Post by Admin on Aug 6, 2009 2:13:31 GMT -5
Suji:
"Sweetie, look, just come home, okay?” It was her mother’s voice urging her back. “We all need to be together right now. You’re not safe out there. Your father and I will protect you at home—you need to be indoors. I don’t know what exactly is happening, but people might get crazy, they’re already losing it-”
“I can’t come home,” Suji told her, for what felt like the thousandth time. Meanwhile, her eyes were still glazed over, trying to absorb as much information as possible from the barebones website she was reading. It was more or less a declaration that the world was ending: and all news sites, just before they started blinking out of existence, had been reporting something similar.
“You have to, Suji. I am telling you this right now: I am your mother. You came out of my body. It’s my job to keep you safe. Come home right now!”
“I read about The Sharing, mom. It’s all right here.” There was a sudden silence on the other end of the line. “Something is happening, and I know that you’re not… I know you’re involved. Lisa, you, and dad. I know what you are. All of you.”
More silence, which wasn’t really a protest.
“Suji, don’t you want to be home with your family? In a time like this? Isn’t that what’s important?”
But Suji didn’t answer: she came awake at once, shuddering and panting. Cold sweat dampened her brow, drenched her back. She was clutching the thin sheets on the narrow bed to her chest, her hands bunched into iron-tight fists. Her heart jack-hammered in her chest.
After the panic subsided, Suji quickly regained control of herself. She looked around the small room. It was sparsely furnished, but there’d been sheets and a pillow on the bed, and Raven had said that there was “still room.” Suji didn’t know what that meant, but she figured that there must have been someone sleeping in this room, in this same bed, before her. Maybe not that long ago… Suji didn’t know what had happened to that person. Were they still alive? Probably not captured, at least: if any of the faction got captured Raven would undoubtedly have to relocate.
Suji crawled out of the bed and stretched. The good thing about her morphing suit was that it was almost something you could imagine someone wearing to work out in. The underarmor material was pretty decent quality, and being long-sleeved and pant-ed, it covered most of her body. The bad thing was that she had no shoes, and she did kind of want a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to through over it.
But any thoughts about clothes were abruptly quelled at the sound of a monstrous, rumbling noise… that came from her belly. Feeling embarrassed, even though no one was around (non-voluntary body sounds were the type of things that could betray a weakness you were trying to conceal, after all) Suji absentmindedly rubbed her stomach.
She’d probably slept for a solid twelve hours: it was bound to be late at night now. But she was starving. There was no way she’d be able to go back to sleep without eating something. Still a bit groggy (but feeling much, much better than she had when she’d arrived), Suji quietly padded out of her room. She wasn’t familiar with the set up of the HQ, but it wasn’t exactly a mansion. She figured as long as she didn’t knock on closed doors, she’d probably find the kitchen easily enough.
Kiera:
Kiera was in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, preparing to throw together some chicken fettuccine alfredo with broccoli. Recently, she'd been waking up for no reason into at random hours. She hadn't told anyone. They'd just tell her what she already knew. That something was on her mind... But her subconsious was hiding it very well. Whenever she'd wake up from a dream, it was gone before she could remember it. Now her only way to pass the time (and hopefully wear herself out enough to return to bed) was cooking.
Kiera was extremely thankful to Raven for picking up the chicken and broccoli she had asked for. She still had one box of fettuccini in her backpack, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste. But before she could cook anything at all, she had to find the pots and pans she needed. "You'd think with all the time we have, someone would have organized this," she muttered to herself as she dug through the piles of pots underneath the counter. She found the pot she was looking for, "But where is the...AHHHH!"
Kiera had picked the wrong cabinet. The one that someone had stacked haphazardly, in a hurry to go somewhere or do something. Just her luck, as soon as the door opened, everything came crashing out. It was only 2 pots and a frying pan, but they made just enough noise. It probably wouldn't wake Raven, Riley, or Ash. As far as she had seen, they tended to go into comas when they slept. Unless someone was yelling for them. Immediate danger always got their attention. David and Suji, on the other hand... she didn't really know how they slept, but she hoped they were far enough away from her catatstrophe to continue sleeping.
Suji:
Suji was just turning into the kitchen when she saw Kiera rooting through the cabinets and drawers. Suji wasn't sure whether she should approach (did she have the strength left to put on the mask the human interaction necessitated?), but the deciding process was cut short whenever she saw Kiera begin to open one of the cabinets. Suji, being further away, realized Kiera's mistake before Kiera did. She cringed, bracing herself even before the assorted cooking containers came tumbling out. They made a lot of noise: so much for Suji's attempt at silence. It wouldn't matter much now.
Suji quickly moved towards the mess. "Are you okay?" Her voice was clear and carrying, though still hushed--if the clattering didn't wake anyone, she didn't want her voice to be the thing that did. "Here, let me help-" Immediately Suji began to pick up the fallen items, setting them on the counter nearby.
Kiera:
Kiera's hopes for minimal viewing of her clumsiness were dashed when she saw Suji rush in and start picking up the pots and pans. "I'm fine," Kiera said. Just a little bruised in the pride department... "What are you doing up?" she asked, hoping she wasn't intruding. One of the pans that had fallen was in fact the frying pan that Kiera had been looking for, so she grabbed her stuff and started cooking as Suji talked. "I haven't had a full nights sleep in weeks."
While the pasta was cooking, Kiera got the chicken ready, being very careful to make sure the chicken cooked all the way through. "Do you want some?" she asked, randomly interjecting. "Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with Broccoli..." she added, hoping to tempt Suji. There was always too much, and as nice a gesture as offering food might have seemed, Kiera just didn't want to have to leave leftovers in the fridge. Someone was bound to ask when she made it, and she was a terrible liar.
Suji:
"I slept like the dead for a long while. Seeing as it's dark out, I'd say it was a good eight hours at least." Of course, Suji didn't think the dead routinely had nightmares about abandoning their families to alien slugs. But her nightmares were her own business; not exactly the type of stuff you could easily share. Especially not for her.
"I haven't had a full nights sleep in weeks." Suji could relate, but she didn't say anything. The short time she'd spent in the HQ of the Chicago faction had been the best sleep she'd since leaving New York, for sure. Kiera had started cooking, and Suji was glad that her stomach didn't rumble--but there was a sharp aching there. She'd been living off of bugs in her owl form. The lack of nourishment had even made her real body slightly gaunt. Suji smiled at her.
"Sounds amazing. I'd offer to help cook, but I'm not good at it. My dad was the cook in the family." She smirked, tried to ignore the nostalgic aching that rose whenever she remembered her family. "I can measure and pour, but good cooking takes more than that, I think. Let me set the table or whatever though." And with that she began to lay out two sets of silverware and plates. "Been a long time since I had some real food. Even before leaving New York, it was all canned stuff, or other nonperishables. Which gets you by, I'm not complaining. But I'm sure this will put all of that to shame."
She got them each a full glass of water. If the noise hadn't woken anyone, Suji wondered if the smell of cooking would. Maybe it was combination of being so close and being so hungry, but the aroma was enough to make her mouth start to water. "You a night person?" She didn't want to ask why exactly Kiera was up: Suji wasn't the type to pry. At least, she found that a lot of the time direct questions didn't get you half as far as subtler ones did, as long as you were willing to piece together information to fill in the gaps.
Kiera:
"Great," she said, adding the broccoli as Suji got out the plates. "It's almost ready. " She blushed slightly. Everyone she knew always asked where she learned to cook. Both her mom and dad were usless in the kitchen, hence a childhood of take-out and restaurants. But Kiera had picked up alot from recipies and old cooking shows, especially after her dad left. Kiera found that cooking could take her mind off of anything because it took her full attention.
"Not exactly," she answered, starting to put the broccoli and alfredo on the plates. Suji looked sort of as though she might not wait for the chicken to start eating. "I like the night. I like going outside and staring up at the stars. I like flying around as a snow bunting in the cool night air." She started adding the chicken to the plates without looking up at Suji. "But its just to kill time, until I'm tired again so I can fall back asleep." She rubbed her eyes wearily, knowing she should be dead to the world right now. But whatever dream she kept having, it wasn't about to let that happen...
Suji:
Suji listened quietly but attentively. She was a very good listener--not just the type of listening that came with waiting to talk again. She listened to understand, and usually, she could understand. Even if empathy and sympathy didn't drive her responses, she could feign the compassion well. But that sounded too mechanistic, too much like she was an unfeeling robot: the truth was that yes, she was detached, but she generally knew how to say what people wanted to hear. Or at least how to be tactful.
She watched Kiera move as she spoke. Suji waited patiently for the food, even though some primitive instinct felt like snarling and pacing was a better option. Mind over matter: will over desire. Control. She tried to block out the hunger, but that was easier said that done when she was so close to a real meal. Instead, she focused more on what Kiera was saying.
"I'm sort of a night person," Suji said once Kiera had finished. She didn't want to divert the conversation completely to herself, but she knew that the normal flow of talking was give and take. Besides, if you didn't offer anything about yourself but just asked questions, it was far too much like an interrogation session. That was the furthest from what Suji wanted to come across as. "It's nice. Things are quiet--lots of time to think. Or escape, I guess." Suji didn't bother to elaborate on what she meant by escaping--she figured Kiera would know what she meant. It was hard to think that anyone these days didn't want to escape something.
"Everything feels slower. More private. And privacy is kind of a limited commodity these days, isn't it?" Suji smirked wryly, but her voice wasn't too sharp. "You restless then? I used to be. Back in New York... it was hard to fall asleep until I was exhausted. I figure once I get back on my feet, sleep enough and eat enough, I'll go back to being like that."
Kiera:
"Tell me about it," Kiera responded. "Every time I take a shower, I block the gap under the door just in case a gecko named Ash or a cockroach named David get nosy. I know they won't, but, you know, just in case..."
Restless? "Not usually," Kiera responded. "Usually I sleep really well. Soft enough to wake up if I need to, and dreamlessly... you know, restfully. But the last couple weeks have been... and with no new information about my sister... but everyone is so sure we'll save her... and I keep having this dream, but by the time I try to remember it, its already gone." She was rambling, barely touching the pasta she'd wanted so much. She didn't know why she shared so much with this new girl. Maybe it was the fact that she finally had a girl that wasn't Raven to talk to.
Suji:
Suji grinned. She'd been more talking about the fact that their enemy were slugs that could climb inside your head and know everything about you, but sure--there was something about being able to turn into something tiny that kind of eliminated privacy too. She hadn't even thought about the showering situation; now that she did, she had to laugh. She kept herself from being too loud, but it was obvious that she found the idea amusing.
She ate quietly as she listened to Kiera. It was a struggle not to stuff as much as she could in her mouth at once, but she knew that not only would it be pretty gross, it would likely just result in a stomach ache. So she ate slowly, taking frequent drinks of water. By the time Kiera had finished talking, Suji had already downed her glass--hunger she had anticipated, but she hadn't realized how thirsty she was, too. She stood and refilled her glass, as well as topped off Kiera's, though it didn't seem like the other girl had drank that much.
"I've got a sister too. A little sister," Suji said, as she set down both of their glasses, and then reseated herself. "She was taken, way back in New York. But I'm pretty sure she was a Controller well before the overt attack." Suji's voice was soft. "Sometimes I imagine what it must have been like--knowing what was coming, unable to stop it. Watching as my parents..." Suji licked her lips, turned away from that sentence. At last she looked up at Kiera's face, trying to catch her gaze. "Must have been hell, worse than being taken hostage herself. But you know what I think?" Suji didn't plaster up a fake smile, but the corner of her lip did curl upwards slightly. Her eyes, all the same, were solemn. Not the expression of someone who was blindly going to say that everything would be okay, but far from someone who would lament that all was lost.
And then, because it seemed appropriate--she prayed that it wouldn't be overstepping her boundaries--Suji lay her hand gently on Kiera's. "I think the fact that she knows I'm free, or at least knows I might be free--that I got a chance she didn't--gives her hope. I know if I was her, I would need that hope to keep going." Suji retracted her hand, just as gently as she'd placed it.
"And she--Lisa--she's back in New York somewhere. It'll be a long time till I get to save her, if... when I can." Suji tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I just have to know that my being free keeps her going, just like my need to save her keeps me going." She picked at her food more; her appetite wasn't killed, but it was less ravenous than it had been. "You'll remember the dream when it's time to. When you're ready, I think. That's how it is with most things our subconscious hides from us."
After letting that hang in the air for a moment, Suji took a few more bites, then asked: "What was she like? Your sister?"
Kiera:
Listening to Suji explain about her sister made Kiera feel a lot less alone, much like when David arrived and mentioned that he also had a twin. She barely noticed when Suji's hand touched hers. It was a comforting gesture. Kiera knew that. I never thought about it that way, Kiera thought. She wondered if Kaelyn would suspect that she was free. If Kaelyn knew Kiera at all, and she did, she would know that Kiera had come looking for her. Kiera could only hope that Kaelyn would take the fact that they hadn't seen each other yet to mean that she was free. And then, Kiera hoped, she would know that Kiera would stop at nothing to save her.
How to explain Kaelyn...? "We're twins," Kiera told her, "except last time I saw her, she had dyed her hair brown so people could tell us apart. Don't ask me why. I told her it was stupid. Our parents divorced when we were 6, so she's been living with our dad in New York ever since. The only people who need to tell us apart are our parents every summer. Don't ever tell her I told you thid, but she's quite the princess. She got the confidence, so she wears our face better than me. Cheerleader, boyfriends, etc."
"Everyone loved her, but sometimes she was trusting to the point of naivite. Not that I wasn't, I just wasn't around enough people for it to matter. Homeschooled, you know. She got hurt a lot, but she cared for others more than herself. She was always taking care of people. Especially me and my parents. People always said we were the same person in 2 bodies, but i couldn't even hold a candle to her."
Suji:
Kiera seemed to be ingesting what Suji said, and as far as Suji could tell, it was going over well. That put Suji more at ease--it wasn't that what Suji was saying she didn't believe (she did believe it), but the reason she was telling Kiera was... well, it wasn't solely for Kiera's benefit. Suji knew that survival in this world depended on being trusted, and further, being trusted while still holding your own cards close to your chest. What Suji revealed was part of her past, sure, but she did not reveal any strong emotions--calm, collected, maybe a bit dry, but ultimately in control of her own situation. The type of person you could tell your problems to, who could tell you what you wanted to hear without smothering a delicate situation in hopeless optimism: the type of person you could turn to if you needed a clear set of eyes.
Suji scanned Kiera, imagining what her twin must look like with brown hair. She smiled when Kiera told Suji not to tell her sister that she was a princess. "My lips are sealed," Suji assured her, smiling and taking another long drink of water. Kiera told Suji that her sister had been naive--and though Suji's outward expression did not change, Suji did register this as a bit odd. Kiera apparently didn't think she herself was very naive, at least not at this point. Suji wouldn't have agreed with that assessment, but she wasn't going to say that aloud.
"I'm sure she felt the same way about you--never being able to live up to you. That's the thing about princesses, the ones that aren't complete airheads--and it sounds like your sister wasn't--they might do the outgoing, fashionable thing well, but they're always comparing themselves to someone else, admiring people who don't put on the show. I'd bet she thought you were amazing for not being involved in all that ratrace stuff." Suji ate some more, and then looked up at Kiera; her expression was a little mischievous, playful.
"You know, I was quite the princess before all of this happened." She had one elbow propped on the table, fork dangling from her fingers. "Sure, now the only clothes I own amount to this skin-tight underarmor stuff so I can turn into animals, and all the friends who thought I was super-popular are under the yoke of alien tyranny, but let me tell you--I was cool before the war." Suji laughed under her breath. "Which counts for so much now, right?"
Kiera:
Kiera was fighting to keep her eyes dry. "You really think so?" she asked. "I couldn't imagine Kaelyn thinking I was amazing for any reason. She had a life. I had..." Kiera tried to think of a word. "I had books," was the best she could come up with. Then Suji confessed to being a princess, pre-invasion.
"Really?" Kiera asked, completely blindsided. "Not to be rude or anything, but I wouldn't have guessed you for a princess. Maybe a jockette, but not a princess." Kiera hoped that Suji wouldn't take what she was saying the wrong way. "If I had gone to a normal high school, I probably would have been eating lunch by the dumpsters with the other nerds like me... But I guess you're right. We're the ones here now, fighting for them."
Suji:
Suji laughed, again sure to keep the volume in check so as not to wake anyone. She nodded, raising her eyebrows, as if to say Yes, it's really true. Laughing again, she tilted her head, shooting Kiera a devious smirk.
"Wouldn't have taken me for a princess? Ouch. I mean, I know the morphing outfit isn't much--hell I don't even have shoes--but is it really that unbelievable?" Suji feigned primping her slept on, mussed up hair. "Also, morphing doesn't do wonders for make-up." Smiling, she set her fork down on her now empty plate. "But yes, really. I was one of the popular kids, I'll fess up to that. To be fair, I wasn't quite as into the high school dramatics myself, but was involved plenty by association with my friends." This was the truth, but the underlying reason hasn't been because Suji didn't participate: more it was because she had a careful way of making sure that none of the consequences ever lined up in front of her own door. She'd played on the sidelines, was seen as above it all, and used that to her full advantage.
"So take my word for it. Being popular was great as far as not getting pushed around a whole lot, but really, you grew to admire the kids that didn't give a damn about all of that." This was less truthful, but she figured it was a nice thing for Kiera to hear. Personally, Suji thought that if you didn't have a stake in the game, you usually got trampled underfoot, or used as a pawn in someone else's strategy. Though she guessed there were the occasions when it seemed like there would be nothing better than to escape the tedium of interpersonal politics.
"And yes. We will fight for them. Just like they'd fight for us." Suji stood, taking her dish to wash it in the sink. "You know, that was really good Kiera. Definitely beats out munching on the random bug or two while flying, by far," she said, light-heartedly. Turning, she rested her back against the edge of the sink, looking down at Kiera as she dried the plate.
"If you're feeling sleepy you should get to bed. I'll take care of the dishes--my payment for the fine meal." Suji smiled. "Or if you're not sleepy, I've still got the dishes anyway. We can chat a bit more. What say you?"
Toby:
Toby watched the small cabin and the light in the kitchen from the surrounding woods. He could clearly see the silhouette of two girls talking, having a late night chat. He wondered what they were talking about? What did girls talk about in their moments alone? It was an idle thought. Maybe he'd get a chance to ask. But not tonight.
He palmed the small whittling knife in his hand thoughtfully. He had been watching this group for quite a while. Their female leader had intrigued him. He had seen her a few times, around the city. It was not widely known what she was, what she did. But whispers of the resistance were everywhere. For someone of reasonable intelligence it was not hard to make the connection. At least that is what he thought. But he had found that most people did not have what he considered reasonable intelligence.
And that included this group of vigilantes. The animorphs were well known because they were pissing off many of the yeerk higher ups in the city. That couldn't be good for their health. And it would do no good for his to join up with them. But needs must, he thought with a sigh.
Sophia had gone and gotten herself captured. And who else had the power to set her free if not these wanna be heroes. Sophia, the things I do for you. But even though he feigned an attitude of pained indulgence, if only while talking to himself, he knew that he owed her much more than what he was about to do tonight. Much more.
So with a last glance at the nighttime woods he walked across the small stretch of open ground between the woods and the cabin's back door. He could hear the soft female voices inside drifting out to him. Their talk ceased suddenly when he knocked on the door. "Knock, knock. Animorphs home?"
Kiera:
"I'm pretty tired, I think I'm gonna..." Kiera's voice trailed off when she heard it. Knock, knock. animorphs home? She froze. "Forget that, I'm wide awake," she said, jumping out of her seat. When Suji showed up, the situation had been relatively safe, at least from her perspective. Suji hadn't known where the house was, Ash had already seen her morph, and she had mentioned Cassie.
But this new person. This male voice floating in toward them. Whoever was standing outside the door could be anyone. It could be a controller, a horde of them for that matter. If one person could find them, who's to say the rest wouldn't do the same. And they were standing right at the front door. "What do we do?" she said, slightly panicing. She and Suji were the only ones awake, and Kiera wasn't sure if she could wake anyone else up in time...
Suji:
Suji went completely still when she heard the knocking, completely ignoring Kiera's words and her motions for the time being. While everything inside of her seized, at the same time, she hadn't panicked: after all, Suji wasn't positive she had met all of the faction members. And she doubted that if the Yeerks had found them, they would bother knocking at the door--more like knocking it off it's hinges as they sent in a few waves of Hork Bajir. And from this distance, Suji might have even believed that the voice was David's... he was the only one she could imagine pulling such a prank.
Suji put a finger to her lips, motioning for Kiera to be quiet. Silent on her bare feet, Suji picked up the longest knives on the nearby knife. "Get Raven," she started to mouth, and then shook her head. "Get Riley," she mouthed, stressing the syllables. Obviously someone knew they were here--they had been in mid-conversation during the knock, and the light was on. Also obviously, there wasn't a full out assault on the HQ. Without waiting to see if Kiera was going, Suji made it to the door. She looked through the peephole, seeing only a young teenage. Male. Not David, but definitely looked like Animorphs stock: that being, he was young, and alone. Maybe he was from another faction--maybe he'd been from this faction. She had no idea.
She did know that it didn't really matter by this point if he came in or not: he knew the exact location, and seeing inside wasn't really going to give him more information than he already had. Then again, Suji realized that she wasn't so sure she'd wanted him to see her face. There was a coat hanging on the nearby wall--Suji gently lifted it off of the hook, and set the knife down on a nearby end table. She wouldn't need the blade.
"One second," she replied through the door, and began unlocking it. Then, in one swift motion, she opened the door... and lunged forward with the coat. If she succeeded in any shape or form, it would block his vision. Pulling him into a tight bear hug, with the coat hopefully completely covering his face, Suji pulled him inside. At best, she was hoping that he was just an Animorph that used to be in the faction. But if the worst came, her eyes were still on the knife at the table.
Toby:
Toby had expected some sort of hostile response and was ready for it. When the coat came lunging at him he dropped his hands docilely and let himself be pulled inside. He even gave a start of surprise.
"Please, please, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to scare you." His voice was high and almost on the verge of tears, not to mention muffled by the fabric over his mouth. "It's just that, my sister, she was taken and," he coughed. "I can't breath, I can't breath." He was almost sobbing with fear and with the coat over his head breathing really had become a problem. "Help, someone said you could help."
Suji:
Never bullshit a bullshitter.
One of Suji's favorite expressions, and she kept it nearly tucked inside her head, right next to 'I trust you as far as I can throw you.' Suji didn't let him go: instead, she tied the arms of the coat tight behind his back. I was oddly comical, but it worked, particularly because he didn't really fight her. Then she spun him, and turned him so he faced the nearby wall.
"If you suffocate, you won't die immediately. You'll pass out first. Which is fine with me, seeing as you aren't claiming to be an Animorph." Really, that had been a possibility: one that would have made her really, really embarassed. At the moment, however, all she felt was a breezy calmness in her center. "Stop the waterworks, and save your breath." The kid could talk when Riley got here. Suji was interested, but at the same time, she figured that she might get reprimanded from dragging him in at all. Of course, if he'd already knocked on the door and said the word 'Animorphs', it wasn't like she'd endangered anyone any further. At least, that was how she saw it.
Someone said we could help, though? That's my favorite part about all of this, Suji thought to herself. It was what had made her continue to treat him so roughly, even though he was apparently edging close to hysterics. Who could tell him that they'd help? Was this just a really terrible Yeerk plan, or what? Or was it something broader, and she was just playing right into it?
Toby:
Toby stood cowering facing the wall. This wasn't like what he thought it would be at all. But I guess they have to be careful right, or else the yeerks would have gotten them by now. He was shaking a bit as he stood looking at the wall but then he straightened as he remembered that he wasn't here for himself. He was here for Sophia, so no matter what these people did to him he would try to get their help.
"You aren't claiming to be an Animorph." So they didn't all know each other. Or maybe this one was new. Something to think about later. If there was a later, if they didn't kill him. But the heroes never did anything like that.
"I'm sorry." His voice was full of the shame any 15 year old boy would feel after crying in front of a girl. "I just. You can help me right? I mean, everyone in the city knows that the animorphs are making things hard for the controllers. So you can help me? Please, I just want to help. They took my sister and I was hoping that you could help me get her back. I know that they take people everyday but she's all I have left. My name is Toby. I'm from Cleveland and we came here when things got really bad there. We travelled all this way and Chicago has been a bit better but then, last week, she got taken. And some girl said that there were animorphs in the woods and I've been wandering around for days trying to find you. Or maybe..." his voice trailed off in uncertainty, "are you the animorphs? I thought you were."
What if he had just fallen in with a group of normal people. Or worse, controllers.
He started shaking again.
Kiera:
That was always the answer, wasn't it? Get Riley... When something goes massively wrong, run to Riley. Something seemed awfully wrong about that to Kiera as she was running down the hallway toward Raven and Riley's room for the second time in only a couple of weeks. Would they ever learn to stand on their own at this rate? What would they do if something ever happened to Riley? Run to Ash, probably, she thought. She would have laughed if she hadn't been in a hurry.
Soon she was outside their door, banging on it once again. "RILEY! BIG PROBLEM!" Yelling made her suddenly wish the pots and pans had woken them up. "RILEY, WAKE UP! THERE IS SOMEONE AT THE DOOR AND THEY KNOW ABOUT US!" Oh, please, oh, please, oh please wake up, Riley. I'm freaking out and I don't know what to do and if this is another one of you're stupid tests, I swear I'll morph into my squirrel and give you rabies or something...
David:
When he'd heard the crash of pans in the kitchen, David had rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. It seemed like seconds later that he was woken up again by Kiera's shrill shouting for Riley. He stumbled out of bed and to his door, and peeked outside.
There was Kiera, pounding on Riley's door like she had an ax murderer standing at her shoulder. And, near the door, Suji was standing over some kid. He didn't recognize the kid, but then, Suji had tied a coat around his head.
Am I still asleep, and this is the most bizarre dream I've ever had, or did Kiera and Suji just kidnap someone?
Kiera:
Kiera heard a door creak open somwhere. She instantly scanned every door in sight for someone, anyone who could help. It didn't take her long to see David, hair disheveled. She'd obviously just woken him up. "Oh thank god," she said. "Someone's awake. We've got problems." She knocked again on Riley and Raven's door. "GUYS, COME ON, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!" What was taking so long? Maybe they were already up, possibly calling Cassie really quickly to see if she forgot to mention a second recruit on the way. Well, wouldn't that be perfect, she thought.
In reality, she had only been knocking for a few seconds. It would take them longer than that to cross the room. But time had slowed down. The possiblility of being found out, of having a controller standing in their entry way, possibly with more on the way as soon as they were sure of who they were, had Kiera's heart racing as fast as it would run.
She looked for the first time toward Suji and was startled to see that she had tied him up with a jacket, successfully covering his face. I guess that's smart. If he gets loose before Riley gets up, at least he won't have seen our faces. Kiera looked back at David, realizing how bad this must have looked to him. "He was at the door, knocking." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "He know's we're the animorph!"
David:
David couldn't have heard her right. "He knows we're... how?" Oh, yes, she knows how, that's why she's frantically knocking on Raven and Riley's door shouting for them. Wake up, David. "What can I do?"
Someone had found them. If he was a controller, there were two possibilities that David could see:
1: the controller had stumbled upon them by accident, and they were safe as long as they held him for three days
2: the yeerks knew where they were and had sent a scout.
David rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Suji:
Suji didn't respond to the kid: she just made sure that he didn't try to wriggle out of the jacket. She did record what he was saying--but she'd err on the side of caution and deference to her leaders with this one. It wasn't like Controllers couldn't lie... and doubly so for humans. Kiera was screaming, and sSuji winced, lips pulled back over her in an expression of pure irritation. Maybe Raven and Riley were heavy sleepers, but still, Suji felt the urge to tell her to shut up. Of course audio signals were harder to memorize than faces, but still: take no unnecessary chances, right?
Then David wandered out, and she wasn't really surprised: Kiera's yelling was enough to wake the dead. The redhead was closer to Suji than Kiera was, and when he asked what he could do, Suji kept one eye on the bound kid and sidled up next to David. Her voice was barely audible, but it seemed that for the time being Kiera had come up for air--and she took the chance to tell him, super-quietly but clearly: "Tell her to keep it down. And tell her to cut it out with the using names." Suji gestured towards Kiera with her eyes, and then moved back, still standing watch over the newcomer.
Toby:
Apparently his appearance had caused quite a disturbance. He hadn't realized just how paranoid they would be. He knew that they would be a little suspicious of him, but come on, he was obviously not a controller. Ok, well maybe that wasn't obvious but three days confinement would get rid of that little fear. So why were they being quite so distrusting?
Not they, she. The girl, the one who had swaddled his head in a towel. She was causing these problems for him, at least partly. She had even threatened his life, said she wouldn't care if he suffocated. Obviously she was no friend of his and he would join name and face to voice later.
But as long as he was stuck like this he might as well file away as much information as he could. He already had three voices and one name, the name of another leader here. He already knew about one, the woman he called Raven if only because of the bird morph that she had used more than once. Now he had another name. Riley. Someone important.
Inside his mind he was seeing a city on a hill. And the gates that led into the city had a rolled up scroll carved into the dark wood. He bipassed most of the city and went straight to the door with the Raven on it, flying above an A. He walked inside. The room was woefully empty but it was getting fuller by the minute. Inside the room he place a small scroll named Riley in one of the many empty sockets on the wall made for just that purpose. With time the scroll would contain more than a name. Already contained more than a name. It had the information on it that he was some type of leader.
The visualization technique was an old way of remembering things with accuracy, of organizing one's knowledge. Toby had always liked it for its seeming perfection and simplicity.
Toby concentrated on keeping his mouth shut and his ears open. He would need to know much more about these people before he could hope of joining them.
Riley:
Riley had definitely heard Kiera's banging on his door, for once he had actually been asleep. He now knew exactly how Raven had felt before, constant patrolling, always looking out and keeping guard, he was stressed and it showed on his face. Normally he was all smiles, happy, the jokester but lately he had been rather quiet, and almost moved about in a daze. Raven had forced him to sleep for once, and he had been asleep for about 2 hours--comatose to the world--while she was out, walking around the HQ since she couldn't patrol the normal way.
Unfortunately he hadn't gotten enough sleep to do any good, it was the same amount he'd been getting in a daily basis, and so when he appeared at the door, he did not look entirely too happy. His entire torso was bare, and he was clad in just a pair of long shorts, and his hair was what one could refer to as 'bed head'. To top it all off he was rubbing his eyes absently, and moved rather groggily as he tried to look down at Kiera. The look on her face made him instantly wake up though, and his expression changed immediately.
"Whats going on?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse. "What problems?" he was already moving out of the room and into the open. It took a few steps for him to note the boy with a coat over his head, and his demeanor once again changed, this time it was that of a leader, the need to protect, the need to calm the situation. "Whats your name?" Riley asked the kid directly, his voice not sounding as particularly kind as it normally did. The one benefit of being alone for all those years on the run was that it changed him from the soft, friendly guy to a hard, dangerous guy, something he could switch between now quite easily.
Before the boy answered he turned to Suji and gestured for her to mimic him, and then began morphing. Now the two could talk and their voices would seen penetrate the boys mind too without letting him hear their private conversation. <<He found the HQ? Is anyone out there patrolling to make sure he was alone?>> Riley was assessing the situation, if there were more with him they were all in danger, and Raven was out there alone. Fuck.
Suji:
Suji kept a close watch on the boy--if he really did suffocate, he'd struggle more and then faint long before he ran the risk of actually dying; and at which point, she would have removed the jacket, and just sat him facing the wall until he returned to consciousness. But his breathing was more under control now, and the tantrum seemed to end almost as abruptly as it had begun. In fact, he'd gone from babbling to completely silent. Her jaw clenched. Little twerp was listening closely now. Suji had thankfully never had the delight of walking into a trap, but she'd constructed a few of them in her time (generally more of the social variety rather than digging a hole and covering it with leaves, but still) and this rubbed her the wrong way entirely. Her lips drew into a thin, displeased line.
Riley appeared from the short hallway, and Suji had time to scan his (shirtless) torso, as well as briefly look over his shoulder: no Raven. But no time to analyze that (or spend a too long gazing at their de facto leader's bare chest). The change in his general demeanor (the puppy-dog playfulness was all gone now) did not escape her: she'd have had to been blind and dumb for that to happen. He made a gesture towards her that she didn't understand at first, but then his skin started to shift and melt--morphing. It was too early for Suji to tell what he'd become.
Reflexively, Suji's hand shot out, catching his upper arm. Her grip was firm and maybe a bit tight, but her fingers didn't even reach around half of his bicep. Once she realized it was doing all that uncomfortable restructuring under her hand, she pulled it back. "HE'LL. KNOW. FOR. SURE." Suji mouthed, enunciating every word. She brought a finger to her head, pointed to Riley's temple, and then to the kid. All this was silent. Once they used thoughtspeak to speak to this stranger, there was no going back on what they were. No trying to pretend they were just a small band of free humans or something. Suji wasn't sure how that affected the situation--if it affected it that much at all. It all depended on how certain this kid was of what they were. What the kid already knew, or suspected.
"IS. THAT. OKAY?" More mouthing, and on the last word, she silently mimed a shrug, bringing her palms up. If Riley gave the go ahead, she'd start going owl right away. Thoughtspeak, even if it did reveal them as Animorphs, would ultimately have its benefits. And she wasn't sure about the other Animorphs, but it was night, and she had a damn fine set of night-vision goggles built into that feathery little critter. She could start searching the perimeters of the HQ--though to be honest, she didn't think this was a standard Yeerk operation, if it was a Yeerk operation at all. Sure it was fishy either way, but she would certainly not be the one to credit 'stealth' to the aliens that had very recently launched a highly successful all-out invasion of her home planet.
Inwardly, a part of her groaned at the idea of morphing that damn owl again. Not even 24 hours of rest, augh!
Kiera:
Kiera breathed a deep sigh of relief when Riley finally came out of the door. Even if he was...*gulp* shirtless. Her first thought was At least that means this isn't a test.. Her second was HOLY SHIT, this isn't a test. Someone actually found us! Her heart raced even quicker, if that was possible. Kiera felt like it might pop an artery at any moment.
What's going on? What problems? How to answer gently. "Um... We have a surprise visitor." Her voice dropped to a whisper again, still afraid of confirming what the boy already knew. "He know's we're the animorphs," she told Riley just as he stepped where he could see the boy. Kiera followed him like a puppy dog into the entryway. She may have been here longer than the rest of the people in the faction (save Riley and Raven) but that didn't make her calmer. She was too high strung for this many surprises.
Riley:
Riley was genuinely a caring, happy person but this was all very stressful for him. He had spent 10+ years on the run alone, just him and his motorcycle, a rogue resistance fighter against the Yeerk--quite the change from now. It was hard getting used to worrying for others again--while a natural reflex for him--it put for more stress because it wasn't just his life on the line, it was everybodys. Despite it all he had it under control, it wasn't like his body hadn't been through more stress, sleeping on the ground for 10 years straight wasn't the easiest, nor was the constant driving and little sleep.
Suji's grasp on his arm had no affect on the morphing, and there was a brief--thought slightly worn--grin that flashed across his face before he was a Golden Labrador Retriever. <<Raven approached 100% of her members through animal morph, he's already found the HQ so either way he can not leave here without agreeing to be one of us...one way or another. No harm in morphing, plus I don't think it's common knowledge that Animorphs use thoughtspeak since the people we've used it on are all part of our team>> Riley's logic made sense, he was suppose to lead along side Raven after all, he learned from the best.
<<Has anyone patrolled yet?>> he asked again, this time his voice more urgent. <<If not Kiera can you do that? Be exceptionally thorough, take David with you>> he then added quietly <<Ravens out there, keep an eye out for her. Please>> his voice was softer that time. With that his dog turned to face Suji <<I doubt he's a Controller, but we have to be safe, and he found us...which is very...bad....>> he paused <<What has his story been?>> the boy still hadn't responded, so they had time to talk.
Kiera:
"Not yet," Kiera answered. "I'm on my way." She grabbed David by the wrist and pulled him out the door, like it or not. "You take the air, I'll take the ground," she told him. Without waiting for a reply, she started morphing. Kiera still had to close her eyes during the morphing process and sing to herself to cover the bone grinding. A couple minutes later, she was a Kodkod. In a strange way, Kiera was getting use to being so close to the ground. It made her feel safer.
<<I won't be able to look up to see where you are, so do you think you can stay relatively above me? I dont want us to get seperated.>> If they got too far seperated, then they wouldn't be able to thought-speak, and Kiera was already planning on asking for constant updates. She hoped David would understand her panic and worry. Soon, she started running. Maybe the slowly increasing spiral she always used wasn't the most effective way, but it seemed thorough. <<Can you see Raven yet?>>
Suji:
Suji listened to Riley. Yes, but Raven didn't approach this member, did she? No one approached him. He approached us. She didn't share this thought out loud. She wasn't an exceptionally trusting person--whether in people, or in plans she hadn't made--but she wasn't ready to argue the point with Riley. It was his job to handle this kind of task, right? Well, it was Raven's job, but she wasn't here, and apparently he'd started stepping in for her due to recent events. In any case, she started morphing: owl. Fast enough that it shocked even her, Suji had already begun the process. It came like second nature now, especially over the flight here. It wasn't long before she was the tiny owl, sitting next to dog-Riley.
It was very nice to be able to talk without having to limit her speech to words that would transfer decently via lip-reading. Kiera and David had dashed out the door before she finished. <<Unless David has an owl morph, I've got the best night-eyes.>> She directed this thought at Riley. If he called them back, that was okay with her. But maybe he wanted her here--he'd specifically sent out Kiera and David, hadn't he? And if that had been a conscious decision, he'd earned a little more of Suji's faith in his leading ability. She certainly trusted herself more than either of the other two animorphs when it came to gathering and analyzing information, even if Riley was going to be the one doing the talking.
<<He showed up at the door, knocked and said, "Knock, knock, animorphs home?" Or something like that. I didn't want him to see any of our faces until we knew who he was, so I threw the coat on him. He begged for help for a while, lots of crying. His sister apparently was taken as a host last week. Said his named was Toby, that he and his sister came from Cleveland.>> That was most of the information that he'd told them upon first arriving at least, it was the basic stuff, whatever this kid's story was. <<Also said that a girl told him there were animorphs in the woods. And that he's been wandering for days.>>
The owl fluttered to a higher spot, the back of a nearby chair, and perched. <<I know you haven't asked for my input, but something about this kid is off. He was all tears and sobbing and babbling, and then got instantly quiet, trying to listen to whatever we said. It was like flipping a switch or something.>>
Toby:
"Whats going on? What problems?" A groggy male voice, deeper than any he'd heard so far.
"Um... We have a surprise visitor....He know's we're the animorphs," The girl from before. The one who'd panicked. Then silence for a moment as footsteps came down the hall and into the kitchen.
"Whats your name?"
Finally a question directed at him. But he didn't answer right away because then he started hearing something truly gross. It made him wonder what exactly these people had in store for him. Were they going to do something to him? What was that sound?
"Not yet, I'm on my way." And then there were sounds of someone or maybe multiple someone's leaving. All of it was muffled but he made it all out well enough. And yet the one voice he wanted to hear, if only to pinpoint the person's location, wasn't heard at all.
But the voice that had asked for his name was probably this Riley that they had been calling for before. Which meant he should probably answer.
"My name's...um Toby. Toby Miles. Please," his voice hitched a bit. He'd stopped crying after deciding that his time was better spent listening, not to mention it had made breathing difficult. There simply wasn't that much air inside the coat. But now the quiver returned to his voice. "I'm from Cleveland. The humans, the free ones in the city, they talk about animorphs, heroes. Especially a woman one that's a raven sometimes." He sounded like he was describing a folk tale but that is almost exactly what the people he'd met had sounded like. "They said, this one woman said, that she'd thought she'd even seen a polar bear in the woods once. But no one else believed her. But when Sophia got taken I came here, hoping that she wasn't crazy." He shut up and listened for an answer, not sure if he'd get one. If these people were controllers then he may have just given them enough information to find the animorphs but he really didn't think they were controllers. Or free humans for that matter.
Riley:
Riley felt slightly more at ease now that the others were out scouting, but he still was on guard. If the kids story was true, he was alone, but he trusted the boy as far as he could throw him--okay maybe not that much considering he could probably throw him pretty far. After some more conversing with Suji he'd be able to determine what to do, it seemed she had taken control of the situation beforehand, hence Riley had asked her to stay. She had the most input, and he needed just that, and fast.
<<I need you here, they can handle it, and while Raven may not be able to morph I know she can handle herself too>> though he felt something inside him tighten, like a nerve had been hit. He did not like not knowing if she was safe or not, but the woman had been through hell and back and she could more than handle things on her own. Even when shes pregnant? he asked himself. Yes. <<Plus you took control, or so it seemed when I walked in, and I need your input>>. The others would be more useful making sure their location was safe and stayed unknown.
He listened to Suji carefully, <<You did very well>> he replied, though she probably knew this, he still felt a need to say it. Her second statement made him get quiet for a moment before he finally said, <<Feel free to add input wherever you feel necessary, this is a group effort and while I may take charge...everyones thoughts and opinions are helpful.>> Ravens motto was similar, and while the ultimate decision lay with either of them they did not take what the others thought lightly. The Animorphs in Chicago were a team, and both Riley and Raven saw to it they worked like one.
<<He's observant and possibly an actor then..>> he said his thoughts aloud, running them through his brain briefly before perking his ears up as the boy responded verbally. Riley didn't exactly like the boys answer, it meant more people spoke about them then was good, and the more that knew their possible location the more danger they were in. Riley mentally decided to kick up patrolling when this was all over. <<Okay well there's not much we can do, he can't leave here now, and he was looking for us..well hell, he found us. Now he's stuck>> Riley began demorphing again, not quite caring what sounds this boy heard.
He moved to the kitchen preparing something quickly and setting it on the table before moving behind Toby. "Don't move Toby, and we'll get along swell," with that he reached up and easily lifted the boy up and over his shoulder. Moments later Toby would find himself seated at a table, and Riley tugged off the coat. "Have some," he pushed the bowl--of oatmeal--towards him, eyeing the kid carefully. "Must be hungry after all that."
Riley felt no worry that the boy might run, there was no way he'd get out of here without someone getting him, and they could get more answers out of him if he felt safer. Once the oatmeal was consumed they would be able to tell if the kid had a Yeerk in his head or not, from there they could continue planning their course of action.
"Why don't you tell me more about what people are saying about these Animorphs?"
Toby:
Toby was picked up and plopped in a chair. Then the coat was ripped from his head. He felt like he was in some sort of spy movie and he was about to be tortured...with oatmeal. The only thing he could think to say was, "I hate oatmeal though." He was staring at the man in front of him with a blank expression, a little shell shocked.
He looked to the bowl of oatmeal and then to the hard face staring at him and then back to the oatmeal and then back to the face....and burst out crying. He pushed the oatmeal away, though not far, only far enough to make room for his head on the table. He'd been wandering around in the woods for days and he hadn't slept very much and his sister was gone and his only hope had been finding people who could help him and he still didn't know if he'd found them and now he was in a house and people were trying to torture him or something.
His arms cradled his head on the table and he just kept crying. He didn't care anymore who they were or what they were or if he should listen or anything. He just wanted to go home except it didn't exist anymore.
Riley:
Riley felt slightly bad seeing a kid crying, but Suji felt there was something off with the boy so he ignored it. "Hey there, no crying, we're just talking right?" he took a seat nearby, his face softening. Riley wasn't a mean person, that much could be seen beyond his sheer size. "I'd offer you something more, but it's really all we have...I'd hate to see it go to waste..." a conflicted expression forming on his face. Riley would much rather see the kid eat the dang oatmeal than tie him to a chair and wait three days--the third option being forcing it down his throat but he REALLY didn't want to do that.
"So this Sophia, is that your sister? What happened?" he asked, his voice rather soft now. "After we talk a bit more and you get some food you can sleep, looks like you're tired." This was a different approach from earlier since it wasn't getting any results. Tears did not help anything, if the boy was being a very good actor then if he played along they'd be able to see that. On the other hand if the kid was really just a kid with no side plans then they were scaring the crap out of him and so being nice was also the better option.
"We're not going to hurt you, I know we were a bit...protective earlier but...if you've been out there you know how it is, right?" he was hoping to make the boy see he wasn't all that bad. Suji probably thought him insane right now, but he hoped she'd play along, or better yet just stay quiet. She could also continue in her course of action...because it might seem odd if she was suddenly nice, he was relying on her to choose one of several good course of actions since he was now focused on Toby.
David:
David morphed as quickly as he could and was soon in the air on his enormous albatross wings (well, they looked enormous to him). <Can you see Raven yet?> asked Kiera. He scanned the ground, looking for her kodkod morph.
<Try to stay out in the open, otherwise finding you will be my main problem,> he said. <But no, I can't see Raven. It'll be harder to find her if I'm right over you all the time, too. Still, you're the experienced one, so you're in charge.> He spotted her on the ground and glided through the air until he was over her.
Suji:
Suji nodded to Riley, though without a neck it was more like a strange bobbing motion. He told her to offer her input whenever she felt necessary, and Suji took that to heart. Yes, she could get along with this Riley fellow well enough. He lifted the kid like he was no more than a five year old, and Suji fluttered off of her perch to the top of a nearby cabinet. Riley had demorphed, but that was his decision. She stayed as a tiny owl, well hidden in the shadows. From here she'd be able to catch if he so much as twitched the wrong way. Besides, this way she could relay information to Riley without the kid being aware of it.
She listened to the kid: Toby. When he cried rather than eat the oatmeal, Suji stayed quiet, but felt her tension level rise. Riley was treating him well, probably better than Suji would have. Suji knew how to act with compassion, but that was reserved for people she trusted as being what they were presenting themselves as. Kids like David and Kiera deserved compassion. This Toby kid didn't. He deserved to be threatened and intimidated so that he knew--very clearly--that no one bought whatever act he was selling. Her feathers ruffled, but she didn't expose herself.
Maybe if the kid thought she was gone, he would act differently. She didn't say anything. Let Riley work. She had prime seating for watching both the leader and this Toby kid. She wasn't so ready to believe he wasn't a Controller if he wouldn't just eat the damn oatmeal.
Toby:
When Riley asked about Sophia he just wanted to cry harder but he didn't. This was the second time now that he'd cried and he wasn't making a very good impression. "Yeah, she was my sister. Is my sister, is. I hope she still is. We've gone so long without getting caught. How could I be so stupid!" He hung his head. "It was my fault that she got captured. That's why I have to save her. You can tie me up or something. I know that yeerks need to feed every three days."
The invasion had been going on for quite a long time now. In fact it was no longer really an invasion. The yeerks had won. And the humans that were left just had to survive as best they could. And part of that survival meant knowing what the world was like now. So he knew that the yeerks needed to feed every three days. And he knew what happened to people that were caught.
"Thanks. I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything," he said pulling the bowl of oatmeal over and beginning to eat it. "I haven't eaten a good meal in days actually," he said with his mouth full. His eyes scanned the kitchen but he only saw Riley in here with him.
"So what happens now?"
"Sweetie, look, just come home, okay?” It was her mother’s voice urging her back. “We all need to be together right now. You’re not safe out there. Your father and I will protect you at home—you need to be indoors. I don’t know what exactly is happening, but people might get crazy, they’re already losing it-”
“I can’t come home,” Suji told her, for what felt like the thousandth time. Meanwhile, her eyes were still glazed over, trying to absorb as much information as possible from the barebones website she was reading. It was more or less a declaration that the world was ending: and all news sites, just before they started blinking out of existence, had been reporting something similar.
“You have to, Suji. I am telling you this right now: I am your mother. You came out of my body. It’s my job to keep you safe. Come home right now!”
“I read about The Sharing, mom. It’s all right here.” There was a sudden silence on the other end of the line. “Something is happening, and I know that you’re not… I know you’re involved. Lisa, you, and dad. I know what you are. All of you.”
More silence, which wasn’t really a protest.
“Suji, don’t you want to be home with your family? In a time like this? Isn’t that what’s important?”
But Suji didn’t answer: she came awake at once, shuddering and panting. Cold sweat dampened her brow, drenched her back. She was clutching the thin sheets on the narrow bed to her chest, her hands bunched into iron-tight fists. Her heart jack-hammered in her chest.
After the panic subsided, Suji quickly regained control of herself. She looked around the small room. It was sparsely furnished, but there’d been sheets and a pillow on the bed, and Raven had said that there was “still room.” Suji didn’t know what that meant, but she figured that there must have been someone sleeping in this room, in this same bed, before her. Maybe not that long ago… Suji didn’t know what had happened to that person. Were they still alive? Probably not captured, at least: if any of the faction got captured Raven would undoubtedly have to relocate.
Suji crawled out of the bed and stretched. The good thing about her morphing suit was that it was almost something you could imagine someone wearing to work out in. The underarmor material was pretty decent quality, and being long-sleeved and pant-ed, it covered most of her body. The bad thing was that she had no shoes, and she did kind of want a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to through over it.
But any thoughts about clothes were abruptly quelled at the sound of a monstrous, rumbling noise… that came from her belly. Feeling embarrassed, even though no one was around (non-voluntary body sounds were the type of things that could betray a weakness you were trying to conceal, after all) Suji absentmindedly rubbed her stomach.
She’d probably slept for a solid twelve hours: it was bound to be late at night now. But she was starving. There was no way she’d be able to go back to sleep without eating something. Still a bit groggy (but feeling much, much better than she had when she’d arrived), Suji quietly padded out of her room. She wasn’t familiar with the set up of the HQ, but it wasn’t exactly a mansion. She figured as long as she didn’t knock on closed doors, she’d probably find the kitchen easily enough.
Kiera:
Kiera was in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, preparing to throw together some chicken fettuccine alfredo with broccoli. Recently, she'd been waking up for no reason into at random hours. She hadn't told anyone. They'd just tell her what she already knew. That something was on her mind... But her subconsious was hiding it very well. Whenever she'd wake up from a dream, it was gone before she could remember it. Now her only way to pass the time (and hopefully wear herself out enough to return to bed) was cooking.
Kiera was extremely thankful to Raven for picking up the chicken and broccoli she had asked for. She still had one box of fettuccini in her backpack, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste. But before she could cook anything at all, she had to find the pots and pans she needed. "You'd think with all the time we have, someone would have organized this," she muttered to herself as she dug through the piles of pots underneath the counter. She found the pot she was looking for, "But where is the...AHHHH!"
Kiera had picked the wrong cabinet. The one that someone had stacked haphazardly, in a hurry to go somewhere or do something. Just her luck, as soon as the door opened, everything came crashing out. It was only 2 pots and a frying pan, but they made just enough noise. It probably wouldn't wake Raven, Riley, or Ash. As far as she had seen, they tended to go into comas when they slept. Unless someone was yelling for them. Immediate danger always got their attention. David and Suji, on the other hand... she didn't really know how they slept, but she hoped they were far enough away from her catatstrophe to continue sleeping.
Suji:
Suji was just turning into the kitchen when she saw Kiera rooting through the cabinets and drawers. Suji wasn't sure whether she should approach (did she have the strength left to put on the mask the human interaction necessitated?), but the deciding process was cut short whenever she saw Kiera begin to open one of the cabinets. Suji, being further away, realized Kiera's mistake before Kiera did. She cringed, bracing herself even before the assorted cooking containers came tumbling out. They made a lot of noise: so much for Suji's attempt at silence. It wouldn't matter much now.
Suji quickly moved towards the mess. "Are you okay?" Her voice was clear and carrying, though still hushed--if the clattering didn't wake anyone, she didn't want her voice to be the thing that did. "Here, let me help-" Immediately Suji began to pick up the fallen items, setting them on the counter nearby.
Kiera:
Kiera's hopes for minimal viewing of her clumsiness were dashed when she saw Suji rush in and start picking up the pots and pans. "I'm fine," Kiera said. Just a little bruised in the pride department... "What are you doing up?" she asked, hoping she wasn't intruding. One of the pans that had fallen was in fact the frying pan that Kiera had been looking for, so she grabbed her stuff and started cooking as Suji talked. "I haven't had a full nights sleep in weeks."
While the pasta was cooking, Kiera got the chicken ready, being very careful to make sure the chicken cooked all the way through. "Do you want some?" she asked, randomly interjecting. "Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with Broccoli..." she added, hoping to tempt Suji. There was always too much, and as nice a gesture as offering food might have seemed, Kiera just didn't want to have to leave leftovers in the fridge. Someone was bound to ask when she made it, and she was a terrible liar.
Suji:
"I slept like the dead for a long while. Seeing as it's dark out, I'd say it was a good eight hours at least." Of course, Suji didn't think the dead routinely had nightmares about abandoning their families to alien slugs. But her nightmares were her own business; not exactly the type of stuff you could easily share. Especially not for her.
"I haven't had a full nights sleep in weeks." Suji could relate, but she didn't say anything. The short time she'd spent in the HQ of the Chicago faction had been the best sleep she'd since leaving New York, for sure. Kiera had started cooking, and Suji was glad that her stomach didn't rumble--but there was a sharp aching there. She'd been living off of bugs in her owl form. The lack of nourishment had even made her real body slightly gaunt. Suji smiled at her.
"Sounds amazing. I'd offer to help cook, but I'm not good at it. My dad was the cook in the family." She smirked, tried to ignore the nostalgic aching that rose whenever she remembered her family. "I can measure and pour, but good cooking takes more than that, I think. Let me set the table or whatever though." And with that she began to lay out two sets of silverware and plates. "Been a long time since I had some real food. Even before leaving New York, it was all canned stuff, or other nonperishables. Which gets you by, I'm not complaining. But I'm sure this will put all of that to shame."
She got them each a full glass of water. If the noise hadn't woken anyone, Suji wondered if the smell of cooking would. Maybe it was combination of being so close and being so hungry, but the aroma was enough to make her mouth start to water. "You a night person?" She didn't want to ask why exactly Kiera was up: Suji wasn't the type to pry. At least, she found that a lot of the time direct questions didn't get you half as far as subtler ones did, as long as you were willing to piece together information to fill in the gaps.
Kiera:
"Great," she said, adding the broccoli as Suji got out the plates. "It's almost ready. " She blushed slightly. Everyone she knew always asked where she learned to cook. Both her mom and dad were usless in the kitchen, hence a childhood of take-out and restaurants. But Kiera had picked up alot from recipies and old cooking shows, especially after her dad left. Kiera found that cooking could take her mind off of anything because it took her full attention.
"Not exactly," she answered, starting to put the broccoli and alfredo on the plates. Suji looked sort of as though she might not wait for the chicken to start eating. "I like the night. I like going outside and staring up at the stars. I like flying around as a snow bunting in the cool night air." She started adding the chicken to the plates without looking up at Suji. "But its just to kill time, until I'm tired again so I can fall back asleep." She rubbed her eyes wearily, knowing she should be dead to the world right now. But whatever dream she kept having, it wasn't about to let that happen...
Suji:
Suji listened quietly but attentively. She was a very good listener--not just the type of listening that came with waiting to talk again. She listened to understand, and usually, she could understand. Even if empathy and sympathy didn't drive her responses, she could feign the compassion well. But that sounded too mechanistic, too much like she was an unfeeling robot: the truth was that yes, she was detached, but she generally knew how to say what people wanted to hear. Or at least how to be tactful.
She watched Kiera move as she spoke. Suji waited patiently for the food, even though some primitive instinct felt like snarling and pacing was a better option. Mind over matter: will over desire. Control. She tried to block out the hunger, but that was easier said that done when she was so close to a real meal. Instead, she focused more on what Kiera was saying.
"I'm sort of a night person," Suji said once Kiera had finished. She didn't want to divert the conversation completely to herself, but she knew that the normal flow of talking was give and take. Besides, if you didn't offer anything about yourself but just asked questions, it was far too much like an interrogation session. That was the furthest from what Suji wanted to come across as. "It's nice. Things are quiet--lots of time to think. Or escape, I guess." Suji didn't bother to elaborate on what she meant by escaping--she figured Kiera would know what she meant. It was hard to think that anyone these days didn't want to escape something.
"Everything feels slower. More private. And privacy is kind of a limited commodity these days, isn't it?" Suji smirked wryly, but her voice wasn't too sharp. "You restless then? I used to be. Back in New York... it was hard to fall asleep until I was exhausted. I figure once I get back on my feet, sleep enough and eat enough, I'll go back to being like that."
Kiera:
"Tell me about it," Kiera responded. "Every time I take a shower, I block the gap under the door just in case a gecko named Ash or a cockroach named David get nosy. I know they won't, but, you know, just in case..."
Restless? "Not usually," Kiera responded. "Usually I sleep really well. Soft enough to wake up if I need to, and dreamlessly... you know, restfully. But the last couple weeks have been... and with no new information about my sister... but everyone is so sure we'll save her... and I keep having this dream, but by the time I try to remember it, its already gone." She was rambling, barely touching the pasta she'd wanted so much. She didn't know why she shared so much with this new girl. Maybe it was the fact that she finally had a girl that wasn't Raven to talk to.
Suji:
Suji grinned. She'd been more talking about the fact that their enemy were slugs that could climb inside your head and know everything about you, but sure--there was something about being able to turn into something tiny that kind of eliminated privacy too. She hadn't even thought about the showering situation; now that she did, she had to laugh. She kept herself from being too loud, but it was obvious that she found the idea amusing.
She ate quietly as she listened to Kiera. It was a struggle not to stuff as much as she could in her mouth at once, but she knew that not only would it be pretty gross, it would likely just result in a stomach ache. So she ate slowly, taking frequent drinks of water. By the time Kiera had finished talking, Suji had already downed her glass--hunger she had anticipated, but she hadn't realized how thirsty she was, too. She stood and refilled her glass, as well as topped off Kiera's, though it didn't seem like the other girl had drank that much.
"I've got a sister too. A little sister," Suji said, as she set down both of their glasses, and then reseated herself. "She was taken, way back in New York. But I'm pretty sure she was a Controller well before the overt attack." Suji's voice was soft. "Sometimes I imagine what it must have been like--knowing what was coming, unable to stop it. Watching as my parents..." Suji licked her lips, turned away from that sentence. At last she looked up at Kiera's face, trying to catch her gaze. "Must have been hell, worse than being taken hostage herself. But you know what I think?" Suji didn't plaster up a fake smile, but the corner of her lip did curl upwards slightly. Her eyes, all the same, were solemn. Not the expression of someone who was blindly going to say that everything would be okay, but far from someone who would lament that all was lost.
And then, because it seemed appropriate--she prayed that it wouldn't be overstepping her boundaries--Suji lay her hand gently on Kiera's. "I think the fact that she knows I'm free, or at least knows I might be free--that I got a chance she didn't--gives her hope. I know if I was her, I would need that hope to keep going." Suji retracted her hand, just as gently as she'd placed it.
"And she--Lisa--she's back in New York somewhere. It'll be a long time till I get to save her, if... when I can." Suji tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "I just have to know that my being free keeps her going, just like my need to save her keeps me going." She picked at her food more; her appetite wasn't killed, but it was less ravenous than it had been. "You'll remember the dream when it's time to. When you're ready, I think. That's how it is with most things our subconscious hides from us."
After letting that hang in the air for a moment, Suji took a few more bites, then asked: "What was she like? Your sister?"
Kiera:
Listening to Suji explain about her sister made Kiera feel a lot less alone, much like when David arrived and mentioned that he also had a twin. She barely noticed when Suji's hand touched hers. It was a comforting gesture. Kiera knew that. I never thought about it that way, Kiera thought. She wondered if Kaelyn would suspect that she was free. If Kaelyn knew Kiera at all, and she did, she would know that Kiera had come looking for her. Kiera could only hope that Kaelyn would take the fact that they hadn't seen each other yet to mean that she was free. And then, Kiera hoped, she would know that Kiera would stop at nothing to save her.
How to explain Kaelyn...? "We're twins," Kiera told her, "except last time I saw her, she had dyed her hair brown so people could tell us apart. Don't ask me why. I told her it was stupid. Our parents divorced when we were 6, so she's been living with our dad in New York ever since. The only people who need to tell us apart are our parents every summer. Don't ever tell her I told you thid, but she's quite the princess. She got the confidence, so she wears our face better than me. Cheerleader, boyfriends, etc."
"Everyone loved her, but sometimes she was trusting to the point of naivite. Not that I wasn't, I just wasn't around enough people for it to matter. Homeschooled, you know. She got hurt a lot, but she cared for others more than herself. She was always taking care of people. Especially me and my parents. People always said we were the same person in 2 bodies, but i couldn't even hold a candle to her."
Suji:
Kiera seemed to be ingesting what Suji said, and as far as Suji could tell, it was going over well. That put Suji more at ease--it wasn't that what Suji was saying she didn't believe (she did believe it), but the reason she was telling Kiera was... well, it wasn't solely for Kiera's benefit. Suji knew that survival in this world depended on being trusted, and further, being trusted while still holding your own cards close to your chest. What Suji revealed was part of her past, sure, but she did not reveal any strong emotions--calm, collected, maybe a bit dry, but ultimately in control of her own situation. The type of person you could tell your problems to, who could tell you what you wanted to hear without smothering a delicate situation in hopeless optimism: the type of person you could turn to if you needed a clear set of eyes.
Suji scanned Kiera, imagining what her twin must look like with brown hair. She smiled when Kiera told Suji not to tell her sister that she was a princess. "My lips are sealed," Suji assured her, smiling and taking another long drink of water. Kiera told Suji that her sister had been naive--and though Suji's outward expression did not change, Suji did register this as a bit odd. Kiera apparently didn't think she herself was very naive, at least not at this point. Suji wouldn't have agreed with that assessment, but she wasn't going to say that aloud.
"I'm sure she felt the same way about you--never being able to live up to you. That's the thing about princesses, the ones that aren't complete airheads--and it sounds like your sister wasn't--they might do the outgoing, fashionable thing well, but they're always comparing themselves to someone else, admiring people who don't put on the show. I'd bet she thought you were amazing for not being involved in all that ratrace stuff." Suji ate some more, and then looked up at Kiera; her expression was a little mischievous, playful.
"You know, I was quite the princess before all of this happened." She had one elbow propped on the table, fork dangling from her fingers. "Sure, now the only clothes I own amount to this skin-tight underarmor stuff so I can turn into animals, and all the friends who thought I was super-popular are under the yoke of alien tyranny, but let me tell you--I was cool before the war." Suji laughed under her breath. "Which counts for so much now, right?"
Kiera:
Kiera was fighting to keep her eyes dry. "You really think so?" she asked. "I couldn't imagine Kaelyn thinking I was amazing for any reason. She had a life. I had..." Kiera tried to think of a word. "I had books," was the best she could come up with. Then Suji confessed to being a princess, pre-invasion.
"Really?" Kiera asked, completely blindsided. "Not to be rude or anything, but I wouldn't have guessed you for a princess. Maybe a jockette, but not a princess." Kiera hoped that Suji wouldn't take what she was saying the wrong way. "If I had gone to a normal high school, I probably would have been eating lunch by the dumpsters with the other nerds like me... But I guess you're right. We're the ones here now, fighting for them."
Suji:
Suji laughed, again sure to keep the volume in check so as not to wake anyone. She nodded, raising her eyebrows, as if to say Yes, it's really true. Laughing again, she tilted her head, shooting Kiera a devious smirk.
"Wouldn't have taken me for a princess? Ouch. I mean, I know the morphing outfit isn't much--hell I don't even have shoes--but is it really that unbelievable?" Suji feigned primping her slept on, mussed up hair. "Also, morphing doesn't do wonders for make-up." Smiling, she set her fork down on her now empty plate. "But yes, really. I was one of the popular kids, I'll fess up to that. To be fair, I wasn't quite as into the high school dramatics myself, but was involved plenty by association with my friends." This was the truth, but the underlying reason hasn't been because Suji didn't participate: more it was because she had a careful way of making sure that none of the consequences ever lined up in front of her own door. She'd played on the sidelines, was seen as above it all, and used that to her full advantage.
"So take my word for it. Being popular was great as far as not getting pushed around a whole lot, but really, you grew to admire the kids that didn't give a damn about all of that." This was less truthful, but she figured it was a nice thing for Kiera to hear. Personally, Suji thought that if you didn't have a stake in the game, you usually got trampled underfoot, or used as a pawn in someone else's strategy. Though she guessed there were the occasions when it seemed like there would be nothing better than to escape the tedium of interpersonal politics.
"And yes. We will fight for them. Just like they'd fight for us." Suji stood, taking her dish to wash it in the sink. "You know, that was really good Kiera. Definitely beats out munching on the random bug or two while flying, by far," she said, light-heartedly. Turning, she rested her back against the edge of the sink, looking down at Kiera as she dried the plate.
"If you're feeling sleepy you should get to bed. I'll take care of the dishes--my payment for the fine meal." Suji smiled. "Or if you're not sleepy, I've still got the dishes anyway. We can chat a bit more. What say you?"
Toby:
Toby watched the small cabin and the light in the kitchen from the surrounding woods. He could clearly see the silhouette of two girls talking, having a late night chat. He wondered what they were talking about? What did girls talk about in their moments alone? It was an idle thought. Maybe he'd get a chance to ask. But not tonight.
He palmed the small whittling knife in his hand thoughtfully. He had been watching this group for quite a while. Their female leader had intrigued him. He had seen her a few times, around the city. It was not widely known what she was, what she did. But whispers of the resistance were everywhere. For someone of reasonable intelligence it was not hard to make the connection. At least that is what he thought. But he had found that most people did not have what he considered reasonable intelligence.
And that included this group of vigilantes. The animorphs were well known because they were pissing off many of the yeerk higher ups in the city. That couldn't be good for their health. And it would do no good for his to join up with them. But needs must, he thought with a sigh.
Sophia had gone and gotten herself captured. And who else had the power to set her free if not these wanna be heroes. Sophia, the things I do for you. But even though he feigned an attitude of pained indulgence, if only while talking to himself, he knew that he owed her much more than what he was about to do tonight. Much more.
So with a last glance at the nighttime woods he walked across the small stretch of open ground between the woods and the cabin's back door. He could hear the soft female voices inside drifting out to him. Their talk ceased suddenly when he knocked on the door. "Knock, knock. Animorphs home?"
Kiera:
"I'm pretty tired, I think I'm gonna..." Kiera's voice trailed off when she heard it. Knock, knock. animorphs home? She froze. "Forget that, I'm wide awake," she said, jumping out of her seat. When Suji showed up, the situation had been relatively safe, at least from her perspective. Suji hadn't known where the house was, Ash had already seen her morph, and she had mentioned Cassie.
But this new person. This male voice floating in toward them. Whoever was standing outside the door could be anyone. It could be a controller, a horde of them for that matter. If one person could find them, who's to say the rest wouldn't do the same. And they were standing right at the front door. "What do we do?" she said, slightly panicing. She and Suji were the only ones awake, and Kiera wasn't sure if she could wake anyone else up in time...
Suji:
Suji went completely still when she heard the knocking, completely ignoring Kiera's words and her motions for the time being. While everything inside of her seized, at the same time, she hadn't panicked: after all, Suji wasn't positive she had met all of the faction members. And she doubted that if the Yeerks had found them, they would bother knocking at the door--more like knocking it off it's hinges as they sent in a few waves of Hork Bajir. And from this distance, Suji might have even believed that the voice was David's... he was the only one she could imagine pulling such a prank.
Suji put a finger to her lips, motioning for Kiera to be quiet. Silent on her bare feet, Suji picked up the longest knives on the nearby knife. "Get Raven," she started to mouth, and then shook her head. "Get Riley," she mouthed, stressing the syllables. Obviously someone knew they were here--they had been in mid-conversation during the knock, and the light was on. Also obviously, there wasn't a full out assault on the HQ. Without waiting to see if Kiera was going, Suji made it to the door. She looked through the peephole, seeing only a young teenage. Male. Not David, but definitely looked like Animorphs stock: that being, he was young, and alone. Maybe he was from another faction--maybe he'd been from this faction. She had no idea.
She did know that it didn't really matter by this point if he came in or not: he knew the exact location, and seeing inside wasn't really going to give him more information than he already had. Then again, Suji realized that she wasn't so sure she'd wanted him to see her face. There was a coat hanging on the nearby wall--Suji gently lifted it off of the hook, and set the knife down on a nearby end table. She wouldn't need the blade.
"One second," she replied through the door, and began unlocking it. Then, in one swift motion, she opened the door... and lunged forward with the coat. If she succeeded in any shape or form, it would block his vision. Pulling him into a tight bear hug, with the coat hopefully completely covering his face, Suji pulled him inside. At best, she was hoping that he was just an Animorph that used to be in the faction. But if the worst came, her eyes were still on the knife at the table.
Toby:
Toby had expected some sort of hostile response and was ready for it. When the coat came lunging at him he dropped his hands docilely and let himself be pulled inside. He even gave a start of surprise.
"Please, please, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to scare you." His voice was high and almost on the verge of tears, not to mention muffled by the fabric over his mouth. "It's just that, my sister, she was taken and," he coughed. "I can't breath, I can't breath." He was almost sobbing with fear and with the coat over his head breathing really had become a problem. "Help, someone said you could help."
Suji:
Never bullshit a bullshitter.
One of Suji's favorite expressions, and she kept it nearly tucked inside her head, right next to 'I trust you as far as I can throw you.' Suji didn't let him go: instead, she tied the arms of the coat tight behind his back. I was oddly comical, but it worked, particularly because he didn't really fight her. Then she spun him, and turned him so he faced the nearby wall.
"If you suffocate, you won't die immediately. You'll pass out first. Which is fine with me, seeing as you aren't claiming to be an Animorph." Really, that had been a possibility: one that would have made her really, really embarassed. At the moment, however, all she felt was a breezy calmness in her center. "Stop the waterworks, and save your breath." The kid could talk when Riley got here. Suji was interested, but at the same time, she figured that she might get reprimanded from dragging him in at all. Of course, if he'd already knocked on the door and said the word 'Animorphs', it wasn't like she'd endangered anyone any further. At least, that was how she saw it.
Someone said we could help, though? That's my favorite part about all of this, Suji thought to herself. It was what had made her continue to treat him so roughly, even though he was apparently edging close to hysterics. Who could tell him that they'd help? Was this just a really terrible Yeerk plan, or what? Or was it something broader, and she was just playing right into it?
Toby:
Toby stood cowering facing the wall. This wasn't like what he thought it would be at all. But I guess they have to be careful right, or else the yeerks would have gotten them by now. He was shaking a bit as he stood looking at the wall but then he straightened as he remembered that he wasn't here for himself. He was here for Sophia, so no matter what these people did to him he would try to get their help.
"You aren't claiming to be an Animorph." So they didn't all know each other. Or maybe this one was new. Something to think about later. If there was a later, if they didn't kill him. But the heroes never did anything like that.
"I'm sorry." His voice was full of the shame any 15 year old boy would feel after crying in front of a girl. "I just. You can help me right? I mean, everyone in the city knows that the animorphs are making things hard for the controllers. So you can help me? Please, I just want to help. They took my sister and I was hoping that you could help me get her back. I know that they take people everyday but she's all I have left. My name is Toby. I'm from Cleveland and we came here when things got really bad there. We travelled all this way and Chicago has been a bit better but then, last week, she got taken. And some girl said that there were animorphs in the woods and I've been wandering around for days trying to find you. Or maybe..." his voice trailed off in uncertainty, "are you the animorphs? I thought you were."
What if he had just fallen in with a group of normal people. Or worse, controllers.
He started shaking again.
Kiera:
That was always the answer, wasn't it? Get Riley... When something goes massively wrong, run to Riley. Something seemed awfully wrong about that to Kiera as she was running down the hallway toward Raven and Riley's room for the second time in only a couple of weeks. Would they ever learn to stand on their own at this rate? What would they do if something ever happened to Riley? Run to Ash, probably, she thought. She would have laughed if she hadn't been in a hurry.
Soon she was outside their door, banging on it once again. "RILEY! BIG PROBLEM!" Yelling made her suddenly wish the pots and pans had woken them up. "RILEY, WAKE UP! THERE IS SOMEONE AT THE DOOR AND THEY KNOW ABOUT US!" Oh, please, oh, please, oh please wake up, Riley. I'm freaking out and I don't know what to do and if this is another one of you're stupid tests, I swear I'll morph into my squirrel and give you rabies or something...
David:
When he'd heard the crash of pans in the kitchen, David had rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. It seemed like seconds later that he was woken up again by Kiera's shrill shouting for Riley. He stumbled out of bed and to his door, and peeked outside.
There was Kiera, pounding on Riley's door like she had an ax murderer standing at her shoulder. And, near the door, Suji was standing over some kid. He didn't recognize the kid, but then, Suji had tied a coat around his head.
Am I still asleep, and this is the most bizarre dream I've ever had, or did Kiera and Suji just kidnap someone?
Kiera:
Kiera heard a door creak open somwhere. She instantly scanned every door in sight for someone, anyone who could help. It didn't take her long to see David, hair disheveled. She'd obviously just woken him up. "Oh thank god," she said. "Someone's awake. We've got problems." She knocked again on Riley and Raven's door. "GUYS, COME ON, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!" What was taking so long? Maybe they were already up, possibly calling Cassie really quickly to see if she forgot to mention a second recruit on the way. Well, wouldn't that be perfect, she thought.
In reality, she had only been knocking for a few seconds. It would take them longer than that to cross the room. But time had slowed down. The possiblility of being found out, of having a controller standing in their entry way, possibly with more on the way as soon as they were sure of who they were, had Kiera's heart racing as fast as it would run.
She looked for the first time toward Suji and was startled to see that she had tied him up with a jacket, successfully covering his face. I guess that's smart. If he gets loose before Riley gets up, at least he won't have seen our faces. Kiera looked back at David, realizing how bad this must have looked to him. "He was at the door, knocking." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "He know's we're the animorph!"
David:
David couldn't have heard her right. "He knows we're... how?" Oh, yes, she knows how, that's why she's frantically knocking on Raven and Riley's door shouting for them. Wake up, David. "What can I do?"
Someone had found them. If he was a controller, there were two possibilities that David could see:
1: the controller had stumbled upon them by accident, and they were safe as long as they held him for three days
2: the yeerks knew where they were and had sent a scout.
David rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Suji:
Suji didn't respond to the kid: she just made sure that he didn't try to wriggle out of the jacket. She did record what he was saying--but she'd err on the side of caution and deference to her leaders with this one. It wasn't like Controllers couldn't lie... and doubly so for humans. Kiera was screaming, and sSuji winced, lips pulled back over her in an expression of pure irritation. Maybe Raven and Riley were heavy sleepers, but still, Suji felt the urge to tell her to shut up. Of course audio signals were harder to memorize than faces, but still: take no unnecessary chances, right?
Then David wandered out, and she wasn't really surprised: Kiera's yelling was enough to wake the dead. The redhead was closer to Suji than Kiera was, and when he asked what he could do, Suji kept one eye on the bound kid and sidled up next to David. Her voice was barely audible, but it seemed that for the time being Kiera had come up for air--and she took the chance to tell him, super-quietly but clearly: "Tell her to keep it down. And tell her to cut it out with the using names." Suji gestured towards Kiera with her eyes, and then moved back, still standing watch over the newcomer.
Toby:
Apparently his appearance had caused quite a disturbance. He hadn't realized just how paranoid they would be. He knew that they would be a little suspicious of him, but come on, he was obviously not a controller. Ok, well maybe that wasn't obvious but three days confinement would get rid of that little fear. So why were they being quite so distrusting?
Not they, she. The girl, the one who had swaddled his head in a towel. She was causing these problems for him, at least partly. She had even threatened his life, said she wouldn't care if he suffocated. Obviously she was no friend of his and he would join name and face to voice later.
But as long as he was stuck like this he might as well file away as much information as he could. He already had three voices and one name, the name of another leader here. He already knew about one, the woman he called Raven if only because of the bird morph that she had used more than once. Now he had another name. Riley. Someone important.
Inside his mind he was seeing a city on a hill. And the gates that led into the city had a rolled up scroll carved into the dark wood. He bipassed most of the city and went straight to the door with the Raven on it, flying above an A. He walked inside. The room was woefully empty but it was getting fuller by the minute. Inside the room he place a small scroll named Riley in one of the many empty sockets on the wall made for just that purpose. With time the scroll would contain more than a name. Already contained more than a name. It had the information on it that he was some type of leader.
The visualization technique was an old way of remembering things with accuracy, of organizing one's knowledge. Toby had always liked it for its seeming perfection and simplicity.
Toby concentrated on keeping his mouth shut and his ears open. He would need to know much more about these people before he could hope of joining them.
Riley:
Riley had definitely heard Kiera's banging on his door, for once he had actually been asleep. He now knew exactly how Raven had felt before, constant patrolling, always looking out and keeping guard, he was stressed and it showed on his face. Normally he was all smiles, happy, the jokester but lately he had been rather quiet, and almost moved about in a daze. Raven had forced him to sleep for once, and he had been asleep for about 2 hours--comatose to the world--while she was out, walking around the HQ since she couldn't patrol the normal way.
Unfortunately he hadn't gotten enough sleep to do any good, it was the same amount he'd been getting in a daily basis, and so when he appeared at the door, he did not look entirely too happy. His entire torso was bare, and he was clad in just a pair of long shorts, and his hair was what one could refer to as 'bed head'. To top it all off he was rubbing his eyes absently, and moved rather groggily as he tried to look down at Kiera. The look on her face made him instantly wake up though, and his expression changed immediately.
"Whats going on?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse. "What problems?" he was already moving out of the room and into the open. It took a few steps for him to note the boy with a coat over his head, and his demeanor once again changed, this time it was that of a leader, the need to protect, the need to calm the situation. "Whats your name?" Riley asked the kid directly, his voice not sounding as particularly kind as it normally did. The one benefit of being alone for all those years on the run was that it changed him from the soft, friendly guy to a hard, dangerous guy, something he could switch between now quite easily.
Before the boy answered he turned to Suji and gestured for her to mimic him, and then began morphing. Now the two could talk and their voices would seen penetrate the boys mind too without letting him hear their private conversation. <<He found the HQ? Is anyone out there patrolling to make sure he was alone?>> Riley was assessing the situation, if there were more with him they were all in danger, and Raven was out there alone. Fuck.
Suji:
Suji kept a close watch on the boy--if he really did suffocate, he'd struggle more and then faint long before he ran the risk of actually dying; and at which point, she would have removed the jacket, and just sat him facing the wall until he returned to consciousness. But his breathing was more under control now, and the tantrum seemed to end almost as abruptly as it had begun. In fact, he'd gone from babbling to completely silent. Her jaw clenched. Little twerp was listening closely now. Suji had thankfully never had the delight of walking into a trap, but she'd constructed a few of them in her time (generally more of the social variety rather than digging a hole and covering it with leaves, but still) and this rubbed her the wrong way entirely. Her lips drew into a thin, displeased line.
Riley appeared from the short hallway, and Suji had time to scan his (shirtless) torso, as well as briefly look over his shoulder: no Raven. But no time to analyze that (or spend a too long gazing at their de facto leader's bare chest). The change in his general demeanor (the puppy-dog playfulness was all gone now) did not escape her: she'd have had to been blind and dumb for that to happen. He made a gesture towards her that she didn't understand at first, but then his skin started to shift and melt--morphing. It was too early for Suji to tell what he'd become.
Reflexively, Suji's hand shot out, catching his upper arm. Her grip was firm and maybe a bit tight, but her fingers didn't even reach around half of his bicep. Once she realized it was doing all that uncomfortable restructuring under her hand, she pulled it back. "HE'LL. KNOW. FOR. SURE." Suji mouthed, enunciating every word. She brought a finger to her head, pointed to Riley's temple, and then to the kid. All this was silent. Once they used thoughtspeak to speak to this stranger, there was no going back on what they were. No trying to pretend they were just a small band of free humans or something. Suji wasn't sure how that affected the situation--if it affected it that much at all. It all depended on how certain this kid was of what they were. What the kid already knew, or suspected.
"IS. THAT. OKAY?" More mouthing, and on the last word, she silently mimed a shrug, bringing her palms up. If Riley gave the go ahead, she'd start going owl right away. Thoughtspeak, even if it did reveal them as Animorphs, would ultimately have its benefits. And she wasn't sure about the other Animorphs, but it was night, and she had a damn fine set of night-vision goggles built into that feathery little critter. She could start searching the perimeters of the HQ--though to be honest, she didn't think this was a standard Yeerk operation, if it was a Yeerk operation at all. Sure it was fishy either way, but she would certainly not be the one to credit 'stealth' to the aliens that had very recently launched a highly successful all-out invasion of her home planet.
Inwardly, a part of her groaned at the idea of morphing that damn owl again. Not even 24 hours of rest, augh!
Kiera:
Kiera breathed a deep sigh of relief when Riley finally came out of the door. Even if he was...*gulp* shirtless. Her first thought was At least that means this isn't a test.. Her second was HOLY SHIT, this isn't a test. Someone actually found us! Her heart raced even quicker, if that was possible. Kiera felt like it might pop an artery at any moment.
What's going on? What problems? How to answer gently. "Um... We have a surprise visitor." Her voice dropped to a whisper again, still afraid of confirming what the boy already knew. "He know's we're the animorphs," she told Riley just as he stepped where he could see the boy. Kiera followed him like a puppy dog into the entryway. She may have been here longer than the rest of the people in the faction (save Riley and Raven) but that didn't make her calmer. She was too high strung for this many surprises.
Riley:
Riley was genuinely a caring, happy person but this was all very stressful for him. He had spent 10+ years on the run alone, just him and his motorcycle, a rogue resistance fighter against the Yeerk--quite the change from now. It was hard getting used to worrying for others again--while a natural reflex for him--it put for more stress because it wasn't just his life on the line, it was everybodys. Despite it all he had it under control, it wasn't like his body hadn't been through more stress, sleeping on the ground for 10 years straight wasn't the easiest, nor was the constant driving and little sleep.
Suji's grasp on his arm had no affect on the morphing, and there was a brief--thought slightly worn--grin that flashed across his face before he was a Golden Labrador Retriever. <<Raven approached 100% of her members through animal morph, he's already found the HQ so either way he can not leave here without agreeing to be one of us...one way or another. No harm in morphing, plus I don't think it's common knowledge that Animorphs use thoughtspeak since the people we've used it on are all part of our team>> Riley's logic made sense, he was suppose to lead along side Raven after all, he learned from the best.
<<Has anyone patrolled yet?>> he asked again, this time his voice more urgent. <<If not Kiera can you do that? Be exceptionally thorough, take David with you>> he then added quietly <<Ravens out there, keep an eye out for her. Please>> his voice was softer that time. With that his dog turned to face Suji <<I doubt he's a Controller, but we have to be safe, and he found us...which is very...bad....>> he paused <<What has his story been?>> the boy still hadn't responded, so they had time to talk.
Kiera:
"Not yet," Kiera answered. "I'm on my way." She grabbed David by the wrist and pulled him out the door, like it or not. "You take the air, I'll take the ground," she told him. Without waiting for a reply, she started morphing. Kiera still had to close her eyes during the morphing process and sing to herself to cover the bone grinding. A couple minutes later, she was a Kodkod. In a strange way, Kiera was getting use to being so close to the ground. It made her feel safer.
<<I won't be able to look up to see where you are, so do you think you can stay relatively above me? I dont want us to get seperated.>> If they got too far seperated, then they wouldn't be able to thought-speak, and Kiera was already planning on asking for constant updates. She hoped David would understand her panic and worry. Soon, she started running. Maybe the slowly increasing spiral she always used wasn't the most effective way, but it seemed thorough. <<Can you see Raven yet?>>
Suji:
Suji listened to Riley. Yes, but Raven didn't approach this member, did she? No one approached him. He approached us. She didn't share this thought out loud. She wasn't an exceptionally trusting person--whether in people, or in plans she hadn't made--but she wasn't ready to argue the point with Riley. It was his job to handle this kind of task, right? Well, it was Raven's job, but she wasn't here, and apparently he'd started stepping in for her due to recent events. In any case, she started morphing: owl. Fast enough that it shocked even her, Suji had already begun the process. It came like second nature now, especially over the flight here. It wasn't long before she was the tiny owl, sitting next to dog-Riley.
It was very nice to be able to talk without having to limit her speech to words that would transfer decently via lip-reading. Kiera and David had dashed out the door before she finished. <<Unless David has an owl morph, I've got the best night-eyes.>> She directed this thought at Riley. If he called them back, that was okay with her. But maybe he wanted her here--he'd specifically sent out Kiera and David, hadn't he? And if that had been a conscious decision, he'd earned a little more of Suji's faith in his leading ability. She certainly trusted herself more than either of the other two animorphs when it came to gathering and analyzing information, even if Riley was going to be the one doing the talking.
<<He showed up at the door, knocked and said, "Knock, knock, animorphs home?" Or something like that. I didn't want him to see any of our faces until we knew who he was, so I threw the coat on him. He begged for help for a while, lots of crying. His sister apparently was taken as a host last week. Said his named was Toby, that he and his sister came from Cleveland.>> That was most of the information that he'd told them upon first arriving at least, it was the basic stuff, whatever this kid's story was. <<Also said that a girl told him there were animorphs in the woods. And that he's been wandering for days.>>
The owl fluttered to a higher spot, the back of a nearby chair, and perched. <<I know you haven't asked for my input, but something about this kid is off. He was all tears and sobbing and babbling, and then got instantly quiet, trying to listen to whatever we said. It was like flipping a switch or something.>>
Toby:
"Whats going on? What problems?" A groggy male voice, deeper than any he'd heard so far.
"Um... We have a surprise visitor....He know's we're the animorphs," The girl from before. The one who'd panicked. Then silence for a moment as footsteps came down the hall and into the kitchen.
"Whats your name?"
Finally a question directed at him. But he didn't answer right away because then he started hearing something truly gross. It made him wonder what exactly these people had in store for him. Were they going to do something to him? What was that sound?
"Not yet, I'm on my way." And then there were sounds of someone or maybe multiple someone's leaving. All of it was muffled but he made it all out well enough. And yet the one voice he wanted to hear, if only to pinpoint the person's location, wasn't heard at all.
But the voice that had asked for his name was probably this Riley that they had been calling for before. Which meant he should probably answer.
"My name's...um Toby. Toby Miles. Please," his voice hitched a bit. He'd stopped crying after deciding that his time was better spent listening, not to mention it had made breathing difficult. There simply wasn't that much air inside the coat. But now the quiver returned to his voice. "I'm from Cleveland. The humans, the free ones in the city, they talk about animorphs, heroes. Especially a woman one that's a raven sometimes." He sounded like he was describing a folk tale but that is almost exactly what the people he'd met had sounded like. "They said, this one woman said, that she'd thought she'd even seen a polar bear in the woods once. But no one else believed her. But when Sophia got taken I came here, hoping that she wasn't crazy." He shut up and listened for an answer, not sure if he'd get one. If these people were controllers then he may have just given them enough information to find the animorphs but he really didn't think they were controllers. Or free humans for that matter.
Riley:
Riley felt slightly more at ease now that the others were out scouting, but he still was on guard. If the kids story was true, he was alone, but he trusted the boy as far as he could throw him--okay maybe not that much considering he could probably throw him pretty far. After some more conversing with Suji he'd be able to determine what to do, it seemed she had taken control of the situation beforehand, hence Riley had asked her to stay. She had the most input, and he needed just that, and fast.
<<I need you here, they can handle it, and while Raven may not be able to morph I know she can handle herself too>> though he felt something inside him tighten, like a nerve had been hit. He did not like not knowing if she was safe or not, but the woman had been through hell and back and she could more than handle things on her own. Even when shes pregnant? he asked himself. Yes. <<Plus you took control, or so it seemed when I walked in, and I need your input>>. The others would be more useful making sure their location was safe and stayed unknown.
He listened to Suji carefully, <<You did very well>> he replied, though she probably knew this, he still felt a need to say it. Her second statement made him get quiet for a moment before he finally said, <<Feel free to add input wherever you feel necessary, this is a group effort and while I may take charge...everyones thoughts and opinions are helpful.>> Ravens motto was similar, and while the ultimate decision lay with either of them they did not take what the others thought lightly. The Animorphs in Chicago were a team, and both Riley and Raven saw to it they worked like one.
<<He's observant and possibly an actor then..>> he said his thoughts aloud, running them through his brain briefly before perking his ears up as the boy responded verbally. Riley didn't exactly like the boys answer, it meant more people spoke about them then was good, and the more that knew their possible location the more danger they were in. Riley mentally decided to kick up patrolling when this was all over. <<Okay well there's not much we can do, he can't leave here now, and he was looking for us..well hell, he found us. Now he's stuck>> Riley began demorphing again, not quite caring what sounds this boy heard.
He moved to the kitchen preparing something quickly and setting it on the table before moving behind Toby. "Don't move Toby, and we'll get along swell," with that he reached up and easily lifted the boy up and over his shoulder. Moments later Toby would find himself seated at a table, and Riley tugged off the coat. "Have some," he pushed the bowl--of oatmeal--towards him, eyeing the kid carefully. "Must be hungry after all that."
Riley felt no worry that the boy might run, there was no way he'd get out of here without someone getting him, and they could get more answers out of him if he felt safer. Once the oatmeal was consumed they would be able to tell if the kid had a Yeerk in his head or not, from there they could continue planning their course of action.
"Why don't you tell me more about what people are saying about these Animorphs?"
Toby:
Toby was picked up and plopped in a chair. Then the coat was ripped from his head. He felt like he was in some sort of spy movie and he was about to be tortured...with oatmeal. The only thing he could think to say was, "I hate oatmeal though." He was staring at the man in front of him with a blank expression, a little shell shocked.
He looked to the bowl of oatmeal and then to the hard face staring at him and then back to the oatmeal and then back to the face....and burst out crying. He pushed the oatmeal away, though not far, only far enough to make room for his head on the table. He'd been wandering around in the woods for days and he hadn't slept very much and his sister was gone and his only hope had been finding people who could help him and he still didn't know if he'd found them and now he was in a house and people were trying to torture him or something.
His arms cradled his head on the table and he just kept crying. He didn't care anymore who they were or what they were or if he should listen or anything. He just wanted to go home except it didn't exist anymore.
Riley:
Riley felt slightly bad seeing a kid crying, but Suji felt there was something off with the boy so he ignored it. "Hey there, no crying, we're just talking right?" he took a seat nearby, his face softening. Riley wasn't a mean person, that much could be seen beyond his sheer size. "I'd offer you something more, but it's really all we have...I'd hate to see it go to waste..." a conflicted expression forming on his face. Riley would much rather see the kid eat the dang oatmeal than tie him to a chair and wait three days--the third option being forcing it down his throat but he REALLY didn't want to do that.
"So this Sophia, is that your sister? What happened?" he asked, his voice rather soft now. "After we talk a bit more and you get some food you can sleep, looks like you're tired." This was a different approach from earlier since it wasn't getting any results. Tears did not help anything, if the boy was being a very good actor then if he played along they'd be able to see that. On the other hand if the kid was really just a kid with no side plans then they were scaring the crap out of him and so being nice was also the better option.
"We're not going to hurt you, I know we were a bit...protective earlier but...if you've been out there you know how it is, right?" he was hoping to make the boy see he wasn't all that bad. Suji probably thought him insane right now, but he hoped she'd play along, or better yet just stay quiet. She could also continue in her course of action...because it might seem odd if she was suddenly nice, he was relying on her to choose one of several good course of actions since he was now focused on Toby.
David:
David morphed as quickly as he could and was soon in the air on his enormous albatross wings (well, they looked enormous to him). <Can you see Raven yet?> asked Kiera. He scanned the ground, looking for her kodkod morph.
<Try to stay out in the open, otherwise finding you will be my main problem,> he said. <But no, I can't see Raven. It'll be harder to find her if I'm right over you all the time, too. Still, you're the experienced one, so you're in charge.> He spotted her on the ground and glided through the air until he was over her.
Suji:
Suji nodded to Riley, though without a neck it was more like a strange bobbing motion. He told her to offer her input whenever she felt necessary, and Suji took that to heart. Yes, she could get along with this Riley fellow well enough. He lifted the kid like he was no more than a five year old, and Suji fluttered off of her perch to the top of a nearby cabinet. Riley had demorphed, but that was his decision. She stayed as a tiny owl, well hidden in the shadows. From here she'd be able to catch if he so much as twitched the wrong way. Besides, this way she could relay information to Riley without the kid being aware of it.
She listened to the kid: Toby. When he cried rather than eat the oatmeal, Suji stayed quiet, but felt her tension level rise. Riley was treating him well, probably better than Suji would have. Suji knew how to act with compassion, but that was reserved for people she trusted as being what they were presenting themselves as. Kids like David and Kiera deserved compassion. This Toby kid didn't. He deserved to be threatened and intimidated so that he knew--very clearly--that no one bought whatever act he was selling. Her feathers ruffled, but she didn't expose herself.
Maybe if the kid thought she was gone, he would act differently. She didn't say anything. Let Riley work. She had prime seating for watching both the leader and this Toby kid. She wasn't so ready to believe he wasn't a Controller if he wouldn't just eat the damn oatmeal.
Toby:
When Riley asked about Sophia he just wanted to cry harder but he didn't. This was the second time now that he'd cried and he wasn't making a very good impression. "Yeah, she was my sister. Is my sister, is. I hope she still is. We've gone so long without getting caught. How could I be so stupid!" He hung his head. "It was my fault that she got captured. That's why I have to save her. You can tie me up or something. I know that yeerks need to feed every three days."
The invasion had been going on for quite a long time now. In fact it was no longer really an invasion. The yeerks had won. And the humans that were left just had to survive as best they could. And part of that survival meant knowing what the world was like now. So he knew that the yeerks needed to feed every three days. And he knew what happened to people that were caught.
"Thanks. I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything," he said pulling the bowl of oatmeal over and beginning to eat it. "I haven't eaten a good meal in days actually," he said with his mouth full. His eyes scanned the kitchen but he only saw Riley in here with him.
"So what happens now?"