Post by dexter on Sept 28, 2009 1:14:43 GMT -5
Vance:
Vance was outside during the early morning when the sun was shining right above the horizon. For the past hour he had bee practicing with his morphs. The meerkat and snow bunting were decent, rarely taking more than 2 and a half minutes. However, the river otter was a different story. The morphing process was long and for some reason it was more awkward and difficult than the others.
Maybe it was due to the otter’s more playful nature, or because the otter wanted to go find some water to fish and swim in, though it could also have been because Vance just hadn’t had time to practice with it. The meerkat was a decent enough land morph and he flew a lot in the snow bunting. Nothing had yet to deal with water to practice.
Vance was taking a slight break, laying in his meerkat’s morph in a newly warmed patch of ground when something caught his attention. There appeared to be a ship flying off in the distance, slowly getting closer. For only a moment, the thought of it being an airplane crossed his mind until he realized it was far too alien for that to be possible. Vance’s eyes stayed glued on it as it moved in the sky only to feel his whole body stiffen up in surprise, shock, and fear.
A blast, emitted from a dracon beam somewhere in the city, shot towards the ship, perfectly knocking it out of the air and forcing it to crash noisily.
The crash echoed as the ship hit water, though Vance could not be entirely sure of that fact. Vance was able to tell that the ship landed somewhere in the cities vicinity. He was also able to note that the blast came from the city too.
The exact location of the ship was not importance to Vance. He was more concerned about who shot it down and why. Quickly, he scampered to his feet and darted back inside of the Sanctuary, hoping that people were waking up now, or at least awakened by the noise. If they weren’t awake, they would be soon.
<<Guys, wake up!>> He shouted in thought speak, as he climbed up the stairs, starting to demorph at the landing.
Willy:
Willy was having an odd dream. He was cooking pancakes while he was participating in a debate in front of his high school class. Whenever it was his turn to speak, his food would start to burn so that he was distracted and couldn't concentrate. He was sure he would lose the debate because he failed to make his pancakes.
Just when the judge was about to announce the winner, Willy was stirred from his slumber. <<Guys, wake up!>> Vance's words barely registered in his groggy head. "Wake up?" he said to himself as he sat up in bed.
Suddenly it registered. Willy was instantly awake and heading out into the hall. "What is it? What happened?" Willy asked worriedly as he searched for Vance. He eventually found a meerkat as he headed down the steps. "What's going on?"
Zach/Adamo:
The brothers watched the bug fighter crash and burn, or in this case drown, with a matched pair of shocked looks on their faces. They briefly looked at each other and then broke out into a heated argument.
"Zach, look what you did!" Adamo exclaimed angrily waving his arms in the air in the vague direction of the crashed bug fighter. He pushed his black hair out of his eyes and rubbed them in exasperation.
"Calm down. There will be another one," Zach said as he twirled the dracon gun in his hand as if he was a cowboy in the fabled wild west. "All we need to do is wait," he said going over to the window of the gutted sky scraper they were using to take pot shots at their beloved bug fighters. "We bring one down, fix it up and it'll be ours. No problem."
Adamo gave his adopted older brother a look of doubt. "Oh really, just bring one down. And how are we going to fix it if it is broken beyond repair?"
Zach turned around and looked at him, stepping away from the window where the glass lay in shards at his feet. "Broken beyond repair implies that we can't fix it therefore your question makes no sense."
Adamo threw up his hands at his brother's nit picking and went over to the far wall to sit and wait. "Whatever. I think this is a stupid plan. And what are we going to do with a Bug Fighter anyway?"
"Fly it," Zach said with his usual cockiness. "Come on Ada, we are the best Bug Fighter crew this side of freedom. We have got to be a valuable commodity to some nascent rebel group out there. Two free humans who can operate alien technology? Some one will take us on. All we have to do is prove that we can fly one."
"You keep saying that," Adamo said looking up into Zach's eyes. 'All we need to do...' You make it sound like it is easy."
Zach pulled his brother to his feet, done with his oh woe is me attitude. "Come on Adamo. We have to do something. Or else we'll just get caught again eventually. Do you want a slug back in your brain?" He didn't need to wait to hear Adamo's answer since it was obvious. "Then let's go. Maybe that Bug Fighter isn't as damaged as it looked. It landed in water so maybe it survived. We should at least go check it out."
"You know water is as hard as concrete when you hit it at high speeds right?" Adamo pointed out but he followed his brother out the door.
Ariel:
Ariel turned in her bed and tried to ignore Vance's voice; it didn't work because of the panicky sound in it. She sat up and looked around. "What time is it?" She murmured. She shook her head out of her thoughts and then yawned as she ran out of the room, having realized that the situation may be deadly.
Ariel didn't see Willy in time to stop. Ramming right into him, she said, "Oof!" and fell backwards. "Uh..." She quickly scrambled her feet. "Sorry..." she muttered and then looked at Vance's demorphing form. "What's going on?"
Kat:
The road outside my house,
Is paved with good intentions.
Hired a construction crew,
'Cause it's hell on the engine.
You are the dreamer,
And we are the dream.
I could write it better than you ever felt it.
So...
The headphones filled Kat's ears with the sound of Fall Out Boy's 'Hum Hallelujah'. She was pretty lucky to have the small MP3 player she prized so much, and she guessed she had the slug in the basement to thank for it. He'd been the one who'd insisted on grabbing the brown drawstring bag from where it had been stashed in Los Angeles, telling Aikx that it could come in handy should he need to pretend to be Kat and walk right into the Sanctuary. Arkon had also been the one to grab it on his way out of the yeerk facility before heading to find the faction. It had been stuffed under a dumpster in the alley where Bane had found them, but retrieved shortly afterwords. She guessed it was his way of trying to get on her good side.
Hum hallelujah,
Just off the key of reason.
I thought I loved you.
It was just how you looked in the light.
A teenage vow in a parking lot,
"Till tonight do us part."
I sing the blues,
And swallow them too.
Kat let out a slight push of air, making a bit of a disgusted noise. "Uhhgg.." The song had brought up some thoughts of Bane's leaving, something she hadn't wanted. She rolled her eyes and switched of the device, pulling the headphones off and tossing the components onto her bed. It looked like music time was over for the morning. She shook her head and began to head for the door, planning on going to get breakfast now that she was awake.
She'd taken off the head phones just in time to catch a bit of the sound as the ship outside hit the water. She hadn't seen what Vance had, but she didn't think the noise sounded all that good. "...What the... hell?.." She muttered.
"Hey! Did anyone else-" <<Guys, wake up!>> Her question was answered before she was even able to poke her head out of the door and finish calling out into the hall. Vance sounded like he'd definitely heard it, and Kat headed out of her room to see what was going on.
Arkon:
The thick basement walls kept the sound from reaching the bedroom of the yeerk nothlit, who was currently located in bed since it was still a early. His body was sprawled out, half covered by the thick comforter while his head remained buried in a pillow. Vance's voice traveled down to the basement, unlike the sound of the crash since the means of communication went straight to the sleepers mind, but it didn't rouse him like it was meant to.
Arkon readjusted his position slightly, mumbling something into the pillow. It was nothing that sounded intelligent, especially since it was muffled from the cloth of the pillow case. He was then silent and still again, barely even thinking of what could be going on upstairs. If they really needed him he would most likely get another call.
Vance:
It took Vance a moment more to demorph, causing the others to wait for him. Once he was without the fur, whiskers, tail and fully human he started to speak.
“There was one of the yeerk ships outside, right above the city and it got shot down.” Vance urgently told them, pointing off in the general direction of Ottawa even though they were inside. “We should figure out who shot it down, could be something on our side.”
Vance also thought of suggesting that they should visit the crash site but he wasn’t sure how good that idea was. He had no clue where that site was, just that it was somewhere in the city, with the slight possibility of narrowing the location to a general area. There was also the probability that yeerks would be going to that site too…
Willy:
"Wait, what? Someone shot down a spaceship?" Willy wasn't sure how that was possible, but it sounded intriguing. And dangerous. Whoever could shoot one of those down was probably dangerous.
"Yeah, we should at least go check it out, I suppose. But we better hurry." He was already heading back to his room to change into his morphing suit. He talked as he walked. "Everyone get wings if you have them. We leave as soon as possible. Whoever shot it down might not stick around." Willy doubted they would find the shooter, but he was still a bit energized over the thought of a potential ally out there helping them to take down the yeerks.
Zack/Adamo:
"Stop," chick, "stop," chick, "stop," chick ka, "Stop Zach!" Adamo yelled as the seventh pebble bounced off the back of his head and landed on the concrete they were walking over.
"Go faster Ada," Zach said as he dropped his handful of pebbles, grabbed Adamo's shoulders from behind and literally began pushing him down the street so that Adamo had to speed up in order to keep his feet.
"What is the rush," Adamo said shaking him off but not slowing down. "The thing is a goner anyway." Adamo wrapped his arms around him. It wasn't freezing outside but it certainly wasn't warm and his cotton short sleeve shirt was no protection against the wind. Zach was fine with his leather jacket but Adamo had lost his only coat two days ago when they had been forced to run from a yeerk sweep and he'd forgotten it. They hadn't had a chance to replace it yet.
Adamo shuddered to think of what they would do once winter hit and they had to try to survive the killing cold without any sort of heating. Maybe Zach was right, they really needed to find some sort of group to take them in. That or start heading south and hope they didn't get picked up on the roads and manage to outrun the winter bearing down on them.
"The yeerks are sure to invistegate the thing. I want to get there before them," Zach said turning his head slightly to look at Adamo. He frowned to see him shivering like that and began to shrug off his jacket.
"Don't," Adamo said, pushing past him. "I'm fine and you need it. I shouldn't have lost mine anyway."
Zach wrapped the jacket around his little brother's shoulders as he caught up with him. "We'll share it," he said in a tone that didn't invite questions though he kept his hands on Adamo's shoulders, holding the jacket down just in case he tried to shrug it off. "I've worn it all morning anyway and I'm not cold."
"Thanks," Adamo said slipping the jacket on. He was warmer immediately. The leather cut the wind quite effectively and it was already warm inside from Zach though it was slightly big on him. The shoulders were a bit wide and it was a little too long to be fashionable but Adamo didn't much care about that.
"How far away is it do you think?" he asked though he knew any answer Zach gave would be an approximation at best, a wild guess at worst.
"Maybe another twenty minutes, not sure. We're headed in the right direction though, that I'm sure of."
Kat:
"If someone shot a bug fighter, the place will probably be swarming with controllers trying to figure out what happened..." Kat brought up. "We should be extremely careful..."
She shrugged off the light jacket she was wearing over her morphing suit and threw it into her room before starting to head down the stairs and out the door so she could start morphing her Canadian Goose. Sometime in the future she was going to need to think about getting a smaller bird morph. The goose was great for long distance travel but it wasn't the best for spying and sneaking around. It was so big and easily seen, meaning she had to be extra careful when she used it.
As she thought of the creature, the pattern of the animal's feathers began to appear on her skin. She could feel her insides begin to rearrange as her neck stretched out and became elegantly slender. Her head shrank, face squishing together until there was a hard bill where her mouth and nose at been. Her eye shifted to the sides of her head, soon becoming little black orbs that darted around to take in the scenery. Her arms became wings, her feet soon were webbed, and her body shrank quickly to complete the last of the transformation.
Vance:
Vance listened to what Willy said, just giving a brief nod for a response. He didn’t know how that ship was shot down, but he knew what he saw, so he could not be wrong. With Willy saying they would check it out, Vance quickly headed downstairs, glancing back just a bit when he heard Kat speak. She had an obvious point, which he did not bother to respond to, not to be rude but because he had started to morph.
He was lucky that he did not have to waste time with getting the morphing suit on or any other clothes off, his practice from earlier already insured he was ready. Morphing into his snow bunting morph was quick, a few minutes until he was the small bird. <<I’m ready.>> He answered, though it was fairly unneeded.
Ariel:
Ariel listened silently as Vance explained what happened. I was sleeping through that? she asked herself in disbelief. "Wow...that's just....wow." She blinked. "Controllers everywhere..." she repeated after Katrina. She shook her head. "Morph bird. Gotcha."
Focusing on her nightingale morph, Ariel felt the skin shifting as the feathers began to grow out, and her lips hardened and came out into the form of a beak. Her big toe and second toe melded together into one talon nail, and the last thing to happen was her shrinking. It was a very disturbing image. Finally full nightingale, Ariel said, <I hope no one's hurt.>
Willy:
Willy was fully changed in a matter of moments. Then he rushed downstairs and out the back door, already morphing as he exited. The muddy snow was cold on his feet, but it would not be so bad once he finished changing into an owl.
Once it seemed like they were all ready, Willy said, <<Alright, let's head out,>> then took to the sky. It only took a moment for his owl eyes to locate where the crash probably took place, but he couldn't be positive. <<Vance, you witnessed the accident. Lead the way.>> He tried his best to say it in a factual way, not as an order.
Vance:
Vance was silent, glancing over just a bit to Ariel when he heard her comment. He partway agreed with her, but partway disagreed with her. Controllers being hurt was not a bad thing, but he highly doubted that the yeerks would keep the hurt humans as controllers. In the end that would just hurt the humans more, unless the yeerks had died too, being splattered inside someone’s head from the impact.
Vance pushed that image out of his mind when he heard Willy speak. <<Right.>> He responded as he took flight, heading in the direction he saw the ship go down. He climbed high into the sky, figuring that he would need that height to spot the more exact location, and plus the higher he was, the harder it would be to spot him.
Willy:
Willy was pleased to see that Vance wasn't afraid to take the lead. He was not surprised, but he was pleased. Vance was someone Willy knew he could depend on.
When Willy noticed Vance gaining height rapidly in the air, he figured it was a good idea so he followed suit. <<Remember to stay spread out. We draw enough attention just by being live birds in the air. We don't need to draw any more by being a mismatched flock.>>
Now that he had gotten higher and drifted further to the right, Willy could se the crash location a bit more clearly. It looked wet...
Zach/Adamo:
Adamo looked down on the scene in confusion. After a couple more minutes on the cold ground he began shivering despite his brother's jacket and finally decided to speak up. "Um, so is this bad or-" He was cut off by a "SHHHHH" that was louder than his few words had been and a frantic waving of a hand.
"Adamo, you're going to get us caught," Zach continued in a stage whisper that carried easily. After giving Adamo a reproachful look he went back to regarding the crash site.
"Right, I'm the one who is going to get us caught," Adamo said, disgruntled, and he too turned back to regard the half sub-merged Bug Fighter.
Its metal sides gleamed in the sunlight, slick with the water from the small lake it had crashed in. It was near the sides so it hadn't sunken yet and it wasn't clear if the lake was even deep enough for it to sink at all. In fact it looked more like a pond than a lake including some geese who were going back to their business now that the fright of the crash was over.
But as peaceful as the scene looked it still didn't make any sense. They hadn't made extraordinary time here or anything so why weren't the yeerks swooping down to investigate the Bug Fighter. In fact, maybe he was missing something, but Adamo couldn't see any burn marks. If they had shot it down shouldn't it show somewhere. But maybe the impact burn was submerged. That had to be it.
Zach finally stood up and Adamo followed his example. They had been crouching behind a dead log at the top of a slight incline. Now they climbed over the log and began trotting down to the Bug Fighter. At the edge of the muddy water they both stopped and looked up at the alien ship that had come to rest at an odd angle.
"What do we do now?" Adamo asked hoping the answer would not include going for a swim or even a walk in the pond. Besides for the fact that he didn't want to get wet he had a feeling getting wet could prove fatal in this weather when they had no way to warm up. But thinking about warmth only made him want to get inside the Bug Fighter more. He knew that inside they would have a fully functioning atmospheric control. If the thing was still working that is.
Zach looked up at the fighter and tried to figure out how to get up to the doorway and how to open it once they did. He was about to suggest that maybe they should drag the log down here and try to climb on it when the door to the fighter slid open and one human hand grasped the sides so that it could pull itself out. But it wasn't a human was it? Not a true human anyway.
Zach grabbed Adamo arm and they both turned and ran back up the hill. This was what he'd been worried about but no one had shown any life for ten minutes! If someone had been in there wouldn't they have come out by then. He should have-"Wait! Wait, please-"
The pleas were cut off by a fit of coughing but the plaintive tone had done their work on Zach's heart. He turned around to see a young woman sitting on the side of the bug fighter, legs still disappearing into the doorway. She looked at them with annoyance and anger in her eyes as if she hated them for hearing and seeing her in this weakened position. "Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to help me down from this thing!" she demanded.
Zach realized she must have mistaken them for controllers about three seconds before Adamo nearly blew their cover by running again. Zach grabbed the front of his brother's jacket, his jacket, just as he was about to bolt again without looking behind him. He continued to face the controller and he put a smile on his face that had charmed more than one young lady in the past.
"Sure, hold on, we'll be right with you. We were just going to get that log to get up to the door," he said motioning behind him. "So we'll be right back." Zach turned and began walking up the hill. Adamo followed his example.
"What are you doing," he said in a quiet voice that carried far less than Zach's earlier whispers.
"What I have to little bro. She thinks we're controllers so let's play the part uh," he said copying Adamo's tone. "We play this right and we get a bug fighter and a free human out of this." Zach raised his eyebrows in a, do you believe in me now expression that he had worn many a time before getting them involved in their worst trouble.
"You better be right about this and not chasing a new girlfriend," Adamo whispered venehmently as he helped Zzch with the log, picking up one rotting end and beginning to walk back down the hill. He had to stop because Zach had frozen in front of him. Adamo's stomach bumped into the side of the log and he looked up to see Zach looking at him. Adamo had never seen him so angry and he immediately regretted his hasty words but it was too late now.
"Do you really think I'd take a chance like that with your life and mine?" Zach asked quietly. Adamo could tell by the tone which contained no hint of Zach's normal humor and good will that his brother was serious and the wrong answer would lead to bad consequences.
"Of course not Zach. I'm sorry," Adamo said quickly. It seemed to be enough for Zach now, he began walking again at least, but his normal light, joking air didn't return until they had reached the downed bug fighter and when it did it was just an act.
"Here ya go miss," Zach said politely as they levered the log into place so that the controller woman could climb down from the wreckage. She did so with some difficulty, every slip seeming to jar her pride more than whatever injuries she had sustained. By the time she reached the ground she was in a worse temper than when she'd been up there. She smoothed her hair back in a nervous attempt to seem like she was in control of herself and the situation again.
"Thank you," she said simply and then began limping off in the wrong direction, at least it was the wrong direction if she wanted to get back to the city. Adamo was just as inclined to let her go. Once she was gone they could get inside the fighter and assess the damage. But Zach called her back.
"Excuse me." At the sound of his voice the shoulders of the young woman tightened with tension and perhaps fear. Zach wondered what rightful controller would be afraid of them and would walk away from a crash without even mentioning a report. But what had really made him call out to her was that he didn't like loose ends. He didn't want her wandering around out here while they tried to steal the empire's property.
"Can I ask your name?" He said walking up to her. She turned around slowly and when he saw her face he saw a familiar emotion there. Fear, definitely fear. There was something wrong with this picture.
"I'm...I'm Gala 498. My host's name is Dee, Dee Weathers. What's yours!" she asked, self righteous anger trying to cover the fear and uncertainty in her voice.
"Najm 524, Zachery Jones," Zach said, the name rolling off his tongue easily though he had just made it up. "I hope I am not keeping you from important buisness. I just wanted to know who we should report this too," before he could finish the sentence he had a dracon beam pointed at his nose, held by a shaking arm.
"You won't report this to anyone," Gala/Dee said, a pronounced shake in her voice now and in her arm as well. But Gala/Dee could have had a seizure in that moment and still hit Zach so he held up his hands and tried to look harmless.
"Ok, ok, no reason to point that at me. No reports, got it." His voice was calm and slow as if he was speaking to a cornered criminal and he was starting to think that is what he had on his hands here.
Ariel:
Ariel spread her wings and flew upwards. She kept her distance from Willy and Vance, but made sure she could still see Vance. She was silent for a few moments as they headed over there. She kept pace pretty well.
Ariel kept her eyes on the ground, to see if they could find anything on the way over. She was afraid of what they might find when they got there...injured people, dead people...it was a very uncomfortable feeling to think about. She would feel sad that they passed on before their time.
Kat:
Kat took flight, rising above the trees as her wings sliced through the air and propelled her higher. There were four of them in the air now, each in their own unique morph. Kat's Canadian Goose morph was by far the largest, and the combination of birds was sure to look odd in the sky. She made sure she stayed well behind the others at a safe distance as Willy instructed.She didn't feel comfortable being so big as they went to investigate a site that would most likely be crawling with controllers soon.
It wasn't long before she could spot something up ahead that looked out of place. It looked like a body of water lay up ahead, but there was a metallic structure jutting out from the liquids surface. They'd come looking for a ship, and it looked like they had found it.
<<It's half submerged...>> Kat pointed out, trying to keep from getting to much closer now that she had just started to make out what the scene looked like. She didn't want to get too close. <<and it looks like there are alright controllers at the crash sight.>>
Vance:
Vance made sure to keep his distance from the others as he led them. Soon, he saw the half sunken ship, with a few people close by it. He heard Kat pointing them out as he started to try to figure out how many there were. Three. Or could there be more?
<<I count three of them, though there could be more. What exactly should we do about them?>> Vance asked. The only idea in his mind was dive-bombing, but he and Ariel did not have threatening birds and after the initial shock, a goose and screech owl would not be threatening either.
Or maybe…
<<Should we just try to avoid the controllers and come around the other side? We could morph into water morphs and try to get into the ship.>> That was his only real suggestion at the moment.
Willy:
<<I suppose the water would be our safest bet,>> Willy said as he tried to assess the situation. if any of those controllers saw them fly into the ship, they would come after them. Even if they managed to escape, they would have accomplished nothing by doing so. Yeah, the water would be best.
<<Alright everyone. Try to find a way to the water without them seeing you. If they see you, fly away and make sure you aren't shot or followed. Everyone who makes it, try to morph as fast as possible. I expect we won't have much time.>> Willy was going to leave it at that, but figured he should give out some more specific orders as well.
<<Kat, Ariel, Vance. You three will be in charge of determining what went on inside. Try to figure out what happened and see if there is anything useful in there that we can use. But watch out for survivors. I will keep guard. My water morph can't exactly climb into the ship, but it doesn't need to breath air, so I should be able to get pretty close to the controllers without them knowing.>>
Willy wasn't sure if he would be able to see or hear anyone once he was in the water, but he would find out soon enough. Willy swooped down into some reeds at the water's edge and began to demorph, already freezing cold in the shallow water.
Kat:
<<I'm going to land near the water but out of sight, probably a bit far away so I won't be spotted, then use my otter morph to swim the distance to the ship. >> Kat informed them as she started to veer away from the odd, spread out flock. She glanced back at the half submerged ship as she did so, noticing the dracon being aimed as the controllers seemed to interact.
<<Doesn't look like they're getting along too well..>> She muttered before starting to pick up speed and break away.
It wasn't too long before Kat was descending, landing close to the waters edge at a fair distance from the crash sight. She gave the area a quick look over to make sure no one was around before starting to demorph.It took a less then three minutes to shift from the Canadian Goose to her normal self, and then a bit long for her to shift to the Sea Otter. She had only used this morph a few times and it had only been to practice in the waves of the Pacific Ocean. She's never actually used it for a mission before.
She eased herself into the water quietly once the transformation was complete, doing her best to control the otter's instincts. Fresh water wasn't it's normal domain but Kat tried to keep her thoughts from being taken over by what the otter knew wasn't right. She also needed to resist the otters urges to forage and groom itself, keeping her mind on the what she needed to do. She began to slowly make her way towards the crash, trying to keep herself hidden and refrain from making a commotion.
Vance:
<<Got it.>> Vance responded to Willy for his instructions and to Kat for informing them. He circled above the crash site for a moment before going into a dive as he spotted a decent enough place to morph. After quickly checking to make sure he did not over look anything, he began to demorph and then remorph.
Demorphing was faster than remorphing to his river otter. Even with the practice he had done in the morning, he was still incredibly slow and clumsy with the morph. The instincts of the animal were stronger for Vance than any other morph he had had. Even with the unnatural feeling he got from the snow bunting, it was not as strong as the river otter’s instincts.
After the focus on morphing and the amount of time it took, Vance had to be more aware of the animal’s mind tugging at his. At first it was easy since Vance wanted to go to the water and the otter’s instincts urged it to get into its natural habitat. However, once in the water, he felt the urge to swim off, and head downstream and away from the city to go and find food, and possibly a female otter. Those instincts were harder to control and took most of Vance’s concentration to keep the otter on course to the ruined ship.
Gala:
Gala tried to steady her arm. She couldn't afford to have her whereabouts reported and if she had to take out these two nobodies to protect herself she would. They couldn't be of a very high rank or else they wouldn't be out here handling logs. One of them didn't even look adequately dressed.
"Who are you?" Najm began to open his mouth again and she quickly cut him off. "No, not you, you?" she said motioning briefly with the dracon beam towards the boy behind him. For a moment a look of anger and fear flashed across Najm's face and he stepped so that he was standing in between her and the other controller.
From behind him she heard the other kid say, "uh, Yemi 908." Gala looked at Najm and the bit of Yemi that she could see over his shoulder. "We can help you," Yemi continued. Najm glanced quickly behind him but didn't contradict the other controller.
Gala was quiet for a moment, her arm shaking less and less as she began to feel in control of the situation. She didn't have much time but she had some. But where was she going to go? Hide in these unfamiliar Earth woods? She had no training for dealing with the wilderness of this world and Dee's memories were enough to tell her that this planet could be savage and deadly.
"How?" she finally asked deciding to consider her options. Yemi walked up until he was standing right behind Najm. She could see his face now, over Najm's shoulder, and it looked scared. Not exactly an unusual occurrence when yeerks met, especially when there were aristocrats who had all the power and peons that had none.
"We are pilots. We might be able to fix your ship," he said motioning behind him. Gala looked past them to the half submerged ship. She had stolen it from the common shipyards since her clearance high enough to get her past the guards. But the yard operators had known the minute she'd powered it up that she wasn't supposed to be flying. They had sent people after her and the only reason she'd lost them was because she'd taken it out of atmosphere and there had been a work crew up there putting the final touches on the lasers that Visser One had commissioned. Her ship had gotten lost among all the others but they would find her soon enough. And when they did she wouldn't be able to outfly them again. She was no pilot and she only knew the basics of fighter operation. That was why she'd crashed when the dracon beam had lanced past her window.
"Fine, take a look at it. I'll stand back here." She backed up a few paces before she lowered the dracon beam. They were out of immediate danger for now but she would be able to raise the weapon again quickly if she had to.
Yemi turned immediately but Najm stood and stared at her for a moment. She had seen that look of defiance and rage in a controller's eyes before. He didn't like being told what to do and she couldn't blame him. This was the system she was fighting against and now she was acting just like the people she hated. But her life was on the line so she put her misgivings aside and returned his angry stare with a determined one of her own.
Yemi came and grabbed his arm and Najm turned away. They walked towards the ship and climbed onto the log she had used to climb down. She felt a bit of satisfaction watching them struggle with the slippery log, rotten bark peeling off under their hands and causing them to fall back and slowing their progress.
Ariel
<Okay,> Ariel told Willy before she dived down to demorph in the water. Her nightingale morph was not happy with her at all. It felt like it was drowning as she slowly started to demorph. Suffocating! Focus, Ariel...focus... Her red hair was now floating in the water as she forced herself to attempt to swim deeper into the water. Her feet showed up then and she kicked powerful kicks to get out of sight of anyone that would possibly see her.
Soon, Ariel was human and she focused immediately on her dolphin morph. She tried to imagine her blowhole coming first and it didn't seem to work, since her eyes shifted. After that, the blowhole made itself and she had a little easier time. She sped up the morphing as fast as she could and went up to the surface. Taking a deep gulp of air, Ariel dived back down and swam a ways behind Vance as they headed towards the damaged ship. <See anything?>
Kat:
The sea otter gliding through the water almost effortlessly, despite freshwater not being its normal domain. The instincts were content with the liquid surrounding it, though the lack of salt water creatures for food left it dismayed. Kat did her best to keep herself in check since food wasn't the reason she was in the water to begin with. She took a breath and submerged herself in the water, heading towards the direction of the wreckage.
To her left she could feel the movement of the water from her sensitive whiskers. Something was close by and it took her a moment to realize it was another otter, though one that wasn't exactly the same as her. She was positive it was one of the others actual wild animals were scarce nowadays. <<Another otter?... Vance? Ariel?>> She asked in private thought speak.
There came more vibrations in the water. This time it was to her right and much larger then the otter she'd just discovered. Her eyesight was decent below the water and she moved in the direction of the movement to get a better look, only to find a dolphin not far away from her. A dolphin!? That was going to stick out like a sore thumb in this environment. No doubt coming up for air would be noticeable with a blow hole spouting water. Like before, she didn't know who exactly the morphed individual was since she was unfamiliar with her new team mates morphs.
<<Isn't a dolphin a little out of place here? I really think that's not a smart choice for this... Don't you have anything smaller that could climb into the ship?>> Kat said privately, voicing her opinion. She wasn't sure who she was talking to yet.
Willy:
It was not too long before Willy managed to get into the shape of an eel. His eel morph was one that he did not use often, so he was not all that familiar with it. But then again, The only morph that he had used very often since arriving in Ottawa was his owl morph. Willy thought about this as he slid along the bank of the water. He was heading towards where he knew the controllers were earlier.
<<Is everyone still safe?>> He hadn't heard from them since they started demorphing, so he hoped that was a sign that everything was going alright. <<I can't see you in this morph, so Vance, you're in charge.>> Willy was planning on making Vance his second in command just like Layla was for Tim back in DC. However, Willy still hadn't gotten around to telling him. Maybe if this mission went alright, he would tell Vance afterwards.
Vance:
<<It’s me, Vance.>> He answered Kat’s question as he swam along, still trying not to get distracted by the otter’s instincts. Though then he heard Willy, causing him to once again concentrate on both staying on mark and talking. What’s more, Willy put added pressure on him.
<<Safe and understood.>> He responded, keeping his difficulties a secret from them. He tried to focus his mind on the goals before him; getting to the ship, getting on, finding anything useful. However, the otter’s mind still continued to tug at his and Kat’s presence as another otter did not help.
He did his best to ignore it and focus on the mission and soon a thought came to his mind, which allowed him to push the otter’s instincts back even more. How exactly were they going to get into the ship? He had spotted an opening on the side the controllers were at but because of the controller’s presence, they wouldn’t be able to go near that part…
<<Does anyone see any openings at all? There could be some damaged parts under the water that would allow us to get in.>> Vance asked as he went to dive under the water to check out the submerge part.
Ariel:
Ariel heard Katrina's thought-speak in her head and stopped. <Good point. What other morph could I use?> She thought for a moment. <Possibly my beaver.> She swam up to the surface and demorphed as quick as she could, and without waiting, she focused on the beaver morph. She saw that the people were trying to go inside the ship and so therefore she was safe for a moment.
Ariel wanted her morphing to speed up and soon, it was finished. <Is this better?> she asked Kat privately, hoping that this would work. If it didn't, then chances were she would get caught. <Willy? Did anyone see me?> She asked him privately. Then Willy spoke. <Oh, nevermind. That answered that.> Her voice revealed her slight fear, but she tried sounding brave. She didn't want to be considered weak and useless. Though she also didn't want anyone hurt because of her.
Ariel swam around the ship, trying to stay out of sight. <Vance, I think I see one over here. Maybe a garbage disposal area? Should we try that, or is that too dangerous?>
Kat:
From the different responses, Kat realized Vance was the other otter and Ariel was the one who needed to switch morphs. She was relieved to hear that the dolphin wasn't the only option available for Ariel. A beaver was perfect for what they were about to do. <<The beaver would be a much better choice.>> She told Ariel as she continued to carefully make her way to the ship.
Willy had put Vance in charge since the eel morph left him incapable of seeing much of what was going on, and Kat stayed close to the second otter for a short time until they got closer to the ship. Noting what side the opening the controllers went in was at, she dove under and began to exam the ship's side, branching off from the others. Like Vance, Kat too figured there must be a cracked area or hole caused by the crash they could slip into to get inside the ship. After all, it was only half submerged and could have possibly hit bottom, damaging the exterior, and who knew what had happened to cause it to actually go down. It could have been shot down and a hole could have resulted from that as well.
<<A garbage disposal area may be worth checking out...>> Kat responded, though it was up to Vance since he had been put in charge. <<I'm going to continue looking for damage on the outside.I"m sure there's gotta be something...>>
Vance:
Vance heard the response of Ariel and was silent for a moment as he checked out the bottom of the ship. Diving down under the water was rather interesting with the aquatic plants and the different landscape, but the rather large protruding ship kept him from getting distracted from his goals. There were several scrapes along the bottom of the ship and one seemed to be just large enough and convenient enough to use.
<<The garbage disposal is a good idea, but that may be tricky getting in from the outside. Though, we should keep that in mind if we need to get out in a hurry.>> He spoke, answering Ariel’s question.
<<There does seem to be a damaged enough opening to allow us to get in from the bottom. So, we should probably use that. I’ll go in first to make sure it’s clear and you two follow behind.>> Vance told them, taking up the leadership role. He was surprised at himself for volunteering to go in first without even debating about it with himself. He also just hoped that he was not making a mistake and none would happen any time soon…
Willy:
Willy snaked through the water like a hot knife through butter. The sideways undulating was kind of annoying, but other than that, being an eel wasn't so bad. He was getting more and more used to it with each passing moment. Perhaps he would try out another water morph sometime in the near future. But for now he needed to concentrate on the task at hand. The bug fighter.
Willy was glad to hear that Vance was taking to a leadership role fairly well. He considered reminding Vance to be careful, but decided against it. It may have done more harm than good if Willy suggested that he do something so obvious. Besides, Willy had reached his destination. He could just make out the figures of the controllers above the surface of the water. It appeared they were messing with a log to try and get back to the bug fighter? Or at least one of them was.
<<One of them is trying to get back into the ship,>> Willy warned. <<I'm not sure they will be able to do it though. Just be ready to get out of there if necessary.
Zach/Adamo:
Adamo got a hand on the side of the doorway though, if the ship was righted, it would actually have been the floor to the entry hatch. He groped around for a bit until he was able to get another hand hold and then attempted to pull himself up into the ship. His muscles strained and he suddenly wished he'd spent more time in the gym. Those lateral pull downs would have come in handy right now.
"Hurry up...Yemi," he heard from beneath him. He didn't bother responding since it would have taken using his chest muscles to control his breathing enough to speak and they were currently engaged in getting him into the hatch. He felt a slight shove from beneath him and it was just enough to give him what he needed to pull himself up.
He tumbled into the ship, rolling into a ball to protect himself. He came to a jarring stop when his spine connected with one of the consoles quite painfully. He yelped and pushed himself away from the machinery as he stood up. Standing in the ship was slightly nauseating. Everything was at an odd angle.
Zach pulled himself into the ship after Adamo and made a more graceful entry. He stood up and looked around himself before going over to a console and attempting to turn the fighter on. There was no response.
"Let's get to work and see if we can make this thing fly again," Zach said as he contemplated the console.
Kat:
Kat maneuvered her way around the side of the partially submerged ship. Vance wasn't in sight from the angle she was at, but she knew he and Ariel were close enough. Her eyes scanned the metallic surface as she moved easily through the water, searching for damage. A small hole could pose an opportunity for getting in, she just needed to find one.
Kat had to agree that the garbage disposal did seem like a better escape route then an entrance. It could work if they got desperate, but there had to be something better. Not long into her search Vance beat her to the discovery of a suitable damaged area, and with a quick turn she was traveling about the alien ship to find him.
<<Go up for air before going in.>> She advised. <<You don't know how difficult it could be to get to an area with air.>> There was a chance that it could be a fairly simple task, but the chances of it get complicated were just as likely. Depending on where they went it, there could be plenty of obstacles to get around before coming to where the water stopped filling the ship.
Speaking of air, she needed to go up for some herself at the moment. Willy's thought speak reached her as she tilted her body upwards and headed for the surface, planning on simply sticking her nose up carefully and quickly sinking back down so she wouldn't be seen. Now they had to watch out for whoever had entered the ship while trying to check it out.
Kat poked her nose through the surface of the water just enough to catch a deep breath of air then quickly headed back down to the ship. She caught sight of Vance and the damaged area and headed for him.
Vance:
Lovely, just what they needed, controllers in the bug ship, Vance thought to himself. He was half tempted to suggest they should just abort the mission, though he decided against it since the risk was not too high and they could still profit from this, Vance kept the suggestion to himself and soon he heard Kat’s suggestion about resurfacing for air.
<<Good idea.>> He responded, as he turned the otter’s body around, keeping himself aware of which side of the ship he was on. He headed upward, moving with caution and poked his nose above the water for air. The otter morph was becoming easier to use, or maybe it was just the situation and the possible danger that kept Vance in control. Either way, Vance was soon back down to the opening with fresh air and ready to enter.
<<I’ll go in first.>> Vance said, figuring that was the proper thing to do. Since he was the acting leader, he should be the one to take more of the risks, unless the others volunteered but asking for volunteers would take up more time. So he swam up to the hole and entered.
It was a bit of a tight fit and he felt the ripped metal poke at his sides but it was nothing major. At most, it just gave him some scratches that amounted to cat scratches, though even when he was through the hole, it was still tight. The hole entered into an engine room, packed tight with the yeerk technology that allowed the ship to fly. Vance scampered around the odd twist and turns of the metal as he tried to get to the surface.
<<Do be careful, it’s tight.>> Vance told the others as a warning.
Ariel:
Ariel heard everything that was being said between Kat and Vance, but didn't add anything. She was grateful though that they finally found an opening to the inside. Then Kat advised them to go up for air before trying to go in. <I agree,> was all she said before she went up. Vance had already gone up and came back down, when Ariel came back down.
Vance decided to go first, and so, in silence, she watched as he started his way inside. Then she heard his warning about it being a bit tight. She was sure they could handle it, though. Vance was making it okay in there so far, and they were all roughly the same size right now. She turned her head towards Kat and asked her, <Do you want to go next? I can bring up the rear. It's entirely to you.>
Kat:
Vance's otter morph swam up for air before Kat watched him disappear through the hole in the side of the ship they had found. It seemed like a bit of a tight fit but it looked manageable at the same time. Her morph was just about the same size so she doubted she would have any trouble unless Vance happened to along the way, but everything appeared to be doing well so far. Vance gave a small warning, urging them to be careful but didn't seem like he was having any major troubles, at least not yet.
<<I can head it next.>> Kat told Ariel, answering the question that had been directed at her. She didn't mind who went next either way and just decided to roll with going second. She didn't want to waste time trying to figure out who should go next. They didn't have the time for that.
Following suit, Katrina cruised forward, touching the side of the ship lightly with the otters front hands as she examined the hole for just a moment. She poked her head in slowly to test out the size of it before carefully squeezing herself through, feeling the metallic jagged edges rub against her sides.
She had to squeeze her body in through the tight space then weave her way in further. The turns and twists of the opening were uncomfortable and she battled her way to find a wider spot. Metal and mechanical engineering could be found on either side of her and she tried to avoid getting tripped up in any of the wires hanging along the way. Several times she'd almost gotten a limb caught as she swam along.
<<It's easy to get stuck.>> She muttered, giving her own heads up. She prayed the engine wouldn't some how manage to turn on while they were getting through to the inside. She wasn't an expert on mechanics but she figured being near any sort of engine or machine's inside circuiting when the machine turned on wouldn't be a fun experience.
Vance was outside during the early morning when the sun was shining right above the horizon. For the past hour he had bee practicing with his morphs. The meerkat and snow bunting were decent, rarely taking more than 2 and a half minutes. However, the river otter was a different story. The morphing process was long and for some reason it was more awkward and difficult than the others.
Maybe it was due to the otter’s more playful nature, or because the otter wanted to go find some water to fish and swim in, though it could also have been because Vance just hadn’t had time to practice with it. The meerkat was a decent enough land morph and he flew a lot in the snow bunting. Nothing had yet to deal with water to practice.
Vance was taking a slight break, laying in his meerkat’s morph in a newly warmed patch of ground when something caught his attention. There appeared to be a ship flying off in the distance, slowly getting closer. For only a moment, the thought of it being an airplane crossed his mind until he realized it was far too alien for that to be possible. Vance’s eyes stayed glued on it as it moved in the sky only to feel his whole body stiffen up in surprise, shock, and fear.
A blast, emitted from a dracon beam somewhere in the city, shot towards the ship, perfectly knocking it out of the air and forcing it to crash noisily.
The crash echoed as the ship hit water, though Vance could not be entirely sure of that fact. Vance was able to tell that the ship landed somewhere in the cities vicinity. He was also able to note that the blast came from the city too.
The exact location of the ship was not importance to Vance. He was more concerned about who shot it down and why. Quickly, he scampered to his feet and darted back inside of the Sanctuary, hoping that people were waking up now, or at least awakened by the noise. If they weren’t awake, they would be soon.
<<Guys, wake up!>> He shouted in thought speak, as he climbed up the stairs, starting to demorph at the landing.
Willy:
Willy was having an odd dream. He was cooking pancakes while he was participating in a debate in front of his high school class. Whenever it was his turn to speak, his food would start to burn so that he was distracted and couldn't concentrate. He was sure he would lose the debate because he failed to make his pancakes.
Just when the judge was about to announce the winner, Willy was stirred from his slumber. <<Guys, wake up!>> Vance's words barely registered in his groggy head. "Wake up?" he said to himself as he sat up in bed.
Suddenly it registered. Willy was instantly awake and heading out into the hall. "What is it? What happened?" Willy asked worriedly as he searched for Vance. He eventually found a meerkat as he headed down the steps. "What's going on?"
Zach/Adamo:
The brothers watched the bug fighter crash and burn, or in this case drown, with a matched pair of shocked looks on their faces. They briefly looked at each other and then broke out into a heated argument.
"Zach, look what you did!" Adamo exclaimed angrily waving his arms in the air in the vague direction of the crashed bug fighter. He pushed his black hair out of his eyes and rubbed them in exasperation.
"Calm down. There will be another one," Zach said as he twirled the dracon gun in his hand as if he was a cowboy in the fabled wild west. "All we need to do is wait," he said going over to the window of the gutted sky scraper they were using to take pot shots at their beloved bug fighters. "We bring one down, fix it up and it'll be ours. No problem."
Adamo gave his adopted older brother a look of doubt. "Oh really, just bring one down. And how are we going to fix it if it is broken beyond repair?"
Zach turned around and looked at him, stepping away from the window where the glass lay in shards at his feet. "Broken beyond repair implies that we can't fix it therefore your question makes no sense."
Adamo threw up his hands at his brother's nit picking and went over to the far wall to sit and wait. "Whatever. I think this is a stupid plan. And what are we going to do with a Bug Fighter anyway?"
"Fly it," Zach said with his usual cockiness. "Come on Ada, we are the best Bug Fighter crew this side of freedom. We have got to be a valuable commodity to some nascent rebel group out there. Two free humans who can operate alien technology? Some one will take us on. All we have to do is prove that we can fly one."
"You keep saying that," Adamo said looking up into Zach's eyes. 'All we need to do...' You make it sound like it is easy."
Zach pulled his brother to his feet, done with his oh woe is me attitude. "Come on Adamo. We have to do something. Or else we'll just get caught again eventually. Do you want a slug back in your brain?" He didn't need to wait to hear Adamo's answer since it was obvious. "Then let's go. Maybe that Bug Fighter isn't as damaged as it looked. It landed in water so maybe it survived. We should at least go check it out."
"You know water is as hard as concrete when you hit it at high speeds right?" Adamo pointed out but he followed his brother out the door.
Ariel:
Ariel turned in her bed and tried to ignore Vance's voice; it didn't work because of the panicky sound in it. She sat up and looked around. "What time is it?" She murmured. She shook her head out of her thoughts and then yawned as she ran out of the room, having realized that the situation may be deadly.
Ariel didn't see Willy in time to stop. Ramming right into him, she said, "Oof!" and fell backwards. "Uh..." She quickly scrambled her feet. "Sorry..." she muttered and then looked at Vance's demorphing form. "What's going on?"
Kat:
The road outside my house,
Is paved with good intentions.
Hired a construction crew,
'Cause it's hell on the engine.
You are the dreamer,
And we are the dream.
I could write it better than you ever felt it.
So...
The headphones filled Kat's ears with the sound of Fall Out Boy's 'Hum Hallelujah'. She was pretty lucky to have the small MP3 player she prized so much, and she guessed she had the slug in the basement to thank for it. He'd been the one who'd insisted on grabbing the brown drawstring bag from where it had been stashed in Los Angeles, telling Aikx that it could come in handy should he need to pretend to be Kat and walk right into the Sanctuary. Arkon had also been the one to grab it on his way out of the yeerk facility before heading to find the faction. It had been stuffed under a dumpster in the alley where Bane had found them, but retrieved shortly afterwords. She guessed it was his way of trying to get on her good side.
Hum hallelujah,
Just off the key of reason.
I thought I loved you.
It was just how you looked in the light.
A teenage vow in a parking lot,
"Till tonight do us part."
I sing the blues,
And swallow them too.
Kat let out a slight push of air, making a bit of a disgusted noise. "Uhhgg.." The song had brought up some thoughts of Bane's leaving, something she hadn't wanted. She rolled her eyes and switched of the device, pulling the headphones off and tossing the components onto her bed. It looked like music time was over for the morning. She shook her head and began to head for the door, planning on going to get breakfast now that she was awake.
She'd taken off the head phones just in time to catch a bit of the sound as the ship outside hit the water. She hadn't seen what Vance had, but she didn't think the noise sounded all that good. "...What the... hell?.." She muttered.
"Hey! Did anyone else-" <<Guys, wake up!>> Her question was answered before she was even able to poke her head out of the door and finish calling out into the hall. Vance sounded like he'd definitely heard it, and Kat headed out of her room to see what was going on.
Arkon:
The thick basement walls kept the sound from reaching the bedroom of the yeerk nothlit, who was currently located in bed since it was still a early. His body was sprawled out, half covered by the thick comforter while his head remained buried in a pillow. Vance's voice traveled down to the basement, unlike the sound of the crash since the means of communication went straight to the sleepers mind, but it didn't rouse him like it was meant to.
Arkon readjusted his position slightly, mumbling something into the pillow. It was nothing that sounded intelligent, especially since it was muffled from the cloth of the pillow case. He was then silent and still again, barely even thinking of what could be going on upstairs. If they really needed him he would most likely get another call.
Vance:
It took Vance a moment more to demorph, causing the others to wait for him. Once he was without the fur, whiskers, tail and fully human he started to speak.
“There was one of the yeerk ships outside, right above the city and it got shot down.” Vance urgently told them, pointing off in the general direction of Ottawa even though they were inside. “We should figure out who shot it down, could be something on our side.”
Vance also thought of suggesting that they should visit the crash site but he wasn’t sure how good that idea was. He had no clue where that site was, just that it was somewhere in the city, with the slight possibility of narrowing the location to a general area. There was also the probability that yeerks would be going to that site too…
Willy:
"Wait, what? Someone shot down a spaceship?" Willy wasn't sure how that was possible, but it sounded intriguing. And dangerous. Whoever could shoot one of those down was probably dangerous.
"Yeah, we should at least go check it out, I suppose. But we better hurry." He was already heading back to his room to change into his morphing suit. He talked as he walked. "Everyone get wings if you have them. We leave as soon as possible. Whoever shot it down might not stick around." Willy doubted they would find the shooter, but he was still a bit energized over the thought of a potential ally out there helping them to take down the yeerks.
Zack/Adamo:
"Stop," chick, "stop," chick, "stop," chick ka, "Stop Zach!" Adamo yelled as the seventh pebble bounced off the back of his head and landed on the concrete they were walking over.
"Go faster Ada," Zach said as he dropped his handful of pebbles, grabbed Adamo's shoulders from behind and literally began pushing him down the street so that Adamo had to speed up in order to keep his feet.
"What is the rush," Adamo said shaking him off but not slowing down. "The thing is a goner anyway." Adamo wrapped his arms around him. It wasn't freezing outside but it certainly wasn't warm and his cotton short sleeve shirt was no protection against the wind. Zach was fine with his leather jacket but Adamo had lost his only coat two days ago when they had been forced to run from a yeerk sweep and he'd forgotten it. They hadn't had a chance to replace it yet.
Adamo shuddered to think of what they would do once winter hit and they had to try to survive the killing cold without any sort of heating. Maybe Zach was right, they really needed to find some sort of group to take them in. That or start heading south and hope they didn't get picked up on the roads and manage to outrun the winter bearing down on them.
"The yeerks are sure to invistegate the thing. I want to get there before them," Zach said turning his head slightly to look at Adamo. He frowned to see him shivering like that and began to shrug off his jacket.
"Don't," Adamo said, pushing past him. "I'm fine and you need it. I shouldn't have lost mine anyway."
Zach wrapped the jacket around his little brother's shoulders as he caught up with him. "We'll share it," he said in a tone that didn't invite questions though he kept his hands on Adamo's shoulders, holding the jacket down just in case he tried to shrug it off. "I've worn it all morning anyway and I'm not cold."
"Thanks," Adamo said slipping the jacket on. He was warmer immediately. The leather cut the wind quite effectively and it was already warm inside from Zach though it was slightly big on him. The shoulders were a bit wide and it was a little too long to be fashionable but Adamo didn't much care about that.
"How far away is it do you think?" he asked though he knew any answer Zach gave would be an approximation at best, a wild guess at worst.
"Maybe another twenty minutes, not sure. We're headed in the right direction though, that I'm sure of."
Kat:
"If someone shot a bug fighter, the place will probably be swarming with controllers trying to figure out what happened..." Kat brought up. "We should be extremely careful..."
She shrugged off the light jacket she was wearing over her morphing suit and threw it into her room before starting to head down the stairs and out the door so she could start morphing her Canadian Goose. Sometime in the future she was going to need to think about getting a smaller bird morph. The goose was great for long distance travel but it wasn't the best for spying and sneaking around. It was so big and easily seen, meaning she had to be extra careful when she used it.
As she thought of the creature, the pattern of the animal's feathers began to appear on her skin. She could feel her insides begin to rearrange as her neck stretched out and became elegantly slender. Her head shrank, face squishing together until there was a hard bill where her mouth and nose at been. Her eye shifted to the sides of her head, soon becoming little black orbs that darted around to take in the scenery. Her arms became wings, her feet soon were webbed, and her body shrank quickly to complete the last of the transformation.
Vance:
Vance listened to what Willy said, just giving a brief nod for a response. He didn’t know how that ship was shot down, but he knew what he saw, so he could not be wrong. With Willy saying they would check it out, Vance quickly headed downstairs, glancing back just a bit when he heard Kat speak. She had an obvious point, which he did not bother to respond to, not to be rude but because he had started to morph.
He was lucky that he did not have to waste time with getting the morphing suit on or any other clothes off, his practice from earlier already insured he was ready. Morphing into his snow bunting morph was quick, a few minutes until he was the small bird. <<I’m ready.>> He answered, though it was fairly unneeded.
Ariel:
Ariel listened silently as Vance explained what happened. I was sleeping through that? she asked herself in disbelief. "Wow...that's just....wow." She blinked. "Controllers everywhere..." she repeated after Katrina. She shook her head. "Morph bird. Gotcha."
Focusing on her nightingale morph, Ariel felt the skin shifting as the feathers began to grow out, and her lips hardened and came out into the form of a beak. Her big toe and second toe melded together into one talon nail, and the last thing to happen was her shrinking. It was a very disturbing image. Finally full nightingale, Ariel said, <I hope no one's hurt.>
Willy:
Willy was fully changed in a matter of moments. Then he rushed downstairs and out the back door, already morphing as he exited. The muddy snow was cold on his feet, but it would not be so bad once he finished changing into an owl.
Once it seemed like they were all ready, Willy said, <<Alright, let's head out,>> then took to the sky. It only took a moment for his owl eyes to locate where the crash probably took place, but he couldn't be positive. <<Vance, you witnessed the accident. Lead the way.>> He tried his best to say it in a factual way, not as an order.
Vance:
Vance was silent, glancing over just a bit to Ariel when he heard her comment. He partway agreed with her, but partway disagreed with her. Controllers being hurt was not a bad thing, but he highly doubted that the yeerks would keep the hurt humans as controllers. In the end that would just hurt the humans more, unless the yeerks had died too, being splattered inside someone’s head from the impact.
Vance pushed that image out of his mind when he heard Willy speak. <<Right.>> He responded as he took flight, heading in the direction he saw the ship go down. He climbed high into the sky, figuring that he would need that height to spot the more exact location, and plus the higher he was, the harder it would be to spot him.
Willy:
Willy was pleased to see that Vance wasn't afraid to take the lead. He was not surprised, but he was pleased. Vance was someone Willy knew he could depend on.
When Willy noticed Vance gaining height rapidly in the air, he figured it was a good idea so he followed suit. <<Remember to stay spread out. We draw enough attention just by being live birds in the air. We don't need to draw any more by being a mismatched flock.>>
Now that he had gotten higher and drifted further to the right, Willy could se the crash location a bit more clearly. It looked wet...
Zach/Adamo:
Adamo looked down on the scene in confusion. After a couple more minutes on the cold ground he began shivering despite his brother's jacket and finally decided to speak up. "Um, so is this bad or-" He was cut off by a "SHHHHH" that was louder than his few words had been and a frantic waving of a hand.
"Adamo, you're going to get us caught," Zach continued in a stage whisper that carried easily. After giving Adamo a reproachful look he went back to regarding the crash site.
"Right, I'm the one who is going to get us caught," Adamo said, disgruntled, and he too turned back to regard the half sub-merged Bug Fighter.
Its metal sides gleamed in the sunlight, slick with the water from the small lake it had crashed in. It was near the sides so it hadn't sunken yet and it wasn't clear if the lake was even deep enough for it to sink at all. In fact it looked more like a pond than a lake including some geese who were going back to their business now that the fright of the crash was over.
But as peaceful as the scene looked it still didn't make any sense. They hadn't made extraordinary time here or anything so why weren't the yeerks swooping down to investigate the Bug Fighter. In fact, maybe he was missing something, but Adamo couldn't see any burn marks. If they had shot it down shouldn't it show somewhere. But maybe the impact burn was submerged. That had to be it.
Zach finally stood up and Adamo followed his example. They had been crouching behind a dead log at the top of a slight incline. Now they climbed over the log and began trotting down to the Bug Fighter. At the edge of the muddy water they both stopped and looked up at the alien ship that had come to rest at an odd angle.
"What do we do now?" Adamo asked hoping the answer would not include going for a swim or even a walk in the pond. Besides for the fact that he didn't want to get wet he had a feeling getting wet could prove fatal in this weather when they had no way to warm up. But thinking about warmth only made him want to get inside the Bug Fighter more. He knew that inside they would have a fully functioning atmospheric control. If the thing was still working that is.
Zach looked up at the fighter and tried to figure out how to get up to the doorway and how to open it once they did. He was about to suggest that maybe they should drag the log down here and try to climb on it when the door to the fighter slid open and one human hand grasped the sides so that it could pull itself out. But it wasn't a human was it? Not a true human anyway.
Zach grabbed Adamo arm and they both turned and ran back up the hill. This was what he'd been worried about but no one had shown any life for ten minutes! If someone had been in there wouldn't they have come out by then. He should have-"Wait! Wait, please-"
The pleas were cut off by a fit of coughing but the plaintive tone had done their work on Zach's heart. He turned around to see a young woman sitting on the side of the bug fighter, legs still disappearing into the doorway. She looked at them with annoyance and anger in her eyes as if she hated them for hearing and seeing her in this weakened position. "Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to help me down from this thing!" she demanded.
Zach realized she must have mistaken them for controllers about three seconds before Adamo nearly blew their cover by running again. Zach grabbed the front of his brother's jacket, his jacket, just as he was about to bolt again without looking behind him. He continued to face the controller and he put a smile on his face that had charmed more than one young lady in the past.
"Sure, hold on, we'll be right with you. We were just going to get that log to get up to the door," he said motioning behind him. "So we'll be right back." Zach turned and began walking up the hill. Adamo followed his example.
"What are you doing," he said in a quiet voice that carried far less than Zach's earlier whispers.
"What I have to little bro. She thinks we're controllers so let's play the part uh," he said copying Adamo's tone. "We play this right and we get a bug fighter and a free human out of this." Zach raised his eyebrows in a, do you believe in me now expression that he had worn many a time before getting them involved in their worst trouble.
"You better be right about this and not chasing a new girlfriend," Adamo whispered venehmently as he helped Zzch with the log, picking up one rotting end and beginning to walk back down the hill. He had to stop because Zach had frozen in front of him. Adamo's stomach bumped into the side of the log and he looked up to see Zach looking at him. Adamo had never seen him so angry and he immediately regretted his hasty words but it was too late now.
"Do you really think I'd take a chance like that with your life and mine?" Zach asked quietly. Adamo could tell by the tone which contained no hint of Zach's normal humor and good will that his brother was serious and the wrong answer would lead to bad consequences.
"Of course not Zach. I'm sorry," Adamo said quickly. It seemed to be enough for Zach now, he began walking again at least, but his normal light, joking air didn't return until they had reached the downed bug fighter and when it did it was just an act.
"Here ya go miss," Zach said politely as they levered the log into place so that the controller woman could climb down from the wreckage. She did so with some difficulty, every slip seeming to jar her pride more than whatever injuries she had sustained. By the time she reached the ground she was in a worse temper than when she'd been up there. She smoothed her hair back in a nervous attempt to seem like she was in control of herself and the situation again.
"Thank you," she said simply and then began limping off in the wrong direction, at least it was the wrong direction if she wanted to get back to the city. Adamo was just as inclined to let her go. Once she was gone they could get inside the fighter and assess the damage. But Zach called her back.
"Excuse me." At the sound of his voice the shoulders of the young woman tightened with tension and perhaps fear. Zach wondered what rightful controller would be afraid of them and would walk away from a crash without even mentioning a report. But what had really made him call out to her was that he didn't like loose ends. He didn't want her wandering around out here while they tried to steal the empire's property.
"Can I ask your name?" He said walking up to her. She turned around slowly and when he saw her face he saw a familiar emotion there. Fear, definitely fear. There was something wrong with this picture.
"I'm...I'm Gala 498. My host's name is Dee, Dee Weathers. What's yours!" she asked, self righteous anger trying to cover the fear and uncertainty in her voice.
"Najm 524, Zachery Jones," Zach said, the name rolling off his tongue easily though he had just made it up. "I hope I am not keeping you from important buisness. I just wanted to know who we should report this too," before he could finish the sentence he had a dracon beam pointed at his nose, held by a shaking arm.
"You won't report this to anyone," Gala/Dee said, a pronounced shake in her voice now and in her arm as well. But Gala/Dee could have had a seizure in that moment and still hit Zach so he held up his hands and tried to look harmless.
"Ok, ok, no reason to point that at me. No reports, got it." His voice was calm and slow as if he was speaking to a cornered criminal and he was starting to think that is what he had on his hands here.
Ariel:
Ariel spread her wings and flew upwards. She kept her distance from Willy and Vance, but made sure she could still see Vance. She was silent for a few moments as they headed over there. She kept pace pretty well.
Ariel kept her eyes on the ground, to see if they could find anything on the way over. She was afraid of what they might find when they got there...injured people, dead people...it was a very uncomfortable feeling to think about. She would feel sad that they passed on before their time.
Kat:
Kat took flight, rising above the trees as her wings sliced through the air and propelled her higher. There were four of them in the air now, each in their own unique morph. Kat's Canadian Goose morph was by far the largest, and the combination of birds was sure to look odd in the sky. She made sure she stayed well behind the others at a safe distance as Willy instructed.She didn't feel comfortable being so big as they went to investigate a site that would most likely be crawling with controllers soon.
It wasn't long before she could spot something up ahead that looked out of place. It looked like a body of water lay up ahead, but there was a metallic structure jutting out from the liquids surface. They'd come looking for a ship, and it looked like they had found it.
<<It's half submerged...>> Kat pointed out, trying to keep from getting to much closer now that she had just started to make out what the scene looked like. She didn't want to get too close. <<and it looks like there are alright controllers at the crash sight.>>
Vance:
Vance made sure to keep his distance from the others as he led them. Soon, he saw the half sunken ship, with a few people close by it. He heard Kat pointing them out as he started to try to figure out how many there were. Three. Or could there be more?
<<I count three of them, though there could be more. What exactly should we do about them?>> Vance asked. The only idea in his mind was dive-bombing, but he and Ariel did not have threatening birds and after the initial shock, a goose and screech owl would not be threatening either.
Or maybe…
<<Should we just try to avoid the controllers and come around the other side? We could morph into water morphs and try to get into the ship.>> That was his only real suggestion at the moment.
Willy:
<<I suppose the water would be our safest bet,>> Willy said as he tried to assess the situation. if any of those controllers saw them fly into the ship, they would come after them. Even if they managed to escape, they would have accomplished nothing by doing so. Yeah, the water would be best.
<<Alright everyone. Try to find a way to the water without them seeing you. If they see you, fly away and make sure you aren't shot or followed. Everyone who makes it, try to morph as fast as possible. I expect we won't have much time.>> Willy was going to leave it at that, but figured he should give out some more specific orders as well.
<<Kat, Ariel, Vance. You three will be in charge of determining what went on inside. Try to figure out what happened and see if there is anything useful in there that we can use. But watch out for survivors. I will keep guard. My water morph can't exactly climb into the ship, but it doesn't need to breath air, so I should be able to get pretty close to the controllers without them knowing.>>
Willy wasn't sure if he would be able to see or hear anyone once he was in the water, but he would find out soon enough. Willy swooped down into some reeds at the water's edge and began to demorph, already freezing cold in the shallow water.
Kat:
<<I'm going to land near the water but out of sight, probably a bit far away so I won't be spotted, then use my otter morph to swim the distance to the ship. >> Kat informed them as she started to veer away from the odd, spread out flock. She glanced back at the half submerged ship as she did so, noticing the dracon being aimed as the controllers seemed to interact.
<<Doesn't look like they're getting along too well..>> She muttered before starting to pick up speed and break away.
It wasn't too long before Kat was descending, landing close to the waters edge at a fair distance from the crash sight. She gave the area a quick look over to make sure no one was around before starting to demorph.It took a less then three minutes to shift from the Canadian Goose to her normal self, and then a bit long for her to shift to the Sea Otter. She had only used this morph a few times and it had only been to practice in the waves of the Pacific Ocean. She's never actually used it for a mission before.
She eased herself into the water quietly once the transformation was complete, doing her best to control the otter's instincts. Fresh water wasn't it's normal domain but Kat tried to keep her thoughts from being taken over by what the otter knew wasn't right. She also needed to resist the otters urges to forage and groom itself, keeping her mind on the what she needed to do. She began to slowly make her way towards the crash, trying to keep herself hidden and refrain from making a commotion.
Vance:
<<Got it.>> Vance responded to Willy for his instructions and to Kat for informing them. He circled above the crash site for a moment before going into a dive as he spotted a decent enough place to morph. After quickly checking to make sure he did not over look anything, he began to demorph and then remorph.
Demorphing was faster than remorphing to his river otter. Even with the practice he had done in the morning, he was still incredibly slow and clumsy with the morph. The instincts of the animal were stronger for Vance than any other morph he had had. Even with the unnatural feeling he got from the snow bunting, it was not as strong as the river otter’s instincts.
After the focus on morphing and the amount of time it took, Vance had to be more aware of the animal’s mind tugging at his. At first it was easy since Vance wanted to go to the water and the otter’s instincts urged it to get into its natural habitat. However, once in the water, he felt the urge to swim off, and head downstream and away from the city to go and find food, and possibly a female otter. Those instincts were harder to control and took most of Vance’s concentration to keep the otter on course to the ruined ship.
Gala:
Gala tried to steady her arm. She couldn't afford to have her whereabouts reported and if she had to take out these two nobodies to protect herself she would. They couldn't be of a very high rank or else they wouldn't be out here handling logs. One of them didn't even look adequately dressed.
"Who are you?" Najm began to open his mouth again and she quickly cut him off. "No, not you, you?" she said motioning briefly with the dracon beam towards the boy behind him. For a moment a look of anger and fear flashed across Najm's face and he stepped so that he was standing in between her and the other controller.
From behind him she heard the other kid say, "uh, Yemi 908." Gala looked at Najm and the bit of Yemi that she could see over his shoulder. "We can help you," Yemi continued. Najm glanced quickly behind him but didn't contradict the other controller.
Gala was quiet for a moment, her arm shaking less and less as she began to feel in control of the situation. She didn't have much time but she had some. But where was she going to go? Hide in these unfamiliar Earth woods? She had no training for dealing with the wilderness of this world and Dee's memories were enough to tell her that this planet could be savage and deadly.
"How?" she finally asked deciding to consider her options. Yemi walked up until he was standing right behind Najm. She could see his face now, over Najm's shoulder, and it looked scared. Not exactly an unusual occurrence when yeerks met, especially when there were aristocrats who had all the power and peons that had none.
"We are pilots. We might be able to fix your ship," he said motioning behind him. Gala looked past them to the half submerged ship. She had stolen it from the common shipyards since her clearance high enough to get her past the guards. But the yard operators had known the minute she'd powered it up that she wasn't supposed to be flying. They had sent people after her and the only reason she'd lost them was because she'd taken it out of atmosphere and there had been a work crew up there putting the final touches on the lasers that Visser One had commissioned. Her ship had gotten lost among all the others but they would find her soon enough. And when they did she wouldn't be able to outfly them again. She was no pilot and she only knew the basics of fighter operation. That was why she'd crashed when the dracon beam had lanced past her window.
"Fine, take a look at it. I'll stand back here." She backed up a few paces before she lowered the dracon beam. They were out of immediate danger for now but she would be able to raise the weapon again quickly if she had to.
Yemi turned immediately but Najm stood and stared at her for a moment. She had seen that look of defiance and rage in a controller's eyes before. He didn't like being told what to do and she couldn't blame him. This was the system she was fighting against and now she was acting just like the people she hated. But her life was on the line so she put her misgivings aside and returned his angry stare with a determined one of her own.
Yemi came and grabbed his arm and Najm turned away. They walked towards the ship and climbed onto the log she had used to climb down. She felt a bit of satisfaction watching them struggle with the slippery log, rotten bark peeling off under their hands and causing them to fall back and slowing their progress.
Ariel
<Okay,> Ariel told Willy before she dived down to demorph in the water. Her nightingale morph was not happy with her at all. It felt like it was drowning as she slowly started to demorph. Suffocating! Focus, Ariel...focus... Her red hair was now floating in the water as she forced herself to attempt to swim deeper into the water. Her feet showed up then and she kicked powerful kicks to get out of sight of anyone that would possibly see her.
Soon, Ariel was human and she focused immediately on her dolphin morph. She tried to imagine her blowhole coming first and it didn't seem to work, since her eyes shifted. After that, the blowhole made itself and she had a little easier time. She sped up the morphing as fast as she could and went up to the surface. Taking a deep gulp of air, Ariel dived back down and swam a ways behind Vance as they headed towards the damaged ship. <See anything?>
Kat:
The sea otter gliding through the water almost effortlessly, despite freshwater not being its normal domain. The instincts were content with the liquid surrounding it, though the lack of salt water creatures for food left it dismayed. Kat did her best to keep herself in check since food wasn't the reason she was in the water to begin with. She took a breath and submerged herself in the water, heading towards the direction of the wreckage.
To her left she could feel the movement of the water from her sensitive whiskers. Something was close by and it took her a moment to realize it was another otter, though one that wasn't exactly the same as her. She was positive it was one of the others actual wild animals were scarce nowadays. <<Another otter?... Vance? Ariel?>> She asked in private thought speak.
There came more vibrations in the water. This time it was to her right and much larger then the otter she'd just discovered. Her eyesight was decent below the water and she moved in the direction of the movement to get a better look, only to find a dolphin not far away from her. A dolphin!? That was going to stick out like a sore thumb in this environment. No doubt coming up for air would be noticeable with a blow hole spouting water. Like before, she didn't know who exactly the morphed individual was since she was unfamiliar with her new team mates morphs.
<<Isn't a dolphin a little out of place here? I really think that's not a smart choice for this... Don't you have anything smaller that could climb into the ship?>> Kat said privately, voicing her opinion. She wasn't sure who she was talking to yet.
Willy:
It was not too long before Willy managed to get into the shape of an eel. His eel morph was one that he did not use often, so he was not all that familiar with it. But then again, The only morph that he had used very often since arriving in Ottawa was his owl morph. Willy thought about this as he slid along the bank of the water. He was heading towards where he knew the controllers were earlier.
<<Is everyone still safe?>> He hadn't heard from them since they started demorphing, so he hoped that was a sign that everything was going alright. <<I can't see you in this morph, so Vance, you're in charge.>> Willy was planning on making Vance his second in command just like Layla was for Tim back in DC. However, Willy still hadn't gotten around to telling him. Maybe if this mission went alright, he would tell Vance afterwards.
Vance:
<<It’s me, Vance.>> He answered Kat’s question as he swam along, still trying not to get distracted by the otter’s instincts. Though then he heard Willy, causing him to once again concentrate on both staying on mark and talking. What’s more, Willy put added pressure on him.
<<Safe and understood.>> He responded, keeping his difficulties a secret from them. He tried to focus his mind on the goals before him; getting to the ship, getting on, finding anything useful. However, the otter’s mind still continued to tug at his and Kat’s presence as another otter did not help.
He did his best to ignore it and focus on the mission and soon a thought came to his mind, which allowed him to push the otter’s instincts back even more. How exactly were they going to get into the ship? He had spotted an opening on the side the controllers were at but because of the controller’s presence, they wouldn’t be able to go near that part…
<<Does anyone see any openings at all? There could be some damaged parts under the water that would allow us to get in.>> Vance asked as he went to dive under the water to check out the submerge part.
Ariel:
Ariel heard Katrina's thought-speak in her head and stopped. <Good point. What other morph could I use?> She thought for a moment. <Possibly my beaver.> She swam up to the surface and demorphed as quick as she could, and without waiting, she focused on the beaver morph. She saw that the people were trying to go inside the ship and so therefore she was safe for a moment.
Ariel wanted her morphing to speed up and soon, it was finished. <Is this better?> she asked Kat privately, hoping that this would work. If it didn't, then chances were she would get caught. <Willy? Did anyone see me?> She asked him privately. Then Willy spoke. <Oh, nevermind. That answered that.> Her voice revealed her slight fear, but she tried sounding brave. She didn't want to be considered weak and useless. Though she also didn't want anyone hurt because of her.
Ariel swam around the ship, trying to stay out of sight. <Vance, I think I see one over here. Maybe a garbage disposal area? Should we try that, or is that too dangerous?>
Kat:
From the different responses, Kat realized Vance was the other otter and Ariel was the one who needed to switch morphs. She was relieved to hear that the dolphin wasn't the only option available for Ariel. A beaver was perfect for what they were about to do. <<The beaver would be a much better choice.>> She told Ariel as she continued to carefully make her way to the ship.
Willy had put Vance in charge since the eel morph left him incapable of seeing much of what was going on, and Kat stayed close to the second otter for a short time until they got closer to the ship. Noting what side the opening the controllers went in was at, she dove under and began to exam the ship's side, branching off from the others. Like Vance, Kat too figured there must be a cracked area or hole caused by the crash they could slip into to get inside the ship. After all, it was only half submerged and could have possibly hit bottom, damaging the exterior, and who knew what had happened to cause it to actually go down. It could have been shot down and a hole could have resulted from that as well.
<<A garbage disposal area may be worth checking out...>> Kat responded, though it was up to Vance since he had been put in charge. <<I'm going to continue looking for damage on the outside.I"m sure there's gotta be something...>>
Vance:
Vance heard the response of Ariel and was silent for a moment as he checked out the bottom of the ship. Diving down under the water was rather interesting with the aquatic plants and the different landscape, but the rather large protruding ship kept him from getting distracted from his goals. There were several scrapes along the bottom of the ship and one seemed to be just large enough and convenient enough to use.
<<The garbage disposal is a good idea, but that may be tricky getting in from the outside. Though, we should keep that in mind if we need to get out in a hurry.>> He spoke, answering Ariel’s question.
<<There does seem to be a damaged enough opening to allow us to get in from the bottom. So, we should probably use that. I’ll go in first to make sure it’s clear and you two follow behind.>> Vance told them, taking up the leadership role. He was surprised at himself for volunteering to go in first without even debating about it with himself. He also just hoped that he was not making a mistake and none would happen any time soon…
Willy:
Willy snaked through the water like a hot knife through butter. The sideways undulating was kind of annoying, but other than that, being an eel wasn't so bad. He was getting more and more used to it with each passing moment. Perhaps he would try out another water morph sometime in the near future. But for now he needed to concentrate on the task at hand. The bug fighter.
Willy was glad to hear that Vance was taking to a leadership role fairly well. He considered reminding Vance to be careful, but decided against it. It may have done more harm than good if Willy suggested that he do something so obvious. Besides, Willy had reached his destination. He could just make out the figures of the controllers above the surface of the water. It appeared they were messing with a log to try and get back to the bug fighter? Or at least one of them was.
<<One of them is trying to get back into the ship,>> Willy warned. <<I'm not sure they will be able to do it though. Just be ready to get out of there if necessary.
Zach/Adamo:
Adamo got a hand on the side of the doorway though, if the ship was righted, it would actually have been the floor to the entry hatch. He groped around for a bit until he was able to get another hand hold and then attempted to pull himself up into the ship. His muscles strained and he suddenly wished he'd spent more time in the gym. Those lateral pull downs would have come in handy right now.
"Hurry up...Yemi," he heard from beneath him. He didn't bother responding since it would have taken using his chest muscles to control his breathing enough to speak and they were currently engaged in getting him into the hatch. He felt a slight shove from beneath him and it was just enough to give him what he needed to pull himself up.
He tumbled into the ship, rolling into a ball to protect himself. He came to a jarring stop when his spine connected with one of the consoles quite painfully. He yelped and pushed himself away from the machinery as he stood up. Standing in the ship was slightly nauseating. Everything was at an odd angle.
Zach pulled himself into the ship after Adamo and made a more graceful entry. He stood up and looked around himself before going over to a console and attempting to turn the fighter on. There was no response.
"Let's get to work and see if we can make this thing fly again," Zach said as he contemplated the console.
Kat:
Kat maneuvered her way around the side of the partially submerged ship. Vance wasn't in sight from the angle she was at, but she knew he and Ariel were close enough. Her eyes scanned the metallic surface as she moved easily through the water, searching for damage. A small hole could pose an opportunity for getting in, she just needed to find one.
Kat had to agree that the garbage disposal did seem like a better escape route then an entrance. It could work if they got desperate, but there had to be something better. Not long into her search Vance beat her to the discovery of a suitable damaged area, and with a quick turn she was traveling about the alien ship to find him.
<<Go up for air before going in.>> She advised. <<You don't know how difficult it could be to get to an area with air.>> There was a chance that it could be a fairly simple task, but the chances of it get complicated were just as likely. Depending on where they went it, there could be plenty of obstacles to get around before coming to where the water stopped filling the ship.
Speaking of air, she needed to go up for some herself at the moment. Willy's thought speak reached her as she tilted her body upwards and headed for the surface, planning on simply sticking her nose up carefully and quickly sinking back down so she wouldn't be seen. Now they had to watch out for whoever had entered the ship while trying to check it out.
Kat poked her nose through the surface of the water just enough to catch a deep breath of air then quickly headed back down to the ship. She caught sight of Vance and the damaged area and headed for him.
Vance:
Lovely, just what they needed, controllers in the bug ship, Vance thought to himself. He was half tempted to suggest they should just abort the mission, though he decided against it since the risk was not too high and they could still profit from this, Vance kept the suggestion to himself and soon he heard Kat’s suggestion about resurfacing for air.
<<Good idea.>> He responded, as he turned the otter’s body around, keeping himself aware of which side of the ship he was on. He headed upward, moving with caution and poked his nose above the water for air. The otter morph was becoming easier to use, or maybe it was just the situation and the possible danger that kept Vance in control. Either way, Vance was soon back down to the opening with fresh air and ready to enter.
<<I’ll go in first.>> Vance said, figuring that was the proper thing to do. Since he was the acting leader, he should be the one to take more of the risks, unless the others volunteered but asking for volunteers would take up more time. So he swam up to the hole and entered.
It was a bit of a tight fit and he felt the ripped metal poke at his sides but it was nothing major. At most, it just gave him some scratches that amounted to cat scratches, though even when he was through the hole, it was still tight. The hole entered into an engine room, packed tight with the yeerk technology that allowed the ship to fly. Vance scampered around the odd twist and turns of the metal as he tried to get to the surface.
<<Do be careful, it’s tight.>> Vance told the others as a warning.
Ariel:
Ariel heard everything that was being said between Kat and Vance, but didn't add anything. She was grateful though that they finally found an opening to the inside. Then Kat advised them to go up for air before trying to go in. <I agree,> was all she said before she went up. Vance had already gone up and came back down, when Ariel came back down.
Vance decided to go first, and so, in silence, she watched as he started his way inside. Then she heard his warning about it being a bit tight. She was sure they could handle it, though. Vance was making it okay in there so far, and they were all roughly the same size right now. She turned her head towards Kat and asked her, <Do you want to go next? I can bring up the rear. It's entirely to you.>
Kat:
Vance's otter morph swam up for air before Kat watched him disappear through the hole in the side of the ship they had found. It seemed like a bit of a tight fit but it looked manageable at the same time. Her morph was just about the same size so she doubted she would have any trouble unless Vance happened to along the way, but everything appeared to be doing well so far. Vance gave a small warning, urging them to be careful but didn't seem like he was having any major troubles, at least not yet.
<<I can head it next.>> Kat told Ariel, answering the question that had been directed at her. She didn't mind who went next either way and just decided to roll with going second. She didn't want to waste time trying to figure out who should go next. They didn't have the time for that.
Following suit, Katrina cruised forward, touching the side of the ship lightly with the otters front hands as she examined the hole for just a moment. She poked her head in slowly to test out the size of it before carefully squeezing herself through, feeling the metallic jagged edges rub against her sides.
She had to squeeze her body in through the tight space then weave her way in further. The turns and twists of the opening were uncomfortable and she battled her way to find a wider spot. Metal and mechanical engineering could be found on either side of her and she tried to avoid getting tripped up in any of the wires hanging along the way. Several times she'd almost gotten a limb caught as she swam along.
<<It's easy to get stuck.>> She muttered, giving her own heads up. She prayed the engine wouldn't some how manage to turn on while they were getting through to the inside. She wasn't an expert on mechanics but she figured being near any sort of engine or machine's inside circuiting when the machine turned on wouldn't be a fun experience.