Post by Admin on Sept 23, 2009 19:51:10 GMT -5
Fin:
Fin finished demorphing and thought about remorphing again but knew he should conserve his strength. They had quite a day ahead of them, checking out the base and all, and he shouldn't be tired before he went. He had to balance out practicing the new sooty falcon morph with saving his energy and he'd decided it was time to save his energy.
On his way down from his morning flight he had seen the sun peeking over the horizon. It was time to go. He wondered how he should wake everyone up....
The banging of the pots together was quite loud but quite festive as Fin beat out and sang, "We will, we will rock you!"
Lukas:
Lukas's eyes flashed open, and he growled. Fin was making a bloody racket. He'd been having the nicest dream, and the last thing he needed was the clashing of pans and the none-too-melodic cries of Fin the resident nutcase reviving him from it. He leapt from his bed, ripped open the curtains and flinched as he sun's harsh rays assailed his eyes. He turned and pulled on his morphing outfit, glancing at the clock as he did so. This wasn't fair. He had at least twenty minutes of sleep left. Nobody disturbed his sleep. This was his first full night in weeks. Fin would pay.
Snarling, Lukas pulled open the door and stomped down the hallway, fists balled. He had no intention of punching Fin, but the act of making fists was a small comfort. Nevertheless, he pushed the door into kitchen open so forcefully that it slammed hard against the nearby counter and bounced back. It would probably have collided with Lukas if he hadn't been moving quite so swiftly, and instead it clattered hard against the door frame, banging loudly. Lukas glowered at Fin venomously. "Fin, what the fuck are you doing?" He growled, quietly but harshly.
Fin:
"Ah, Lukas my good man. I'm glad you're awake," he said as if he wasn't the cause of that stat of being, his fake (bad) British accent which hadn't been there a minute ago immediately taking over his voice when faced with Lukas. He had no idea why, that just seemed the natural way to talk to the other animorph.
"Well you see we seem to have a bit of a situation on our hands. We have to go spy on some yeerks up in the mountains and then maybe follow them to their secret underwater base and then, maybe get ourselves killed or so. And then after all that I was thinking we could go out to lunch, and if we are going to be done in time for lunch we'll have to leave fairly soon."
Lukas:
Lukas nearly hit him.
Instead, he growled something that may have rhymed with 'plastered' if had been a little clearer, stormed over to the table, seized a ripe pear from the fruit basket, and flung himself into the chair with a grunt. He then proceeded to tear great chunks of flesh from it with his teeth, and soon the fruit was quickly demolished, a victim to the powerful duo of anger and hunger. He threw the eviscerated fruit at the bin, considerably more forcefully than was necessary. The fruit hit with sufficient force that the plastic casket within which it now resided rocked unsteadily to one side, before slamming back down onto the floor. His hunger somewhat abated, his fury somewhat less so, Lukas addressed Fin again.
"So, we're embarking on yet another perilous journey, filled undoubtedly with buckets of dracon fire, to an underwater base where we may well get stuck and be captured. Said journey will undoubtedly have repercussions we won't like. And you choose to herald it with an improvised drum solo and an old Queen song." He paused to brush a wayward lock of hair out of his eyes, and then continued. "I admit there is something strangely appropriate about it, as a lot of yeerk arse will undoubtedly be kicked this day, since we can never do anything yeerk related without a scrap. But still, I had twenty goddamn minutes left of sleep. Seriously." Lukas loved a bit of adventure as much as the next animorph, and he was honestly quite excited about the prospect of the mission, but still, he missed his sleep, and when he was denied it he could get a little cranky.
"Oh, and Fin," He said pointedly, "if we somehow save humanity, please don't release an album."
Fin:
"Naw, I'll be too busy with my art career," he said referencing a conversation he'd once had with Mitch and Mel that Lukas probably hadn't heard about. And now that he thought about it he better not spread the idea around too much. The other animorphs might steal it and then he would make no moneyz.
"Well, if you really need another twenty minutes you can probably sleep when we get there. We are going to be going up to the base in the mountains and then waiting around for a long time until we can catch a ride on a ship. And then we'll be waiting around some more. They probably don't have an in flight movie so you could sleep then too. And then we'll be doing all that other stuff you mentioned that involves danger and daring."
He looked towards the other rooms in the Lodge. "Where are the girls? What's the point of doing any of this if there aren't girls watching us do it and ooing and ahhing over our brave deeds in battle?"
Meredith:
"Oh, yes, mighty Fin. You must further impress me with your manly man might." Meredith pronounced sarcastically, commenting on the last bit of Fin's talk. She was half-yawning, and in her pajamas - gray draw-string shorts, black leg warmers, and a white t-shirt. She glanced up at the two, less annoyed at being woken than Lukas was. "So, what's this? Mountain adventure?"
The short animorph walked drowsily to the counter and tore a banana from a mildly overripe bunch. "I've always been more partial to 'Killer Queen', myself. Or 'Bicycle." Tearing it into manageable chunks, she ate a bit of the fruit at a time, her eyes wavering to Fin with an arched brow above one of them. Awaiting what words of wisdom would come forth next, of course.
Lukas:
Lukas grinned at Fin's comments despite himself, and that grin widened with Meredith's sarcastic rebuttal. "The plan is for a refreshing mountain hike, followed by a romantic pleasure cruise to an underwater yeerk base. We'll be greeted human controllers who assuredly won't be asking us if we enjoyed our voyage. And I'm certain they won't recommend we use yeerkish ferries for our return trip, regardless of how polite we are to the barman."
Lukas's speech was temporarily hindered by a jaw splitting yawn which lasted for several seconds. As if in reply, his stomach rumbled, arguing the case that Lukas was more hungry than tired. He considered getting up and grabbing another piece of fruit from the counter, but ultimately he decided he was comfortable where he was, and the food would still be there after a good sit. "I was always fond of 'Don't Stop Me Now', myself."He announced dreamily, to nobody in particular, thinking back to a scene in a film, wherein three people beat a zombie with pool cues. He grinned as he contemplated fighting zombies as animorphs. Now that was a good movie idea.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, he sat up straight. "Regardless, next time another approach to the wake up call might work. Like doing it when we actually plan to get up. I'll shut up about it now, but when I wake you up with a bucket of water, Fin, don't be surprised." Aware he'd complained a little too much, he allowed his anger to drop. He instead stretched his arms, and once again yawned widely.
Mel:
<Ow, man these ears are sensitive> Melanie was in cat form again, up early as she often was. <I like their Highlander movie songs myself. "Here we are, born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe...here we belong, fighting to survive in a war with the darkest power..." Or how about "We are the champions, my friends, and we'll keep on fighting 'till the end...."
She quieted, getting some of the breakfast for herself as Fin and the others started discussing a new mission. And couldn't help laughing at Meredith once she'd demorphed back to human. Then in reply to Lukas's remark, she said "or we could just have Mitch wake him up...nah, on second thought, we'd all regret that one. I just might though, hopefully I can imitate the domestic cat's prowess at awaking sleeping humans..." She made a swipe gesture with her hands, like cat claws.
"I'll go...I hope my deer likes mountains since the cat's a jungle animal and won't get far. I'll fly when night comes but my owl is blind during the day, and the cockatoo is also warm weather. Underwater is good, I can go sea lion."
Fin:
Fin walked over and poured himself a bowl of cereal and then decided that he needed two and got out another bowl. They would need their strength for today.
When he turned around Fin looked at cat-Mel, Meredith and Lukas. "Who's Queen?" He said it with a completely straight face and made sure to keep it that way.
There was nothing that pissed off music aficionados than when you didn't know this or that famous band and Meredith and Lukas gave off the music aficionados vibe and Mel did a bit too.
Mitch:
Mitch slowly say up in his bed. He extended his arms and yawned. Last night had been a good nights sleep. Through slitted eyelids, Mitch could see faint rays of light streaming through his window and illuminating the dust in the air. Might as well get up and start moving around. Mitch thought. Morning was his favorite time ever. he loved the one time of day were he could be up and not have to be in a morph to be able to hear anyone.
He slipped his legs out of the warm coccoon formed by his blankets and stepped onto the carpet. He trotted across the room and rubbed grit from his eyes. Soon, Mitch was almost at the kitchen, looking for an early breakfast. Wait. People were already up. Fin, Meredith, and Lukas were already there and mel was prowling around as a cat. Might as well join the party.
Black fur covered his arms as he shrank. A few minutes later, a spider monkey walked into the kitchen. <<Hey everybody. Can I crash this party? My invite must have been lost in the mail. And did I hear talk about mountains?>> After Mitch said that, he crossed the kitchen and jumped on to the counter. The banana in Meredith's hand had looked really good to his human and monkey sides so he could resist. He grabbed a banana, peeled it, and began to eat.
Meredith:
Meredith rolled her eyes at Fin, but not with annoyance, and with a half-smile. She deftly retaliated with a chuck of banana aimed at his forehead. "Queen. A female monarch. An English rock band formed in nineteen seventy. And the name of my Great Pyrenees morph." Meredith added afterwards, smiling, knowing that they were being teased.
"Mornin', Mitch; Mel." was the quick greeting given while Meredith sat herself down at the kitchen table. "So, mighty Fin: when are we getting this show on the road?" She sounded mildly surprised at the end of her question, but not by anything others knew. In fact, she startled herself with her chipperness, in face of the events of the last few days. Save Lukas, the other Vancouver Animorphs only knew the basics of what had happened that morning in the woods - Meredith didn't want their pity.
Lukas:
Lukas smirked as Fin asked the identity of Queen, and just shook his head. He nodded casually to the cat and monkey which had just entered the room, a gesture of greeting which would probably look quite insane to an uninformed onlooker. His fresh-from -bed temper was wavering, which was only a good thing. The last thing everyone else needed was Lukas being smarmy and cynical all day. Instead he spoke to Mitch. "Sure, you can crash this party, but I wasn't aware it was a fancy dress theme."
He glanced at Meredtih with a minor look of surprise. Her tone was surprisingly cheerful. He hadn't spoken to anyone about the incident in the woods, and he was reasonably sure she hadn't said much about her mother to anyone. However, his surprise settled quickly. She was strong, she was dealing with it well. This pleased him. He tried to catch her eyes and smiled warmly at her.
"Well, just Matthias and Aida to wait for now. Apparently you weren't quite loud enough, Fin, though I'm surprised I can honestly say that."
Fin:
At the mention of Aida's name Fin's hands started to shake though he hid it by stuffing them under his arms. It looked like he was trying to warm himself up and it was made all the more believable by the fact that his whole body was shivering slightly.
Fin hadn't been able to face Aida since that day. He hadn't meant to...yes he had. He had been a coward and Aida had suffered for it, horribly. No one here knew about it and Fin didn't like that. He wish they all knew about it. He wish that they all knew he was a coward and that he couldn't be trusted. He wished they hated him and would throw him out of the animorphs instead of trading witty banter with him about old rock bands.
But it hadn't been his choice. Aida hadn't wanted anyone to know and the least Fin could do was respect her wishes.
Since that day Fin had been avoiding her, going out all day on various spy missions of his own making. Normally wasting his time. But it had paid off at least once and that was all that mattered.
"You know, Matthias knows where this place is, they can catch up. We really should get going." Fin didn't wait for an answer. He didn't want to give the others a chance to comment on the change of tone, for no matter how he tried to play it off his voice had come out a little shaky, he just went outside and began morphing the black falcon form.
He didn't even know if the others would follow him but he wasn't going to wait for Aida to show up, even if that meant going up there alone.
Mitch:
<<Good morning Meredith.>> Mitch said as he finished of his banana. <<And Lukas, if I had known this was a dress-up party, I would've worn some clothes.>> Mitch laughed as stood up on the counter and turned around. He sat back down and clumsily crossed his legs as best he could. He could not resist another comment. <<Yeah, Fin. Are you sure you were banging stuff around? I personally didn't hear you so Matthias and Aida might not've either.>>
Sheesh! Fin doesn't wait around! Mitch thought as the teen left the Lodge and began to morph. <<Oh well, might as welll join him. And keep him out of trouble. What say you?>> Mitch asked everyone. He began to demorph as he said that and he walked outside, a shifting mass of fur and and constantly changing size.
About a minute after he stepped outside, feathers began to form.
Meredith:
Meredith raised an eyebrow subtly at Fin's insistence to move forge ahead with two of their fold. She shrugged it off, though, and concentrated. Lines, flowing and smooth, drew themselves across her flesh as she shrunk, her skin dulling to a warm French Grey. The lines formed feather, which split and soften after a moment. Her stomach flip-flopped, as did several other parts of her anatomy, disturbingly. And then, there was a pigeon with a banana peel.
<<Dang.>> Meredith pronounced, staring at the peel and pecking at it. <<Can someone put that in the trash?>> With that, she beat her wings fiercely and alighted upon the table. <<I wish I had a cool bird morph.>> she lamented, half-joking. <<I feel like one of those pigeons from Animaniacs.>> The little bird cocked her head in the direction of the door, and Meredith took off, following Fin's lead, and praying that he hadn't closed the door.
Mel:
"Hey" Melanie said to Mitch when he came into the room. She chuckled a litle at the dress up comment that he made. The others started to morph, and so she followed suit, a little surprised at Mitch morphing as he walked. She had been leaning against using her owl morph, but it was still early and she was afraid she'd lose contact if she went deer right now. She hoped the owl might prove better than the cockatoo at flying for a long while.
<I need a cool daytime morph...either that or for this operation to move to Australia> she said once her thought-speak worked. <If I get too blind, I'll just have to hide and switch birds, I guess> she said, and moved outside to finish her morph. <I hope I don't get too blind too fast> she said as she became fully owl and took off after the others.
Lukas:
Lukas was the last to morph. He was itching to go, but Fin's sudden change of tone concerned him. He'd instantaneously lost a lot of his usually warmth, and there had been an oddly strained tone to it. Probably nothing, kid's just nervous, wants to get this over with. Leave the worrying to someone else. He considered waiting for Matthias, but decided against it. He didn't need his hand holding, and he certainly was no coward. He followed the shifting Mel out of the door and into the early morning light. He squinted for a moment, his eyes adjusting to the sun.
Notciing the others were mostly feathered and beaked by now, Lukas's form began to warp. The now-familiar obsidian feathers began to spout from his face and neck, as pale grey and brown feathers burst forth elsewhere. Swiftly, Lukas completed his morph, and took launched himself after his comrades, hesitating only for a momentary glance back at the lodge. Just go, they'll need you more than Matthias and Aida will. Make sure Fin doesn't get everyone killed. He was unconcerned about the distance deficit between himself and the others. After all, over long distances, he doubted they could all outfly a goose.
Mitch:
<<Well, I think your cockatoo is kind of cool. A small bird might actually be better and not stick out as much as I will.>> Mitch said to Melanie and he extended his wings to a massive 6.5 foot long wingspan and he stretched his snow white neck up towards the sky. Then Mitch fought for control of the aggresive bird and charged a tree. Before he hit it, he had aquired enough momentum to fling himslef into the air.
With a steady hum emmenating from his wings, Mitch powered through the air. After several minutes of flying, Mitch said lightly to everybody, <<Did somebody close the door? When we get back, there had better not be wild animals raiding the fridge or my room or somebody's going to pay.>>
Mel:
<<True...and I could play with its talking ability if we get bored. But I love this one too. I'd love to copy those fantasy books and make it some 'battle claws' as they call them to increase the damage it can do. Or learn to fly with ice or fire in my talons. That would scare a few controllers for a minute. >> She laughed in her head, picturing herself flying with the fictional owls. Mitch asked if anyone closed the door, and she had to laugh again. <Eh, if they're small enough, I can take care of them.> Melanie replied. <My kitty likes to play hunting games...Fin could join in too. I'd say you would, but then we'd all need gask masks. By the way, did you get up okay? I know it's not easy in the trees> she asked, remembering his swan morph.>
In the back of her mind, she was worried about Matthias letting them have it, but she promised herself that if he did, she wouldn't so easily blame herself or get all upset like she now had a reputation for. She did notice Fin's change, and hoped he would be okay calling the shots. She had done it that once, and that was enough for her, thank you.
Matthias:
I am going to kill him. Matthias thought as he rapidly lost his human form in favour of the gyrfalcon. I'm going to kill him, cut him into fifty pieces, and mail him to every state. It was a line from a movie Matthias had enjoyed and right now he had to say it seemed like a damned fine idea. He didn't give a rat's ass if Fin didn't want to wait around for him and Aida to show up, Matthias was still in charge here. Fin didn't get to call the shots, and his impudence was really getting on Matthias' nerves.
Furthermore, by the looks of the empty lodge, he had managed to recruit absolutely everybody except Aida to this little adventure, and that was in direct disobedience to what Matthias had said the previous night. He might not have objected to one more, perhaps two, but he did not like leaving the home so undefended on a mission that was best conducted in small numbers. This called for a change in plans.
Beating wing hard, knowing he had some ground to catch up, Matthias directed his private thought-speak ahead, and every so often repeated the message, knowing Fin would eventually have to hear it, <<You and I are going to have a talk when this is over, Fin.>> Oh, yes they would. Fin was useful, Matthias would not deny that, but he was not about to have a mutiny on his hands.
Mel:
<<Hey I hear wing beats, a new set, not one of ours>> Mel was finding out the sensitivity of barn owl hearing right now. They were said to be the best of all owls in the hearing department due to a difference in the facial disk. She saw the gyrfalcon coming by her and knew who it was right away.
Melanie had said she wasn't going to berate herself this time, and she did her best to keep her beak shut. Or should that be thoughts shut? At least this time she was only one of the followers. She might get yelled at with the rest later but it was Fin who was really going to get it, that was pretty obvious now.
Fin:
Fin was riding the scant thermals into the air. Lukas and Mitch had left him and the other raptors far behind in their flight and Fin was now working on trading height for distance. He thought Meredith would be the one to have the most trouble of all of them but she seemed to be doing ok.
For the most part he ignored the chatter around him. The mention of Aida had brought up painful memories that were hardly memories they were so recent. It was into this dark atmosphere that Matthias' thought speak voice invaded.
<<You and I are going to have a talk when this is over, Fin.>>
Fin didn't even really think about it. He didn't have to. Where had Matthias been when they had gotten in trouble? Off, doing nothing as usual. Off doing god knows what, playing war games in his head but never really comanding them. Aida had almost died! Worse! And when Fin had come looking for help (Ran away from battle a treacherous voice whispered) where had Matthias been! Nowhere to be found.
All of a sudden all the anger and guilt that Fin had been directing at himself had just found an outlet. His falcon's eyes scanned the air and spotted the white form of Matthias' gyrfalcon. Fin's black falcon and Matthias' white, how fitting.
<<Fuck you you piece of shit! You want to talk! You want to talk now! Where were you before, you sorry excuse for a faction leader. You're a fucking lazy son of a whore who sits around the Lodge and doesn't do shit except contemplate your navel but then wants to play dictator to the rest of us. You think I want to talk to you you whiny ass bitch.>>
Matthias:
That was enough. Matthias had put up with a lot of shit before, but Fin's outburst, while Matthias had to admit having some merit, was the last straw. He wasn't going to put up with this crap anymore, especially not from an impudent little wretch like Fin.
<<You want to talk to me about leadership, you little prick? You want to tell me how you keep putting our faction in harm's way by rushing headlong into things? I'm sitting back at base because I'm planning. We HAD to keep quiet for a while after the Yeerks found our old hideout; they were out for blood and I didn't want to give them any more than they'd already taken. But no, you had to just go rushing out with any hair-brained scheme that comes into your head. We aren't an army, you stupid son of a bitch, we're stragglers. Every life counts, and you're really not displaying that you've got your head around that.>>
Matthias managed to keep his tone calm as he berated Fin, circling slowly. His gyrfalcon was a bigger, faster, and more powerful bird than Fin's sooty falcon. Without warning, Matthias used that to his advantage as he dove at Fin like a thunderbolt. <<I'm leader of this faction for a reason, and if you don't want to let your brain believe that, I'll just beat it into you. I don't have time for this.>>
Fin:
<<Planning! Planning what! You wouldn't know how to plan a trip from your dick to your asshole. And speaking of our dearly departed, how did Cassie ever think you would make a good faction leader you fucking dipshit. You have single handedly gotten more people killed than anyone else. You want to talk about being careful, about how every life counts. You are the mass murderer Matthias, not the yeerks. Wrap your brain around that you cock sucker!>>
Fin dodged Matthias' dive bomb, turning aside at the last minute and letting him shoot past. Matthias may be bigger but he was faster. <<I'm not going to let you get me killed you shit eating dick wad.>> Matthias' talons had whistled through his primaries, but Fin was right with him. He closed his wings and dived after the white bird.
Matthias:
<<Watch your language boy.>> Matthias flared and tucked around, using the momentum he had gathered to get away from Fin enough to flap back and gain some altitude. Matthias really hated when people talked like that, non-stop cussing was never a good way to communicate. However, Fin's obvious emotional issues were Matthias' advantage; he could keep a cool head.
<<To be honest, I don't know what Cassie saw in me. You'd have to ask her that. But she picked me, not you, and that's something you should be remembering. If you don't like it here, pack up and move out. You can gather Animorphs somewhere else and boss them around how you like. If you're staying in Vancouver, you follow my orders.>>
Matthias had already dealt with his responsibility in the deaths of the faction members, and moved on, so Fin's insults glanced off him, doing nothing. Maybe he was a killer, he certainly had killed enough Yeerks. But a lot fewer people were going to die doing things his way than Fin's. And that was all this was, minimizing casualties.
As he circled in for another attack, Matthias relied more on the instincts of the falcon than his own game plan. The bird was a hunter, and all he had to do was zero in that Fin was prey. Matthias had experience, size, speed, and a cool head on his side. All Fin had was a touch more agility, and that wouldn't save him forever.
Fin:
<<Boy!>> Fin was about to start off again when Matthias disappeared from in front of him. It had happened so fast that Fin had lost track of the bird, especially against the white of the overcast sky. His own black body would be a lot easier to see.
He craned his head around looking for the faction leader yelling as he did so, <<Minimizing causalities! I think it is a little late for that. The whole damn human race is a causality! This is about getting some back, fighting, not sitting around in our little hovels waiting to die when the yeerks find us. And they will find us. They already did once.>> Found you, Fin thought as he spotted the white form coming for him.
Fin flew right to him. If he wanted a fight then he'd get one. He couldn't beat the gyrfalcon head on, he knew that, but he no longer cared. Let Matthias have his blood on his talons. It would be easier than facing Aida. Easier than facing the truth. That he was a coward.
<<You fucking coward!>> He screamed as the two birds came together and Fin flared to bring his talons to bear to grapple with the bigger falcon.
Matthias:
Matthias no longer answered Fin. The time for talking was over. Here was the little bird, flying headlong at him, screaming in his proverbial ear, and all Matthias could think was, it's about time.
Even straight up, Matthias knew one-on-one sooty falcon did not beat gyrfalcon, but he didn't like to take any chances he didn't have to. Flaring early so he swooped, Matthias brought his talons raking down on Fin's exposed head, his own body too high for Fin's talons to attack. Then, doing a backflip, Matthias glided away, the raptor body tiring of the hunt. Forcing himself to stay in the game, Matthias circled round, trying to see what damage he had done.
Free or dead. That was the motto the Hork-Bajir had lived by, according to Cassie. That was how Matthias had fought the war. Free or dead. The amount of people in the latter category, however, was getting disturbingly high.
Fin:
Matthias raked his head, coming in too high for Fin to reach. His talons permanently (or not so permanently in his case) darkened one of Fin's eyes. It was a deathly dangerous wound for something flying in the air and Fin knew that he would need to demorph soon if he could even make it to the ground
But he wasn't going alone.
Matthias had made the mistake of doing a back flip which put him right back in Fin's line of flight. And then he compounded his error by turning around.
Fin's raptor may be hurt and its mind screaming, but his own mind was working just fine. And it was the mind of a genius, if a reluctant one.
He quickly calculated the trajectories of the two birds and corrected. He wouldn't miss a second time.
He talons gripped Matthias right where his wings met his body. He dug them in hoping to wound the faction leader's flying muscles but he wouldn't bet this fight on that.
As he got a good grip on the gyrfalcon, closed his wings and began to demorph, growing heavier by the second and dragging Matthias out of the air with him. <<Live free or die. Isn't that something you told me once Matthias. It is drop and die time.>>
Matthias:
It was a bold move, Matthias had to give him that. It was also completely insane. For that reason, Matthias was not entirely surprised when Fin latched onto him. He didn't have a lot of time to decide what to do, so he had to act fast if he wanted to survive this fall.
Matthias was the fastest demorpher that Cassie had ever seen, but he knew that even he could not hope to pull off an entire switch before they hit ground. That was bad news. What was good news was that Fin couldn't do that either. He would land as some hybrid of falcon and human.
Surviving the fall wasn't something Matthias was looking forward to, and he decided to lengthen the process. Knowing that he could not support Fin's weight as he demorphed, he instead directed their dive, as he still had control of his flying. Fin's misshapen body would not hit ground first, it would hit tree, and Matthias hoped that would be enough to stun him and shake his grip.
Fin:
Fin could feel Matthias' wing muscles working on angling them and gripped harder, trying to damage them, but his talons were losing their strength as they became weak human feet. But he had moved past the point of rational action. All he knew was that he was going down and he was going to take Matthias with him.
As his hands began to emerge he scrabbled for purchase on Matthias' slick feathers. He may not be rational but he was perfectly capable of logic and logic said, what goes up must come down. At least where the law of gravity was in effect and gravity was everywhere. Gravity is what held the universe together.
YOU THINK THE UNIVERSE IS BEING HELD TOGETHER!
Fin ignored the big god voice. He'd heard those before.
Matthias:
As Fin demorphed, Matthias felt the grip on his feathers slacken and he kicked off hard with his talons, raking into Fin's flesh as he separated himself from the growing human boy.
Nosediving to get away as fast as he could, Matthias still expected to hear a crack as Fin's body struck the tree he had been aiming for, but there was nothing. Wanting to turn and look for the reason behind the lack of the sound, Matthias found that he could not do that. Some unseen force had frozen his body in place.
Somehow, the theatrics that followed the stoppage of time did not surprise Matthias in the least. Even from his frozen state, he could see the darkening sky enveloped in a red glow, and the low rumble of thunder somewhere far away.
Then...there it was...the power. There was no other word for it. Matthias just felt...completely insignificant in the sheer radiance of it. This was a being who could destroy worlds...galaxies...and here it was, taking a keen interest in a little civil dispute.
"MATTHIAS." The voice ripped right through him, and he found that he could move again, able to rotate his falcon body as he pleased, but unable to go anywhere still. "MATTHIAS, WARRIOR OF EARTH. MURDERER." Somehow, when the voice said it, it stung a lot more than when Fin had. "YOU HAVE ALWAYS DONE WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. NOW I OFFER YOU THAT CHOICE ONCE MORE. THE BOY WILL NOT SURVIVE THE CRASH TO THE GROUND. WILL YOU LET HIM DIE? WILL YOU SHOW THAT YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE SOME TO KEEP ORDER? OR WOULD YOU HAVE ME SAVE HIS MISERABLE LIFE?"
THAT caught Matthias off-guard. Wait a minute...I'm being given a choice? He felt like he was playing God...give life, or take it away. He had to stop and think about it for a moment. Why would an omnipotent being ask such a question? Clearly it had a vested interest in the answer, but what answer did it want? He needed to talk to the only person who understood such things, but she wasn't here. It was his call.
<<Let him live.>>
From the tremor that shook the earth straight through afterward, Matthias figured he had guessed wrong. "YOU ARE NOT READY YET, MATTHIAS. BUT YOU WILL BE. YOU WILL BE..."
Before Matthias could consider what had just happened, he and Fin were on the ground, both human, and both alive.
Fin:
Fin looked around. He had ended up on the ground. Which wasn't a surprise, that was where he was supposed to end up, except he wasn't supposed to be conscious when it happened. In fact he wasn't supposed to be alive.
He looked down at himself. He was human. He looked over at Matthias. Two for two on the human side.
His anger, his suicidal pain, his guilt, it was all washed away in a moment of bewilderment. "What the fuck just happened?"
Matthias:
For once, Matthias didn't care about Fin's language. His question about summed up Matthias' own feelings, vulgarity and all. "I...I don't really know." He waved up to the sky, calling his fellow Animorphs down to Earth. The mission might have to wait until tomorrow; this was a development they simply could not ignore.
"I'm guessing you didn't...experience...what I did up there. It sounds...insane...but time froze. And then...something...started talking to me. Wanted to know if I wanted to kill you or keep you alive. Didn't seem happy that I picked the latter option." Matthias scratched his head. "Even given that aliens are par for the course around here, that's just one freaky alien. I think Cassie talked about it. I think that was Crayak."
If it was, that meant Matthias needed to talk to Cassie now. That meant a faction leader meeting. That meant leaving Vancouver in someone's hands. But could he trust Fin now? He doubted it, but there was only one way to find out, and he would before the day ended.
Fin:
At the sound of Matthias' voice the world came back to Fin, problems and all. He didn't know about stopping time, he was pretty sure that was impossible though theoretically interesting, but he knew that he had been stopped in his attempts to end it all, or at least end him.
In all honesty he was grateful. He didn't really want to die. There was almost nothing out there worth his own life.
And that was exactly the problem. There was nothing worth his life to risk for. He would preserve his own health at any means and he hated himself for it. Coward, turn-coat, back-stabber. Bring on all the terms. He had seen what was about to happen to Aida and he had ran.
And it made no difference to him if he had been a bat at the time, weak and incapable of helping, it still hurt that he had left her there. If she was going to suffer then he should have suffered with her. And when he got back she had already rescued herself.
Fin had yelled at Matthias about how he had done nothing but it was Fin who had done nothing. Nothing at all.
"Whatever. Let's just go home." He looked up at the sky and then around him. "I don't know about you but I'm walking."
"Stop right there." Matthias' voice was assertive, but not as harsh as he might have wanted to be, given the words Fin had vented on him just a moment ago. "We're not going home until this is resolved. The mission will have to wait, yes, but I'm not going to have a traitor staying in the lodge. Turn around, look me in the eye, and tell me I can trust you or I swear, I will drop you here and now and let the Yeerks deal with you. I saved your life once but if you're going to throw it away, I'm not letting you take me or anyone else down with you."
This was it, the moment of truth. Fin seemed calmer now, more in control. If they could have a sane conversation, they needed to before any time passed. Something really strange was going on, and that meant Matthias had to leave. Could he leave Vancouver with Fin in charge? He needed to know the answer to that right now.
"So what's it going to be, Fin? You talked awfully big a few minutes ago, so let's have it. Are you on the team?" Matthias didn't expect an apology for Fin's actions and didn't want one, he just wanted to see which side of the fence Fin was sitting on. That was enough.
Fin:
Fin stopped cold, facing away from Matthias. The muscles in his shoulders and back tensed as he fought to control his anger and his shame. He wasn't the paladin type, he didn't believe in honorable apologies or grand pledges of loyalty. Most of those words were lies and it was better not to even say them in the first place.
So when he turned around all he said was, "Yeah I'm on the team." It wasn't said with much enthusiasm but at least it was said with conviction. He didn't know if he could be trusted again. No man could answer that question unless they knew the future. But he knew what his intentions were. And his intention was to never turn tail again.
And it wasn't for any grand reason or him trying to live up to some idea about honor he told himself. It was about survival. The last time he had run he had been so ashamed that he had put his own life in jeopardy. So he didn't care what danger he faced, he would face it so that he never had to come back here, to this place, to this feeling.
"Now, let's go home."
Mel:
Mel was circling, watching, surprised at what was going on. Part of her wanted to yell at them that they could hardly fight yeerk if they were fighting each other like that. But she opted to keep out of it and let them alone. Fortunately, no one died, and things seemed to calm down. She didn't come close for a while, wanting to avoid any privacy invasion for the moment.
She did respond to Matthias's call to land though, touching down after a few seconds. She was extremely curious, wondering, waiting for the leader to talk. The 'let's go home' surprised her though; They weren't doing the mission? She hadn't experienced any of what Matthias had, so she didn't know what had happened. She didn't ask the "what happened?" question she wanted to but she contemplated whether to keep this morph or change.
<I'm getting to that daytime blindness stage. I need to change birds.> she said, then started to demorph.
Meredith:
Meredith, opting to stay out of things, landing as soon as Matthias and Fin's began to tussle. Her pigeon wasn't exactly fantastic for hovering about in the same place for a long time. She demorphed, too, not wanting to be caught in her most vulnerable morph. She was rather distracted by the display above, and was rather taken aback by her ignorance of the inner turmoil that was dividing the faction. Frowning, she turned her head upwards, looking for the warring duo. There was a wave of nausea, like her brain was numbed and, suddenly, Matthias and Fin were on the ground, demorphed and looking rather bewildered.
Meredith, again, didn't try to interfere. She gingerly approached Fin and her faction leader, her arms outstretched warily, like one would if they were trying to alert someone gently. However, she didn't come any closer. Instead, she looked to Matthias with a troubled expression, silent.
Matthias:
Matthias glanced around at the bewildered faces of his faction members, immediately realizing that he was the only one that had heard Crayak's voice. "The mission is aborted until a later date. Something...big...is happening. I need to fly to New York soon, probably tomorrow, and speak to Cassie and the other faction leaders as soon as I can. I wish I could tell you more, but..." Matthias' voice trailed off and he shrugged, beginning to revert back to falcon.
Only when he was fully morphed did Matthias speak again, informing all of his members via thought-speak what had happened when Fin and he had been fighting. It didn't make any sense to him repeating it, but it was all he had to say. <<Melanie, stay with Fin. He wants to walk back, that's his choice. The rest of you, as Fin said, let's go home. We're done here. We need to regroup.>>
Matthias was a person who liked to have a plan, who relished his ability to see from point A to point B. But now there was a new - relative to the micro game - player, and that meant new factors, new variables. A new plan.
Meredith:
Even thought Matthias probably couldn't see it, Meredith nodded in compliance. She gazed at the faces of the others, then shut her eyes. She pulled the DNA of her favored morph up - the Great Pyrenees. The changes began a second after she concentrated on the form, as her nose ballooned out into a canine snout. Her teeth rearranged with an uncomfortable grinding noise while creamy, white fur spread across her body. Meredith's ears pointed, looking a bit like elf ears, before crawling up the sides of her head. And, then, as her broad, white tail fanned out behind her, the morph was complete.
Cheerily, Meredith bounded in front of Melanie and Fin, woofing a playful bark. No matter what had just occurred, nothing could deter the HAPPY rush one got from being a dog. <<Let's gooo!>> chanted Meredith, her tongue lolling out of her maw. She jumped around for a moment, then took off back towards the lodge.
Fin:
Fin smiled sadly at Meredith dog. The funk was unusual for him but he couldn't throw it off. He used to have this faith in himself. Ok, so it was a supreme faith in his own ability to survive but it was still a kind of trust. He had never done anything to disappoint himself before. Some people might suggest that it was because his standards of behavior were pretty low but he didn't think they were low, just unconventional.
And the truth was that if he had run away from Bryan and left Aida there by choice he probably wouldn't feel this way. But he had just run blind, reacting to someone else's actions. It didn't matter that he probably wouldn't have chosen to leave Aida behind in that situation. He knew that he was capable of making such a choice if he had to, if the mission required it.
But it had been no choice at all. It had just been a gut reaction. How could he trust himself now knowing that he was capable of such weakness.
He morphed into the kit fox, it would travel faster overland than his own two feet. There was no fox happiness waiting for him at the end of the morph, just fox cunning, which wasn't what he wanted at the moment.
<<Alright Mer, let's go.>>
Mel:
Melanie listened to Matthias's words, some of her questions answered as he spoke but new ones coming to her mind. Would they manage okay without Matthias for a while? She hoped they could. She was preparing to fly back as cockatoo, but Matthias asked her to hang back and go with Fin, who wanted to walk back. "Okay" she replied, her mouth still working.
She was midway into her cockatoo morph but she reversed it and then morphed to deer. Easier to travel by ground this way since she might lose him by air. She could have gone cat also, but it was better if one of them went as a morph that could fight if necessary. <<Right with you. I promise not to go too fast>> She knew that with her longer legs, she'd lose him if she didn't watch out.
Mitch:
Mitch was enjoying the air on his beaked face and streaming through his feathers. He was going a pretty good speed too with an never ending stream of wing beats. Even over the wind in his ears he could hear the low hum that his wings made.
He stopped day dreaming when Mathias's voice penetrated his thoughts. It had something to do with Fin and going home. He said to the only other Animorph who had been able to keep up with him, <<Hey Lukas! You heard the man. Let's go back.>>
As he talked he wheeled around and began to power back home of his snow-white wings.
Mel:
Melanie could see Mitch overhead, looking quite effortless on his swan wings. That was some long distance morph. <Oh there you are, I guess that is a good distance bird. Hard to keep up with.> she said, glancing up for a moment.
<I have no idea what happened, only that Matthias decided to turn us back. It's wierd, really, but I can't tell you the whole story. Like, maybe he saw something and we didn't see it or something like that. I'm k ind of disappointed, I was looking forward to trying out the sea lion.>>
Lukas:
Lukas bit back a venomous retort to Mitch. He'd heard the command, he didn't need it reiterating. Not everyone's as hard of hearing as you, Mitch, he growled to himself, but kept it to himself, with some effort. He was annoyed again now. Dragged out of bed for a mission which they weren't even going to attempt now, all because Fin was an unstable wreck. An unstable wreck who had made him look like a fool, too. He didn't like being messed around. He almost continued flying out of spite, as he doubted Matthias would be able to do much to keep up with him. At the end of the day, though, he couldn't be bothered with all the hassle. Besides, he could imagine that Matthias was pissy enough as it stood. He'd been too far ahead to hear all the arguments, but from what he could ascertain, tempers had frayed and fur had been flying. Or feathers, as the case may have been.
He wheeled around. Call it a day. Fine. He turned and powered his wings, propelling himself homeward. He needed a good mug of tea and a good sleep. It didn't matter that he hadn't been up long. Sleep was therapeutic, to Lukas anyway, and in his current mood he'd do nothing to lighten the atmosphere at the lodge. Best just to get a bit more shut-eye, and things would be slightly rosier for everyone. Just about.
Next time, Fin could please himself. If the others wanted to follow him, he wouldn't stop 'em, though as the second thought materialised his gut twinged as he thought of Meredith, who had also willingly followed Fin. He swallowed, and, with a quick nod at Mitch, proceeded back to the lodge. Sleep was looking more appealing by the second.
Fin finished demorphing and thought about remorphing again but knew he should conserve his strength. They had quite a day ahead of them, checking out the base and all, and he shouldn't be tired before he went. He had to balance out practicing the new sooty falcon morph with saving his energy and he'd decided it was time to save his energy.
On his way down from his morning flight he had seen the sun peeking over the horizon. It was time to go. He wondered how he should wake everyone up....
The banging of the pots together was quite loud but quite festive as Fin beat out and sang, "We will, we will rock you!"
Lukas:
Lukas's eyes flashed open, and he growled. Fin was making a bloody racket. He'd been having the nicest dream, and the last thing he needed was the clashing of pans and the none-too-melodic cries of Fin the resident nutcase reviving him from it. He leapt from his bed, ripped open the curtains and flinched as he sun's harsh rays assailed his eyes. He turned and pulled on his morphing outfit, glancing at the clock as he did so. This wasn't fair. He had at least twenty minutes of sleep left. Nobody disturbed his sleep. This was his first full night in weeks. Fin would pay.
Snarling, Lukas pulled open the door and stomped down the hallway, fists balled. He had no intention of punching Fin, but the act of making fists was a small comfort. Nevertheless, he pushed the door into kitchen open so forcefully that it slammed hard against the nearby counter and bounced back. It would probably have collided with Lukas if he hadn't been moving quite so swiftly, and instead it clattered hard against the door frame, banging loudly. Lukas glowered at Fin venomously. "Fin, what the fuck are you doing?" He growled, quietly but harshly.
Fin:
"Ah, Lukas my good man. I'm glad you're awake," he said as if he wasn't the cause of that stat of being, his fake (bad) British accent which hadn't been there a minute ago immediately taking over his voice when faced with Lukas. He had no idea why, that just seemed the natural way to talk to the other animorph.
"Well you see we seem to have a bit of a situation on our hands. We have to go spy on some yeerks up in the mountains and then maybe follow them to their secret underwater base and then, maybe get ourselves killed or so. And then after all that I was thinking we could go out to lunch, and if we are going to be done in time for lunch we'll have to leave fairly soon."
Lukas:
Lukas nearly hit him.
Instead, he growled something that may have rhymed with 'plastered' if had been a little clearer, stormed over to the table, seized a ripe pear from the fruit basket, and flung himself into the chair with a grunt. He then proceeded to tear great chunks of flesh from it with his teeth, and soon the fruit was quickly demolished, a victim to the powerful duo of anger and hunger. He threw the eviscerated fruit at the bin, considerably more forcefully than was necessary. The fruit hit with sufficient force that the plastic casket within which it now resided rocked unsteadily to one side, before slamming back down onto the floor. His hunger somewhat abated, his fury somewhat less so, Lukas addressed Fin again.
"So, we're embarking on yet another perilous journey, filled undoubtedly with buckets of dracon fire, to an underwater base where we may well get stuck and be captured. Said journey will undoubtedly have repercussions we won't like. And you choose to herald it with an improvised drum solo and an old Queen song." He paused to brush a wayward lock of hair out of his eyes, and then continued. "I admit there is something strangely appropriate about it, as a lot of yeerk arse will undoubtedly be kicked this day, since we can never do anything yeerk related without a scrap. But still, I had twenty goddamn minutes left of sleep. Seriously." Lukas loved a bit of adventure as much as the next animorph, and he was honestly quite excited about the prospect of the mission, but still, he missed his sleep, and when he was denied it he could get a little cranky.
"Oh, and Fin," He said pointedly, "if we somehow save humanity, please don't release an album."
Fin:
"Naw, I'll be too busy with my art career," he said referencing a conversation he'd once had with Mitch and Mel that Lukas probably hadn't heard about. And now that he thought about it he better not spread the idea around too much. The other animorphs might steal it and then he would make no moneyz.
"Well, if you really need another twenty minutes you can probably sleep when we get there. We are going to be going up to the base in the mountains and then waiting around for a long time until we can catch a ride on a ship. And then we'll be waiting around some more. They probably don't have an in flight movie so you could sleep then too. And then we'll be doing all that other stuff you mentioned that involves danger and daring."
He looked towards the other rooms in the Lodge. "Where are the girls? What's the point of doing any of this if there aren't girls watching us do it and ooing and ahhing over our brave deeds in battle?"
Meredith:
"Oh, yes, mighty Fin. You must further impress me with your manly man might." Meredith pronounced sarcastically, commenting on the last bit of Fin's talk. She was half-yawning, and in her pajamas - gray draw-string shorts, black leg warmers, and a white t-shirt. She glanced up at the two, less annoyed at being woken than Lukas was. "So, what's this? Mountain adventure?"
The short animorph walked drowsily to the counter and tore a banana from a mildly overripe bunch. "I've always been more partial to 'Killer Queen', myself. Or 'Bicycle." Tearing it into manageable chunks, she ate a bit of the fruit at a time, her eyes wavering to Fin with an arched brow above one of them. Awaiting what words of wisdom would come forth next, of course.
Lukas:
Lukas grinned at Fin's comments despite himself, and that grin widened with Meredith's sarcastic rebuttal. "The plan is for a refreshing mountain hike, followed by a romantic pleasure cruise to an underwater yeerk base. We'll be greeted human controllers who assuredly won't be asking us if we enjoyed our voyage. And I'm certain they won't recommend we use yeerkish ferries for our return trip, regardless of how polite we are to the barman."
Lukas's speech was temporarily hindered by a jaw splitting yawn which lasted for several seconds. As if in reply, his stomach rumbled, arguing the case that Lukas was more hungry than tired. He considered getting up and grabbing another piece of fruit from the counter, but ultimately he decided he was comfortable where he was, and the food would still be there after a good sit. "I was always fond of 'Don't Stop Me Now', myself."He announced dreamily, to nobody in particular, thinking back to a scene in a film, wherein three people beat a zombie with pool cues. He grinned as he contemplated fighting zombies as animorphs. Now that was a good movie idea.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, he sat up straight. "Regardless, next time another approach to the wake up call might work. Like doing it when we actually plan to get up. I'll shut up about it now, but when I wake you up with a bucket of water, Fin, don't be surprised." Aware he'd complained a little too much, he allowed his anger to drop. He instead stretched his arms, and once again yawned widely.
Mel:
<Ow, man these ears are sensitive> Melanie was in cat form again, up early as she often was. <I like their Highlander movie songs myself. "Here we are, born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe...here we belong, fighting to survive in a war with the darkest power..." Or how about "We are the champions, my friends, and we'll keep on fighting 'till the end...."
She quieted, getting some of the breakfast for herself as Fin and the others started discussing a new mission. And couldn't help laughing at Meredith once she'd demorphed back to human. Then in reply to Lukas's remark, she said "or we could just have Mitch wake him up...nah, on second thought, we'd all regret that one. I just might though, hopefully I can imitate the domestic cat's prowess at awaking sleeping humans..." She made a swipe gesture with her hands, like cat claws.
"I'll go...I hope my deer likes mountains since the cat's a jungle animal and won't get far. I'll fly when night comes but my owl is blind during the day, and the cockatoo is also warm weather. Underwater is good, I can go sea lion."
Fin:
Fin walked over and poured himself a bowl of cereal and then decided that he needed two and got out another bowl. They would need their strength for today.
When he turned around Fin looked at cat-Mel, Meredith and Lukas. "Who's Queen?" He said it with a completely straight face and made sure to keep it that way.
There was nothing that pissed off music aficionados than when you didn't know this or that famous band and Meredith and Lukas gave off the music aficionados vibe and Mel did a bit too.
Mitch:
Mitch slowly say up in his bed. He extended his arms and yawned. Last night had been a good nights sleep. Through slitted eyelids, Mitch could see faint rays of light streaming through his window and illuminating the dust in the air. Might as well get up and start moving around. Mitch thought. Morning was his favorite time ever. he loved the one time of day were he could be up and not have to be in a morph to be able to hear anyone.
He slipped his legs out of the warm coccoon formed by his blankets and stepped onto the carpet. He trotted across the room and rubbed grit from his eyes. Soon, Mitch was almost at the kitchen, looking for an early breakfast. Wait. People were already up. Fin, Meredith, and Lukas were already there and mel was prowling around as a cat. Might as well join the party.
Black fur covered his arms as he shrank. A few minutes later, a spider monkey walked into the kitchen. <<Hey everybody. Can I crash this party? My invite must have been lost in the mail. And did I hear talk about mountains?>> After Mitch said that, he crossed the kitchen and jumped on to the counter. The banana in Meredith's hand had looked really good to his human and monkey sides so he could resist. He grabbed a banana, peeled it, and began to eat.
Meredith:
Meredith rolled her eyes at Fin, but not with annoyance, and with a half-smile. She deftly retaliated with a chuck of banana aimed at his forehead. "Queen. A female monarch. An English rock band formed in nineteen seventy. And the name of my Great Pyrenees morph." Meredith added afterwards, smiling, knowing that they were being teased.
"Mornin', Mitch; Mel." was the quick greeting given while Meredith sat herself down at the kitchen table. "So, mighty Fin: when are we getting this show on the road?" She sounded mildly surprised at the end of her question, but not by anything others knew. In fact, she startled herself with her chipperness, in face of the events of the last few days. Save Lukas, the other Vancouver Animorphs only knew the basics of what had happened that morning in the woods - Meredith didn't want their pity.
Lukas:
Lukas smirked as Fin asked the identity of Queen, and just shook his head. He nodded casually to the cat and monkey which had just entered the room, a gesture of greeting which would probably look quite insane to an uninformed onlooker. His fresh-from -bed temper was wavering, which was only a good thing. The last thing everyone else needed was Lukas being smarmy and cynical all day. Instead he spoke to Mitch. "Sure, you can crash this party, but I wasn't aware it was a fancy dress theme."
He glanced at Meredtih with a minor look of surprise. Her tone was surprisingly cheerful. He hadn't spoken to anyone about the incident in the woods, and he was reasonably sure she hadn't said much about her mother to anyone. However, his surprise settled quickly. She was strong, she was dealing with it well. This pleased him. He tried to catch her eyes and smiled warmly at her.
"Well, just Matthias and Aida to wait for now. Apparently you weren't quite loud enough, Fin, though I'm surprised I can honestly say that."
Fin:
At the mention of Aida's name Fin's hands started to shake though he hid it by stuffing them under his arms. It looked like he was trying to warm himself up and it was made all the more believable by the fact that his whole body was shivering slightly.
Fin hadn't been able to face Aida since that day. He hadn't meant to...yes he had. He had been a coward and Aida had suffered for it, horribly. No one here knew about it and Fin didn't like that. He wish they all knew about it. He wish that they all knew he was a coward and that he couldn't be trusted. He wished they hated him and would throw him out of the animorphs instead of trading witty banter with him about old rock bands.
But it hadn't been his choice. Aida hadn't wanted anyone to know and the least Fin could do was respect her wishes.
Since that day Fin had been avoiding her, going out all day on various spy missions of his own making. Normally wasting his time. But it had paid off at least once and that was all that mattered.
"You know, Matthias knows where this place is, they can catch up. We really should get going." Fin didn't wait for an answer. He didn't want to give the others a chance to comment on the change of tone, for no matter how he tried to play it off his voice had come out a little shaky, he just went outside and began morphing the black falcon form.
He didn't even know if the others would follow him but he wasn't going to wait for Aida to show up, even if that meant going up there alone.
Mitch:
<<Good morning Meredith.>> Mitch said as he finished of his banana. <<And Lukas, if I had known this was a dress-up party, I would've worn some clothes.>> Mitch laughed as stood up on the counter and turned around. He sat back down and clumsily crossed his legs as best he could. He could not resist another comment. <<Yeah, Fin. Are you sure you were banging stuff around? I personally didn't hear you so Matthias and Aida might not've either.>>
Sheesh! Fin doesn't wait around! Mitch thought as the teen left the Lodge and began to morph. <<Oh well, might as welll join him. And keep him out of trouble. What say you?>> Mitch asked everyone. He began to demorph as he said that and he walked outside, a shifting mass of fur and and constantly changing size.
About a minute after he stepped outside, feathers began to form.
Meredith:
Meredith raised an eyebrow subtly at Fin's insistence to move forge ahead with two of their fold. She shrugged it off, though, and concentrated. Lines, flowing and smooth, drew themselves across her flesh as she shrunk, her skin dulling to a warm French Grey. The lines formed feather, which split and soften after a moment. Her stomach flip-flopped, as did several other parts of her anatomy, disturbingly. And then, there was a pigeon with a banana peel.
<<Dang.>> Meredith pronounced, staring at the peel and pecking at it. <<Can someone put that in the trash?>> With that, she beat her wings fiercely and alighted upon the table. <<I wish I had a cool bird morph.>> she lamented, half-joking. <<I feel like one of those pigeons from Animaniacs.>> The little bird cocked her head in the direction of the door, and Meredith took off, following Fin's lead, and praying that he hadn't closed the door.
Mel:
"Hey" Melanie said to Mitch when he came into the room. She chuckled a litle at the dress up comment that he made. The others started to morph, and so she followed suit, a little surprised at Mitch morphing as he walked. She had been leaning against using her owl morph, but it was still early and she was afraid she'd lose contact if she went deer right now. She hoped the owl might prove better than the cockatoo at flying for a long while.
<I need a cool daytime morph...either that or for this operation to move to Australia> she said once her thought-speak worked. <If I get too blind, I'll just have to hide and switch birds, I guess> she said, and moved outside to finish her morph. <I hope I don't get too blind too fast> she said as she became fully owl and took off after the others.
Lukas:
Lukas was the last to morph. He was itching to go, but Fin's sudden change of tone concerned him. He'd instantaneously lost a lot of his usually warmth, and there had been an oddly strained tone to it. Probably nothing, kid's just nervous, wants to get this over with. Leave the worrying to someone else. He considered waiting for Matthias, but decided against it. He didn't need his hand holding, and he certainly was no coward. He followed the shifting Mel out of the door and into the early morning light. He squinted for a moment, his eyes adjusting to the sun.
Notciing the others were mostly feathered and beaked by now, Lukas's form began to warp. The now-familiar obsidian feathers began to spout from his face and neck, as pale grey and brown feathers burst forth elsewhere. Swiftly, Lukas completed his morph, and took launched himself after his comrades, hesitating only for a momentary glance back at the lodge. Just go, they'll need you more than Matthias and Aida will. Make sure Fin doesn't get everyone killed. He was unconcerned about the distance deficit between himself and the others. After all, over long distances, he doubted they could all outfly a goose.
Mitch:
<<Well, I think your cockatoo is kind of cool. A small bird might actually be better and not stick out as much as I will.>> Mitch said to Melanie and he extended his wings to a massive 6.5 foot long wingspan and he stretched his snow white neck up towards the sky. Then Mitch fought for control of the aggresive bird and charged a tree. Before he hit it, he had aquired enough momentum to fling himslef into the air.
With a steady hum emmenating from his wings, Mitch powered through the air. After several minutes of flying, Mitch said lightly to everybody, <<Did somebody close the door? When we get back, there had better not be wild animals raiding the fridge or my room or somebody's going to pay.>>
Mel:
<<True...and I could play with its talking ability if we get bored. But I love this one too. I'd love to copy those fantasy books and make it some 'battle claws' as they call them to increase the damage it can do. Or learn to fly with ice or fire in my talons. That would scare a few controllers for a minute. >> She laughed in her head, picturing herself flying with the fictional owls. Mitch asked if anyone closed the door, and she had to laugh again. <Eh, if they're small enough, I can take care of them.> Melanie replied. <My kitty likes to play hunting games...Fin could join in too. I'd say you would, but then we'd all need gask masks. By the way, did you get up okay? I know it's not easy in the trees> she asked, remembering his swan morph.>
In the back of her mind, she was worried about Matthias letting them have it, but she promised herself that if he did, she wouldn't so easily blame herself or get all upset like she now had a reputation for. She did notice Fin's change, and hoped he would be okay calling the shots. She had done it that once, and that was enough for her, thank you.
Matthias:
I am going to kill him. Matthias thought as he rapidly lost his human form in favour of the gyrfalcon. I'm going to kill him, cut him into fifty pieces, and mail him to every state. It was a line from a movie Matthias had enjoyed and right now he had to say it seemed like a damned fine idea. He didn't give a rat's ass if Fin didn't want to wait around for him and Aida to show up, Matthias was still in charge here. Fin didn't get to call the shots, and his impudence was really getting on Matthias' nerves.
Furthermore, by the looks of the empty lodge, he had managed to recruit absolutely everybody except Aida to this little adventure, and that was in direct disobedience to what Matthias had said the previous night. He might not have objected to one more, perhaps two, but he did not like leaving the home so undefended on a mission that was best conducted in small numbers. This called for a change in plans.
Beating wing hard, knowing he had some ground to catch up, Matthias directed his private thought-speak ahead, and every so often repeated the message, knowing Fin would eventually have to hear it, <<You and I are going to have a talk when this is over, Fin.>> Oh, yes they would. Fin was useful, Matthias would not deny that, but he was not about to have a mutiny on his hands.
Mel:
<<Hey I hear wing beats, a new set, not one of ours>> Mel was finding out the sensitivity of barn owl hearing right now. They were said to be the best of all owls in the hearing department due to a difference in the facial disk. She saw the gyrfalcon coming by her and knew who it was right away.
Melanie had said she wasn't going to berate herself this time, and she did her best to keep her beak shut. Or should that be thoughts shut? At least this time she was only one of the followers. She might get yelled at with the rest later but it was Fin who was really going to get it, that was pretty obvious now.
Fin:
Fin was riding the scant thermals into the air. Lukas and Mitch had left him and the other raptors far behind in their flight and Fin was now working on trading height for distance. He thought Meredith would be the one to have the most trouble of all of them but she seemed to be doing ok.
For the most part he ignored the chatter around him. The mention of Aida had brought up painful memories that were hardly memories they were so recent. It was into this dark atmosphere that Matthias' thought speak voice invaded.
<<You and I are going to have a talk when this is over, Fin.>>
Fin didn't even really think about it. He didn't have to. Where had Matthias been when they had gotten in trouble? Off, doing nothing as usual. Off doing god knows what, playing war games in his head but never really comanding them. Aida had almost died! Worse! And when Fin had come looking for help (Ran away from battle a treacherous voice whispered) where had Matthias been! Nowhere to be found.
All of a sudden all the anger and guilt that Fin had been directing at himself had just found an outlet. His falcon's eyes scanned the air and spotted the white form of Matthias' gyrfalcon. Fin's black falcon and Matthias' white, how fitting.
<<Fuck you you piece of shit! You want to talk! You want to talk now! Where were you before, you sorry excuse for a faction leader. You're a fucking lazy son of a whore who sits around the Lodge and doesn't do shit except contemplate your navel but then wants to play dictator to the rest of us. You think I want to talk to you you whiny ass bitch.>>
Matthias:
That was enough. Matthias had put up with a lot of shit before, but Fin's outburst, while Matthias had to admit having some merit, was the last straw. He wasn't going to put up with this crap anymore, especially not from an impudent little wretch like Fin.
<<You want to talk to me about leadership, you little prick? You want to tell me how you keep putting our faction in harm's way by rushing headlong into things? I'm sitting back at base because I'm planning. We HAD to keep quiet for a while after the Yeerks found our old hideout; they were out for blood and I didn't want to give them any more than they'd already taken. But no, you had to just go rushing out with any hair-brained scheme that comes into your head. We aren't an army, you stupid son of a bitch, we're stragglers. Every life counts, and you're really not displaying that you've got your head around that.>>
Matthias managed to keep his tone calm as he berated Fin, circling slowly. His gyrfalcon was a bigger, faster, and more powerful bird than Fin's sooty falcon. Without warning, Matthias used that to his advantage as he dove at Fin like a thunderbolt. <<I'm leader of this faction for a reason, and if you don't want to let your brain believe that, I'll just beat it into you. I don't have time for this.>>
Fin:
<<Planning! Planning what! You wouldn't know how to plan a trip from your dick to your asshole. And speaking of our dearly departed, how did Cassie ever think you would make a good faction leader you fucking dipshit. You have single handedly gotten more people killed than anyone else. You want to talk about being careful, about how every life counts. You are the mass murderer Matthias, not the yeerks. Wrap your brain around that you cock sucker!>>
Fin dodged Matthias' dive bomb, turning aside at the last minute and letting him shoot past. Matthias may be bigger but he was faster. <<I'm not going to let you get me killed you shit eating dick wad.>> Matthias' talons had whistled through his primaries, but Fin was right with him. He closed his wings and dived after the white bird.
Matthias:
<<Watch your language boy.>> Matthias flared and tucked around, using the momentum he had gathered to get away from Fin enough to flap back and gain some altitude. Matthias really hated when people talked like that, non-stop cussing was never a good way to communicate. However, Fin's obvious emotional issues were Matthias' advantage; he could keep a cool head.
<<To be honest, I don't know what Cassie saw in me. You'd have to ask her that. But she picked me, not you, and that's something you should be remembering. If you don't like it here, pack up and move out. You can gather Animorphs somewhere else and boss them around how you like. If you're staying in Vancouver, you follow my orders.>>
Matthias had already dealt with his responsibility in the deaths of the faction members, and moved on, so Fin's insults glanced off him, doing nothing. Maybe he was a killer, he certainly had killed enough Yeerks. But a lot fewer people were going to die doing things his way than Fin's. And that was all this was, minimizing casualties.
As he circled in for another attack, Matthias relied more on the instincts of the falcon than his own game plan. The bird was a hunter, and all he had to do was zero in that Fin was prey. Matthias had experience, size, speed, and a cool head on his side. All Fin had was a touch more agility, and that wouldn't save him forever.
Fin:
<<Boy!>> Fin was about to start off again when Matthias disappeared from in front of him. It had happened so fast that Fin had lost track of the bird, especially against the white of the overcast sky. His own black body would be a lot easier to see.
He craned his head around looking for the faction leader yelling as he did so, <<Minimizing causalities! I think it is a little late for that. The whole damn human race is a causality! This is about getting some back, fighting, not sitting around in our little hovels waiting to die when the yeerks find us. And they will find us. They already did once.>> Found you, Fin thought as he spotted the white form coming for him.
Fin flew right to him. If he wanted a fight then he'd get one. He couldn't beat the gyrfalcon head on, he knew that, but he no longer cared. Let Matthias have his blood on his talons. It would be easier than facing Aida. Easier than facing the truth. That he was a coward.
<<You fucking coward!>> He screamed as the two birds came together and Fin flared to bring his talons to bear to grapple with the bigger falcon.
Matthias:
Matthias no longer answered Fin. The time for talking was over. Here was the little bird, flying headlong at him, screaming in his proverbial ear, and all Matthias could think was, it's about time.
Even straight up, Matthias knew one-on-one sooty falcon did not beat gyrfalcon, but he didn't like to take any chances he didn't have to. Flaring early so he swooped, Matthias brought his talons raking down on Fin's exposed head, his own body too high for Fin's talons to attack. Then, doing a backflip, Matthias glided away, the raptor body tiring of the hunt. Forcing himself to stay in the game, Matthias circled round, trying to see what damage he had done.
Free or dead. That was the motto the Hork-Bajir had lived by, according to Cassie. That was how Matthias had fought the war. Free or dead. The amount of people in the latter category, however, was getting disturbingly high.
Fin:
Matthias raked his head, coming in too high for Fin to reach. His talons permanently (or not so permanently in his case) darkened one of Fin's eyes. It was a deathly dangerous wound for something flying in the air and Fin knew that he would need to demorph soon if he could even make it to the ground
But he wasn't going alone.
Matthias had made the mistake of doing a back flip which put him right back in Fin's line of flight. And then he compounded his error by turning around.
Fin's raptor may be hurt and its mind screaming, but his own mind was working just fine. And it was the mind of a genius, if a reluctant one.
He quickly calculated the trajectories of the two birds and corrected. He wouldn't miss a second time.
He talons gripped Matthias right where his wings met his body. He dug them in hoping to wound the faction leader's flying muscles but he wouldn't bet this fight on that.
As he got a good grip on the gyrfalcon, closed his wings and began to demorph, growing heavier by the second and dragging Matthias out of the air with him. <<Live free or die. Isn't that something you told me once Matthias. It is drop and die time.>>
Matthias:
It was a bold move, Matthias had to give him that. It was also completely insane. For that reason, Matthias was not entirely surprised when Fin latched onto him. He didn't have a lot of time to decide what to do, so he had to act fast if he wanted to survive this fall.
Matthias was the fastest demorpher that Cassie had ever seen, but he knew that even he could not hope to pull off an entire switch before they hit ground. That was bad news. What was good news was that Fin couldn't do that either. He would land as some hybrid of falcon and human.
Surviving the fall wasn't something Matthias was looking forward to, and he decided to lengthen the process. Knowing that he could not support Fin's weight as he demorphed, he instead directed their dive, as he still had control of his flying. Fin's misshapen body would not hit ground first, it would hit tree, and Matthias hoped that would be enough to stun him and shake his grip.
Fin:
Fin could feel Matthias' wing muscles working on angling them and gripped harder, trying to damage them, but his talons were losing their strength as they became weak human feet. But he had moved past the point of rational action. All he knew was that he was going down and he was going to take Matthias with him.
As his hands began to emerge he scrabbled for purchase on Matthias' slick feathers. He may not be rational but he was perfectly capable of logic and logic said, what goes up must come down. At least where the law of gravity was in effect and gravity was everywhere. Gravity is what held the universe together.
YOU THINK THE UNIVERSE IS BEING HELD TOGETHER!
Fin ignored the big god voice. He'd heard those before.
Matthias:
As Fin demorphed, Matthias felt the grip on his feathers slacken and he kicked off hard with his talons, raking into Fin's flesh as he separated himself from the growing human boy.
Nosediving to get away as fast as he could, Matthias still expected to hear a crack as Fin's body struck the tree he had been aiming for, but there was nothing. Wanting to turn and look for the reason behind the lack of the sound, Matthias found that he could not do that. Some unseen force had frozen his body in place.
Somehow, the theatrics that followed the stoppage of time did not surprise Matthias in the least. Even from his frozen state, he could see the darkening sky enveloped in a red glow, and the low rumble of thunder somewhere far away.
Then...there it was...the power. There was no other word for it. Matthias just felt...completely insignificant in the sheer radiance of it. This was a being who could destroy worlds...galaxies...and here it was, taking a keen interest in a little civil dispute.
"MATTHIAS." The voice ripped right through him, and he found that he could move again, able to rotate his falcon body as he pleased, but unable to go anywhere still. "MATTHIAS, WARRIOR OF EARTH. MURDERER." Somehow, when the voice said it, it stung a lot more than when Fin had. "YOU HAVE ALWAYS DONE WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. NOW I OFFER YOU THAT CHOICE ONCE MORE. THE BOY WILL NOT SURVIVE THE CRASH TO THE GROUND. WILL YOU LET HIM DIE? WILL YOU SHOW THAT YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE SOME TO KEEP ORDER? OR WOULD YOU HAVE ME SAVE HIS MISERABLE LIFE?"
THAT caught Matthias off-guard. Wait a minute...I'm being given a choice? He felt like he was playing God...give life, or take it away. He had to stop and think about it for a moment. Why would an omnipotent being ask such a question? Clearly it had a vested interest in the answer, but what answer did it want? He needed to talk to the only person who understood such things, but she wasn't here. It was his call.
<<Let him live.>>
From the tremor that shook the earth straight through afterward, Matthias figured he had guessed wrong. "YOU ARE NOT READY YET, MATTHIAS. BUT YOU WILL BE. YOU WILL BE..."
Before Matthias could consider what had just happened, he and Fin were on the ground, both human, and both alive.
Fin:
Fin looked around. He had ended up on the ground. Which wasn't a surprise, that was where he was supposed to end up, except he wasn't supposed to be conscious when it happened. In fact he wasn't supposed to be alive.
He looked down at himself. He was human. He looked over at Matthias. Two for two on the human side.
His anger, his suicidal pain, his guilt, it was all washed away in a moment of bewilderment. "What the fuck just happened?"
Matthias:
For once, Matthias didn't care about Fin's language. His question about summed up Matthias' own feelings, vulgarity and all. "I...I don't really know." He waved up to the sky, calling his fellow Animorphs down to Earth. The mission might have to wait until tomorrow; this was a development they simply could not ignore.
"I'm guessing you didn't...experience...what I did up there. It sounds...insane...but time froze. And then...something...started talking to me. Wanted to know if I wanted to kill you or keep you alive. Didn't seem happy that I picked the latter option." Matthias scratched his head. "Even given that aliens are par for the course around here, that's just one freaky alien. I think Cassie talked about it. I think that was Crayak."
If it was, that meant Matthias needed to talk to Cassie now. That meant a faction leader meeting. That meant leaving Vancouver in someone's hands. But could he trust Fin now? He doubted it, but there was only one way to find out, and he would before the day ended.
Fin:
At the sound of Matthias' voice the world came back to Fin, problems and all. He didn't know about stopping time, he was pretty sure that was impossible though theoretically interesting, but he knew that he had been stopped in his attempts to end it all, or at least end him.
In all honesty he was grateful. He didn't really want to die. There was almost nothing out there worth his own life.
And that was exactly the problem. There was nothing worth his life to risk for. He would preserve his own health at any means and he hated himself for it. Coward, turn-coat, back-stabber. Bring on all the terms. He had seen what was about to happen to Aida and he had ran.
And it made no difference to him if he had been a bat at the time, weak and incapable of helping, it still hurt that he had left her there. If she was going to suffer then he should have suffered with her. And when he got back she had already rescued herself.
Fin had yelled at Matthias about how he had done nothing but it was Fin who had done nothing. Nothing at all.
"Whatever. Let's just go home." He looked up at the sky and then around him. "I don't know about you but I'm walking."
"Stop right there." Matthias' voice was assertive, but not as harsh as he might have wanted to be, given the words Fin had vented on him just a moment ago. "We're not going home until this is resolved. The mission will have to wait, yes, but I'm not going to have a traitor staying in the lodge. Turn around, look me in the eye, and tell me I can trust you or I swear, I will drop you here and now and let the Yeerks deal with you. I saved your life once but if you're going to throw it away, I'm not letting you take me or anyone else down with you."
This was it, the moment of truth. Fin seemed calmer now, more in control. If they could have a sane conversation, they needed to before any time passed. Something really strange was going on, and that meant Matthias had to leave. Could he leave Vancouver with Fin in charge? He needed to know the answer to that right now.
"So what's it going to be, Fin? You talked awfully big a few minutes ago, so let's have it. Are you on the team?" Matthias didn't expect an apology for Fin's actions and didn't want one, he just wanted to see which side of the fence Fin was sitting on. That was enough.
Fin:
Fin stopped cold, facing away from Matthias. The muscles in his shoulders and back tensed as he fought to control his anger and his shame. He wasn't the paladin type, he didn't believe in honorable apologies or grand pledges of loyalty. Most of those words were lies and it was better not to even say them in the first place.
So when he turned around all he said was, "Yeah I'm on the team." It wasn't said with much enthusiasm but at least it was said with conviction. He didn't know if he could be trusted again. No man could answer that question unless they knew the future. But he knew what his intentions were. And his intention was to never turn tail again.
And it wasn't for any grand reason or him trying to live up to some idea about honor he told himself. It was about survival. The last time he had run he had been so ashamed that he had put his own life in jeopardy. So he didn't care what danger he faced, he would face it so that he never had to come back here, to this place, to this feeling.
"Now, let's go home."
Mel:
Mel was circling, watching, surprised at what was going on. Part of her wanted to yell at them that they could hardly fight yeerk if they were fighting each other like that. But she opted to keep out of it and let them alone. Fortunately, no one died, and things seemed to calm down. She didn't come close for a while, wanting to avoid any privacy invasion for the moment.
She did respond to Matthias's call to land though, touching down after a few seconds. She was extremely curious, wondering, waiting for the leader to talk. The 'let's go home' surprised her though; They weren't doing the mission? She hadn't experienced any of what Matthias had, so she didn't know what had happened. She didn't ask the "what happened?" question she wanted to but she contemplated whether to keep this morph or change.
<I'm getting to that daytime blindness stage. I need to change birds.> she said, then started to demorph.
Meredith:
Meredith, opting to stay out of things, landing as soon as Matthias and Fin's began to tussle. Her pigeon wasn't exactly fantastic for hovering about in the same place for a long time. She demorphed, too, not wanting to be caught in her most vulnerable morph. She was rather distracted by the display above, and was rather taken aback by her ignorance of the inner turmoil that was dividing the faction. Frowning, she turned her head upwards, looking for the warring duo. There was a wave of nausea, like her brain was numbed and, suddenly, Matthias and Fin were on the ground, demorphed and looking rather bewildered.
Meredith, again, didn't try to interfere. She gingerly approached Fin and her faction leader, her arms outstretched warily, like one would if they were trying to alert someone gently. However, she didn't come any closer. Instead, she looked to Matthias with a troubled expression, silent.
Matthias:
Matthias glanced around at the bewildered faces of his faction members, immediately realizing that he was the only one that had heard Crayak's voice. "The mission is aborted until a later date. Something...big...is happening. I need to fly to New York soon, probably tomorrow, and speak to Cassie and the other faction leaders as soon as I can. I wish I could tell you more, but..." Matthias' voice trailed off and he shrugged, beginning to revert back to falcon.
Only when he was fully morphed did Matthias speak again, informing all of his members via thought-speak what had happened when Fin and he had been fighting. It didn't make any sense to him repeating it, but it was all he had to say. <<Melanie, stay with Fin. He wants to walk back, that's his choice. The rest of you, as Fin said, let's go home. We're done here. We need to regroup.>>
Matthias was a person who liked to have a plan, who relished his ability to see from point A to point B. But now there was a new - relative to the micro game - player, and that meant new factors, new variables. A new plan.
Meredith:
Even thought Matthias probably couldn't see it, Meredith nodded in compliance. She gazed at the faces of the others, then shut her eyes. She pulled the DNA of her favored morph up - the Great Pyrenees. The changes began a second after she concentrated on the form, as her nose ballooned out into a canine snout. Her teeth rearranged with an uncomfortable grinding noise while creamy, white fur spread across her body. Meredith's ears pointed, looking a bit like elf ears, before crawling up the sides of her head. And, then, as her broad, white tail fanned out behind her, the morph was complete.
Cheerily, Meredith bounded in front of Melanie and Fin, woofing a playful bark. No matter what had just occurred, nothing could deter the HAPPY rush one got from being a dog. <<Let's gooo!>> chanted Meredith, her tongue lolling out of her maw. She jumped around for a moment, then took off back towards the lodge.
Fin:
Fin smiled sadly at Meredith dog. The funk was unusual for him but he couldn't throw it off. He used to have this faith in himself. Ok, so it was a supreme faith in his own ability to survive but it was still a kind of trust. He had never done anything to disappoint himself before. Some people might suggest that it was because his standards of behavior were pretty low but he didn't think they were low, just unconventional.
And the truth was that if he had run away from Bryan and left Aida there by choice he probably wouldn't feel this way. But he had just run blind, reacting to someone else's actions. It didn't matter that he probably wouldn't have chosen to leave Aida behind in that situation. He knew that he was capable of making such a choice if he had to, if the mission required it.
But it had been no choice at all. It had just been a gut reaction. How could he trust himself now knowing that he was capable of such weakness.
He morphed into the kit fox, it would travel faster overland than his own two feet. There was no fox happiness waiting for him at the end of the morph, just fox cunning, which wasn't what he wanted at the moment.
<<Alright Mer, let's go.>>
Mel:
Melanie listened to Matthias's words, some of her questions answered as he spoke but new ones coming to her mind. Would they manage okay without Matthias for a while? She hoped they could. She was preparing to fly back as cockatoo, but Matthias asked her to hang back and go with Fin, who wanted to walk back. "Okay" she replied, her mouth still working.
She was midway into her cockatoo morph but she reversed it and then morphed to deer. Easier to travel by ground this way since she might lose him by air. She could have gone cat also, but it was better if one of them went as a morph that could fight if necessary. <<Right with you. I promise not to go too fast>> She knew that with her longer legs, she'd lose him if she didn't watch out.
Mitch:
Mitch was enjoying the air on his beaked face and streaming through his feathers. He was going a pretty good speed too with an never ending stream of wing beats. Even over the wind in his ears he could hear the low hum that his wings made.
He stopped day dreaming when Mathias's voice penetrated his thoughts. It had something to do with Fin and going home. He said to the only other Animorph who had been able to keep up with him, <<Hey Lukas! You heard the man. Let's go back.>>
As he talked he wheeled around and began to power back home of his snow-white wings.
Mel:
Melanie could see Mitch overhead, looking quite effortless on his swan wings. That was some long distance morph. <Oh there you are, I guess that is a good distance bird. Hard to keep up with.> she said, glancing up for a moment.
<I have no idea what happened, only that Matthias decided to turn us back. It's wierd, really, but I can't tell you the whole story. Like, maybe he saw something and we didn't see it or something like that. I'm k ind of disappointed, I was looking forward to trying out the sea lion.>>
Lukas:
Lukas bit back a venomous retort to Mitch. He'd heard the command, he didn't need it reiterating. Not everyone's as hard of hearing as you, Mitch, he growled to himself, but kept it to himself, with some effort. He was annoyed again now. Dragged out of bed for a mission which they weren't even going to attempt now, all because Fin was an unstable wreck. An unstable wreck who had made him look like a fool, too. He didn't like being messed around. He almost continued flying out of spite, as he doubted Matthias would be able to do much to keep up with him. At the end of the day, though, he couldn't be bothered with all the hassle. Besides, he could imagine that Matthias was pissy enough as it stood. He'd been too far ahead to hear all the arguments, but from what he could ascertain, tempers had frayed and fur had been flying. Or feathers, as the case may have been.
He wheeled around. Call it a day. Fine. He turned and powered his wings, propelling himself homeward. He needed a good mug of tea and a good sleep. It didn't matter that he hadn't been up long. Sleep was therapeutic, to Lukas anyway, and in his current mood he'd do nothing to lighten the atmosphere at the lodge. Best just to get a bit more shut-eye, and things would be slightly rosier for everyone. Just about.
Next time, Fin could please himself. If the others wanted to follow him, he wouldn't stop 'em, though as the second thought materialised his gut twinged as he thought of Meredith, who had also willingly followed Fin. He swallowed, and, with a quick nod at Mitch, proceeded back to the lodge. Sleep was looking more appealing by the second.