Post by dexter on Sept 30, 2009 19:14:30 GMT -5
Jullian:
Jullian wandered through the empty halls of the abandoned subway tunnels. This had to be his favorite place in the city. Surprising since he normally didn't like tunnels, or any enclosed space really, but this part of the tunnels was wide open and it reminded him of a dwarf land in a Tolkien novel.
Above him was a twisted heap of melted metal and stone. He imagined that it was what was the result of a large dracon attack. But instead of destroying what had once stood there it had buried it.
Jullian was walking through the sunken halls of Union Station, almost perfectly preserved. The tunnels that had once run under this landmark now ran into it. Jullian had found it three days ago but hadn't gotten to explore very far before he had to leave. This was his first time coming back and this time he had brought friends.
If he had been in morph he would have been prepared for what he saw when he turned a corner, but as a human his senses were limited and he had taken the crowd sounds for the far above traffic.
He turned a corner and found a magical market. That was literally his first thought as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing in front of him. People milled about in streets whose only bounds were the shacks made of stone, wood, cardboard and anything else that could be found that stood in some semblance of rows. The people were dressed in rags of their former clothing but the mood didn't seem too down.
Still, it was awfully crowded and space had obviously run out on ground level, or what used to be ground level. The shacks could also be found on the balcony surrounding what had been Union station's main hall and then, as a further concession to the need for space, large, strong nets had been strung between the balconies, creating a canopy that people had built on.
Jullian looked at all of this, wide eyed, as people shambled and shuffled on the ground and more scampered and scurried over the nets like legendary sea rats through rigging or, going even further back in human history, monkeys through trees. There had to be a thousand people here, more.
"Hey kid, watch it." He was pushed aside by a middle aged man in a hurry to get from here to there. Jullian stepped back against a wall so that he would be out of the way and tried to take in the existence of this city underground.
Stevert:
Stevert walked along behind JUllian. The kd had requested help in exploring the tunnels a few days ago. Steve had jumped at the request for the fact that it would get him away fromt he Haunt. He was going to go crazy there.
The Kinley brothers gazed at the wreckage from when Union Station was draconed. It was a mess that Steve was glad he didn't have to clean. Suddenly he lost sight of Jullian. He turned a corner and was frozen by what he saw. At least a thousand people were moving around, climbing on nets, building shacks, moving in and out of shacks and so many other things. Then he realized that they were all dressed in rags and the shacks were made of scavenged materials and almost every part of their livving style suggested that they were poor.
Now Robert took over Steve's eyes and began looking around. The older Kinley brother was looking for familiar faces. He found none. Based on their observations, the brothers concluded that these were free humans since controllers wouldn't live in dumps like this.
He saw Jullian against the wall and pushed through the crowd towards him. He spoke, "So, was this what you were looking for?"
Jullian:
"Looking for? No. I wasn't looking for anything. Jesus Steve-ert. Look at this place. It's a whole mini city down here. The yeerks can't know about this." Excitement was growing in his voice. "We're not alone anymore. There are other free people. There are-ow!" Jullian's hand flew to his forehead as the soccer ball rebounded off of it.
Two kids, one boy about his and Steve's age the other a girl and a teenager, both athletic looking, came running up. "Sorry," the young man said as he picked up the ball. Then he took a bit of a closer look at Jullian and Stevert. "Yo, where did you get those threads? Pretty nice."
Jullian rubbed the red mark in order avoided having to look at the attractive boy in front of him. "Uh, made them. I make things."
Jullian looked at Stevert, wondering how much they should talk to these people but it seemed rude to ignore them.
He looked up at the two teenagers. "So, uh, we're new here. What is this place?"
The kid looked from Stevert to Jullian and back again. "Well I call it Zion, you know, after the matrix movies but everyone else just calls it Union."
"That's cool," Jullian tried to think of another conversation topic that would delay the two kids until Matt could get there. He looked around trying to spot Matt. Where was he?
Stevert:
Steve watched as a white and black sphere hurtled through the air and struck Jullian on the head. Then a boy and a girl ran up. They immediately engaged in a conversation with Jullian. Soon the conversation stopped.
He began talking. "You've seen the Matrix i loved those movies! Although I liked other movies better like Star Wars! Have you seen Revenge of the Sith? I hated that movie because the plotline was sooo weak in it and Anakin was like, 'I will never serve you' and then he said, 'I'll be your slave'. That was so horrible. And right after that, Anakin began killing the jedi and stuff. The second movie was way better than the first because of the spectacular fights at the end."
He took a short breathe and continued. He finally had new people to talk to! As long as he didn't mention anything Animorph related then this conversation should go fine. "Hey, have you ever seen Eragon? Ever read the book? I've seen the movie and I hated it. They totally switched the stuff around and they twisted the book up so the movie was pathettic and horrible. The only thing I liked about was the really cool affects. Another movie that I didn't like because of the warped plotline is To Kill a Mockingbird. Have you two ever read that book? if you have then don't watch the movie. They switched chapters around an totally messed up the story."
Steve stopped talking. Where's Matthew? Won't be be here by now? C'mon. Even I can't talk much longer. Stevert had decided to wait for Matthew. Steve had kept up a constant chatter while Robert used thoguht-speak to tell Matt where they were. He was unsure of what to do with so many free people. He wondered what Matt would do.
Matt:
Matt came to join them and Aubrey wouldn't be far behind him. He'd hung back a little and kept her with him, trying not to come in like a huge group. Four people in matching outfits, it seemed sort of out of place in any city. But in this one.... This practically was an underground city and he wasn't sure anymore how odd they would have looked. Matt had heard the comment about it being called Zion by the one kid and Union by most everyone else. His face held an expression of complete wonder at the world they had stepped into. It was nothing like the one above ground. "Is everyone here free?" He realized he'd asked that out loud. He couldn't believe there were so many people here.
"Sorry. It's just with all the yeerks above ground I had to wonder. I'm just amazed a city like this could go undetected for so long. How did you do it?" The boy seemed to know quite a bit about Union. If something like this can exist, then maybe there isn't so little hope for saving the world after all. If even regular people have been fighting to survive and have built entire civilizations like this.... maybe the yeerks haven't won the war yet.
Aubrey:
Aubrey trailed behind Matt, fingers locked behind her back sheepishly. She had been silent the whole trip here, her expression closed off and hidden. Matt had brought her along to keep track of her after the most recent episode--Aubrey had decided to sneak out on her own to see her mother. She still felt terrible about it, but it had given her a new sense of purpose.
Her subdued demeanor broke almost immediately when they turned the corner. In awe, sea-blue eyes swept across the amazing sight before her; people, tons of people everywhere, above them and moving in and out of dingy shacks. Her jaw dropped, and her hands fell to her sides as she took the sight in. What IS this place?
"Bloody hell," She murmured under her breath. Ahead she spotted Jullian and Stevert talking to a couple kids, and caught snippets of the conversation. Zion. Union. Stevert began chattering away as usual, and Aubrey began to stare at the kid in front of them. Was he free? How could this be possible? Aubrey had always been under the assumption that there were very few free humans in the world anymore. In fact, she had been surprised to even find out that there was a resistance. But this?
Jullian:
The boy looked at the group of four. They were all looking around in wonder as if they hadn't been here before. "You're new?" Jullian nodded.
He stepped up to him and with his trademark smile, "Yeah, we're new. My name's Jullian. What's yours?"
"Allie. This is my sister Gina," he said motioning over his shoulder. The young woman nodded but didn't seem as open to the strangers as her younger brother was. Maybe because she was older, maybe because she had seen more.
"Do you want me to show you around?" Allie asked.
Matt:
Matt listened to the introductions only halfway. Allie seemed like an odd name for a boy, but he wasn't going to comment. Gina, the girl, seemed a lot more hesitant than her brother and was also staring at Matt for some reason. She looked away whenever he glanced over in that direction though. It bugged him, but for now he ignored it. At least, he tried to. When she muttered something to Allie and pointed at Matt in the process it kind of made him wonder what was up.
Forget it. There's no way they've seen me in the guise of Promin and I can't think of any other reason they'd recognize my face. The real reason wasn't obvious. Not even Matt would have suspected it.
--------
"That boy there, I think one of the YPM's knows him." Gina muttered to Allie. The boy glanced at his sister and then at the boy she was pointing at, the one who had come behind the first two.
"Why?" he asked. The face didn't look familiar, but it wasn't like he was friends with everyone Gina knew.
"Tess has a photo from when she was younger, of her and a boy. He could easily be the boy's older brother if it weren't for the photo being from four years ago. It has to be him, but he's supposed to be in Chicago. That leaves questions about what he's doing here." In truth Gina wasn't as sure of her assumption as she sounded, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Aubrey:
Aubrey heard the conversation happening in front of her, but wasn't listening to a good portion of it. Instead, her attention was wandering to the incredible scene laid out before them. It was a lot to take in. She also had this funny feeling in her gut, as if she would recognize one of the people wandering around this place. She knew the feeling was based more on hope than anything, but her eyes still scanned the sea of faces expectantly. How many people live here?
She turned her attention back to the two teens standing in front of them and conversing with Jullian. They seemed to have an interest in Matt, pointing and whispering at each other. The thought came across Aubrey that maybe she could go wandering off by herself to have a look around, but she flashed a glance at Matt and remembered that knew wasn't too great of an idea. Lacing her fingers together, she shifted from one foot to the other.
Jullian:
Allie took in what his sister had said. She was the older of the pair, the responsible one and he was only 14 but, always with them, he had led and she had followed. He had often gotten them in trouble and she had run after him getting him out of it. She was responsible and he was strong willed. And so, often, she would suggest an idea to him but it would be up to him to actually get them to do it.
"If what you say is true then we should take them to Tess. She's a Key anyway," he said using the slang term for anyone who lived on the net above them. It had started out as a joke about monkeys and then it had become a title for people who lived up there and then it had gotten shortened to just Key or sometimes Boon after baboon but that was only if you wanted to get into a fight with a Key.
Allie himself wanted to be a Key but Gina wasn't too keen on the idea of living on a net that could collapse at any moment. She wasn't too wrong. The net had collapsed twice in the short history of this city killing dozens and injuring hundreds. But the space was needed and so they had rebuilt the net after the collapses. They were not yet bold enough to expand the city outside the boarders of the station since they had no way of protecting themselves from the yeerks if they were found so it was net or nothing.
"The stairs to the net level are across the way. I already said I'd give them a tour, we'll just walk in that direction."
The conversation with his sister had been kept private from the newcomers but now he turned to them, his smile as wide and welcoming as ever, a hold over from his genuinely giving and friendly nature, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, a scar of the war. "If you want that tour we should leave soon. It's crowded here by the markets and we make a pretty big hurdle just standing here like this. Space is precious in Union and no one appreciates it when you take up too much of it."
Jullian looked over at Matt to see what he wanted to do.
Matt:
The interest the two free humans had taken in him was odd and just a little creepy to him, but it faded almost as soon as it had shown up when Allie turned back to them. Matt nodded. "That would be nice. This place is... well there's almost no word to describe it." It was amazing really, that there could be something like this below the noses of the yeerks. How could they not know about it?
Allie turned and started leading them across the city, explaining things about it as they went. Matt kept glancing around, but couldn't shake the feeling that there was something the Animorphs weren't being told. Like there was some reason Gina kept glancing back at them with suspicious eyes. He had a feeling she wouldn't have trusted them anyways, but somehow trusted them even less right now. He was amazed by the city, but it's entire existence seemed threatened without a way of protecting it's secret. How had they kept yeerks from this part of the subway for so long?
---------
On the net above them was the how, or part of it anyways. A part they'd be meeting soon. The city had it's secret keepers in the form of Yeerk Peace Movement controllers who continued to tell their superiors that this segment of tunnel was unreachable. Most of the entrances to it agreed with the statements they made. They were blocked up tight with rubble from the devistation the yeerks had caused. The Animorphs had found one of the few that did have a way to get through if you looked hard enough.
She was one of the protectors of Union. The red headed teenage girl who'd spent the first few years of her life outside of Los Angeles. She'd moved to California when she was thirteen. She'd lived here for four years, moving to Union when she'd found out about it and proved her standing as a YPM controller, the relatively free host of the yeerk Nomar 527. She had gray eyes that shined with a fierce spirit and a wisdom beyond her 17 years. Her name was Tess Williams.
Aubrey:
Oooh, they were taking a tour! Just what Aubrey wanted. She glanced from the three boys before her eyes wandered again around the place, wide-eyed, still try to take it all in. How could they keep a place like this secret? Its so...big. The whole place gave her goosebumps.
She had so many burning questions she wanted to ask the two kids, but she didn't want to seem suspicious--like they were really outsiders, or even worse, Yeerks. It was strange enough that the four of them had showed up in matching suits. Instead she closed her mouth tightly and kept her eyes scanning the crowd.
Her eyes landed--briefly--on a blonde girl's face, meeting chocolate brown eyes. The moment was gone, and the girl brushed past the group without a second glance. Wait! Aubrey blinked in surprise, and turned her head to catch the girl's face again. But the thick crowd had shifted and the girl had disappeared. Maybe I'm just going crazy. She couldn't be here. At least, I don't think. I'm probably just seeing what I want to see...
Still, Aubrey turned so that she was walking backwards, her eyes frantically scanning faces. C'mon... She bumped into somebody, and they pushed her away. "Watch it!" The person said. Aubrey turned back around, mumbling an apology, and kept following the group.
Stevert:
Steve took a deep breath. He was pretty glad that MAtthew suddenly appeared like that. Steve was running out of things to say and he doubted that he could have captured their attention for much longer. But now he didn't need to think about that. A short conversation followed and the two kids seemed to go off on their own to talk. He raised an eyebrow when the girl begna to point at MAtt. Do they recognize him? Are they Controllers or something? He shrugged it off after Robert said that they would have also pointed at Steve.
Then the boy offered to show them around. Jullian looked at MAtt, as well did Steve. Matthew began following the kids so Steve walked along like a well trained puppy. A well trained puppy that constantly fell behind because it kept getting distracted by everything around it. That was what Steve was like. He tried listening to their guide but he couldn't pay attention long enough, even when Robert forced him to watch.
Instead, Robert took over Steve's legs and manuevered closer to the boy to listen what he said. Even still, Robert couldn't believe such a place could exist. Surely the Yeerks would have known about it. And how did all of these people escape the Yeerks? Sure, some of them could have been freed, but not all. Robert was puzzled by the fact but didn't say anything.
Steve wasn't paying attention. He was looking at everything, distracted by the whole new world he was in.
Matt:
Allie's tour was fascinating to Matt. He couldn't believe some of what they had running down here without the yeerks knowing a thing. The boy soon led the group up onto the second level of the city. Matt was a little hesitant about climbing out onto a net at first, but once he saw how many people were up there he figured it was pretty stable. It might collapse, but he doubted he'd be that much added body weight. The L.A. leader was skinny and any visible musculature under his morphing suit was all rather wiry.
They were lead along the net. While Allie held their attention, Gina, who'd been playing rear guard, snuck away into one of the houses. The house was Tess's. Despite the girl's daring nature, Tess was smart. She'd had the guts to move up onto the net as and be a Key, but was smart enough to live close to the stairs in case the thing did start to collapse. There was more of a chance of getting to safety that way.
"Tess, you need to come out and see someone. I swear he's gotta be the boy in your photograph." Gina indicated the photo on Tess's wall of her and Matthew. Both had been 13 at the time it had been taken and she had moved away shortly after that day.
"Gina, he's in Chicago. There's no way he's here."
"Then he has a look-alike double in L.A. Come on you know how crazy that sounds. Him being here doesn't sound crazier than that." Gina had convinced herself the two boys were one and the same despite a lack of evidence, which led to needing a reason for being where he wasn't supposed to be. All she had to do was convince Tess to come out. Their reactions would be all the proof they needed.
"Fine," Tess said. Gina had a point. Matthew having an identical non-biological twin and Tess getting to meet both was like winning the lottery. The chances were minuscule.
The red-head girl walked outside to where the tour group stood and spotted the boy at the lead of the four uniformed people. It.... It can't be. He looked way too similar though. Even without the photograph she could superimpose the 13 year-old face onto the face of the 17 year-old and see the similarities. He'd matured, but so had she. Teenagers did that.
She saw the logo on their shirts, the angel wings with the letter A. She'd seen that one other time, and the human wearing it had turned into an animal. Sure enough he was even among the group here. "They're Animorphs," Tess said. "Think of them as L.A.'s real angels. They're fighting the yeerks every step of the way." And Matthew was one of them.
At a closer range she could even see a difference in the logo on his shirt. It had a halo-like crown above the A. A crown. A crown would normally mean a prince or king. Those were both figures of leadership. Matthew a leader? No way. Time to test her theory though.
"Hey you," she called, "I thought I left you in Chicago. What's with being in L.A.?"
Matthew's head did a sharp turn and his mind pulled the same superimposing of faces that Tess's had. His expression took on one of shock and disbelief. "Tess Williams?"
"The one and only. Now what have you gotten yourself into Matthew Blaine?"
Jullian:
Jullian had been looking around at everything. Part of the reason was that...well, it was all amazing. Even before the yeerks had attacked Jullian had never heard of a society that lived like this, or at least not exactly like this. Union or Zion, or whatever it was called, was something new and unique.
But the other reason he was looking everywhere was to avoid looking at Allie. He was cute and Jullian's age which, of course, was the problem. Before the Fall Jullian had been just coming into his own and just starting to figure out that he was much more attracted to boys than he was to girls.
His family wasn't the most accepting but not because they didn't love him, but because they didn't understand. Jullian had learned to value the difference. There were some kids he knew whose parents completed rejected them and there was a very small chance that that would ever change.
But in Jullian's case all his family would need was time, time to learn, time to understand. And they had been getting better. And Jullian himself, after the first couple of months that had been rough, had started to feel like his future was looking bright again. After all, this was the 21st century and he lived in America. Being gay wasn't a sentence to a life spent oppressed. It wasn't even a sentence to a life spent alone. He couldn't wait to really get into the sub-culture, maybe move to West Hollywood, maybe move to West Village.
Like every other teenager he had hopes of falling in love, breaking up, falling in love again and basically just going through all the Dawson Creek, OC drama of life. And he hadn't realized how much those dreams, those fantasies of normalcy, had meant to him until now.
Jullian was starting to realize that the world was a much smaller place these days. So many were dead, more were controllers. Meeting someone he wanted to spend any amount of time with would be hard if he was straight. Gay?
As the reality of the changed world started to make itself known to him Jullian felt a deep sense of bitterness and of anger at what the yeerks had taken. He didn't care that the government had collapsed or that the world had changed beyond recognition. Did anyone really care about those things? Politics, wars, all of it was just a backdrop to the important things in life; family, friends, and yes, relationships. People were what mattered to Jullian. And the yeerks had taken away his hopes for the simple things. For a house and someone to share it with.
So he wasn't looking at Allie, or anyone else for that matter. He didn't want to even begin to hope because he didn't want to be disappointed...again.
And because he wasn't looking at Allie he happened to be looking at something else, which may be the only thing that saved Union in the end.
Jullian spotted a brief flash of silver moving through the air of the upper levels. It was only a glimpse and then it was gone. But it made Jullian feel uneasy. What had he seen? And did it matter? Because whatever it had been it certainly hadn't been anything anyone at Union would have. Metal that could fly? Yeerks, had to be the yeerks.
"Matt, I think I saw something."
Aubrey:
Aubrey ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep her attention on the tour that was be given. But she couldn't stop thinking. Had it been her imagination? The last time I saw her was when way back in Redding, why would she be in Los Angeles? Aubrey had never known what exactly had happened to her friend Sophie. They had become separated during a food raid, and Aubrey had fled back to Los Angeles. Had she abandoned her friend? Aubrey didn't want to think of it that way, but the thought still troubled her even now.
Aubrey followed the group to the second level on onto the net, her steps unsteady and distracted. She wouldn't notice the young girl following behind the group. How did people live on this? Its crazy. It still felt like this was a dream, and at some moment she would wake up. The existence of this place made no sense.
A voice came from behind the group, and she turned to see a red-headed girl standing near them. Matt and the girl seemed to know each other, and Aubrey watched the exchange silently. She felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Who is this girl?
Aubrey turned away, hearing Jullian's comment, but not paying it much attention. Because she was distracted, she didn't expect the hand that touched her shoulder, making her jump. "Hey!" Aubrey jerked her shoulder away, and turned to see whoever had touched her. Her tight expression dropped when she realized who was staring back at her, their face split with a big, toothy grin. It was Sophie.
"What're you doing here, you crazy Aussie?" Sophie said cheerfully. The familiar sound of the girl's voice snapped her out of her shock, and Aubrey let out a loud squeal of delight, jumping forward to trap Sophie into a tight hug. The girl laughed, holding her arms out stiffly.
"You bloody whacka! Where have you been!" Aubrey said, her hugging grip tight on Sophie. She couldn't believe it, it was actually her! "What are you doing back in Los Angeles? What happened to you? Are you okay?" She pulled Sophie back suddenly, looking her face over as if for injuries. "...Do you know what's happening...?"
Sophie looked to the group of Animorphs, as if unsure she could speak with them around. "Well, I can tell you later." She leaned in closer, brown eyes flicking back to Aubrey. "Who are those people? What are you doing with them?"
Matt:
Matthew had been smiling and trying to figure out what to tell Tess of his time since they'd seen each other last, especially concerning his and Sara's current fates. His smile faded at Jullian's words. "Do you know what it was?" He was already searching the air for whatever would have bothered Jullian. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tess darting towards one of the houses up here. "Where are you going?"
"I'm a Yeerk Peace Movement controller. I'm supposed to protect the existence of Union, along with others like me. I have to hide my face and get my dracon beam," she called. The revelation startled Matt. My twin sister and my best friend, both ending up with YPM yeerks. What is the likelihood of that? Little to none. It didn't really matter though, or at least now wasn't the time to think about it.
Aubrey was in the midst of her own cheerful reunion with a friend when Matt started shouting orders. "Aubrey, Steve, Jullian, can anyone spot what Jullian saw? Also, do we go battle morphs or air morphs with this?" He was fairly certain it would be air morphs. He didn't think any of their dog-like battle morphs would work well up on this netting and Matthew's crocodile was definitely out of the question. The only thing their battle morphs would work for was if they needed to fight on the lower level.
Stevert:
Robert finally managed to snap Steve back into focusing on what the people where saying just in time to hear Matt ask If they should morph battle morphs or air morphs. Steve began babbling away with an explanation of what he preffered that actually made sense...for once. "I think we should morph our birds and such. Think, this place is pretty crowded so our dogs won't go anywhere fast. Plus, we are walking on nets here. Birds would be best, especially since the owl you gave me awhile ago is kinda big."
Steve then looked around the net for a suitable place to morph so they would be able to look for what Jullian had seen. He saw a collection of shadows behind a shack and guessed that it would be a secluded place to demorph considering that there was tons of light wherever other people were.
He said, "I think I found a place to morph!" in a hushed tone so other people wouldn't hear them.
Jullian:
"Wait, wait, wait," Jullian said holding up his hands. He wasn't even sure of what he had seen and now everyone was going to battle stations. He should have just kept his mouth shut. What if he was wrong? Then they would have gone through all of this for nothing and Matt would know that he had chosen wrong and that Jullian really wasn't ready to be a second. "I don't know what it was but if we go to air morphs and it was the yeerks then they'll no we are here because birds wouldn't be underground. Then they'll just come down harder on this place."
He looked around at his fellow animorphs and tried to think of what to do. He looked up at the ceiling of Union. Some of the original train station ceiling could still be seen but there were places where it was missing and rocks and hard packed earth could be seen on the other side. But the thing that Jullian noticed about the ceiling most was that it was crossed with rafters. And chandeliers, darkened now, hung from some of them.
He tried to judge the distance. The original Union hadn't been much more than two stories high but the floor had fallen farther than the ceiling, making the space about three or four stories tall. They were on the nets now so they were closer but only by a floor or so. He wasn't sure if it would be possible but maybe if they aimed for a chandelier.
"Matt, what if Steve and I morph monkey and squirrel and then you and Aubrey could, well I guess throw us up there," he said pointing at the nearest chandelier. "Then we'll be able to see if there is anything flying around down here without flying ourselves."
Aubrey:
Despite the circumstances of everything--her mother being a controller, the world ending, having to fight aliens--Aubrey had a genuine smile on her face. The sight of her long lost friend, somebody who she trusted deeply, was surreal. Her whole body was animated with excitement, and she couldn't stop bouncing. Sea-blue eyes landed on the group of Animorphs when Sophie asked who they were. "They're friends. I'll have to introduce you to them..."
Just as she said this, Matt began shouting orders. "Aubrey, Steve, Jullian, can anyone spot what Jullian saw? Also, do we go battle morphs or air morphs with this?" Aubrey put a hand on Sophie's arm quickly, saying, "Hold on..." she moved away from her friend and closer to the group, feeling the tension. "Wait.. what? What did Jullian see?" She knew Jullian had said something, but she had been too busy with Sophie to hear exactly what he had said.
It felt annoying to have to deal with something bad in this wonderful place, but Aubrey was ready. "Are we attacking whatever Jullian saw?" She really liked her dog morph, and was eager to use it again if she could. She tilted her head up to look, long blonde hair falling across her shoulders. She didn't see anything overhead. What was going on? She looked from Jullian to Matt, waiting for her faction leader's instructions. After the whole thing with her escaping to her house, Aubrey was ready to prove that she could be a good thing for this team.
Matt:
Matthew listened to the others for a moment and thought about it. Birds would have worked, but Jullian was right. They didn't know what was up there and flying around along with it wasn't a smart idea. However, Matt thought of something he didn't say and he knew another member with them would have liked the chance to prove them self after a mistake. This choice seemed like it was his, so he was sending who he felt he should up there.
"Sounds good only I'm sending you and Aubrey. She needs a chance to prove herself after her mistake and she has a squirrel monkey like you, identical to you, and I have more confidence in Steve getting a monkey up there than I do in Aubrey getting a squirrel up. Bigger object and a taller individual throwing," he said over the commotion of people around them reacting to their actions.
He glanced at Aubrey and Jullian, "Get morphing you two." He hoped Steve and Robert wouldn't complain about his decision since he'd attributed it to positives of each change. Steve was taller than Aubrey so there was an addition of height the monkey was being thrown from. Also, a monkey had more appendages to grab the rafters with so Aubrey had the more capable morph. Mostly he really wanted to let her prove she could be a part of the team and knew she'd want to. This was the perfect chance and way to do that.
Stevert:
Steve turned around to face Matt as he placed his hands on his hips and placed a mock offended expression on his face. "What? I can't morph squirrel? Aww, come on! Why does Aubrey get all of the fun?" Despite his good-natured complaining, Steve knew Matthew was right. Squirrels were not as good at flying through the air to grab ahold of polished metal as they were flying through the air to grabe rough bark. Besides, he knew Matthew was also right about the whole height thing.
But still, Steve kept complaining with a slight smile adorning his lips. "Maaatt, I really had my heart set on morphing squirrel. I woke up this morning and thought, 'I wanna morph a squirrel today.' except that I wanted to sleep in. Then Jullian rounded the three of us up to come here. I thought that was cool since I could probably morph my squirrel here, but no, you won't let me." Steve hid his smile and began sniffing as he rubbed his eyes. "I think I'm going to cry now."
Then he stopped his charade when Aubrey and Jullian were done morphing. He bent down to pick one of them up.
Camille:
There was something about huge, underground cities that gave Camille an unsettling feeling. The white-haired teen was never sure why he felt so uncomfortable in cities, but he was and that was usually all that counted. He usually stayed away from the huge cities as a rule, mainly because he hated being surrounded by extremely tall buildings. If anything, Camille preferred the country and suburban areas.
So, why LA? Why go to one of the big cities on the other side of the country? Well, the young Frenchman had heard of a resistance faction in Los Angeles and was all ready on the way to California. Camille decided that LA sounded better than going to Canada from Virginia.
The journey had been long and hard, but he did manage to get there. It took a while for Camille to actually get into the city, but he figured that it was worth it. If anything, the big city of Los Angeles was easy to get lost in, as well as hide from Controllers and the like. Camille also decided that if he could not find the faction leader within three days, he would leave and try somewhere else. It was on the third day that he actually came across potential faction members.
Cam had been on a random stroll through the city, making sure to wear tinted sunglasses and something to hide his unusual hair. He fidgeted slightly, feeling extremely uncomfortable walking atop of a net. Not a soul spared him a glance, which gave him confidence that his disguise was working. It was best to just not be seen, especially in a big city.
Up ahead, he saw a group of four conversing with each other. Camille lingered for a moment, just long enough to see two of the four morph before his very eyes. The group was possibly part of the LA faction, but he hung back, unsure of whether to approach them or not. After all, how could Camille help them? They might think that he was just a spy sent to "sabotage" whatever the group was planning to do.
Matt:
As Matthew picked up one of the two monkeys, not actually sure which one it was as he hadn't watched them morph, he said, "Robert will be able to relay messages from me to the two of you, so tell me anything you think is important or any questions you have. If things get chaotic down here I'll try not to get separated from Stevert." Both of them would have heard, and Jullian at least would keep Matt aware of what was going on. Matt trusted him.
With as much force as he could Matt sent the monkey flying skyward towards the rafters, Steve doing the same to the other. An observer might not be able to see the halo-like crown that hovered above the winged A spread across the back of his shirt, but would probably notice the others looking to him for answers and orders. What else could be expected seeing as he was the leader.
Jullian:
Jullian's monkey did not like being picked up. It didn't like being thrown either.
That said, actually flying through the air was an enjoyable experience to them both.
As he neared the chandelier he let the monkey take over and a foot shot out and caught a chain, bringing him to a jarring halt but a halt that was connected to the chandelier. He scurried to a more secure location and then began scanning the station.
He spotted what he was looking for right away. It was a medium sized metal sphere that was floating through the air. Its lenses was a small black circle and it was pointing in every direction. It definitely wasn't anything Union could have produced.
It wasn't trying to hide in anyway which showed how much the yeerks feared any sort of resistance. They obviously had just sent these things out and expected that they could handle anything they found.
<<Matt, I see it. It is a...um...it's a floating metal sphere. Like a soccer ball made of metal and it has a lens on it. It is looking at everything but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.>> Jullian crouched back against the chandelier so that he wouldn't be seen and hoping that Matt's YPM friend would recognize the description and tell them what was going on.
Matt:
Tess came running back out carrying her own dracon beam and an extra one she had lying around. The red haired girl noticed the boy with white hair watching Matthew and the other Animorphs. She didn't take much more notice of him than that he was there though, mostly focused on getting back to her friend. Matt was, after all, the leader and the two who had morphed monkeys would be reporting back to him.
"Any news on what was spotted?" she asked as she got closer.
"Soccer ball sized metal ball with a lens. It's mostly looking at things but hasn't done anything yet," Matt said. He didn't even turn to look at her as he spoke, keeping his eyes on the two monkeys, Animorphs under his command. He really is a leader, and surprisingly it suits him. I'd have never though Matt to be the type, but he's the same as he ever was. I guess even someone we think we know as well as ourselves can sometimes surprise us.
Focusing back on the object he'd described she spoke to Nomar in her head. <<Does it ring any bells?>>
<<It's a hunting robot sent by the yeerks.>> Nomar said, obviously not liking it as he explained, <<We have to destroy it or Union will be doomed, they'll have found us out. The people here will all be captured and held to be host for yeerks or experimented on.>>
<<How do we destroy it.>>
<<That I don't know.>>
"Hunting robot," Tess informed Matt, relaying Nomar's words. "Only problem is Nomar, my yeerk, doesn't know how to destroy it."
"Great.... Just great."
Aubrey:
Aubrey gave one last glance to Sophie's shocked face before her vision shifted and morphed into the monkey's eyes. Within a few minutes, the cracking and grinding had stopped and she was squirrel monkey; the same exact monkey that Jullian was.
RUN!! Her first instinct was to dart away, as the monkey didn't like the sights and sounds of people everywhere. She had to struggle to not move as somebody grabbed her, then threw her. Her stomach did a flip as she sailed through the air, her small monkey paws grabbing wildly at nothing.
She caught a chain nearby Jullian, both hands clinging tightly. <<Ohhh man that was too crazy.>> She swung back and forth for a second, still trying to stop her head from spinning. Then she let the monkey instincts kick in and pulled herself up and over near Jullian. <<...What is that thing?>> She strained to look up at it, her heart thumping and the hair bristling on her back. <<It has to be Yeerk, right?>>
Stevert:
"Hunting robot? So THAT'S what those things are called! I didn't know that. Thanks, Random Person." Steve said. Then he frowned and said. "Wait. Aren't those things bad? Yeah, okay, they are. Yeah, um Matt? Maybe Jullian, Aubrey, and the rest of us outta scram since those things have Dracon beams on them."
By the way, Steve was distracted by the person. Who was she? Matt didn't seem alarmed by her. That meant she wouldn't hurt them, right? And she knew about the hunting robots and she has a Dracon beam. That must make her a Controller, Steve concluded. Since Matt was watching the monkeys, Steve did a 360 degree spin and kept a watch on the crowd and tried not to get distracted by all of the shiny things. He saw a few people watching them but that was too be expected. I mean, come on! How often do you see a couple of teenagers wearing matching, black, skin-tight outfits with angel logos on them and wearing no shoes? Not often, to say the least.
Robert, however, took the person's info in stride. Using Steve's vocal abilities, he said, "Won't Dracon beams destroy those things? 'Cause those are the only things available right now." In private thoguht-speak, Robert directed to Matthew, <<Matt. Who is this person? Can we trust her? Also, what are we going to do? Steve's owl is the largest air morph we got but it's hopeless in a fight with those things. Hunting robots are too fast, too big, and too dangerous.>>
Matt:
Matt's head spun for a moment at the words of his teammates as they came flooding to him from multiple sources and in multiple ways. He closed his eyes for a minute and focused. Where were the important facts and who needed to know them. "Robert if those things have dracon beams you should be telling Aubrey and Jullian that. Admittedly you have the right to question Tess seeing as she's a controller, but she's YPM. I don't think the people of Union would have let her stay here if she wasn't telling the truth about that. As far as who she is, her name is enough now. I'll explain how I know her when our teammates aren't in danger."
His mind was turning over the possibilities for what they could do about the robot. "Could a monkey fire a dracon beam? If so Tess has two and all we'd have to do is have you fly them up to Aubrey and Jullian," he was talking to Stevert. "Your owl could do that much, and it's more than my bat or hummingbird can do. If we can get the beams to them, they have the clearest shot at hitting the thing." It sounded crazy, but maybe crazy would work for them this time.
Stevert:
Robert responded to Matthew. <<I am sorry for not trusting her. I will now relay the information too Jullian and Aubrey.>> He switched targets and directed to the squirrel monkeys. <<Hey Aubrey and Jullian. Steve and I am flying up to you guys. Steve will have two dracons beams in his talons that you two will need to use. That thing you saw, Jullian, is called a hunting robot. It has Dracon beams. Don't let it get to close or it might see you. The Dracon beams should destroy the robot. Good luck.>> Then Robert reported to Matt that he told the monkeys what was going to happen.
Steve's face broke into a huge grin and he said, "Gotcha fearless leader! Owl morph here I come!" Steve shrank nad his mouth hardened. Soon, the instincts bubbled up and the bird's wings flared as it began to flap away. Struggling with the still new thoughts, Steve barely managed to fight back for control long enough to land on a small shack's roof. He knew that the excitement would cause a large crowd.
Now Steve said to his leader, <<Hey...Tess, right? Hold up your Dracon beams on top of your hands. I'm going to try snatching them away in flight. You may not want to hold tight since this form is still new to me.>> If Steve could haved laughed with the bird, he would've been cxhuckling a bit. <<Or maybe MAtt should hold them since he can also heal any injuries I MIGHT inflict. Don't want to take any chances, do we?>>
Matt:
Tess seemed to jump a little when she heard Steve's voice in her head. It had been enough of a shock to see people turning into animals, but now they were also talking to her in her head. She'd known about the Animorphs, being a controller. All she'd really known though was that they existed and what they could do. She had thought it was a little far fetched... before seeing it with her own eyes that is.
Could Matt do that too? Seeing as he was the leader he had to plus he'd said something about being able to turn into a hummingbird and a bat and had also mentioned dog forms. It was all a little overwhelming, and she handed the two dracon beams to Matt.
"He wants someone to hold them over their head so he can grab them. He suggested you, something about being able to heal any damage he might do."
Matt nodded as he took them. "Right. Morphing heals damage because it isn't part of your DNA code. If they scratch me or something I can simply morph and demorph, the damage will be gone." He took the dracon beams and held them over his head, his fingers barely holding them in place. Lets hope any damage isn't something too serious... 'cause this feels really stupid.
Stevert:
Steve leaped off of the building and quickly flapped his wings so he wouldn't fall in the dead air. He jetted over to Matthew and stretched his talons out. he was almost a foot away by now. Miss! <<arrgh. Gotta do that again Matt. I don't have much practice with this morph yet. Sorry.>> Steve said as he circled around again.
This time, Steve caught the guns without causing serious harm to either party. Then, with silent wings, Steve soared above the crowd and aimed for the chandelier. <<Oh Jullian! Aubrey! This is Steve and I have presents for you! Get ready!>> Now, up above everyone, Steve could see the robot thanks to the amazong eyesight of the owl. He could also hear motors clicking in it and the object moving through the air.
Hopefully it won't see me. I'm a kinda big target. Steve thought to himself. He was almost at the chandelier now. <<Okay you two,>> he said to the monkeys, <<get ready. I'm going to drop them above you.>> Steve flew above the chandelier and folded one wing a little so it wouldn't hit the chain as he opened up his talons.
He circled around the chandelier once before saying, <<Hey Matthew! Mission accomplished!>>
Jullian:
Jullian tried to catch the dracon beams but they were much too big for the squirrel monkey's little hands. The dracon beam fell right past him and disappeared into the crowds bellow. <<No!>>
He wasted one moment regretting the miss and that was almost too long. He jumped over to where the second dracon beam was falling towards Aubrey and reached out for it with three limbs, only leaving one to hold onto the chandelier. Along with Aubrey, they were able to catch it.
But now that they had it how were they possibly suppose to use it. Neither 35cm, 1000g monkey could grip a dracon beam designed for human hands, maybe even for hork-bajir hands, and hope to fire it. <<One of us is going to have to go human.>> He wanted to offer her the chance (as well as the risks) but the fact was they were on a chandelier in a collapsed building. It wasn't the most stable structure and Jullian weighed a lot less than Aubrey as a human.
<<It should be me.>> Of course, as a human he would make a bigger target.
Matt:
First try was a miss. The second one Matt felt a few of Steve's talons scrape the skin of his hands as he grabbed the beams and Matt let go. A few of the scratches were deep enough there was a little blood, but it was nothing serious and, of course, would be gone the next time Matt morphed and demorphed.
He watched as the first dracon beam was lost into the sea of people below the net. He glanced over at Tess. "Don't worry about it," she said, "As long as I get the one back I'm fine. Most of the people in Union carry one of those anyways." Something about that Matt didn't like. Having a city of people was okay, but armed people.... well, they did have to have some way of keeping this place a secret. Protecting it was the best way of doing that.
The second beam was caught, but he couldn't tell what was going on. He hadn't heard anything from either one for a bit. Jullian isn't going to do anything suicidal. Risky, yes, but so would you. You've taken a lot of risks for this faction already. He's smart and he's your second. Just trust that he knows what he's doing.
Aubrey:
<<Yay! Presents!>> Aubrey said, chuckling a little. She clung to the chain with her small monkey fingers, turning her dark, furry head down to try and pick out Stevert. She spotted him soaring above the crowds as an owl, and tensed her body to get ready.
The first dracon beam fell right past, and Aubrey let out a loud curse. <<Ack!>> She leaned forward for the second one, tail helping her balance. The two of them caught it, and Aubrey felt a rush of relief. However, she could immediately tell that the thing was a bit big for both of their small monkey hands.
<<Are you sure, Jullian? I'm willing to do it.>> She said, dark eyes looking at him. Aubrey was always ready to jump at a chance to do something, even if it was dangerous. But, she felt worried for Jullian. What if he fell? Or what if the robot thing saw him and attacked? The thing had dracon beams. <<Okay...Just be careful, alright?>>
Jullian:
<<Gotcha.>>
Jullian gripped the dracon beam in both paws but he let the foot holding it rest back on the chandelier. He still needed Aubrey to hold the weapon with him but this way, when he demorphed he would be holding it.
He took a second to look everything over and then realized something that could have been a fatal mistake. He let one of his paws grip the chandelier instead of holding the dracon beam. He'd want to be holding that too when he demorphed since his toes wouldn't be able to do the job very well.
The almost mistake just made him afraid again and he didn't want to do it but he took a deep breath and began to demorph.
As he became more human he tried his best to crouch as close into the chandelier as possible without crushing Aubrey. "Sorry," he said with a half formed mouth.
Three minutes later he was a small, 13 year old boy, clinging to a chandelier three stories up and shivering from cold and fear. But he was also and animorph that had the dracon beam in one hand and a clear shot at the hunting robot in front of him.
He took careful aim. He wasn't his mother. He wasn't Helena. His aim wasn't legendary. But he did come from police stock. His eyes were clear and his hand was steady. The hunting robot began to move and Jullian made a last correction for its movement, leading the target a bit, and then took his shot.
The red beam lanced through the air and hit the hunting robot square in the center of its spheracle shape. The beam glowed against some sort of shield and did no harm. "Shit."
Jullian never cursed so that was pretty bad. The reason for his cursing was that the hunting robot had turned the towards them when the shot hit is and was now floating towards them at top speed which was pretty fast.
Dracon beams lanced towards Jullian as he tried to crouch further behind the chandelier, definitely crushing Aubrey some. "Not good. Not good." He looked down at the dracon beam and saw that it was only turned up to 7. He spun it up to 10 even though he doubted he would get another shot.
He stuck his head over the side and saw that the hunting robot was almost on top of them. He took careful aim once more. This time the target was much harder to hit. It was moving much faster and Jullian couldn't get up to get a clear shot, but he tried his best.
A calmness came over him that had only briefly visited him a moment ago. Suddenly it seemed like the hunting robot was moving in slow motion. Jullian realized he had time to stand up, fire twice and then get back down. A thought crossed his mind as he stood to do so. Have I always been able to do this?
He fired his shots. The first was a glancing blow and was deflected by whatever shield the hunting robot had up. But the second hit the robot right in its lens, burning a hole through it completely. Unfortunately Jullian had overestimated his time. The hunting robot had been able to get off one last shot, one well aimed last shot.
A dracon beam hit the hand Jullian was using to hold onto the chandelier with and burned through two of his fingers. He cried out in pain and let go instinctively. As he fell backwards into space he cradled his hand.
No. NO. Bad. He closed his eyes and thought of angels. All he could think of was angels. His grandmother, his mother, his father, his uncles and aunts, they all prayed to angels and Jullian prayed now.
Jullian soared into the psuedo sky of Union right before hitting the first house built on top of the net, white wings beating the air. He had morphed into a seagull in a time that would have made Ember proud and so the Angel technique had now gotten its name. At least in Jullian's mind and he would be the one to make the name main stream later.
The dracon beam he had been holding had fallen away, following the first. Good riddance.
<<Mission accomplished Matt,>> he said, his mental voice still shaky.
Matt:
Matt watched, not really knowing what was going to happen. He watched as Jullian demorphed to human to wield the dracon beam. The move was dangerous and extremely risky, but Jullian was one of their smallest members. Matt knew he himself probably would have done the same, but it was less likely the chandelier would have held the weight of the older and bigger seventeen year old leader of L.A.
Matt's world seemed to close down to just the two Animorphs on the chandelier and the hunting robot. It was tunnel vision only worse because he really was as far away as it seemed he was and he could do nothing to help them. Jullian's first shot did nothing but cause the robot to go hurtling at him and Aubrey. As it fired at them Jullian stood up and fired. There were two hits. With one Jullian took out the robot. With the other the robot hit Jullian.
The boy went falling and Matt felt a gut wrenching feeling, one he was getting really sick of. He only felt it when he thought he was going to lose a member of his faction. But Jullian surprised him by using a move Matt himself had only tried once, something that Ember had been the first, at least in the L.A. faction, to try. He morphed to seagull in midair and succeeded just before reaching the roof of the first house.
Matt heard him call and wished he could respond. For now, he could only think the words with a hint of humor to them. Good, but Jullian.... if it is in your power never again nearly give me a heart attack at age seventeen... or any other age before I'd have one naturally.
Aubrey:
Aubrey squeezed herself closer to the chandelier as Jullian demorphed, trying to stay out of his way. It wasn't working to well, as his body was getting bigger and harder to avoid. She couldn't see exactly what Jullian was doing, but he hadn't fallen yet or gotten shot. She clung close to the chandelier, her little monkey heart beating with anticipation. So far, so good.
Then she heard the sound of a dracon beam go off above her. The intensity of the noise frightened the monkey's brain, and she let out a loud chirp of surprise, the hair bristling on her back. She really wanted to move, to escape, to run away, to climb away from this large human nearby. But her body was pinned against the chandelier by Jullian's, and suddenly she found it harder to breathe. He was crushing her without realizing it, and she had to hold back the instinct to bite him.
<<Hey..what's going on-->> Another few shots went off, and she flinched. One of the shots came close to her, and her nostrils filled with the scent of singed fur and flesh. Then blood. Suddenly, everything seemed lighter. The chandelier trembled, rocking slowly back and forth, and the air was colder. What had happened? Then it hit her. The big body that had been crushing her was gone. Where was Jullian?
<<Jullian!>> Aubrey yelled, trying to look down where he had fallen. She clutched the chandelier with both hands, twisting her head to look. She had seen something falling, but she couldn't see where it had gone. There were too many people below, and she was so far up.
<<No! Jullian!>> Was he okay? <<Stevert, or whoever...what happened? Is Jullian okay?>> There was a terrible feeling in her gut, and she could still smell the scent of burnt blood and flesh. But she couldn't get down on her own, so she pressed her body against the chandelier and waited.
Stevert:
Steve stopped circling when Jullian fel. <<JULLIAN!>> he yelled in thought-speak, as if that would bring the younger boy back up. But then he saw the boy shrinking so he figured it would be alright. Then Steve's powerful eyes locked on to a flash of light that glinted off of the falling Dracon beam. Letting the owl miond take over, the bird's wings tucked in a he bolted down towards the gun.
Having only enough control to direct the owl's mind to snag the gun, the owl flew forwards faster than it normally flew and dived as its talons raked forwards and...caught the weapon! <<Woohoo! Two points for the owl!>> Steve crowed through his thoughtspeak. Robert said, <<shut up steve! Pay attention to what's happening!>>
Steve grumbped and obeyed his brother as he saw a white blur streak by. Steve had no time to think before Aubrey's thoughts forced their way into his mind. With a silent comment between himself and his brother, Robert said, <<I'll answer this one.
Robert fullfilled his promise to his brother and said to the last monkey, <<Aubrey, Jullian is okay. He managed to morph into a seagull before he hit the ground. Would you like Steve to return and take you off the chandeliere?>> That was all Rob got out before Steve bombarded the girl with his thoguhts. <<Aubrey! It was so cool! Jullian almost went splat when he began becoming his gull. Suddenly, he turned up and went flying away! It was awesome! I wonder if he does encores?>> he said.
But then Steve angled his heavily-mottled hawk-like wings and drifted up towards the fake sky of the Union.
Jullian wandered through the empty halls of the abandoned subway tunnels. This had to be his favorite place in the city. Surprising since he normally didn't like tunnels, or any enclosed space really, but this part of the tunnels was wide open and it reminded him of a dwarf land in a Tolkien novel.
Above him was a twisted heap of melted metal and stone. He imagined that it was what was the result of a large dracon attack. But instead of destroying what had once stood there it had buried it.
Jullian was walking through the sunken halls of Union Station, almost perfectly preserved. The tunnels that had once run under this landmark now ran into it. Jullian had found it three days ago but hadn't gotten to explore very far before he had to leave. This was his first time coming back and this time he had brought friends.
If he had been in morph he would have been prepared for what he saw when he turned a corner, but as a human his senses were limited and he had taken the crowd sounds for the far above traffic.
He turned a corner and found a magical market. That was literally his first thought as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing in front of him. People milled about in streets whose only bounds were the shacks made of stone, wood, cardboard and anything else that could be found that stood in some semblance of rows. The people were dressed in rags of their former clothing but the mood didn't seem too down.
Still, it was awfully crowded and space had obviously run out on ground level, or what used to be ground level. The shacks could also be found on the balcony surrounding what had been Union station's main hall and then, as a further concession to the need for space, large, strong nets had been strung between the balconies, creating a canopy that people had built on.
Jullian looked at all of this, wide eyed, as people shambled and shuffled on the ground and more scampered and scurried over the nets like legendary sea rats through rigging or, going even further back in human history, monkeys through trees. There had to be a thousand people here, more.
"Hey kid, watch it." He was pushed aside by a middle aged man in a hurry to get from here to there. Jullian stepped back against a wall so that he would be out of the way and tried to take in the existence of this city underground.
Stevert:
Stevert walked along behind JUllian. The kd had requested help in exploring the tunnels a few days ago. Steve had jumped at the request for the fact that it would get him away fromt he Haunt. He was going to go crazy there.
The Kinley brothers gazed at the wreckage from when Union Station was draconed. It was a mess that Steve was glad he didn't have to clean. Suddenly he lost sight of Jullian. He turned a corner and was frozen by what he saw. At least a thousand people were moving around, climbing on nets, building shacks, moving in and out of shacks and so many other things. Then he realized that they were all dressed in rags and the shacks were made of scavenged materials and almost every part of their livving style suggested that they were poor.
Now Robert took over Steve's eyes and began looking around. The older Kinley brother was looking for familiar faces. He found none. Based on their observations, the brothers concluded that these were free humans since controllers wouldn't live in dumps like this.
He saw Jullian against the wall and pushed through the crowd towards him. He spoke, "So, was this what you were looking for?"
Jullian:
"Looking for? No. I wasn't looking for anything. Jesus Steve-ert. Look at this place. It's a whole mini city down here. The yeerks can't know about this." Excitement was growing in his voice. "We're not alone anymore. There are other free people. There are-ow!" Jullian's hand flew to his forehead as the soccer ball rebounded off of it.
Two kids, one boy about his and Steve's age the other a girl and a teenager, both athletic looking, came running up. "Sorry," the young man said as he picked up the ball. Then he took a bit of a closer look at Jullian and Stevert. "Yo, where did you get those threads? Pretty nice."
Jullian rubbed the red mark in order avoided having to look at the attractive boy in front of him. "Uh, made them. I make things."
Jullian looked at Stevert, wondering how much they should talk to these people but it seemed rude to ignore them.
He looked up at the two teenagers. "So, uh, we're new here. What is this place?"
The kid looked from Stevert to Jullian and back again. "Well I call it Zion, you know, after the matrix movies but everyone else just calls it Union."
"That's cool," Jullian tried to think of another conversation topic that would delay the two kids until Matt could get there. He looked around trying to spot Matt. Where was he?
Stevert:
Steve watched as a white and black sphere hurtled through the air and struck Jullian on the head. Then a boy and a girl ran up. They immediately engaged in a conversation with Jullian. Soon the conversation stopped.
He began talking. "You've seen the Matrix i loved those movies! Although I liked other movies better like Star Wars! Have you seen Revenge of the Sith? I hated that movie because the plotline was sooo weak in it and Anakin was like, 'I will never serve you' and then he said, 'I'll be your slave'. That was so horrible. And right after that, Anakin began killing the jedi and stuff. The second movie was way better than the first because of the spectacular fights at the end."
He took a short breathe and continued. He finally had new people to talk to! As long as he didn't mention anything Animorph related then this conversation should go fine. "Hey, have you ever seen Eragon? Ever read the book? I've seen the movie and I hated it. They totally switched the stuff around and they twisted the book up so the movie was pathettic and horrible. The only thing I liked about was the really cool affects. Another movie that I didn't like because of the warped plotline is To Kill a Mockingbird. Have you two ever read that book? if you have then don't watch the movie. They switched chapters around an totally messed up the story."
Steve stopped talking. Where's Matthew? Won't be be here by now? C'mon. Even I can't talk much longer. Stevert had decided to wait for Matthew. Steve had kept up a constant chatter while Robert used thoguht-speak to tell Matt where they were. He was unsure of what to do with so many free people. He wondered what Matt would do.
Matt:
Matt came to join them and Aubrey wouldn't be far behind him. He'd hung back a little and kept her with him, trying not to come in like a huge group. Four people in matching outfits, it seemed sort of out of place in any city. But in this one.... This practically was an underground city and he wasn't sure anymore how odd they would have looked. Matt had heard the comment about it being called Zion by the one kid and Union by most everyone else. His face held an expression of complete wonder at the world they had stepped into. It was nothing like the one above ground. "Is everyone here free?" He realized he'd asked that out loud. He couldn't believe there were so many people here.
"Sorry. It's just with all the yeerks above ground I had to wonder. I'm just amazed a city like this could go undetected for so long. How did you do it?" The boy seemed to know quite a bit about Union. If something like this can exist, then maybe there isn't so little hope for saving the world after all. If even regular people have been fighting to survive and have built entire civilizations like this.... maybe the yeerks haven't won the war yet.
Aubrey:
Aubrey trailed behind Matt, fingers locked behind her back sheepishly. She had been silent the whole trip here, her expression closed off and hidden. Matt had brought her along to keep track of her after the most recent episode--Aubrey had decided to sneak out on her own to see her mother. She still felt terrible about it, but it had given her a new sense of purpose.
Her subdued demeanor broke almost immediately when they turned the corner. In awe, sea-blue eyes swept across the amazing sight before her; people, tons of people everywhere, above them and moving in and out of dingy shacks. Her jaw dropped, and her hands fell to her sides as she took the sight in. What IS this place?
"Bloody hell," She murmured under her breath. Ahead she spotted Jullian and Stevert talking to a couple kids, and caught snippets of the conversation. Zion. Union. Stevert began chattering away as usual, and Aubrey began to stare at the kid in front of them. Was he free? How could this be possible? Aubrey had always been under the assumption that there were very few free humans in the world anymore. In fact, she had been surprised to even find out that there was a resistance. But this?
Jullian:
The boy looked at the group of four. They were all looking around in wonder as if they hadn't been here before. "You're new?" Jullian nodded.
He stepped up to him and with his trademark smile, "Yeah, we're new. My name's Jullian. What's yours?"
"Allie. This is my sister Gina," he said motioning over his shoulder. The young woman nodded but didn't seem as open to the strangers as her younger brother was. Maybe because she was older, maybe because she had seen more.
"Do you want me to show you around?" Allie asked.
Matt:
Matt listened to the introductions only halfway. Allie seemed like an odd name for a boy, but he wasn't going to comment. Gina, the girl, seemed a lot more hesitant than her brother and was also staring at Matt for some reason. She looked away whenever he glanced over in that direction though. It bugged him, but for now he ignored it. At least, he tried to. When she muttered something to Allie and pointed at Matt in the process it kind of made him wonder what was up.
Forget it. There's no way they've seen me in the guise of Promin and I can't think of any other reason they'd recognize my face. The real reason wasn't obvious. Not even Matt would have suspected it.
--------
"That boy there, I think one of the YPM's knows him." Gina muttered to Allie. The boy glanced at his sister and then at the boy she was pointing at, the one who had come behind the first two.
"Why?" he asked. The face didn't look familiar, but it wasn't like he was friends with everyone Gina knew.
"Tess has a photo from when she was younger, of her and a boy. He could easily be the boy's older brother if it weren't for the photo being from four years ago. It has to be him, but he's supposed to be in Chicago. That leaves questions about what he's doing here." In truth Gina wasn't as sure of her assumption as she sounded, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Aubrey:
Aubrey heard the conversation happening in front of her, but wasn't listening to a good portion of it. Instead, her attention was wandering to the incredible scene laid out before them. It was a lot to take in. She also had this funny feeling in her gut, as if she would recognize one of the people wandering around this place. She knew the feeling was based more on hope than anything, but her eyes still scanned the sea of faces expectantly. How many people live here?
She turned her attention back to the two teens standing in front of them and conversing with Jullian. They seemed to have an interest in Matt, pointing and whispering at each other. The thought came across Aubrey that maybe she could go wandering off by herself to have a look around, but she flashed a glance at Matt and remembered that knew wasn't too great of an idea. Lacing her fingers together, she shifted from one foot to the other.
Jullian:
Allie took in what his sister had said. She was the older of the pair, the responsible one and he was only 14 but, always with them, he had led and she had followed. He had often gotten them in trouble and she had run after him getting him out of it. She was responsible and he was strong willed. And so, often, she would suggest an idea to him but it would be up to him to actually get them to do it.
"If what you say is true then we should take them to Tess. She's a Key anyway," he said using the slang term for anyone who lived on the net above them. It had started out as a joke about monkeys and then it had become a title for people who lived up there and then it had gotten shortened to just Key or sometimes Boon after baboon but that was only if you wanted to get into a fight with a Key.
Allie himself wanted to be a Key but Gina wasn't too keen on the idea of living on a net that could collapse at any moment. She wasn't too wrong. The net had collapsed twice in the short history of this city killing dozens and injuring hundreds. But the space was needed and so they had rebuilt the net after the collapses. They were not yet bold enough to expand the city outside the boarders of the station since they had no way of protecting themselves from the yeerks if they were found so it was net or nothing.
"The stairs to the net level are across the way. I already said I'd give them a tour, we'll just walk in that direction."
The conversation with his sister had been kept private from the newcomers but now he turned to them, his smile as wide and welcoming as ever, a hold over from his genuinely giving and friendly nature, though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes, a scar of the war. "If you want that tour we should leave soon. It's crowded here by the markets and we make a pretty big hurdle just standing here like this. Space is precious in Union and no one appreciates it when you take up too much of it."
Jullian looked over at Matt to see what he wanted to do.
Matt:
The interest the two free humans had taken in him was odd and just a little creepy to him, but it faded almost as soon as it had shown up when Allie turned back to them. Matt nodded. "That would be nice. This place is... well there's almost no word to describe it." It was amazing really, that there could be something like this below the noses of the yeerks. How could they not know about it?
Allie turned and started leading them across the city, explaining things about it as they went. Matt kept glancing around, but couldn't shake the feeling that there was something the Animorphs weren't being told. Like there was some reason Gina kept glancing back at them with suspicious eyes. He had a feeling she wouldn't have trusted them anyways, but somehow trusted them even less right now. He was amazed by the city, but it's entire existence seemed threatened without a way of protecting it's secret. How had they kept yeerks from this part of the subway for so long?
---------
On the net above them was the how, or part of it anyways. A part they'd be meeting soon. The city had it's secret keepers in the form of Yeerk Peace Movement controllers who continued to tell their superiors that this segment of tunnel was unreachable. Most of the entrances to it agreed with the statements they made. They were blocked up tight with rubble from the devistation the yeerks had caused. The Animorphs had found one of the few that did have a way to get through if you looked hard enough.
She was one of the protectors of Union. The red headed teenage girl who'd spent the first few years of her life outside of Los Angeles. She'd moved to California when she was thirteen. She'd lived here for four years, moving to Union when she'd found out about it and proved her standing as a YPM controller, the relatively free host of the yeerk Nomar 527. She had gray eyes that shined with a fierce spirit and a wisdom beyond her 17 years. Her name was Tess Williams.
Aubrey:
Oooh, they were taking a tour! Just what Aubrey wanted. She glanced from the three boys before her eyes wandered again around the place, wide-eyed, still try to take it all in. How could they keep a place like this secret? Its so...big. The whole place gave her goosebumps.
She had so many burning questions she wanted to ask the two kids, but she didn't want to seem suspicious--like they were really outsiders, or even worse, Yeerks. It was strange enough that the four of them had showed up in matching suits. Instead she closed her mouth tightly and kept her eyes scanning the crowd.
Her eyes landed--briefly--on a blonde girl's face, meeting chocolate brown eyes. The moment was gone, and the girl brushed past the group without a second glance. Wait! Aubrey blinked in surprise, and turned her head to catch the girl's face again. But the thick crowd had shifted and the girl had disappeared. Maybe I'm just going crazy. She couldn't be here. At least, I don't think. I'm probably just seeing what I want to see...
Still, Aubrey turned so that she was walking backwards, her eyes frantically scanning faces. C'mon... She bumped into somebody, and they pushed her away. "Watch it!" The person said. Aubrey turned back around, mumbling an apology, and kept following the group.
Stevert:
Steve took a deep breath. He was pretty glad that MAtthew suddenly appeared like that. Steve was running out of things to say and he doubted that he could have captured their attention for much longer. But now he didn't need to think about that. A short conversation followed and the two kids seemed to go off on their own to talk. He raised an eyebrow when the girl begna to point at MAtt. Do they recognize him? Are they Controllers or something? He shrugged it off after Robert said that they would have also pointed at Steve.
Then the boy offered to show them around. Jullian looked at MAtt, as well did Steve. Matthew began following the kids so Steve walked along like a well trained puppy. A well trained puppy that constantly fell behind because it kept getting distracted by everything around it. That was what Steve was like. He tried listening to their guide but he couldn't pay attention long enough, even when Robert forced him to watch.
Instead, Robert took over Steve's legs and manuevered closer to the boy to listen what he said. Even still, Robert couldn't believe such a place could exist. Surely the Yeerks would have known about it. And how did all of these people escape the Yeerks? Sure, some of them could have been freed, but not all. Robert was puzzled by the fact but didn't say anything.
Steve wasn't paying attention. He was looking at everything, distracted by the whole new world he was in.
Matt:
Allie's tour was fascinating to Matt. He couldn't believe some of what they had running down here without the yeerks knowing a thing. The boy soon led the group up onto the second level of the city. Matt was a little hesitant about climbing out onto a net at first, but once he saw how many people were up there he figured it was pretty stable. It might collapse, but he doubted he'd be that much added body weight. The L.A. leader was skinny and any visible musculature under his morphing suit was all rather wiry.
They were lead along the net. While Allie held their attention, Gina, who'd been playing rear guard, snuck away into one of the houses. The house was Tess's. Despite the girl's daring nature, Tess was smart. She'd had the guts to move up onto the net as and be a Key, but was smart enough to live close to the stairs in case the thing did start to collapse. There was more of a chance of getting to safety that way.
"Tess, you need to come out and see someone. I swear he's gotta be the boy in your photograph." Gina indicated the photo on Tess's wall of her and Matthew. Both had been 13 at the time it had been taken and she had moved away shortly after that day.
"Gina, he's in Chicago. There's no way he's here."
"Then he has a look-alike double in L.A. Come on you know how crazy that sounds. Him being here doesn't sound crazier than that." Gina had convinced herself the two boys were one and the same despite a lack of evidence, which led to needing a reason for being where he wasn't supposed to be. All she had to do was convince Tess to come out. Their reactions would be all the proof they needed.
"Fine," Tess said. Gina had a point. Matthew having an identical non-biological twin and Tess getting to meet both was like winning the lottery. The chances were minuscule.
The red-head girl walked outside to where the tour group stood and spotted the boy at the lead of the four uniformed people. It.... It can't be. He looked way too similar though. Even without the photograph she could superimpose the 13 year-old face onto the face of the 17 year-old and see the similarities. He'd matured, but so had she. Teenagers did that.
She saw the logo on their shirts, the angel wings with the letter A. She'd seen that one other time, and the human wearing it had turned into an animal. Sure enough he was even among the group here. "They're Animorphs," Tess said. "Think of them as L.A.'s real angels. They're fighting the yeerks every step of the way." And Matthew was one of them.
At a closer range she could even see a difference in the logo on his shirt. It had a halo-like crown above the A. A crown. A crown would normally mean a prince or king. Those were both figures of leadership. Matthew a leader? No way. Time to test her theory though.
"Hey you," she called, "I thought I left you in Chicago. What's with being in L.A.?"
Matthew's head did a sharp turn and his mind pulled the same superimposing of faces that Tess's had. His expression took on one of shock and disbelief. "Tess Williams?"
"The one and only. Now what have you gotten yourself into Matthew Blaine?"
Jullian:
Jullian had been looking around at everything. Part of the reason was that...well, it was all amazing. Even before the yeerks had attacked Jullian had never heard of a society that lived like this, or at least not exactly like this. Union or Zion, or whatever it was called, was something new and unique.
But the other reason he was looking everywhere was to avoid looking at Allie. He was cute and Jullian's age which, of course, was the problem. Before the Fall Jullian had been just coming into his own and just starting to figure out that he was much more attracted to boys than he was to girls.
His family wasn't the most accepting but not because they didn't love him, but because they didn't understand. Jullian had learned to value the difference. There were some kids he knew whose parents completed rejected them and there was a very small chance that that would ever change.
But in Jullian's case all his family would need was time, time to learn, time to understand. And they had been getting better. And Jullian himself, after the first couple of months that had been rough, had started to feel like his future was looking bright again. After all, this was the 21st century and he lived in America. Being gay wasn't a sentence to a life spent oppressed. It wasn't even a sentence to a life spent alone. He couldn't wait to really get into the sub-culture, maybe move to West Hollywood, maybe move to West Village.
Like every other teenager he had hopes of falling in love, breaking up, falling in love again and basically just going through all the Dawson Creek, OC drama of life. And he hadn't realized how much those dreams, those fantasies of normalcy, had meant to him until now.
Jullian was starting to realize that the world was a much smaller place these days. So many were dead, more were controllers. Meeting someone he wanted to spend any amount of time with would be hard if he was straight. Gay?
As the reality of the changed world started to make itself known to him Jullian felt a deep sense of bitterness and of anger at what the yeerks had taken. He didn't care that the government had collapsed or that the world had changed beyond recognition. Did anyone really care about those things? Politics, wars, all of it was just a backdrop to the important things in life; family, friends, and yes, relationships. People were what mattered to Jullian. And the yeerks had taken away his hopes for the simple things. For a house and someone to share it with.
So he wasn't looking at Allie, or anyone else for that matter. He didn't want to even begin to hope because he didn't want to be disappointed...again.
And because he wasn't looking at Allie he happened to be looking at something else, which may be the only thing that saved Union in the end.
Jullian spotted a brief flash of silver moving through the air of the upper levels. It was only a glimpse and then it was gone. But it made Jullian feel uneasy. What had he seen? And did it matter? Because whatever it had been it certainly hadn't been anything anyone at Union would have. Metal that could fly? Yeerks, had to be the yeerks.
"Matt, I think I saw something."
Aubrey:
Aubrey ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep her attention on the tour that was be given. But she couldn't stop thinking. Had it been her imagination? The last time I saw her was when way back in Redding, why would she be in Los Angeles? Aubrey had never known what exactly had happened to her friend Sophie. They had become separated during a food raid, and Aubrey had fled back to Los Angeles. Had she abandoned her friend? Aubrey didn't want to think of it that way, but the thought still troubled her even now.
Aubrey followed the group to the second level on onto the net, her steps unsteady and distracted. She wouldn't notice the young girl following behind the group. How did people live on this? Its crazy. It still felt like this was a dream, and at some moment she would wake up. The existence of this place made no sense.
A voice came from behind the group, and she turned to see a red-headed girl standing near them. Matt and the girl seemed to know each other, and Aubrey watched the exchange silently. She felt a sudden pang of jealousy. Who is this girl?
Aubrey turned away, hearing Jullian's comment, but not paying it much attention. Because she was distracted, she didn't expect the hand that touched her shoulder, making her jump. "Hey!" Aubrey jerked her shoulder away, and turned to see whoever had touched her. Her tight expression dropped when she realized who was staring back at her, their face split with a big, toothy grin. It was Sophie.
"What're you doing here, you crazy Aussie?" Sophie said cheerfully. The familiar sound of the girl's voice snapped her out of her shock, and Aubrey let out a loud squeal of delight, jumping forward to trap Sophie into a tight hug. The girl laughed, holding her arms out stiffly.
"You bloody whacka! Where have you been!" Aubrey said, her hugging grip tight on Sophie. She couldn't believe it, it was actually her! "What are you doing back in Los Angeles? What happened to you? Are you okay?" She pulled Sophie back suddenly, looking her face over as if for injuries. "...Do you know what's happening...?"
Sophie looked to the group of Animorphs, as if unsure she could speak with them around. "Well, I can tell you later." She leaned in closer, brown eyes flicking back to Aubrey. "Who are those people? What are you doing with them?"
Matt:
Matthew had been smiling and trying to figure out what to tell Tess of his time since they'd seen each other last, especially concerning his and Sara's current fates. His smile faded at Jullian's words. "Do you know what it was?" He was already searching the air for whatever would have bothered Jullian. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tess darting towards one of the houses up here. "Where are you going?"
"I'm a Yeerk Peace Movement controller. I'm supposed to protect the existence of Union, along with others like me. I have to hide my face and get my dracon beam," she called. The revelation startled Matt. My twin sister and my best friend, both ending up with YPM yeerks. What is the likelihood of that? Little to none. It didn't really matter though, or at least now wasn't the time to think about it.
Aubrey was in the midst of her own cheerful reunion with a friend when Matt started shouting orders. "Aubrey, Steve, Jullian, can anyone spot what Jullian saw? Also, do we go battle morphs or air morphs with this?" He was fairly certain it would be air morphs. He didn't think any of their dog-like battle morphs would work well up on this netting and Matthew's crocodile was definitely out of the question. The only thing their battle morphs would work for was if they needed to fight on the lower level.
Stevert:
Robert finally managed to snap Steve back into focusing on what the people where saying just in time to hear Matt ask If they should morph battle morphs or air morphs. Steve began babbling away with an explanation of what he preffered that actually made sense...for once. "I think we should morph our birds and such. Think, this place is pretty crowded so our dogs won't go anywhere fast. Plus, we are walking on nets here. Birds would be best, especially since the owl you gave me awhile ago is kinda big."
Steve then looked around the net for a suitable place to morph so they would be able to look for what Jullian had seen. He saw a collection of shadows behind a shack and guessed that it would be a secluded place to demorph considering that there was tons of light wherever other people were.
He said, "I think I found a place to morph!" in a hushed tone so other people wouldn't hear them.
Jullian:
"Wait, wait, wait," Jullian said holding up his hands. He wasn't even sure of what he had seen and now everyone was going to battle stations. He should have just kept his mouth shut. What if he was wrong? Then they would have gone through all of this for nothing and Matt would know that he had chosen wrong and that Jullian really wasn't ready to be a second. "I don't know what it was but if we go to air morphs and it was the yeerks then they'll no we are here because birds wouldn't be underground. Then they'll just come down harder on this place."
He looked around at his fellow animorphs and tried to think of what to do. He looked up at the ceiling of Union. Some of the original train station ceiling could still be seen but there were places where it was missing and rocks and hard packed earth could be seen on the other side. But the thing that Jullian noticed about the ceiling most was that it was crossed with rafters. And chandeliers, darkened now, hung from some of them.
He tried to judge the distance. The original Union hadn't been much more than two stories high but the floor had fallen farther than the ceiling, making the space about three or four stories tall. They were on the nets now so they were closer but only by a floor or so. He wasn't sure if it would be possible but maybe if they aimed for a chandelier.
"Matt, what if Steve and I morph monkey and squirrel and then you and Aubrey could, well I guess throw us up there," he said pointing at the nearest chandelier. "Then we'll be able to see if there is anything flying around down here without flying ourselves."
Aubrey:
Despite the circumstances of everything--her mother being a controller, the world ending, having to fight aliens--Aubrey had a genuine smile on her face. The sight of her long lost friend, somebody who she trusted deeply, was surreal. Her whole body was animated with excitement, and she couldn't stop bouncing. Sea-blue eyes landed on the group of Animorphs when Sophie asked who they were. "They're friends. I'll have to introduce you to them..."
Just as she said this, Matt began shouting orders. "Aubrey, Steve, Jullian, can anyone spot what Jullian saw? Also, do we go battle morphs or air morphs with this?" Aubrey put a hand on Sophie's arm quickly, saying, "Hold on..." she moved away from her friend and closer to the group, feeling the tension. "Wait.. what? What did Jullian see?" She knew Jullian had said something, but she had been too busy with Sophie to hear exactly what he had said.
It felt annoying to have to deal with something bad in this wonderful place, but Aubrey was ready. "Are we attacking whatever Jullian saw?" She really liked her dog morph, and was eager to use it again if she could. She tilted her head up to look, long blonde hair falling across her shoulders. She didn't see anything overhead. What was going on? She looked from Jullian to Matt, waiting for her faction leader's instructions. After the whole thing with her escaping to her house, Aubrey was ready to prove that she could be a good thing for this team.
Matt:
Matthew listened to the others for a moment and thought about it. Birds would have worked, but Jullian was right. They didn't know what was up there and flying around along with it wasn't a smart idea. However, Matt thought of something he didn't say and he knew another member with them would have liked the chance to prove them self after a mistake. This choice seemed like it was his, so he was sending who he felt he should up there.
"Sounds good only I'm sending you and Aubrey. She needs a chance to prove herself after her mistake and she has a squirrel monkey like you, identical to you, and I have more confidence in Steve getting a monkey up there than I do in Aubrey getting a squirrel up. Bigger object and a taller individual throwing," he said over the commotion of people around them reacting to their actions.
He glanced at Aubrey and Jullian, "Get morphing you two." He hoped Steve and Robert wouldn't complain about his decision since he'd attributed it to positives of each change. Steve was taller than Aubrey so there was an addition of height the monkey was being thrown from. Also, a monkey had more appendages to grab the rafters with so Aubrey had the more capable morph. Mostly he really wanted to let her prove she could be a part of the team and knew she'd want to. This was the perfect chance and way to do that.
Stevert:
Steve turned around to face Matt as he placed his hands on his hips and placed a mock offended expression on his face. "What? I can't morph squirrel? Aww, come on! Why does Aubrey get all of the fun?" Despite his good-natured complaining, Steve knew Matthew was right. Squirrels were not as good at flying through the air to grab ahold of polished metal as they were flying through the air to grabe rough bark. Besides, he knew Matthew was also right about the whole height thing.
But still, Steve kept complaining with a slight smile adorning his lips. "Maaatt, I really had my heart set on morphing squirrel. I woke up this morning and thought, 'I wanna morph a squirrel today.' except that I wanted to sleep in. Then Jullian rounded the three of us up to come here. I thought that was cool since I could probably morph my squirrel here, but no, you won't let me." Steve hid his smile and began sniffing as he rubbed his eyes. "I think I'm going to cry now."
Then he stopped his charade when Aubrey and Jullian were done morphing. He bent down to pick one of them up.
Camille:
There was something about huge, underground cities that gave Camille an unsettling feeling. The white-haired teen was never sure why he felt so uncomfortable in cities, but he was and that was usually all that counted. He usually stayed away from the huge cities as a rule, mainly because he hated being surrounded by extremely tall buildings. If anything, Camille preferred the country and suburban areas.
So, why LA? Why go to one of the big cities on the other side of the country? Well, the young Frenchman had heard of a resistance faction in Los Angeles and was all ready on the way to California. Camille decided that LA sounded better than going to Canada from Virginia.
The journey had been long and hard, but he did manage to get there. It took a while for Camille to actually get into the city, but he figured that it was worth it. If anything, the big city of Los Angeles was easy to get lost in, as well as hide from Controllers and the like. Camille also decided that if he could not find the faction leader within three days, he would leave and try somewhere else. It was on the third day that he actually came across potential faction members.
Cam had been on a random stroll through the city, making sure to wear tinted sunglasses and something to hide his unusual hair. He fidgeted slightly, feeling extremely uncomfortable walking atop of a net. Not a soul spared him a glance, which gave him confidence that his disguise was working. It was best to just not be seen, especially in a big city.
Up ahead, he saw a group of four conversing with each other. Camille lingered for a moment, just long enough to see two of the four morph before his very eyes. The group was possibly part of the LA faction, but he hung back, unsure of whether to approach them or not. After all, how could Camille help them? They might think that he was just a spy sent to "sabotage" whatever the group was planning to do.
Matt:
As Matthew picked up one of the two monkeys, not actually sure which one it was as he hadn't watched them morph, he said, "Robert will be able to relay messages from me to the two of you, so tell me anything you think is important or any questions you have. If things get chaotic down here I'll try not to get separated from Stevert." Both of them would have heard, and Jullian at least would keep Matt aware of what was going on. Matt trusted him.
With as much force as he could Matt sent the monkey flying skyward towards the rafters, Steve doing the same to the other. An observer might not be able to see the halo-like crown that hovered above the winged A spread across the back of his shirt, but would probably notice the others looking to him for answers and orders. What else could be expected seeing as he was the leader.
Jullian:
Jullian's monkey did not like being picked up. It didn't like being thrown either.
That said, actually flying through the air was an enjoyable experience to them both.
As he neared the chandelier he let the monkey take over and a foot shot out and caught a chain, bringing him to a jarring halt but a halt that was connected to the chandelier. He scurried to a more secure location and then began scanning the station.
He spotted what he was looking for right away. It was a medium sized metal sphere that was floating through the air. Its lenses was a small black circle and it was pointing in every direction. It definitely wasn't anything Union could have produced.
It wasn't trying to hide in anyway which showed how much the yeerks feared any sort of resistance. They obviously had just sent these things out and expected that they could handle anything they found.
<<Matt, I see it. It is a...um...it's a floating metal sphere. Like a soccer ball made of metal and it has a lens on it. It is looking at everything but it doesn't seem to be doing anything.>> Jullian crouched back against the chandelier so that he wouldn't be seen and hoping that Matt's YPM friend would recognize the description and tell them what was going on.
Matt:
Tess came running back out carrying her own dracon beam and an extra one she had lying around. The red haired girl noticed the boy with white hair watching Matthew and the other Animorphs. She didn't take much more notice of him than that he was there though, mostly focused on getting back to her friend. Matt was, after all, the leader and the two who had morphed monkeys would be reporting back to him.
"Any news on what was spotted?" she asked as she got closer.
"Soccer ball sized metal ball with a lens. It's mostly looking at things but hasn't done anything yet," Matt said. He didn't even turn to look at her as he spoke, keeping his eyes on the two monkeys, Animorphs under his command. He really is a leader, and surprisingly it suits him. I'd have never though Matt to be the type, but he's the same as he ever was. I guess even someone we think we know as well as ourselves can sometimes surprise us.
Focusing back on the object he'd described she spoke to Nomar in her head. <<Does it ring any bells?>>
<<It's a hunting robot sent by the yeerks.>> Nomar said, obviously not liking it as he explained, <<We have to destroy it or Union will be doomed, they'll have found us out. The people here will all be captured and held to be host for yeerks or experimented on.>>
<<How do we destroy it.>>
<<That I don't know.>>
"Hunting robot," Tess informed Matt, relaying Nomar's words. "Only problem is Nomar, my yeerk, doesn't know how to destroy it."
"Great.... Just great."
Aubrey:
Aubrey gave one last glance to Sophie's shocked face before her vision shifted and morphed into the monkey's eyes. Within a few minutes, the cracking and grinding had stopped and she was squirrel monkey; the same exact monkey that Jullian was.
RUN!! Her first instinct was to dart away, as the monkey didn't like the sights and sounds of people everywhere. She had to struggle to not move as somebody grabbed her, then threw her. Her stomach did a flip as she sailed through the air, her small monkey paws grabbing wildly at nothing.
She caught a chain nearby Jullian, both hands clinging tightly. <<Ohhh man that was too crazy.>> She swung back and forth for a second, still trying to stop her head from spinning. Then she let the monkey instincts kick in and pulled herself up and over near Jullian. <<...What is that thing?>> She strained to look up at it, her heart thumping and the hair bristling on her back. <<It has to be Yeerk, right?>>
Stevert:
"Hunting robot? So THAT'S what those things are called! I didn't know that. Thanks, Random Person." Steve said. Then he frowned and said. "Wait. Aren't those things bad? Yeah, okay, they are. Yeah, um Matt? Maybe Jullian, Aubrey, and the rest of us outta scram since those things have Dracon beams on them."
By the way, Steve was distracted by the person. Who was she? Matt didn't seem alarmed by her. That meant she wouldn't hurt them, right? And she knew about the hunting robots and she has a Dracon beam. That must make her a Controller, Steve concluded. Since Matt was watching the monkeys, Steve did a 360 degree spin and kept a watch on the crowd and tried not to get distracted by all of the shiny things. He saw a few people watching them but that was too be expected. I mean, come on! How often do you see a couple of teenagers wearing matching, black, skin-tight outfits with angel logos on them and wearing no shoes? Not often, to say the least.
Robert, however, took the person's info in stride. Using Steve's vocal abilities, he said, "Won't Dracon beams destroy those things? 'Cause those are the only things available right now." In private thoguht-speak, Robert directed to Matthew, <<Matt. Who is this person? Can we trust her? Also, what are we going to do? Steve's owl is the largest air morph we got but it's hopeless in a fight with those things. Hunting robots are too fast, too big, and too dangerous.>>
Matt:
Matt's head spun for a moment at the words of his teammates as they came flooding to him from multiple sources and in multiple ways. He closed his eyes for a minute and focused. Where were the important facts and who needed to know them. "Robert if those things have dracon beams you should be telling Aubrey and Jullian that. Admittedly you have the right to question Tess seeing as she's a controller, but she's YPM. I don't think the people of Union would have let her stay here if she wasn't telling the truth about that. As far as who she is, her name is enough now. I'll explain how I know her when our teammates aren't in danger."
His mind was turning over the possibilities for what they could do about the robot. "Could a monkey fire a dracon beam? If so Tess has two and all we'd have to do is have you fly them up to Aubrey and Jullian," he was talking to Stevert. "Your owl could do that much, and it's more than my bat or hummingbird can do. If we can get the beams to them, they have the clearest shot at hitting the thing." It sounded crazy, but maybe crazy would work for them this time.
Stevert:
Robert responded to Matthew. <<I am sorry for not trusting her. I will now relay the information too Jullian and Aubrey.>> He switched targets and directed to the squirrel monkeys. <<Hey Aubrey and Jullian. Steve and I am flying up to you guys. Steve will have two dracons beams in his talons that you two will need to use. That thing you saw, Jullian, is called a hunting robot. It has Dracon beams. Don't let it get to close or it might see you. The Dracon beams should destroy the robot. Good luck.>> Then Robert reported to Matt that he told the monkeys what was going to happen.
Steve's face broke into a huge grin and he said, "Gotcha fearless leader! Owl morph here I come!" Steve shrank nad his mouth hardened. Soon, the instincts bubbled up and the bird's wings flared as it began to flap away. Struggling with the still new thoughts, Steve barely managed to fight back for control long enough to land on a small shack's roof. He knew that the excitement would cause a large crowd.
Now Steve said to his leader, <<Hey...Tess, right? Hold up your Dracon beams on top of your hands. I'm going to try snatching them away in flight. You may not want to hold tight since this form is still new to me.>> If Steve could haved laughed with the bird, he would've been cxhuckling a bit. <<Or maybe MAtt should hold them since he can also heal any injuries I MIGHT inflict. Don't want to take any chances, do we?>>
Matt:
Tess seemed to jump a little when she heard Steve's voice in her head. It had been enough of a shock to see people turning into animals, but now they were also talking to her in her head. She'd known about the Animorphs, being a controller. All she'd really known though was that they existed and what they could do. She had thought it was a little far fetched... before seeing it with her own eyes that is.
Could Matt do that too? Seeing as he was the leader he had to plus he'd said something about being able to turn into a hummingbird and a bat and had also mentioned dog forms. It was all a little overwhelming, and she handed the two dracon beams to Matt.
"He wants someone to hold them over their head so he can grab them. He suggested you, something about being able to heal any damage he might do."
Matt nodded as he took them. "Right. Morphing heals damage because it isn't part of your DNA code. If they scratch me or something I can simply morph and demorph, the damage will be gone." He took the dracon beams and held them over his head, his fingers barely holding them in place. Lets hope any damage isn't something too serious... 'cause this feels really stupid.
Stevert:
Steve leaped off of the building and quickly flapped his wings so he wouldn't fall in the dead air. He jetted over to Matthew and stretched his talons out. he was almost a foot away by now. Miss! <<arrgh. Gotta do that again Matt. I don't have much practice with this morph yet. Sorry.>> Steve said as he circled around again.
This time, Steve caught the guns without causing serious harm to either party. Then, with silent wings, Steve soared above the crowd and aimed for the chandelier. <<Oh Jullian! Aubrey! This is Steve and I have presents for you! Get ready!>> Now, up above everyone, Steve could see the robot thanks to the amazong eyesight of the owl. He could also hear motors clicking in it and the object moving through the air.
Hopefully it won't see me. I'm a kinda big target. Steve thought to himself. He was almost at the chandelier now. <<Okay you two,>> he said to the monkeys, <<get ready. I'm going to drop them above you.>> Steve flew above the chandelier and folded one wing a little so it wouldn't hit the chain as he opened up his talons.
He circled around the chandelier once before saying, <<Hey Matthew! Mission accomplished!>>
Jullian:
Jullian tried to catch the dracon beams but they were much too big for the squirrel monkey's little hands. The dracon beam fell right past him and disappeared into the crowds bellow. <<No!>>
He wasted one moment regretting the miss and that was almost too long. He jumped over to where the second dracon beam was falling towards Aubrey and reached out for it with three limbs, only leaving one to hold onto the chandelier. Along with Aubrey, they were able to catch it.
But now that they had it how were they possibly suppose to use it. Neither 35cm, 1000g monkey could grip a dracon beam designed for human hands, maybe even for hork-bajir hands, and hope to fire it. <<One of us is going to have to go human.>> He wanted to offer her the chance (as well as the risks) but the fact was they were on a chandelier in a collapsed building. It wasn't the most stable structure and Jullian weighed a lot less than Aubrey as a human.
<<It should be me.>> Of course, as a human he would make a bigger target.
Matt:
First try was a miss. The second one Matt felt a few of Steve's talons scrape the skin of his hands as he grabbed the beams and Matt let go. A few of the scratches were deep enough there was a little blood, but it was nothing serious and, of course, would be gone the next time Matt morphed and demorphed.
He watched as the first dracon beam was lost into the sea of people below the net. He glanced over at Tess. "Don't worry about it," she said, "As long as I get the one back I'm fine. Most of the people in Union carry one of those anyways." Something about that Matt didn't like. Having a city of people was okay, but armed people.... well, they did have to have some way of keeping this place a secret. Protecting it was the best way of doing that.
The second beam was caught, but he couldn't tell what was going on. He hadn't heard anything from either one for a bit. Jullian isn't going to do anything suicidal. Risky, yes, but so would you. You've taken a lot of risks for this faction already. He's smart and he's your second. Just trust that he knows what he's doing.
Aubrey:
<<Yay! Presents!>> Aubrey said, chuckling a little. She clung to the chain with her small monkey fingers, turning her dark, furry head down to try and pick out Stevert. She spotted him soaring above the crowds as an owl, and tensed her body to get ready.
The first dracon beam fell right past, and Aubrey let out a loud curse. <<Ack!>> She leaned forward for the second one, tail helping her balance. The two of them caught it, and Aubrey felt a rush of relief. However, she could immediately tell that the thing was a bit big for both of their small monkey hands.
<<Are you sure, Jullian? I'm willing to do it.>> She said, dark eyes looking at him. Aubrey was always ready to jump at a chance to do something, even if it was dangerous. But, she felt worried for Jullian. What if he fell? Or what if the robot thing saw him and attacked? The thing had dracon beams. <<Okay...Just be careful, alright?>>
Jullian:
<<Gotcha.>>
Jullian gripped the dracon beam in both paws but he let the foot holding it rest back on the chandelier. He still needed Aubrey to hold the weapon with him but this way, when he demorphed he would be holding it.
He took a second to look everything over and then realized something that could have been a fatal mistake. He let one of his paws grip the chandelier instead of holding the dracon beam. He'd want to be holding that too when he demorphed since his toes wouldn't be able to do the job very well.
The almost mistake just made him afraid again and he didn't want to do it but he took a deep breath and began to demorph.
As he became more human he tried his best to crouch as close into the chandelier as possible without crushing Aubrey. "Sorry," he said with a half formed mouth.
Three minutes later he was a small, 13 year old boy, clinging to a chandelier three stories up and shivering from cold and fear. But he was also and animorph that had the dracon beam in one hand and a clear shot at the hunting robot in front of him.
He took careful aim. He wasn't his mother. He wasn't Helena. His aim wasn't legendary. But he did come from police stock. His eyes were clear and his hand was steady. The hunting robot began to move and Jullian made a last correction for its movement, leading the target a bit, and then took his shot.
The red beam lanced through the air and hit the hunting robot square in the center of its spheracle shape. The beam glowed against some sort of shield and did no harm. "Shit."
Jullian never cursed so that was pretty bad. The reason for his cursing was that the hunting robot had turned the towards them when the shot hit is and was now floating towards them at top speed which was pretty fast.
Dracon beams lanced towards Jullian as he tried to crouch further behind the chandelier, definitely crushing Aubrey some. "Not good. Not good." He looked down at the dracon beam and saw that it was only turned up to 7. He spun it up to 10 even though he doubted he would get another shot.
He stuck his head over the side and saw that the hunting robot was almost on top of them. He took careful aim once more. This time the target was much harder to hit. It was moving much faster and Jullian couldn't get up to get a clear shot, but he tried his best.
A calmness came over him that had only briefly visited him a moment ago. Suddenly it seemed like the hunting robot was moving in slow motion. Jullian realized he had time to stand up, fire twice and then get back down. A thought crossed his mind as he stood to do so. Have I always been able to do this?
He fired his shots. The first was a glancing blow and was deflected by whatever shield the hunting robot had up. But the second hit the robot right in its lens, burning a hole through it completely. Unfortunately Jullian had overestimated his time. The hunting robot had been able to get off one last shot, one well aimed last shot.
A dracon beam hit the hand Jullian was using to hold onto the chandelier with and burned through two of his fingers. He cried out in pain and let go instinctively. As he fell backwards into space he cradled his hand.
No. NO. Bad. He closed his eyes and thought of angels. All he could think of was angels. His grandmother, his mother, his father, his uncles and aunts, they all prayed to angels and Jullian prayed now.
Jullian soared into the psuedo sky of Union right before hitting the first house built on top of the net, white wings beating the air. He had morphed into a seagull in a time that would have made Ember proud and so the Angel technique had now gotten its name. At least in Jullian's mind and he would be the one to make the name main stream later.
The dracon beam he had been holding had fallen away, following the first. Good riddance.
<<Mission accomplished Matt,>> he said, his mental voice still shaky.
Matt:
Matt watched, not really knowing what was going to happen. He watched as Jullian demorphed to human to wield the dracon beam. The move was dangerous and extremely risky, but Jullian was one of their smallest members. Matt knew he himself probably would have done the same, but it was less likely the chandelier would have held the weight of the older and bigger seventeen year old leader of L.A.
Matt's world seemed to close down to just the two Animorphs on the chandelier and the hunting robot. It was tunnel vision only worse because he really was as far away as it seemed he was and he could do nothing to help them. Jullian's first shot did nothing but cause the robot to go hurtling at him and Aubrey. As it fired at them Jullian stood up and fired. There were two hits. With one Jullian took out the robot. With the other the robot hit Jullian.
The boy went falling and Matt felt a gut wrenching feeling, one he was getting really sick of. He only felt it when he thought he was going to lose a member of his faction. But Jullian surprised him by using a move Matt himself had only tried once, something that Ember had been the first, at least in the L.A. faction, to try. He morphed to seagull in midair and succeeded just before reaching the roof of the first house.
Matt heard him call and wished he could respond. For now, he could only think the words with a hint of humor to them. Good, but Jullian.... if it is in your power never again nearly give me a heart attack at age seventeen... or any other age before I'd have one naturally.
Aubrey:
Aubrey squeezed herself closer to the chandelier as Jullian demorphed, trying to stay out of his way. It wasn't working to well, as his body was getting bigger and harder to avoid. She couldn't see exactly what Jullian was doing, but he hadn't fallen yet or gotten shot. She clung close to the chandelier, her little monkey heart beating with anticipation. So far, so good.
Then she heard the sound of a dracon beam go off above her. The intensity of the noise frightened the monkey's brain, and she let out a loud chirp of surprise, the hair bristling on her back. She really wanted to move, to escape, to run away, to climb away from this large human nearby. But her body was pinned against the chandelier by Jullian's, and suddenly she found it harder to breathe. He was crushing her without realizing it, and she had to hold back the instinct to bite him.
<<Hey..what's going on-->> Another few shots went off, and she flinched. One of the shots came close to her, and her nostrils filled with the scent of singed fur and flesh. Then blood. Suddenly, everything seemed lighter. The chandelier trembled, rocking slowly back and forth, and the air was colder. What had happened? Then it hit her. The big body that had been crushing her was gone. Where was Jullian?
<<Jullian!>> Aubrey yelled, trying to look down where he had fallen. She clutched the chandelier with both hands, twisting her head to look. She had seen something falling, but she couldn't see where it had gone. There were too many people below, and she was so far up.
<<No! Jullian!>> Was he okay? <<Stevert, or whoever...what happened? Is Jullian okay?>> There was a terrible feeling in her gut, and she could still smell the scent of burnt blood and flesh. But she couldn't get down on her own, so she pressed her body against the chandelier and waited.
Stevert:
Steve stopped circling when Jullian fel. <<JULLIAN!>> he yelled in thought-speak, as if that would bring the younger boy back up. But then he saw the boy shrinking so he figured it would be alright. Then Steve's powerful eyes locked on to a flash of light that glinted off of the falling Dracon beam. Letting the owl miond take over, the bird's wings tucked in a he bolted down towards the gun.
Having only enough control to direct the owl's mind to snag the gun, the owl flew forwards faster than it normally flew and dived as its talons raked forwards and...caught the weapon! <<Woohoo! Two points for the owl!>> Steve crowed through his thoughtspeak. Robert said, <<shut up steve! Pay attention to what's happening!>>
Steve grumbped and obeyed his brother as he saw a white blur streak by. Steve had no time to think before Aubrey's thoughts forced their way into his mind. With a silent comment between himself and his brother, Robert said, <<I'll answer this one.
Robert fullfilled his promise to his brother and said to the last monkey, <<Aubrey, Jullian is okay. He managed to morph into a seagull before he hit the ground. Would you like Steve to return and take you off the chandeliere?>> That was all Rob got out before Steve bombarded the girl with his thoguhts. <<Aubrey! It was so cool! Jullian almost went splat when he began becoming his gull. Suddenly, he turned up and went flying away! It was awesome! I wonder if he does encores?>> he said.
But then Steve angled his heavily-mottled hawk-like wings and drifted up towards the fake sky of the Union.