could survive it, without knowing if the dracon beam wouldn't simply disintegrate him and half of everyone else in the room. If the beam had hit Jullian or herself... they couldn't have morphed fast enough to save themselves, and Rian only just barely released from his form.. if he'd had to change to something unhuman...

Her expression darkened, the hands at her sides tightening to fists, her nails cutting into her palms. The last straw, two incidences of near death experience within five minutes... it tends to make emotions run high. Out of the storage room, directly past Matt without so much as a break in stride. Strung tight, her fist raised back, murderous intent in her eyes. Crack! A right hook straight to Kat's jaw forcing her to reel backward even as Ember wound up for the second blow. She was never one for restraint, and just couldn't manage Matt's professionalism.

Kat:
The transition from horse back to boy kept Katrina from speaking again for a bit longer. She hadn't been able to take her eyes off it, though she had a slight urge to look away. It was odd, in a way interesting, but mostly odd. The kestrel caught her attention for a brief moment, but it was soon back on the boy. She was guessing it was one of his crew since he'd called to it.

A moment later she got answers. The kestrel was one of the faction members, the one she'd shot to be more specific. Guilt rose within her, despite the claim that he was fine. She'd really just made a mess of things.

As her mind went back to normal, recovering from the shock of watching the boy morph, she stretched out her arm. The dracon beam was still pointing at the floor, she was careful not to direct it at him again. "...You want this?" Her voice was quiet now, and she didn't really look at the boys face. She was a bit hesitant to give the weapon up and leave herself defenseless, but she knew she should.

She was still a bit confused, but now convinced for the most part that the only danger here had just been herself, blasting innocent people with an alien gun. She let out a slight sigh and finally looked at the boy. "Do what you need too..." She paused, her gray hues searching for the boys eyes. "...I-I'm... sor-"

She hadn't even managed to get the full word out before she was stumbling backwards. A fierce pain in her face, low to the jaw. She'd been caught of guard and barely managed to keep on her feet. Her black cabbie hat now lay at her feet, knocked off from the jerk of her head. The taste of blood was in her mouth, proving just how good the blow had been.

Katrina was a bit dazed, looking over to see the girl coming for her again. Her first instinct was to strike back and her hands immediately clenched and began to raise. However, they stopped in time. She'd deserved that, hadn't she. Quickly she moved to simply block the blows instead, playing up the defense, not offense. She'd done enough of offense for today.

Jullian:
Jullian was broken out of his shock when Ember started screaming. Before his mind had been a complete blank but now it screamed with useless thought. 'Oh god. Rian! What if he dies! How to help him.' He added his voice to Ember's and tried to get Rain to demorph. 'Please, please let him be ok.'

He was amazingly grateful when he saw Rian begin to demorph, begin to heal. But when he was human he didn't say anything. He just went kestrel and flew away.

Jullian turned to Ember. "Ember, where is he going? Is he ok?" But she wasn't listening. She was too busy going after the girl who shot Rian. Jullian wasn't particularly surprised when Ember nearly knocked out the girl, but he was surprised that he wanted to do the exact same thing.

He ran up to her. He wasn't sure what he planned to do but once he got there he grabbed Ember and pulled her back. Matt seemed to be treating this girl like a new recruit, a very confused and misguided recruit. Jullian didn't like it, he wanted to let Ember go, he wanted to hit her himself but that wouldn't help.

"No Em, we have to go after Rian. Matt, the kid is tied up and this girl doesn't seem to want to fight anymore. Can we go after Rian?"

Matt:
Matt took the dracon beam from her. "I'm almost tempted to get rid of this. It's caused enough trouble today." To emphasise his point he indicated the blackened tips of his hair. She seemed sincerely sorry for what she'd done, but unfortunately she wasn't going to get her wish of getting out of the three day screening period. His dark eyes held a sympathetic look, almost friendly. He was going to make these three days as easy as he could, because even he didn't like the idea of having to do it. He'd gone through it himself and still remembered what it was like. He was about to tell her this when things started happening again.

Ember came storming out of the storage room and a fist connected with the face of the new girl. Ember's expression was dark, frightening. She wound up for a second punch and Jullian grabbed her. The kid said something, but Matt didn't hear it because of a ringing noise in his ears. "Ember," he barked out the single word. His expression was darkly serious. He was attempting to hold himself together and not go after Rian, even now as the kestral probably drifted farther and farther away. Ember, meanwhile, didn't have the emotional restraint he did. Back in Chicago Matt might not have had this much restraint either, but L.A. was a new world with new rules for him. He was the leader, he had to stay strong and hold the team together.

"Ember, we can't take our anger out on them. They were acting just like we would have in this situation. You yourself thought Jullian and I were controller when we first found you. This is no different. I only have scorched hair and Rian demorphed in time. We got out of this, despite it being on luck alone. If you're angry talk with another faction member if you trust them and that works, morph and beat something up, or beat something up as a human. As long as that something isn't another human. Even if they're the one who made you mad, even if they deserve it. We're all stuck together and we don't need any tension between members." Despite the kindness in his voice there was a nature about him that was all too serious. It was like a father reprimanding a child for doing something wrong.

"If you two want to go after Rian you can do so, but I don't know if you'll be able to catch him. I just know it's too bright out for my bat and my hummingbird wouldn't go fast enough. I'll tie the girl up for the three days while you're out and fill both of them in on what's going on." Turning to Kat he said, "Even I went through the three day screening when I was first recruited and I'm a faction leader now. I'd find another way out if I knew of one because I personally don't like it, but I don't know of another one. If you'll come with me you can find out everything once you're settled in. Remember, it's only three days." He turned towards the storage room.

Jullian:
"Thanks Matt. Ember, come one. We have to find Rian." He didn't try to pull her since she was stronger than him, he just walked down the hall and hoped she'd follow. As he walked he concentrated on his seagull morph. It might not be able to catch Rian's kestrel but hopefully Rian hadn't gone too far, he didn't think Rian would go too far.

White feathers started to pop out of his skin. If that girl didn't think they were in the animorphs then she would now.

Ember:
Less than a year ago Ember would have turned and probably punched Matt out for saying the things he did to her. As if a rational explination was what she wanted... was what she would listen to. What she wanted was to pound that girl's face in for ever coming here, her mind completely ruled by the smothering anger that hed her back from reality. If she accepted the situation it would mean facing dark emotions she didn't trust... but anger, ahh, that was soothing. It fueled itself, letting her relax as it took over and gave her a false sense of satisfaction.

Her teeth ground even as she let her arm fall and her rough gaze switch from Kat to Jullian as he held her back. For the kid's sake, and her own, she couldn't break... And on some level she knew Matt was right. If she'd had a gun when they first approached her... her hand went slack, releasing the guard against pain until she felt like her ribs would break. With one last spiteful look at the girl she turned on her heel, letting Jullian guide her back down the hall. She couldn't talk to anyone right now, she didn't trust herself...

Escape into the sky became her only motivation. Matt could handle the rest, she trusted him to that even as half of her knew that leaving him alone was a bad idea. But when she looked at Jullian she knew he wasn't going to stay behind... and she didn't know if she could find Rian alone. The front door slammed open as she burst through, running and jumping off the porch as she fully transformed into her cardinal. His animal mind took over, leading her farther upwards into the wind... letting it sooth away the cracks in her armor.

Katrina:
Katrina was relieved to see that her attacker had backed down. She'd didn't much fancy the thought of being pummeled by a pair of fists, especially not ones like this girl's. Her lip was throbbing, but she kept herself from reaching her hand to it. She returned Ember's spiteful glance with an intense gaze of her own.

When the younger boy and the one with the temper had left, she turned her gaze back to the boy who called himself the leader. Her tongue ran over the cut she could feel in her lip, thinking a moment. She forced her body to relax some, bringing her hands out of their defensive stance. She was aware she had dropped the flashlight. It had been pretty useless.

"Like I said," She said, a few moments after he was done talking, "do what you need to."

Her bag was still back at the area she'd been hiding in. She debated on requesting to go get it, but thought better of it. Her stuff would be fine for three days. It was safe from the rain and she doubted anyone would uncover the bag, at least she hoped that was the case.

Rian:
Rian wouldn't be hard to find. He hadn't gone that far away. His form was clearly silhouetted against the morning sun as he flew patrol around the Haunt. The faction wouldn't be surprised again. He wouldn't be surprised again.

His lazer like vision searched the air and the ground around the Haunt. He spotted a backpack that was just sitting around. It probably belonged to one of the two new people inside but Rian didn't even concentrate on it long enough to have that thought. He just kept pushing away what had just happened and threw himself into his work instead.

Patrol, patrol, patrol. It was like a mantra running around inside his head, drowning everything else out especially the things he didn't want to deal with.

Since he was so focused he saw the small fireball that had to be Ember in cardinal morph and the white angel-like form that had to be Jullian in seagull morph coming out of the Haunt. They probably wanted to talk, to reassure him, but he couldn't let them. If they started talking about it then he'd have to start talking about it.

And what was there to talk about anyway? He'd had a close call. So what. He'd had one of those when he had fought the Hork-Bajir in Chicago. But he knew this was different. He had charged that Hork-Bajir. He had known what he was doing, he had made a choice, just like back in the Haunt when he had tackled that kid. Those had been his choices, his desicion to put himself in danger.

Being shot in the back by someone who might end up being on their side was different. Friendly fire. Just a little friendly fire. Friendly fire was a stupid term. Friendly fire isn't friendly at all.

He didn't want to think about it and he certainly didn't want to talk about it. So when he saw Ember and Jullian coming up into the sky he saw a perfect opportunity to distract himself.

<<I'm glad you two didn't let a little excitement dampen your enthusiasm for training. I would have waited until tomorrow but since you both are so eager I guess we can get back to work.>>

<<Thank you Ember,>> he said in private thoughtspeak but he didn't give her a chance to respond. That one thank you was about as close as he wanted to get to the topic.

<<Now that you know what it's like to work for altitude the hard way it's time to learn about thermals. They are pillars of warm air and...>>

He spoke to them like he had spoken to them at dawn, but his voice was softer, quieter. Somehow diminished from what it was this morning.

Matt:
Matt led Kat into the room and tied her into another chair. Composing himself he looked at the two of them. "So, first thing first would be introductions. I'm Matthew, the L.A. Faction leader. The other members here are Rain, Ember, and Jullian. Rian is the one with the kestral morph and Ember is our only female, or was until you two came along. Now we'll have one more."

He took a deep breath. This was hard, pretending nothing had happened. He'd seal this pain off until he could let it out constructivly. Somehowe he doubted Rian would want to talk or that Jullian or Ember would listen. He hoped he'd get rid of it or he'd become a danger to them all. He'd tried to seal off his pain when Lex left Chicago and he'd fallen apart in the middle of a mission. Fortunately only Raven had been there when it had happened and all they'd been doing was going to kidnap Sara and find out she was a Yeerk Peace Movement member. This time, they might not be so lucky. They might have used their share of luck up today.

"You two will need to tell us your names eventually, but here's what you may or may not know." With that he explained to them about the yeerks, the orignial Animorphs' fight, and the faction that now existed in Chicago, New York, and Vancouver besides in L.A. that were trying to take back what the yeerks had stolen. He also made a point ot mention the Yeerk Peace Movement, thinking of his sister as he did.

These two seemed like they would be good faction members if everyone could get over the excitement and fear this day had caused.

Kat:
Katrina bent down, scooping up her fallen hat, then followed Matt. She didn't make any remarks as she was tied to a chair, choosing not to complain. She'd caused enough trouble, she would just be quiet now, and this seemed to be something they needed to do to assure their safety. She understood and dealt with it, listening as Matt explained things. She could already put faces to the names he said. Ember was easy, the only girl there had been the one that landed the blow to her face.Her lower lip was probably going to swell because of it. Rian had been the one she'd shot, she could narrow that down from what she'd heard them say. That left Jullian as the boy who had left with Ember.

"...Ember is our only female. or was until you two came along. Now we'll have one more."

She kept her face calm, her eyes watching Matthew, but her mind was a bit puzzled. Was he serious? He was actually thinking about letting her join this little crew of his? She had the uncanny feeling that the idea wouldn't exactly go over well with some of the others. Maybe she was wrong though.She guessed she would see soon enough. For now she would just listen, keeping all comments to herself.

Stevert:
Steve had been listeening to everything that had happened. When the first kid and the new girl came into the room, Steve immediately noticed the blood on her face. Then the guy introduced himself as Matthew and as the leader of the Animorphs Faction in Los angeles. Then he talked about the other three members and some stuff about the other factions and the original Animorphs. When he was done with that he mentioned that they would need to know Steve's and the new girl's names. Right then Steve spoke up, "My name is Steve Kinley and I have been looking for you guys for several weeks now and I have never been a Controller." Steve looked over to the girl and said, "Your turn."

Ember:
Ember picked up where he trailed off, thinking to herself, '...and you're insane. i was too late, you lost oxygen to the brain, and now youve lost your mind.' But she knew that wasn't true. He was coping, and since she didn't want to talk about it either it seemed to be the best of ideas to follow along. At the very least she could kill some time before having to go back and explain her actions to Matt. By now she's realized that she was too far out of her element to ignore him completely, even if he was younger and didn't look like the type to be a leader of a faction. Whatever he chose to do with the new comers was his own perrogative, but if they were going to stay she would have to talk about it with him eventually.

Out here in her favorite morph there was all the time in the world to ignore that. She'd gotten back at the girl in her own way and soon enough she knew the guilt of that would get to her, but for now Ember could follow after Rian and the easy facade. <<Thank you>> he'd said, and that was more than enough.

Oddly enough going back to training gave her a sense of peace as it channeled her wasted energy into flying. The ache of her knuckles had dissappeared with the change, but the burn in her heart was only now ebbing away...

Jullian:
Jullian was glad to stretch his wings and let the warm column of air just lift him up and up. The three birds swirled around each other. The sun was actually above the horizon instead of on it. The air was nice. The sea sparkled. It was a nice day and it had hardly even started yet.

Ironic.