Water in the Desert

[Aubrey]

Rian
((Any special NPCs that you love or any fun character you would like to see in the Den? Here's your thread. I figured we could have a little fun for a while and get post counts up but also just have fun. So here is the place to bring in any character that you want to see interact with any other character be they other accounts, guest stars or NPC's, just limit it to Vegas if you can or at least make up an excuse why a non Vegas character is around. Even controllers can get in on this one, visit the premises for some reason random that isn't threatening, cause hopefully this will have a light tone. Premise is a pipe has burst in the Den and we need to fix the plumbing.))

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Rian stared angrily at the pan that was full of nothing but burnt charcoal. You couldn't even really tell what it had been before he had started but it was certainly clear what it was now, garbage.

He sighed and picked up the phone. Looks like the faction dinner he had been hoping for would be ordered in. "Hello...yes I'd like to place an order...credit, uh, you still take human cash man?...Ok, good, then I'll pay in cash. Singles, what? Wait, what is it that you guys sell?.........Oh, sorry, wrong number." He hung up quickly and dialed again.

This time his voice was a little hesitant. "Hello, is this a chinese place? Uh-I mean a chinese restaurant?....whew, ok, then I'd like to place an order for delivery. Can I get, um, make it six orders of fried rice-what? Oh, vegetable I guess," he said wondering if anyone in the Den was a vegetarian and deciding to not take chances. "Can I also get some Sweet and Sour Chicken...a lot...ok, like 3 orders then. 3 orders of Szechuan Pork, Sate Beef- yeah, three orders again, Sauteed Broccoli, no not with the beef just broccoli-all my orders are in three sorry, pan fried noodles, three orders, one with chicken, one with beef and one with just vegetables ok? Um, how much is that?......oh, ok, well what else is there to spend money on these days.....How long? Ok thank you."

He hung up the phone and picked up the pan to throw the ruined food out and noticed that it looked decidedly less charry and now had taken on a hint of soggyness to it. He looked at it perplexed and saw a drop of water land in the pan. His gaze traced the drops path back up to the ceiling where he saw a wet spot and another drop getting ready to fall.

"Crap."


Drake
Drake's nose had been leading him to the kitchen. For a while there was a delicious smell wafting down the halls, but it recently started to smell more like something burning. When he finally made the effort to go all the way to the kitchen he heard someone say, "Crap."

It was Rian. He was near a pan full of charcoal, looking at the ceiling. Drake followed his gaze and saw that the ceiling had a leak. "Did someone overflow the toilet again?" Drake new the answer to that. Nobody's room was directly above the kitchen so that wouldn't be the case. "Do we call a plumber?"


Ray
The sunlight was bright and another hot day was coming to an end. Ray decided to go out to some of the stores that he'd not shopped at before. There was one gun shop that was very interesting, but they were high priced. He settled for an older pawn shop where he had found a bell which he thought would suit the hotel just fine.

Walking into the hotel, bags in hand, he placed the bell on the counter and dinged it. He grinned because he knew that people just loved to overuse the bell and be obnoxious just like people liked spinning in computer chairs. It was just that society and older adults loved to make up stupid reasons why you couldn't. Well, now he was just missing a good spinning chair...

He placed his other things in the ballroom and walked into the kitchen where everyone was. "Hey Drake, Rian." He said as he joined their stares at the ceiling. "What the heck is going on?"


Rian
"I think we have a leak." Rian went over to the corner and got the broom from there. He brought it back and stood under the patch of wet ceiling and poked at it with a broom handle. It gave like soggy bread and then it did something worse than that, it broke.

A mini waterfall of water that was most likely sewage of some sort, broke over Rian's head, drenching him instantly and washing the pan of burnt food off the counter.

"Ugh!" Rian exclaimed, spitting out water, dropping the broom and trying to wipe water from his eyes as he frantically backpedaled so that he was no longer standing under the hole in the ceiling.

He shook himself but it wasn't nearly so effective a drying technique as a human. "Quick! Get a pot or something, a big one." Rian looked up at the water that was still pouring from the ceiling. "Never mind, let's just get out of here." Rian turned and ran to the door the flood waters at his heels.


Drake
Drake moved backwards at lightning speed as water came gushing out of the ceiling. And covered Rian. Drake had to fight back the laughs from seeing his faction leader covered in nasty... liquid.

His amusement was short-lived, however, as the stuff flowed closer and closer to where he was standing. "That stuff reeks!" he exclaimed as he took a cue from Rian and started heading for the door. This was not going to be a good day to remember the animorphs by.


Luce
Luce caught Rian as he ran into her, almost knocking them both down on his way out of the kitchen. Luce had been on her way to get her usual bowl of gigantic cereal but now it smelled like the kitchen wasn't the place to be. She pushed Rian aside and poked her head around the doorway so that she could see what was going on and spotted the water pouring from the ceiling.

"No food I take it." She sounded annoyed at this disruption of her very simple plans. "Alright, where are we going to eat then?" She looked at Rian but her attention was diverted as a young woman came walking through the door. She recognized the controller from when she had picked her up at the beginning of the Old Town mission. A mission that Luce wished devoutly had not occurred because of the resulting confusion and needless complications it had brought into her life.

"You have company I think," she said to Rian.


Ember
Ember tripped along the stairs, going far too fast in her irritation. The elevator was jammed again and even though her room (one of them, since she'd claimed three so far) was on the fifth floor it become more and more of a pain to jog up and down the bloody stairs every time she wanted something.

Right now she was craving chocolate. And coffee. And even though she knew it was next to impossible that there was any left unfound after her nightly scavenges, her inner desire motivated her onward and downward. Sliding down the final banister she hit the main lobby and took the hall off the side to get to the dining room, and subsequently the kitchens. But before she reached the metal swinging doors she was met by nearly all the other faction mates standing around and looking in horror at something beyond the round windows. Except for Luce, who had turned and noticed someone who had come in just before Ember.

The controller. Ember stopped cold, recognizing her from their old town mission. The pretty young woman looked more put together this time, and seemed more in control of herself though she still had dark circles around her eyes. Ember knew the look of someone who was haunted. She woke up every morning with it, her own darkness looking back at her from the mirror and reminding her again of how hard she had to fight. It made her a little bitter to see the girl pulling it off so well, when she always had to spend hours on her make up even before her and Luce's sessions.

Carly or lilac, or whatever her name was, had her eyes focused only on Rian and didn't even see ember come in behind her.


Diana
Of course there were better things to do on evenings like this one. Diana sat on her bed, legs stretched out, painting her toenails a tasteful rouge, and taking an occasional glance at the television that, at the moment, was playing M*A*S*H reruns. It reminded her of better times. Yes, war reminded her the up and up.

Once Diana was certain that the polish was adequately dry, she bounced off the bed, straightened her clothes, and headed to the door. As she went by the mirror, the small French girl piled her curly hair into a haphazard bun. She smiled smartly and opened the door. The smell that flooded her senses was pungent and honestly, a bit shocking. A mixture of stale water, burnt food, and something putrid. Diana wrinkled her nose and made her way to the kitchen where she could hear where her teammates were.

She looked up when she reached the lobby, her half-smile turned into a complete frown. With wide eyes, Diana stared into the face of a stranger that her team obviously knew. From the look of it, the animorphs were very unsettled by her presence.


Chloe
Chloe was standing in the entry way when Rian and two other people that she vaguely recongnised came running in from another room. Rian ran straight into the girl who had kidnapped her prior to their last meeting. Chloe didn't know her name, but that girl was scary. She took a couple steps inward before the girl saw her. Rian was covered in... something. He was soaking wet, but it didn't look like water, and it definately didn't smell like water. The girl said something and Rian turned around, seeing her for the first time in a while. Chloe's eyes locked on him. Everything else melted away. She could feel multiple sets of eyes looking at her, wondering what she was doing here.

"Hey," she said softly. Her voice was tired and worn. The yeerk in her head, Essie 009, had taken an exceptionally difficult period of control when Chloe was on her way, and fighting that thing still wore her out. She smiled slightly, happy to finally see Rian again. She took a couple more steps forward, trying to ignore the putrid stench radiating from the room Rian and his friends had burst out of. "Do I even want to know what is all over you?" she asked in an attempt at a joke.


Rian
Rian looked in the direction that Luce's gaze indicted and saw Chloe standing there, Ember and Diana right behind her.

"Oh, um hi." He didn't know exactly how to react to Chloe's presence. He hadn't seen her much in a while since he had cut back on the time that he had been working at the bar as his time was needed more with the faction. And, oh yeah, she was a controller.

His eyes locked on Ember's for a second, his look a little alarmed but then he looked back at Chloe. She still didn't know who they really were, what they really were and it had to stay that way. "No, you don't. It isn't very nice. We're having some plumbing difficulties here. So," he said trying to get the focus off him and the hotel, "what's up with you? Why are you here?"


Drake
Drake recognized the girl, but it took him a few moments to remember from where. She was the girl who had helped them figure out what to do about the women disappearing in Old Town. She was a bit odd to talk to if he remembered correctly.

"I think I will go get some towels," Drake said quietly, trying not detract from their conversation. He went a short distance down the employee hallway to the laundry room and grabbed a few from the old dryer. He got back as quick as he could, and it looked as if he hadn't missed anything important. He got back just in time to hear Rian ask her why she was here.


Chloe
Rian's question drew Chloe back to the matter at hand. She looked around the room. Everyone's stares made her particularly uneasy. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Maybe she should just forget about it. But where would she go? Despite all Rian had done for her, Chloe was still struggling with her addiction. Distracted and disinterested, Chloe had missed a payment or two on her rent, and was now homeless. Getting evicted didn't leave her many other places to go.

"Um..." she allowed herself to say. "I, um..." She usually didn't have this much trouble saying what she needed to say, but something about this room and it's occupants made her feel unwelcome. There was an odd sense of tension everywhere. She tried to draw her focus back to Rian, the one person she really knew, so that she could ask her question. "I got evicted," she said halfheartedly. "I missed a payment... or three, and I didn't have anywhere else to go." She looked into his eyes. Chloe's eyes asked the question she didn't. She waited for an answer, unsure if they would let her stay.


Rian
"Stay?" It wasn't at all what he expected to hear. Of course he didn't expect to hear the sound of an alarm going off either but just at that moment a screeching that was so loud it hurt his ears filled the hotel lobby.

Rian clamped his hands over his ears and looked around at his team. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. The broken pipe may have somehow messed up the fire detection system and made the alarm go off.

And now an alarm was blaring, lighting up the alert boards of every firestation nearby...fire stations controlled by yeerks. That alarm was going to give away their location if they didn't find a way to shut it off right now.

"Shut it off!" he yelled but his voice couldn't be heard over the screeching noise that filled the room. He used a hand to make a cutting motion over his throat and then pointed at the ceiling trying to indicate the alarm. He looked at Ray and then at Ember to see if they understood.


Ember
Ember saw Rian's mouth moving and the cutting motion, but hell if she knew where the off switch was. All the time they'd spent in the hotel she'd either been wandering around the kitchen, roof, or front lobby when she wasn't in her various rooms. If there was an electric room, or a valve in the basement she had no idea where to look for it. But Rian was panicking and if yeerks showed up here they were screwed. So she just started running.

Sprinting back out into the hall, down to the front desk, she tried to ignore the violent noise and flashing lights as she dug through papers and trash. "Agh! Where is it! there's gotta be a manual or emergency procedure booklet around here somewhere!" She shouted to herself, flinging all the junk that had piled up from the faction's maltreatment of the place. The bell skittered off the desk and landed with a clang on the floor, barely audible above the din. "AHA! Gotcha!" Ember pulled out a binder and read over the instructions. It read: Water Shut Off Valve ~ and showed where it was located. A maintenance closet nearby! It wasn't going to help with the alarms but it was a start.


Ray
"Shit." Ray mumbled although no one could hear it. Rian was making movements to tell them to disable the utilities, but Ray was already in a panic about the electricity. Water plus electricity equaled bad news. The alarms were second only to the fact that the water could hit something electric and people would fry.

Why in the hell have I not made a blackout plug yet?! Ray thought frantically as Ember took off down one of the halls. With all his technical expertise he'd only been able to make cell phone jammers so far. The thought hadn't even occured to him that the blackout plug would be extremely useful until now.

He ran over to the door to the basement, opening it too hard and slamming it against the wall. Flipping on the light, he charged down the stairs to the basement. He looked around running to different sections of the basement and through the boiler room, finally making it to the gigantic circuit breaker. Ray locked his eyes on the master switch which would cut everything off. Not knowing how much time he had left, he ran quickly and slammed it down as soon as he touched it. After a quick hum, everything went black.


Ember
"Oh bloody-!" Ember crashed into the metal cleaning supplies shelves, groping in the sudden pitch black darkness. There was water hissing nearby through various pipes, and she was sure that if the lights were on she could have been able to find the valve, but as it was...

Well at least the alarm was off at last. "Yeah. Have to look on the bright si- OW!" She tossed the offending broom handle aside, stumbling out of the fallen debris, making her way toward the back of the room. Her foot hit something solid and she tripped, floundering on the ground. "Oh for crying out loud! Enough!"

Rage, that was the trigger. It always was with her cat morph. Apparently being in anything less than a sullen attitude just wouldn't do for the cat's mind, so the more anger she had the easier the transition. It took less than a minute for hair to sprout all over her skin, then another five for all the bones and organs to shape correctly. The crunching always reminded her of a bad werewolf horror flick, but after a little practice the pain had all but disappeared. And at last her eyes shifted, revealing at last the light within the darkness.

Now it was easy, leaping over obstacles and scurrying beneath metal shelves until she reached the very back where all the pipes converged. <<Excellent!>> Ember reached back to herself and took another few minutes to reform. Then, with a haughty turn, she cut off the water supply to the entire building. "There we go, that'll do it."


Drake
It was sheer pandemonium! At least that is how it seemed in Drake's mind. Alarms were blaring, water was everywhere, and it seemed as if almost nobody knew exactly what to do about it. Drake just dropped his towels and ran back to the laundry room to see if there was a switch or something in there.

Apparently someone knew what to do, because as soon as he reached his destination, the alarms went off. Along with the lights. Drake had to find his way back to the hall in the dark, and once there he made his way back to the others once more. The only light in the hall came from a window way at the other end, so that trip was interesting as well, to say the least. He eventually made it back and to the dimly lit room where people were standing. The water had stopped by this point, but he was still not entirely sure he knew what he should do. "That was interesting," was all he could think of to say.


Luce
"I don't think our interesting experience is over," Luce said dryly as the water began running again and this time the sprinkler system came on, drenching them all. Luce just stood dispassionately as the water poured down her face, only blinking it out of her eyes. Whatever someone had done to shut off the water had obviously not worked. Maybe because the valve hadn't worked or maybe because the pipes were broken. Luce didn't know, but she knew she was getting wet.

Their morphing suits, already tight, now clung to their bodies. "I'm going outside." She walked out of the hotel lobby and into the bright sunlight, the warm sunlight. Her clothes began to steam.


Chloe
Chloe jumped backwards as water spewed everywhere and the alarm started going off. Her ears were to sensative for sounds like this. Everyone was suddenly scrambling. Before she knew it, the lights went off, the alarm stopped, she could barely see anything in the light coming through windows and the open door behing her. She thought the excitement was over, until the sprinklers started. Startled, she ran over to where the one girl had dissappeared just a couple minutes earlier.

On the desk, a book lay open. It was full of maps and diagrams of the hotel and its plumbing system. On the page, the water shut off valve caught her eye. That was probably where the girl had headed. "Ah, crap," she said, louder than she had planned. "Thats the shut off for the rooms. The entire building's shut off is in the basement." She looked at Rian. "Tell me you have a flashlight somewhere. Basements don't usually have windows..."


Rian
Rian was surprised at Chloe's offer of help. "Um, flashlight, no, I don't think we do have one." Of course that wouldn't be a problem for a cat morph of any kind. But he wasn't about to morph in front of a controller, even one he liked as much as Chloe. The animorphs would just have to tough it out without the use of cat vision.

He was about to offer to go down there when a man came through the door and then instantly started backing up. The swinging door slammed shut and everyone stared at it for a second, wondering who had just tried to come in. Then it opened a bit and a young male voice called in, "Chinese Food!"

Rian's forehead hit the palm of his hand. What next? He shouldn't have asked. The next thing he heard were sirens. Apparently they hadn't turned the alarms off in time.

"I think we're cursed," he said to no one in particular. It didn't help that it was Halloween.

"Ok, I'll handle the chinese food and police guys. Drake? Diana? Can you go with Chloe to cut the water off?"


Drake
Drake was busy trying to cover his head with his hands in a futile attempt to keep the water from landing on him. His ears perked up when he heard his name, but it took him a moment to comprehend what Rian said, due to the noise caused by the sprinklers. He nodded with big exaggerated bobs of his head, with water flying off the end of his nose as he did so.

Drake was not exactly sure he could trust this Chloe girl, but if Rian trusted her that was good enough for him. "I think the basement is over this way," he said with a wave of his hand to signal to the girls the direction he was going. Drake had never actually been in the basement, but he was pretty sure he had read a sign next to a door that labeled it.


Ember
"What the HELL is happening???" Ember cried, emerging from the closet, soaking wet a shivering from the cold water. She stumbled over to Rian and peered out the door "Who is it? Does that guys bicycle say Chinese Food?"

Her eyes widened, shifting warily to Rian, "Ah.... huh, I wonder who was, heh, so stupid as to order chinese food from controllers? Man, whoo, have they made trouble! I'm gonna get on who-ever-it-was as soon as we take care of the police. Oh yes, indeed!" Her fingers twisted and she coughed, "ah right, um, so how are we going to handle this?"


Rian
"Tactfully. We are going to use our heads and charm them away," he paused, "I guess that counts you out," he said and then ran out the door before she could take revenge with a playful laugh over his shoulder.

But once he got outside things didn't seem so funny. There were two fire trucks and a cop cruiser outside and a police officer was walking up to them. He went to stand next to Luce who was standing with her arms crossed, gaze steely as she regarded the scene in front of her.

Rian, his face serious now joined her. "Can I help you officer?"

((If anyone wants to use the controller banner to be found in Guest Stars and play the cop I would be grateful?))


Drake
Officer Douglas, aka Narup 337, just stared blankly at the kid in front of him for a few moments. "Can I help you officer," he said, repeating the sentence. "Someone comes out of a building that was reported to have its fire alarms going off, he is soaking wet, and he asks 'can I help you officer.' Why do I always have to deal with you punk kids?"

"Do you want to explain what was going on in there? Or do I have to find out the hard way?" He rubbed his forehead with his fingertips and let out a sigh. "Never mind, it always ends up being the hard way no matter which one you choose. But lets start by hearing your names and designations first. You do have names and designations, don't you?" Hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with a couple freebies. They always gave him trouble.


Rian
Rian smoothed back his wet hair in an unconscious gesture of nervousness. He had never had to deal with controllers before, at least not when he wasn't trying to kill them. When he was in Chicago before becoming an animorph he had lived in a run-down district where the yeerks had often raided for new controllers. He had been one of the many resistant fighters in the area, setting up traps for controllers to die in.

Since becoming an animorph his fights had actually ended in less deadly conflicts and now he had apparently gotten to the point where he had to use diplomacy more than muscle.

He knew the run down on what Controller names were supposed to sound like and figured he should say something first in case the others didn't know. "Rak 584." He looked back toward the Den. "Uh, we just set off an alarm. We were, uh, checking the place out, thinking of buying it and rebuilding it," he said giving an excuse for why a bunch of kids were hanging around a hotel that was supposed to be abandoned.

The gangsters who had inhabited this place before them hadn't stayed here legally and the animorphs weren't any different. He had gotten the impression that this wasn't uncommon in Las Vegas these days and would normally be ignored. Unless of course the squatters were stupid enough to get themselves officially noticed by setting off a fire alarm.


Ember
Ember ran after Rian after a moments hesitation of righteous indignation. She caught up to him as he spoke to the gruff looking controller officer, and stood a few steps back behind his shoulder, listening in to what they were saying. As they talked she tried to smooth out her rapidly frizzing hair and made sure nothing could be seen through her soaked t-shirt.

"Hi!" She interrupted after Rian gave the lamest lie she'd ever heard. Yeah right, like he'd believe that a bunch of eighteen year olds were buying up property to refurbish. Maybe in the 1950's, or a black and white sitcom, but otherwise, Nope. "I'm Ezrat 336. I'm sorry about the confusion officer. But I promise, the building is not on fire! My, um, associate and I will clean up the water damage before we leave, too. So, ah, really we're all good here! But thanks so much for going out of your way for us! Really, I'm very sorry we troubled you." Her hand grabbed Rian's sleeve, tugging sharply.

"Um, also, would you excuse us for a moment?" With that she turned and shoved Rian back toward the hotel, stopping a few feet away to whisper. "Oh my god, really?! THAT was the best you could come up with???"


Luce
Luce stared down the cop as Rian and then Ember spoke, arms crossed over her chest, steam rising from her wet morphing suit, easily evaporating out of the thin material in the direct sunlight. She didn't give a designation, just stared.

Ember pulled Rian away and seemed to be whispering something. Luce's form blocked the two from the cop's view, but Luce had a feeling that this wasn't over. Rian's excuse had been see through at best and Ember hadn't given an excuse, just been nice. That wouldn't satisfy anyone. They would need a lot more before they decided to go away.

Well if they were going to be out here for a while...Luce walked over to the Chinese food guy and took the plastic bag out of his hands. "Hey, that costs $35.95!" he yelled indignantly.

"I left my wallet in my other pants," she said dryly since she was clearly wearing nothing that could hold or hide a wallet, her morphing suit consisting of a gray A shirt and black bike shorts. "Maybe I have some cash on me," she said patting around her thighs, hand brushing the hilt of the knife that was her constant companion. The controller looked at her like someone might look at a guard dog that didn't look too friendly. She arched an eyebrow.

"You know what, I'll just collect after all this is settled ok?"

"Sounds good." She said with a smile and walked back to stand between Ember and Rian and the cops. She seemingly paid them no attention as she dug into the chinese food, took out a container of fried rice, and began to eat in large bites. If there was going to be a fight later she didn't want to pass out from hunger. "Moo chu porg?" she asked the officer with her mouthful, holding out the container.


Drake
Officer Douglas listened patiently with a raised eyebrow. He had to admit that they didn't sound too convincing, but he was off duty in half an hour and didn't really feel like taking the extra effort. If they made it obvious that they were free then he would take them back to the station and have them infested, but as it stood now, there was still a lot of doubt in the air. The name Rak didn't sound too familiar, but Ezrat did. Or was it Ezrit? Ezrak?

He watched as one of the punks had the nerve to wander over and grab their Chinese Food order while he was talking to them, and the other two were having their own conversation. "Do you have no respect?" he asked. Sure, he may not be officially on the police force since it did not really exist in the same way it had before, but his host had been an officer previous to his infestation and he was still responsible for maintaining order in this city.

"That's it, lets see what the problem is that you've caused inside," he said with a stern voice. He called off the fire department over his radio since there didn't seem to be a fire, then he motioned for the hooligans to lead the way into the building. It was time to get some answers.


Chloe
Rian's 2 friends followed Chloe down into the basement. She couldn't see anything in the lack of light. "It's over there," she told them, pointing while they were still in the staircase getting some light from the door. She tried to make her way to where the map said the valve should be. So many things were everywhere, and Chloe couldn't see their outlines until she had already bumped face first into them. Every now and again she would turn and take a couple of steps to the left, simply to find that it was a shelf when she ran into it a second time.

After many, MANY bumps and bruises, Chloe made it too the wall. She felt around for a minute or two until her hand found a knob. It was supposed to be the only one in the area. Chloe hoped the diagrams were right about that. She tried to turn it, but it was stuck. God, what did Rian say the guy's name was? Drake? "Drake?" she asked apprehensively. "Can you come help me? The valve is stuck."

Once the water was off, Chloe ran back upstairs as fast as she could through repeating all the bumps and bruises. Just as she got upstairs, a police officer was coming through the door. "This doesn't look good," she muttered to herself. Please, just don't let her take me right now... Without thinking she walked up to the officer.

"Essi 009," she said in a controlled, even voice. "Is there a problem here officer?"


Drake
Officer Douglas walked in through the front door and gazed upon the ruined lobby of the abandoned hotel. Everything was soaked past its point of absorbency. The floor had water standing in puddles and squished loudly under his feet, the lights were off which gave the room an odd sense of lighting, and even more of these juvenile delinquents showed up as soon as he stepped through the door. One of them even walked up to him, her face a bit obscured in the dim light, and said she was Essi 009.

For some reason that name sounded familiar. He gave her a sideways look as he thought about that name. He had never been very good with names, so it was a short while before Narup 337 was able to remember the name. He snapped his fingers, "Ah, you're that Essi. The one who got all loopy on..." He stopped his sentence short as he remembered that she had a rank, although not a high one. He could not remember if her rank was higher than his, and she did not seem to be suffering from the effects of her supposed addictions at the moment, so he didn't know if he actually would have grounds for arresting her. The use of oatmeal was a serious crime for a yeerk of any rank, but maybe he would wait to see if she was actually suffering from oatmeal addiction before he made a move.

Finally he said, "So what exactly went on here?" He was just trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.


Chloe
Chloe knew Essi 009 wouldn't be happy about the officer's comment on her addiction. Chloe, however, was more worried about having Essi's oatmeal addiction revealed. As long as Essi stayed safely inside her head, Chloe could play it off as a rumor. However, if she didn't...

"We're not quite sure," she said, leading him slightly further into the building. If a fight ensued, it might be better if they were somewhere the food delivery guy couldn't see them. (Chloe had caught a glimpse of the scary girl eating pork just outside the door.) "A pipe burst in the kitchen, spewing god knows what all over my... associates. Next went the alarm, then the sprinklers. But we have it under control now."

"We managed to cut off the water, and, I'll be notifying the city plumbers and such in the morning, so, like I said we have it under con...con..." She kept trying to finish the word, but her head was pounding profusely. Essi was coming.

<<Are you kidding me?>> Chloe heard Essi say. <<I'd recognize that ugly controller anywhere. Narup 337 questioning me? Who does he think he is?>> A human officer would have looked worried for Chloe, but this was no human. Chloe, trying not to double over as she fought mentally against Essi, looked back at Rian. Hoping the officer wouldn't see, she mouthed HELP ME


Rian
((Sorry for the slight god mod Ember))

Rian was still standing next to Ember. The two had followed the officer inside, leaving Luce outside the door with the rest of them. Rian was looking nervously on as Chloe tried to fend off the controllers. He was surprised for the second time that day of her willingness to help them. Why? Just because she needed a place to stay?

When the controller mentioned Essi's addiction it seemed like the gig was up and Rian looked nervously at Ember but Chloe took it in stride and continued. Just as Rian thought the situation was handled he heard Chloe stop speaking and looked over at her to see her shaking a bit.

He knew the signs. He had seen Chloe's attacks more than once and knew that Essi was about to take control. And Essi wasn't sane. It was weird, sometimes the yeerk sounded completely normal, but then something would set it off and it would start raving about nonsense. If Essi took control now nothing might happen, it might be able to pull off the cover up...or it would get them all arrested and, in this time, being arrested was a nice way of saying getting a yeerk put in your head.

Rian stepped over to Chloe and put a protective arm around her, conveniently hiding her from the officer's sight. He looked defiantly at the officer as a young paramour might. "Are you done with her questioning?" He asked, feigning a protective anger or someone young and rash. "This hotel belonged to her host's parents and the damage it sustained still upsets her host. Sometimes the host tries to take control and it is just unpleasant for Essi. Leave us alone."

Rian hoped that the yeerk would dismiss them all. The yeerks saw not being able to control your host as a weakness and admitting such a weakness would be seen as stupid. If the controller cop just thought they were stupid instead of traitorous Rian wouldn't mind in the least.

He decided to risk the cop's anger instead of risking Essi's appearance. "Come on Essi, let's get out of here." He leaned in so that he could whisper, making it look like an affectionate gesture, "Chloe, hold on just a second. We'll be out of his sight soon." He walked towards the stairs, trying to get out of sight and hoped that the cop wouldn't stop them.


Stevert
((woohoo! Stevert's in Vegas! Watch out Yeerks! P.S. Rian invited me to join here. Hope none of you mind.))

On angels' wings, Stevert soared into Vegas. Well, it was actually the wings of a short eared owl but that's beside the point. He scanned the streets below with his powerful eyesight and listened with the bird's amazing ears. No sign of the Animorphs.

A day or two ago, Stevert had left LA in a rapid dash across the desrt to warn Rian, the leader of the Vegas faction, about a certain Controller back in LA that had something against Ember. Matthew sent Stevert to tell Rian since he possessed the fastest morphs for day and night travel, primarily being his owl and pronghorn. He was constantly on the move, day and night. He only settled down to sleep for a few hours every night since the brothers would take turnes sleeping in Steve's mind. Even with the additional time, it still took the brothers a long time to get to Vegas.

Now the easy part was over. Now Stevert had to accomplish something the Yeerks had never done before: Locate the resident Aniimorphs. Metally sighing, Steve suppressed an urging to complain. Instead, he directed the bird down towards a hotel with a pool on top where he began to demorph.

Once human, he began swaying and almost fell down from the amount of energy he had spent over the past couple of days. He decided to go for an energy "snack" so he focused on his living battery. A little over two minutes later, a grey squirrel was scurrying around the roof. Now the rodent's ears picked up a commotion coming from the street. He peaked his tiny head over the side of the building and thought he heard a familiar voice. Glancing around to judge his distances, the boy leaped onto a still used telephone wire. Nobody noticed him. He ran along it until he could see a face he nor Robert would ever forget. Rian. Talking to a police officer. Then another unforgetable person appeared. Ember! Stevert had found the Animorphs! The trio and a frightening woman who Stevert vaguely remembered walked inside the building Steve had demorphed on.

He ran back towards the hotel he left in a series of the trademark hop that squirrels were known for and raced down the side of the building. Hanging upside-down, he peaked his head intot he upper corner of a window and said to Rian, <<Hey Rian! It's me, Stevert! Is this a bad time?>> he asked when he saw a huge mess of water and heard loud alarms ringing in his ears.


Drake
Is that a sign she is addicted? Oh, nopeHer host is rebelling. You would think she would be able to control her host by now. Officer douglas thought as he watched Essi 009 give the signs that a struggle for control was going on in her head. While few would admit it, having trouble controlling a host was not too uncommon among yeerks. At least every once and a great while.

Narup 337 had to keep himself from making his host cringe at the site of Essi and Rak acting like they were so.. 'buddy buddy' with each other. He wasn't about to say anything, but it appeared that Essi and Rak had more than the usual type of boss-follower relationship, judging by the way they interacted. He hated it when yeerks messed around with human emotions, getting to involved in the feelings of their hosts. Oh well, not much he could do about it.

He looked at his watch. If he left now, he would get back just in time for his shift to end. Technically there wasn't anything he had seen that was incriminating, but he still had a suspicion or two. Well, if there is something fishy going on, someone else can deal with it. "It seems like you've got everything under control. I'll just let you get to cleaning up your mess." Then he turned and headed towards the door.


Ember
"HIYAH!" The fire extinguisher crashed over the officer's head just as he turned to leave.

The man blinked a few times, then crumpled forward, revealing a rather out of breath Ember still clutching the blunt weapon. Sure, she could have used her martial arts moves, but she'd panicked and the metal can just happened to be handy. Of course she'd turned to go get it when Chloe had started to seize, and hadn't seen that Rian had effectively handled the situation using a slightly less physical resolution.

"Ha! Report on us NOW, jerk." She grinned manically before noticing she was doing so and quickly wiping it away, lowering the fire extinguisher behind her back.

But in a saved-by-the-bell moment she heard Steve's broadcast letting them know he was here. "Oh my god! Stevert! Excellent, he can help me move the body."


Luce
Luce had eventually decided that inside was better than outside. The chinese food guy was still waiting there. He didn't seem willingly to leave without his money, of course he didn't seem all that willing to approach her for it either. It was annoying. Now the police, they were much more interesting in the fact that they presented a bigger threat.

The police officer that had gone inside must have been some type of leader because he was the only one who had gone inside. The other three police officers, two in one squad car and the other in the squad car Narup had driven in, still stood outside the hotel, lounging against their cars, waiting for Narup to come back out.

Luce tried to glare them away but it didn't take.

That was when she spotted a grey squirrel making its way down a telephone wire. Not too unusual. Except for the fact that there was some type of hawk circling in the sky and any real squirrel would have spotted it. Not to mention it was making a bee line for them and they being all big bad and scary humans too.

Luce's eyes flickered to the squirrel but quickly moved away lest she draw the controller's attention to it. Idiot. God save us from dumb soldiers. Luce gave the controllers one last glare and then headed into the hotel to let Rian know that they had some sort of company out there.

Then two things happened at once, or nearly at once. One: Ember bashed the officer over the head with a fire extinguisher. And two she heard an animorphs UNGUARDED thought speech in her head.

Luce could have screamed at the level of idiocy if emotional control hadn't been a habit by now. As it was her face showed enough of the anger to let anyone know.

She snatched the fire extinguisher from Ember much too late to stop the damage. Her esteem for Ember's intelligence had just dropped sharply. Or at least her good sense since Luce knew she could be intelligent when she wanted to be.

"Idiot. Since when was bashing high profile controllers over the head a good idea. And Rian, as you can tell by now, we have company outside in the form of a squirrel."

She looked at the controller girl Rian was holding rather protectively. She looked like she was about to spaz, another problem they didn't need. "I can take her if you want, or do you think you'll need me here. His friends out there won't be too happy about this."


Chloe
Chloe couldn't hold on any longer. At least the cop was unconscious. He wouldn't be able to see what was about to happen.

[image]

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!" Essi009 screamed at the insolent boy who dared to touch her. "Who the hell do you think you are?" She shook her host free if Rian's grasp and stumbled over to the cop, who was quickly growing a bright red lump on the back of his head. "Serves you right, you bastard," she said, kicking him roughly in his shins. "Questioning me. As if he has the right."

Fuming, she turned back to the rest of the people in the room. Chloe was trying hard to seal off her memories, but Essi009 was good at digging. She found exactly what she was looking for. "She helped you find your sister. How sweet." She curled Chloe's lip in disdain for these stupid human emotions. "Who are you and what the hell do you think you're doing?" These stupid brats had better come up with a damn good explanation, or else their ranks had better hold some water, otherwise things were about to get ugly.

Then she hit the very last memory Chloe had before she had taken control. Quickly, she scanned every inch of the room. Thought speak. What had the though looking girl said? Company in the form of a squirrel? Could it be? Were these the animorphs who had been giving everyone so many problems?

Surely not. Their enemy couldn't possibly be this group of kids. They were so stupid. Careless. How could they possibly be causing all these problems?


Luce
Luce walked over, swung the fire estinguisher around and hit Chloe or whoever it was square in the chin, knocking the controller out instantly. She caught the girl as she fell, letting her weight fall over her shoulder, and then lifting her up. She dropped the fire extinguisher to the ground and looked at Ember.

"That is a situation in which you knock out a controller." She walked over and put the girl down on one of the couches in the lobby. She quickly checked her over to make sure she was still breathing and then looked at Rian for further instructions.


Rian
Rian looked at the scene in front of him for approximately three seconds...and then he screamed in frustration.

"Are you serious! What is wrong with all of you!" He lowered his voice only because he didn't want to attract the attention of the police outside. <<Steve, get in here!>> He snapped in the thought speak he rarely used. He was glad and surprised to hear the other animorph's voice but he had no time for either emotion right now.

"Ember get Chloe upstairs. Make her comfortable but tie her up. Luce, help her."

He walked over to the controller cop on the ground and pulled him out of sight of the door. Then he demorphed and aquired him. He quickly morphed the cop, human morphs being one of his most practiced forms though the body was bigger and heavier than he was used to. He at least had the presence of mind to morph his morphing suit with him.

He stripped off the cop's clothing and put it on himself, hoping he was fastening the gun belts and such correctly. When he was done he looked at the gathered animorphs again. "Tie him up too and clean all this up as best you can. I'll be back but acquire him. All of us are going to have to take shifts covering for this guy until he is a free human again."

Then he walked out the Den and towards the cop cars. His partner got into the passenger seat and Rian realized he didn't know how to drive. And he also realized he was heading into a very dangerous situation. He motioned for them to wait a moment and then stuck his head back inside the Den.

"Ray, Drake, Diana, Steve, I need some back up. Can someone follow me please?" He didn't want Ember, or Luce anywhere near sensitive situations for quite a while.

Then he walked back out to the squad car. "You know, I've had a bad day, can you drive?"


Ember
A lot of things happened at once, most of that was shouting, and most of that was in Ember direction.

But the last straw was when Rian barged out of the Den dressed as the cop, obviously set on another mission even though it was an inadvertent one, and yet he didn't mention her name... She didn't get to go... Instead she was stuck here taking care of this STUPID CONTROLLER?! The bratty girl had nearly gotten them all killed with her mushy oatmeal-for-brains!! Not to mention the way Rian really seemed to care for her... but that was just an act for the cop right?

right?

Her shoulders slumped as she and Luce were left alone in the lobby with the conscienceless controller. She had done the right thing, hadn't she? The man was a threat to them and because of Chloe he'd almost caught on. If she hadn't knocked him out... well they'd be in a lot worse trouble... wouldn't they? Her mind buzzed with questions that stung at her every time she got the wrong answer.

But so what if she'd made a mistake!! She glared furiously at the floor, clenching her fist and biting down hard on her bottom lip. Everybody else made mistakes too! God, at least she didn't blow anything up this time! And SHE wasn't the one who lit the damn building on fire now was she?! If anything this was all Rian's fault! Him and that girl! Ember slugged a punch at a nearby palm tree, knocking it to the floor where the dried dirt in the canister spilled onto the soaked carpet. "FINE!" She screamed, her voice carrying up through the hotel, "SEE IF I CARE!" She turned her hateful gaze on Luce, but quickly turned away. She wasn't the one Ember was angry at. If anything... she wished she had a mirror...

"Ugh. Whatever." Her voice dropped to an inaudible mumble, "Let's just hope the elevator is working. I'm not heaving these bodies up those stairs." She cursed a bit more, getting it out as she picked at the dirt with the toe of her shoe. Then she turned suddenly and pulled chole's shoulders up to get a good fix on her arms, dragging her back toward the elevator shaft.


Luce
"Sure, leave me with the heavy one." It was Luce's attempt at normal bickering which normally she didn't have time for. But Ember seemed upset or something so best not to antagonize her, maybe even get her to stop being angry.

Luce didn't bother to be nice about the cop controller. She just grabbed the back of his undershirt, Rian had taken everything else, and dragged him towards the elevator, his face dragging in the dirty water.

But she couldn't resist the opportunity for good training. "Ember, that girl is light enough that you should be able to carry her by now, or else you haven't really been practicing hard enough. How about I take the elevator and you take the stairs? Think of it as good training. One day you might need to carry a teammate away."


Ember
"Oh for god's sake! Did I not JUST- AGH!!" Ember dropped Chloe to the ground, throwing up her hands, "Seriously?! You're going to do this now??? You know what, fine. JUST. FINE. I'll F*ing carry this insane controller up the stairs and when she wakes up and kills me then it'll be you're fault and maybe, finally, everyone will stop picking on me for doing the wrong thing!" She circled around and grabbed the unconscious girl by the ankles, "Hell at least I didn't shoot my teammate in the back. And yet somehow still he's only mad at me. God, there's just no way to win him is there?!"

Again, the feet plunked to the floor as all Ember's energy dissipated. Wandering back to the stairs she flopped down, her head in her hands. "Dammit..." Her fingers traced through her hair, slowly digging into her scalp. "It was going so good, I was having fun and Rian... it was perfect, up until she showed up. Then it was like I turned invisible. I can- I can't believe he would choose... and then I try, I don't know I try to impress him or save the day and... I can't even get that right."

Ember blew out a breath and looked up at Luce with a half hearted smile, "It just really sucks, you know?"

(Btw, Essie or Chloe can wake up at any point, unless you think we should skip time?)


Chloe
Chloe could feel herself waking up. As soon as she could tell that it was her and not Essi, she felt much more relieved. Her head hurt on both sides, her crown and her chin. The last thing she'd seen under Essi's control had been something big, red, and metal coming at her face. As grateful as she was to the assailant for stopping Essi, she couldn't help but be a little bitter over the pain. But where had the pain in the back of her head come from?

Before her eyes opened, she heard someone above her talking. It sounded like a girl, and she sounded distressed, possibly hurt... Chloe could feel that she was lying on the floor, but she wasnt quite ready to get up. She wanted to listen to whoever was talking.

it was perfect, up until she showed up

The girl couldn't be talking about her, could she? Was the girl Rian's girlfriend? Did she feel like Chloe had come between them? Chloe didn't want to stay on the floor anymore. She sat up slowly, pretending like she was just regaining consiousness. "Who hit me?" she asked, rubbing her soon to be bruised jaw.


Luce
"I did," Luce's responded to Chloe's question and then ignored her. Deal with one thing at a time. Ember, then Chloe.

"Ember, you weren't the only one left behind. He yelled at both of us and both of us are stuck here babysitting." Luce dropped the cop in front of the elevator door and walked over to Chloe. "And as for the rest," she paused. She no longer felt like Ember was being idiotic to get worked up over emotions. Apparently it happened to everyone, she thought with a slight grimace. But now wasn't the time to deal with it. "later, yeah?" she said, motioning to Chloe, who had obviously woken up, and walking over to her.

She took a firm hold of Chloe's arm and pulled her to her feet. She wasn't cruel though. The girl had tried to help them before her other half had reared its ugly head. And this was the second time she had tried to help the faction. So Luce was grateful, but it didn't change the very obvious fact that this girl was a controller and could be a danger to them.

"I'm sorry, but we are going to have to...restrain you. Your yeerk, it's insane and dangerous."


Ember
"Restrain her? Hmph." Ember snorted, "I say we knock her out again. Where'd that fire extinguisher go..?"

She caught the look from Luce and sighed, "Yeah yeah alright. The faster we get her upstairs, the faster I get to wait for everybody to come back..." She rolled her eyes as she moved to grab Chloe by the arm in a tight grip. "Joy."

Once they got her upstairs and duct taped to a bed post, Ember sat across from Luce at the opposite side of the room near the broken television set that was still leaking something green onto the floor. She'd chosen this room as opposed to any other specifically for the smell. It was the same one they'd held Drake and Diana in when they'd first been recovered, and had since been abandoned for nicer areas of their "Den". But Ember felt it was the appropriate level of disgusting for her unwanted guest.

"So..." She picked at the moldy furniture absently. "How long do you think Rian will be? It can' be all that hard for them to escape.. right?"


Luce
"Who knows." Luce wasn't very interested in the idle chit chat. They would either come back or they wouldn't. And it didn't seem like this mission was high risk so even they shouldn't screw it up. "I'm sure they'll be fine." It was what you were supposed to say so Luce said it, hoping that it would stop Ember asking a second time.

She looked at Chloe, whose hands were duct taped to the bed post. "Hmm." Luce abruptly got up and left the room. She trotted down the stairs and walked through the lobby until she got to the service elevator that would take her to the basement. Down there they had a much less pleasant holding room.

She opened the door and was greated by curses from the controller cop they had locked inside. He tried to rush her and she punched him, knocking him back to the wall. He had charged her without thinking and she had been ready for him. But he wouldn't be caught off guard like that again and he outweighed her by quite a lot so she didn't stick around. She just grabbed the hand cuffs that were hanging on a hook by the doorway and left.

They hadn't bothered handcuffing him because no one was suppose to go into that room and Luce didn't plan on visiting it again, except to deliver food, for the next three days.

She brought the hand cuffs back to Chloe's holding room and cut the through the duct tape in one motion with the knife that was her constand companion. Then she handcuffed one of Chloe's wrists to the bed post next to her. It had to be more comfortable.

She sat down in the chair opposite of Ember and went back to silently waiting and watching.


Ember
Ember frowned at Luce's actions, "You really didn't have to go through all that." She muttered, although not in a voice quite low enough not to be heard by Chloe. "After all, I'm sure once Rian gets back he's just going to have us set her free. Oatmeal for brains here can't be kadrona starved and we've got no other way to set her loose. Which is really too bad because I bet she would like it in mexico."

She let out a wistful sigh, thinking of all the miles that could be between her and Chloe. But the sentiment was short lived. They were stuck sitting around doing nothing, watching over someone Ember would rather throw in a river than protect. After Rian's party when they had talked and gone to the movies, she thought that maybe she had a chance of getting to know him better. It almost felt like she was the only one he ever opened up to... like the night they first met, under the stars and talked over everything that she was sure he'd never spoken to anyone else about. And whenever they worked together it always felt so right to be at his side, doing everything in her power to make sure she was useful to him.

And then this controller had just waltz into his life and tore down any meaningful relationship she'd built up with him. Chloe talked to Rian even more easily than Ember could have hoped for. And because she was damaged goods it just meant that Rian could swoop in and save her.

Ember was not a damsel in distress, and she had no intention of ever becoming one. But seeing someone else getting attention like that... it made her feel jealous and juvenile and angry all at once. How could she compete with that? She trained so hard with Luce so that she would never have to be a burden on anyone else, but through all the missions they'd been on she doubted Rian ever even noticed her lack-of-needing-to-be-saved. Instead as soon as Chloe made a fainting motion he'd spring into action!

She crossed her arms and stared off into space. "So..." She spoke up, tired of dealing with her own problems and deciding to deal with someone else's. "Luce, how's everything been going with you?"


Luce
"Just fine," Luce said, voice sounding bored. She was staring out the window behind Ember's head and the look in her eyes made it obvious her mind and attention were elsewhere. That was a lie of course, her attention was right here, in this room. She wasn't the type to be a half ass guard. If Chloe so much as even twitched the wrong way she would find herself riddled with bullet holes and Luce would make the necessary apologies to Rian later.

But the girl didn't seem interested in talking and her darker half had yet to re rear it's ugly head so Luce's hands didn't stray towards the handle of the gun at her belt.


Chloe
Chloe was silently complacent as the scarier girl pulled her up off the floor. She had to fight not to roll her eyes at the not quite as scary girl (whose name she couldn't remember hearing) when she suggested knocking her out again. Chloe reminded herself that she was going to try to be nice to this girl. She didn't want this girl to have any reason to hate her. Well, more than she already seemed to. The girl half dragged her upstairs, into a room that reeked of something rotting.

Chloe fought not to complain as the girl duck taped her to a bed post, and was thankful when the much scarier girl (Luce, she later overheard) replaced the duck tape with handcuffs. Chloe didn't ask questions and kept her mouth completely shut. This is one of those 'speak only when spoken too' situations she told herself. I'll just wait here... silently... until Rian shows up. Where is he anyway? And what happened with the cop?

[Aubrey]

Chloe
Ember shot a look at Chloe, then back at Luce. Then she heaved and sigh and pulled herself up out of her chair. It was obvious that nothing was going to happen. Luce wasn't going to talk with a prisoner in the room, which meant anything Ember could've learned was impossible to get to. Also, they couldn't talk about Rian, or any of the other boys, so it would've bored Ember anyway.

Twitching with inactivity she paced around the room, "Hey, so, it looks like there isn't going to be any trouble so, ah, yeah I'm going to patrol or whatever." It was always what Rian did when he was thinking right? So maybe she could borrow the technique and clear her head. She felt that if she could just recover her balance she might be able to sort this whole situation out.

So she strode to the door, yanked it open, slammed it shut and morphed into her ginger cat. Surprisingly it was much easier to morph her cat in her bad mood than it had been any other time. Her paws padded softly across the still soggy carpet until she reached the stairs and could bolt freely down them into the main hall ways any where she liked. It was nice, having even this inch of freedom...

(ok time skip, go ahead to the next section anyone)


Chloe
Chloe breathed a deep sigh of relief when the not quite as scary girl left the room, only to tense back up when she realized she was alone with Luce. What am I freaking out about? she wondered to herself. At least Luce seemed to be making an attempt to give Chloe a chance, unlike the angry girl.

She felt like she should say something, but what could she say? Thanks for not hating me? That wouldn't exactly work the way Chloe needed.

"Thank you," she forced out after a minute or two. "You know, for switching the tape for handcuffs." If she hadn't been restrained, she would have hit herself. Of all the stupid things you could have said... she repremanded herself, trying not to make eye contact with Luce.


Luce
Luce looked over at Chloe with an eyebrow raised at her hesistant words. She hadn't expected the little controller girl to speak at all since she had stayed quiet up until this moment but maybe she had been discouraged by Ember's very obvious malevolent presence.

"You are welcome," she said dryly and then stared at the girl for a few moments. She couldn't help but be intrigued by her situation. Luce herself had been a controller so she knew what it meant to have a yeerk in your head. But an insane one? "If you don't mind my asking how did you...become like you are? Why did your yeerk start using oatmeal?"


Chloe
Chloe laughed slightly at Luce's question. "A boy," she answered. Sharing too much about herself was one of Chloe's weak points. Things tended to blurt out. Personal things... "His name was Parker. Stupid reason, huh?" she asked, still avoiding Luce's eyes. "I use to play guitar and... um..." It took her a second to compose herself. From the battle in her head, it would have been hard to tell if she was sad or angry, and that was without Essi's input. Slowly, Chloe continued. "He, uh, he promised to make my dreams come true. Lead me straight into a sharing meeting."

"As if that wasn't enough, Essi was just as obsessed with him as I use to be. Even after seeing what he did in my memories, she followed his every word. Then one day it was 'Here, try some of this,' and the next thing I knew, I thought my head was going to explode from Essi's insanity. She would just go on forever about nothing." Chloe paused again, wondering if she was sharing too much. But what was the point in hiding it. If Luce really wanted to know, Rian could just them anyway, so why keep it a secret. "When I started taking control, I fell into an addiction of my own."

"Rian saved me," she concluded. "Helped me clean up my life. But it doesn't stop Essi..." Cautious, Chloe looked over at Luce for the first time, wondering what kind of reaction she was going to get.


Luce
Luce looked at her, her eyes unreadable, the naturally light green color darkened by the dim lighting of the room. Finally she said, "That is unfortunate. Is there no way to kill the yeerk then?"

She felt for the girl. She had been a controller once and the only thing that had kept her going was the surety that, given time, she would find a way to kill the yeerk that had violated her mind. And even more than that she had gained pleasure from Jal's fear as Luce had waited, watched. The yeerk had been unsettled to say the least and every time it had left her body for its once a three day swim it had been with an odd sense of relief. Luce had enjoyed that.

She had no idea how she would have lived knowing that the yeerk never had to leave her head again though seeing an insane Jals might have served as some sort of satisfaction. To be honest she probably would have found a way to die by now in Chloe's position.

Then again Luce had been looking for a way to die for a long time. Only recently had she started trying to figure out how to live. And she felt an odd envy for those who had never lost that hope of some sort of life better than the one they were living currently. The capacity to hope like that had been one of the most precious things captivity had stolen from her.


Chloe
Chloe shook her head and averted her eyes again. "No. Not as far as i know, unless she comes out on her own, of course, but that's... that just wont happen." Luce was probably pitying her now. Most free humans did when they found out about Essi. Then again, most free humans weren't Rian and Luce Most free humans weren't willing to give her a chance. Oh no, she's a controller. She can't stay here.

Not wanting to talk about it anymore, Chloe attempted to venture off topic. "Any idea where Rian is? Should this be taking this long?" she asked, genuinely worried. "And what was with all the fire extinguisher stuff?"

((ooc: Chloe still doesn't know they're animporphs, right??))


Luce
((Right, she doesn't know))

"Not sure where he is or when he'll be back. Hopefully soon." Luce wasn't about to go into details about where Rian had gone or what he was doing. The girl was nice enough but she was as trustworthy as a thief. At least her other half was and she had no way of controlling the yeerk. It wasn't anything personal, it was just the facts of the situation.

Luce looked at the large, spreading bruise on Chloe's chin from where Luce had hit her with the fire extinguisher. She didn't feel guilty about it, it had been neccassary at the time but she did think something could be done about it. Not now though. There was no one to relieve her while she fetched the needed medical supplies so Chloe would just have to deal with it for the moment unfortunately.

"I apologize about that. We do not stay here legally and there were police outside. The yeerk made an appearance and could have caused problems for us. I had to knock you out."


Rian
Rian arrived back in the Den after they had detoured for a while. They couldn't just morph and fly home because they would need the cop's uniform to keep playing him for the next three days so he, Drake, Steve and Robert had taken the long way home though only Rian had been forced to stay human.

But he was glad they were back now. It was really good to be home and safe and he shed the cop's body as fast as possible and took on his own again. He walked up the main stairs in the lobby, more trudging than climbing with purpose. The news that the birth mother's project had survived had depressed him no end. Then added to that that there was a controller in Vegas after Ember, Steve and Robert? None of that was good. In fact it was very very bad.

"Hey, anyone home?" He called hoping to find Ember, Luce and Chloe the easy way instead of looking for them.


Stevert
The grand tour of Vegas sucked. Steve had been waiting to see all of the sights like casinos, buildings for the heads of corporations, mansions, pools, and all kinds of things. Instead he had seen what passed for a police station, a few trees, some partly-demolished buildings, and only a few houses. All in all, he decided he needed to sneak out soon to experience it all.

However, the cop car was amazing. On the ride home, Steve had remained a squirrel and he had scurried all over it. Under the driver's seat, he had found a twenty dollar bill which he had kept. If if money didn't matter now, eventually it would, right? In the back seat, he found a half-eaten Snickers bar which was old enough to repulse his squirrel instincts. But he did find 3 Musketeeers bar which must have been dropped there recently. But Steve didn't care. He had chocolate.

So he waited a moment or two before he followed Rian into the Belagro place or whatever it was called. When he finally graced the building with his presence, his squirrely face was covered, not only in grey fur, but milk chocolate as well.

<<Hey peoples,>> he said excitedly in thought-speak as the chocolate began to course through his veins, exponentially increasing the infinte amount of energy the squirrel naturally possessed.


Drake
Drake was close behind Steve when entering the building. He was still in his lizard morph. Drake had decided it would be less suspicious if Rian was not seen with someone wearing a morphing outfit. Even if he had been in the morphed form of a controller.

Unlike Steve, however, Drake did not announce his arrival. He went behind the check in counter and demorphed out of view of anyone who might peer in through the front window. Once fully human again, Drake tried to catch up with Rian again. He wanted to see what he had to say to the others about what they had found out.


Ember
Ember's ginger cat streaked down the stairs into the front lobby, stopping short at the sight of stevert's squirrel. She arched her back and hissed menacingly, her bushy tail puffing like a bottle brush. <<Ha, Sorry Steve, cats and rodents don't mix. Hold on while I demorph.>> She apologized and focused on her own body.

It took about three minutes, which was actually pretty good for this morph, until she was back to her regular self. "Hey there, so how did it go?" Ember asked, trying to not let too much bitterness taint her voice. She was still pretty upset that she'd been stuck babysitting whats-her-face instead of helping Rian in the undercover mission. "Nothing happened here, if you were wondering."


Stevert
The chocolate coursed thorugh the squirrel's bloodstream and surrounded its heart, which began to beat faster. Suddenly, a cat appeared! It hissed! But before that happened, the chocolate mixed with the squirrel's vulnerability to it made Steve react like anyone else would. He bounced two feet into the air.

He landed on his haunches very quickly. Then a hand swept up to his face as he fell backwards, in either a swoon or form passing out. He layed there fro aboput as long as it took Ember to demorph when he slowly got up. <<Ember! Don't ever do that to me again! Especially after eating chocolate! Now I know why pets and animals aren't supposed to have it.>>

He quickly licked all of the chocolate off of his hands and savored the taste. Then he followed Ember's example to demorph. Slightly under two and a half minutes later, Steve was standing in the middle of the lobby, barefoot, and dressed in the black uniform with the angel logo on it that was the standard for the LA Animorphs. Unfortunately, the chocolate had disappeared. "Rats." he said, as if chocolate was extremely important. Even though it was.

"Now what?" he asked to everyone.


Rian
"Now we talk I guess. I mean there is kind of a lot to talk about but lets get upstairs first. Its still a bit wet down here." Rian began heading towards the stairs that Ember had just come down. Despite the unplanned havoc caused by the fire system and then Ember's and Luce's choices after this day might actually have turned out well for them. They now knew a bit more about the yeerk operation than before and may even get a spy in the tower at the end of three days or sooner depending on how much time the yeerk had before it starved. He should probably check on the guy later.

"How's Chloe? Does she know anything about us?" He asked Ember. He wasn't sure what to do with the controller. She was his friend but she was also a big security risk. Still she had asked for help and Rian had always thought of himself as someone who would give a friend a room, or a bed, or a couch if they ever asked for it. It was some hold over from growing up reading about knights and quests. The people along the way were always hospitable, always willing to let someone spend the night or spend some time.

But that type of hospitality might not even have existed before the invasion. It probably didn't exist now. Still...


Ember
Ember shrugged. "I dunno." It was mostly the truth, but she still felt a little guilty about not taking the time out of her own thoughts to find out how much Chloe knew. She should have been more responsible, thought of that sooner. But instead she just headed up the stairs and acted like she didn't care, more than she hadn't thought of it.

"She wasn't talking when I was in the room. I left Luce there to try and get some information from her while I patrolled, but the girl seemed pretty freaked. It was probably the handcuffs." Ember continued on, making assumptions. "From what I know she still just thinks we're a bunch of free humans. Unless you told her something that would make her think otherwise..?"


Drake
Drake was not sure how to react, so he just stayed silent. He was curious as to what happened with their prisoners after he left, but figured his curiosity could wait. Rian had already asked the important questions. Any others would have been purely unnecessary.

Therefore, Drake waited to hear Rian's answer to Ember's question. Had he told her anything about the animorphs? Drake would have been surprised if he did, but probably not as surprised as he should be. That thought unnerved him a bit.


Rian
"Of course I haven't," he said a bit shocked that Ember might think he would compromise their safety like that. "She's my friend but she's still a controller, she's a security risk. Unfortunately Chloe knew where they lived and even if she didn't know they were animorphs she probably knew something was up. Free humans didn't go around making trouble for themselves by beating up controller cops, not even in Vegas, especially not in Vegas where the peace was hard to maintain and only lasted because the free humans kept their heads down.

In fact they had endangered more than just themselves by attacking that cop, they had risked the truce that kept humans safe in this city. If the yeerks found out their buddy had gone down they might decide letting the free humans roam around living on the empire's scraps was too dangerous. It was part of the reason he'd been so mad. Working in the bar had taught him just how much fear the humans lived in of someone striking a spark that would burn the whole city.

His eyes strayed over to Ember when the fire metaphor came into his mind. It was too apt a comparison. "So what should we do about her?" his question was directed at everyone there.


Ember
"She can't stay here. I'm sorry about her situation, but even just one slip up and... she'd betray us, her yeerk would technically" Ember grudgingly added, then pressed on, "And we can't free her. It's impossible now."

She pressed her lips into a tight frown, not liking the situation even the slightest bit. They were supposed to help people, but in her mind, Chloe wasn't a person. She was still a yeerk, and always would be one. And the fact that Rian couldn't see her that way and even told her where they lived! They knew each other from the club, and she'd given them the information that led them to the airbase and the street women. Surely by now she'd heard what had happened there... what if word got out that it was the animorphs? All she'd have to do is put two and two together... then go insane like she had less than awhile ago and they'd find themselves sunk up to their necks in controllers.

"Let's give her the number to a nice, real, hotel. Pat her on the head and shove her off before she gets too clever and puts us all in real danger." Ember suggested coldly.


Stevert
"Uh, can I ask a question?" Steve interjected as he raised his hand like a person in elementary school would. "Who's Chloe? What does she look like?" he asked as he followed Rian up the stairs, imitating a duckling and its mother.

"She has a yeerk? And it's oatmealified, right?" he said to nobody in particular. He had based that last part on what he had heard Ember say. why else would it be impossible to force a yeerk to leave a head. "Then the yeerk is crazy. The yeerk can be easily tricked. Its thoughts will erratic. You might be able to trick the yeerk out. Other than that, I don't feel I have much say here. I'm just a messanger here."

<<Good job, Steve. That actually made a little sen...>>was all Robert could get out in congradulations before Steve then said, "What do you guys use on this carpet? It's soooo soft." He wiggled his toes on the carpet to emphasis his point.


Rian
Rian looked over at Stevert. He'd been about to respond to Ember even though he hadn't known what he was going to say. He wanted to defend Chloe but he had no real defense. He knew she was dangerous, or at least Essi was, and what could he say that changed that.

But Stevert saved him from having to figure it out at least for the moment. "You're right, she's a controller and her yeerk has gone crazy because of oatmeal. I don't think she can be de-infested either," he said troubled. Chloe's situation was probably one of the worst ones he could think of.

But Stevert had also reminded him that this wasn't the only issue they had to face today. "Right, you're a messenger and there is something you should hear," he said directing the second part of his sentence to Ember. "Seems you have a friend in Vegas." He looked back down at Stevert. They were all standing at various heights on the stairs and it made conversation slightly awkward. "You should probably tell her why you're here."


Stevert
"Aye aye sir." Steve said as he snapped off a curt salute.Then he plunged into the story of his Vegas debut.

"Well, you see, Ember," he drawled, "waaaay back in LA when Robert was captured by the yeerks? You remember that mission? The one where Robert infested me. Anyways. Well, we tackled a guy and a girl. It just so happened that the girl escaped and doens't like you now. Maybe becuase you were the one to knock her out? Oh well. Not sure. I just know that she won't be joining your fan club anytime soon."

He walked up a few steps so he could be at a more reasonable height to Ember and continued. "Well, a few days ago, I was just minding my own business and I was taking Rob to the pool to feed. Well, wouldn't you know, that same girl showed up cornered Rob and I." Steve made sure that he didn't mention how exactly he and his brother were cornered.

"She tried to interogate me but she failed becuase I'm so awesome.And a friendly neighborhood controller-cop-security-dude barged in and distracted her while we escaped. But she did learn, I don't know how. She must've read our minds, But she found out you were in Vegas. And she put wanted posters up everywhere for me. So, I said to Matt. 'Matt? How about I go warn Ember? She might appreciate that.' So I ran and flew here. Oh yeah, I think I'm supposed to stay here too, with my cover being blown and all. Not that I have a cover sinc eI'm technically a Controller. But that's beside the point."

When he finished his long speech (something he was very good at), his eyes drifted over to Rian and he smiled as he said, "Yep. That's my message. now who's going to sign for it?"


Rian
Rian hadn't realized the situation was quite that bad. Wanted posters? "So you're staying," he asked Stevert.

After he said it he realized that it sounded awful most likely and tried to cover for it. "That's great Stevert, we could always use more people here and this way we get a two for one deal." He really was glad to have Stevert here, he was just surprised.

It wasn't everyday that a new faction member just showed up here. Unlike in LA, where it seemed like they were constantly getting new people every time Matt went shopping, Rian hadn't had any new recruits since Nadia. And before that his only recruits had been Drake and Diana who had both shown up his first night here.

Then again, Stevert wasn't exactly new. He was an experienced animorph who even had a good battle morph in the form of his african wild dog and may have picked up some new ones by now.

And is that all I think of him? Rian found himself asking. Since when had he started judging the worth of his faction mates based on how effective a weapon they were?


Ember
"Wait!" Ember stopped walking and frowned. "The controller woman? I... What? That doesn't make any sense. I don't even know her! And she read your mind? Can controllers do that? Because I seriously think that would have been better to know back when I took up this job." She said sarcastically, trying to sort out Steve's message. She was already in a sour mood, now on top of this she was being chased by some nut job controller she'd only seen once?

She huffed a sigh, rubbing her temple as a headache started to creep up. "She caught you, found out where I was, and came here looking for me? Just me? And she put up wanted posters for you?? This is a little above average vendetta... God I cannot deal with this right now..."

Of course Rian hadn't even blinked at the fact that she might be being stalked, just focused on on Stevert's faction change. But that's what it was always about, wasn't it? The faction. Nothing and... no one else. Oh yeah, except for Chloe. Ember snorted, having almost forgotten about Rian's new pet project. While Ember was dealing the idea that someone out there hated her enough to track her to Vegas, Rian was mourning over his brain dead crush.

"Whatever." Ember said aloud sourly, "Why don't you go check in with Luce. I'm going- to just, take a nap, or something..." She held her head and climbed to the top of the landing, turning off before she could get Rian's patented 'I'm so confused' look. The last thing she needed was to be in the same room with Chloe and Rian. All that would come from that would be upgrading her headache to a migraine and she just didn't feel in the mood anymore. She knew that anything she tried to say to convince Rian that she was a threat would be ignored, and Luce wouldn't want to listen to her complain about that afterwords either, so she'd just lay off and let him do whatever the hell he felt like. See if she cared!


Drake
Drake was a bit confused by all of this new information. He tried to sort out the main points in his head. Steve was staying in Vegas, Chloe was a crazy-yeerked controller, Ember was being stalked by a controller, they were going to impersonate an officer for three days, and the pipe was still busted in the kitchen. Hmm, that is not confusing at all, he thought to himself.

Drake ignored Steve's kookiness, Rian's welcome to Steve, and Ember's... intense mood. He went straight for the killer question. "So, what else is going to surprise us today?"


Stevert
Ember exploded and then vanished. Steve turned to Rian with a quizzical expression on his face. "Was it something I said?" he asked with pure sincerity. "Oh, and um, yeah, i guess I'm staying, Ri. so now you are our new leader and we are apart of your faction." He thought it was fairly obivous that'we' meant him and Robert.

Then the Drake guy asked what else would surprise him. Steve face lit up and a huge smile nearly split his head. "Ooh yeah! I forgot to formerly introduce you too my brother. His name is Robert and he is my brother slash yeerk. Say 'hi' Rob." he commanded his brother.

<<Hi, Rob.>> Robert said. The occasion was slighlty serious but he just had to throw that in there. <<But yes, I am Steve's brother yet his yeerk. It's a long story. Nice to meet you. I would offer to shake your hand but I do not possess any.>>


Rian
"No it wasn't you Stevert," Rian said annoyed. He had no idea what was up with Ember lately. Why couldn't she just act like a normal person and not explode at him for things that weren't his fault. Chloe had helped them more than once and she at least deserved a bit of thought given to her situation, not a dismisal. But Ember was too busy being angry at god knows what to see that.

"Sorry. I have to go talk to Luce and Chloe. You guys can come with if you like or Drake could show you around the Den if he wants to. Really Steve, Robert, welcome to Las Vegas. I'm glad to have you both."

Rian trotted up the stairs heading for the holding room.


Ember
Ok, so she did care!

As soon as she was out of sight Ember stopped and hid against the wall, peeking around the corner to make sure they kept going on. She couldn't help it. She had to know what made Chloe so special, what was it between her and Rian that irked her so much? There had to be some undeniable incriminating evidence that would prove her in the right. Why else would their meeting matter more to her than her new crazy, stalker controller? And as much as she just wanted to drop it, Ember found herself sneaking over to the elevator shaft and riding it up as far as its rusty gears could manage.

The guys were already on the floor when the doors slid open and she had to flatten herself against the wall to make sure they wouldn't catch sight of her. "Ugh this is stupid... Just leave it Ember! There is absolutely no point whatsoever to-" She reached the adjacent room and had already started unscrewing the air vent panel. "This is ridiculous! Of all the juvenile, paranoid... <<absent minded, erg->> Ember clamped down on her thoughts as she shifted into her snake morph, slithering silently into the vent until she reached the grate on the other side. From that vantage she could see Luce, Chloe, and the guys as they walked through the door. Her snake smiled, or perhaps that was just how it always looked, but either way she got a front row seat to whatever was going on.

And that little protesting part of herself, the part that groaned at the thought of spying on her own faction, shut up and sat back, giving in to her ego driven desires with no further argument.


Chloe
"Is it the lampshade?" Chloe asked. Luce said nothing."What about the book over there?" No response. "Um... I'm running out of ideas." She had no idea when they'd started playing I Spy. She had been bad at this game when she was a child, and it would seem that her skills had decreased since then. Almost every item in the room had been guessed, blue or not. Luce hadn't said anything, but Chloe knew that she hadn't found the right answer.

"Is it... hmm.." Chloe hung her head in shame, trying to think for the millionth time. Then it hit her She felt blind. Stupid. "Is it my shirt?" she asked, her tone betraying her irritation with herself. "Yes," Luce replied simply.

((loki okay'd the slight god-mod))


Rian
Rian walked into the room they had used to hold Diana and Drake to find Luce sitting in a chair, arms crossed and Chloe handcuffed to a bed. Handcuffed to a bed...the things they got themselves into these days. If this were a couple of years earlier he would make a joke but for some reason such innocent joking seemed to be beyond him now.

"Hey, how did things go here?" He asked Luce though he was looking at Chloe as he walked into the room and left the door open for Drake and Stevert though he hoped they wouldn't show up as some sort of animal since he wasn't sure how he would explain that one away.


Luce
"Exciting," Luce said dryly as she turned to regard Rian. "We've really bonded, had some girl talk," she continued on in a serious voice though the words themselves made it clear that she was being sarcastic. In all honesty she hadn't minded Chloe's company. The girl didn't annoy her like most people did and she'd even given in to playing eye spy.

"Do you still need me here or can you handle this one with out me," she asked standing up. She turned to Chloe briefly though and gave a nod of her head. "Either way it has been a pleasure Miss Vergara."


Rian
"I'd like you close by if you don't mind," Rian said thinking back to how quickly she had handled Essi last time. But maybe it was best if she wasn't in the room. He wasn't sure how to treat Chloe but from past conversations he knew that the yeerk normally made its attacks when she was upset or in some other way distracted. Maybe it was easier to take control of her then or maybe it just had a perverse sense of caring and was coming in to help her.

Rian didn't know but he knew that Luce made most people nervous and even though they seemed to be getting along now she had still been the one to knock her out earlier. "Maybe down the hall," he asked. She only raised an eyebrow at his request but then turned and left.

He looked down at Chloe. It was weird to see her tied up like that, to know that it was necessary to keep her tied up like that. Out in the city they were on equal terms. He had no right to attack her or hold her because of what she was. But in the hotel he had to think about the faction and she was a danger to them, unfortunately. Which again brought him back to the question of what he was going to do with her.

"Hey Chloe. Sorry about the cuffs." He wasn't sure how to explain to her their need for secrecy without giving away that they had a secret so he just left it there, seeing what she would say.


Chloe
Chloe would have waved as Luce left, but quickly remembered that her hands were cuffed, and resigned to a courteous nod. She tried hard, yet unsuccessfully, not to eavesdrop as Rian asked Luce not to go to far. Soon, he looked at her again. He apologized nicely for the cuffs, but that didn't absolve her curiosity. Why was there even a need for them in the first place?

"How's the bruise on my chin coming along?" she asked, trying not to sound bitter. She turned her face to give him a better view of her chin. Surely he had a good reason. Some explanation for what was going on. "Last time I saw you, Luce was dragging me in by the arm. This time a fire extinguisher and hand cuffs." She tried to let her face and voice soften before speaking again. "I know that what you and your gang do is you're business, but you gotta give me something."


Rian
Rian looked at her impassively. He really didn't have to tell her anything and when she asserted that he did it only made him more likely to keep his mouth shut. If this had been an enemy...but she wasn't. She was a friend, sort of anyway. A friend with an enemy inside her that they couldn't trust.

"You're a controller, we aren't, we're free and we have to do a lot to stay that way. You of all people should know how dangerous it is for free humans in this city. I never got my sister back," he said darkly hoping to guilt trip her and distract her from asking more questions.


Chloe
"I realize that," she replied. She could hear frustration in his voice. "I know that Essi is dangerous, but you know me, Rian. I can handle her, as long as she's not around people..." Chloe felt that adding the last part was nessecary. As long as they were in private (private being that no other controllers were around), then Chloe could just force Essi back. There was no fear of exposure around free humans. After all, Chloe was relatively sure that the rest of Rian's gang already knew about her condition, with the way they'd all looked at her when she walked through the door.

"Just give me a chance. I won't leave here alone. I'll stay out of the way. And if Essi gets to be a problem, Luce can hit me with the fire extinguisher again." Chloe winced slightly at the idea of that pain sort of pain happening twice. "Rian, please. I have nowhere else to go. WE have nowhere else to go. Even Essi isn't stupid enough to endanger that."


Rian
"But it isn't about you Chloe. I'm sorry," and he really was. He didn't want to turn her away. She was his friend despite what Ember thought and saying no to a friend who needed help went against his grain. But, "I have to think about my faction. Uh, my gang, my group, whatever. Their safety has to come first. What if we have another situation like the one we had today and Essi decides she's going to come out? Luce can't watch you twenty four seven, none of us can."

He picked up the keys from the side desk and leaned over her so that he could unlock the hand cuffs. When she was free he sat down in the chair Luce had vacated. "You can stay here for a while but you have to start looking for your own place."


Ember
Yes! Ember thought, careful not to share that jubilation aloud. That's right! you tell her Rian! Her snake wiggled around a bit, sticking out its tongue to taste the cool air. Being stuffed in a vent wasn't the ideal climate for her morph, but she didn't like it very much anyway. The snake's mind was too cold, too stiff, and incomparable to the freedom she felt with her cardinal or race horse. But for now it was very useful for spying and such, and hopefully once the prying controller girl finally got it through her thick head that she wasn't wanted here, Ember could get out of the vent and back to normal life.

But then she heard the rest of his statement and did a double take. What??? She could stay for "awhile" what did that mean? 24 hours? A week? A month?! Agh! Rian! Noooooooo.....

Ember fumed, doubt creeping back into her mind. What did he want her to stick around for? Just in case he wanted to call on her sometime in the lonely dark nights and 'talk'? Why wouldn't he just boot her out on her rear and tell her to get lost? She wasn't needed here, and she definitely wasn't wanted here. What good would possibly come from letting her stay even one night? She'd just get a better idea on how to go crazy and betray them.


Chloe
Chloe couldn't help but be sad at Rian's answer. He had always been there for her. There must be some extremely extenuating circumstance for him to be turning her down like this. She couldn't even look at him as he unlocked her hand cuffs. Frustration and disbelief coursed through her. Rian was hiding something. Something big. Bigger than the time she'd lied to him about Old Town...

At least he was giving her some time. That was more that some people in this city would do. "Thanks," she said, trying to hide her bitterness. "I won't stay long," she promised. If he doesn't want me here, then fine... She shifted all her extremities, trying to wake them from the numbness that had overtaken them. "Got any ice?" she said, resisting the urge to rub or scratch her chin.


Rian
"Plenty," he said relieved that he could help her with at least one problem. "Sorry about the jaw and to answer your question from before it doesn't look too bad," he lied. He put the handcuffs and the keys in the drawer in the side table. If they were going to use this room from now on to hold people he might as well make it easier on the guards.

"You can have whatever room isn't claimed already though I warn you, Ember has managed to claim like five of them somehow so you never know which one is hers. And Chloe," he said turning around so that he could look at her, "I am sorry about this. You know I would help if I could."