Face of Stone

[berserker09]

Paul was flying over the ocean with two really annoyed guards. They were annoyed because Paul would not leave his bike or his knives behind. The last remnants of his father were not easy to give up. He stared out the window only to see fields of ice and water. This is their hideout. Antarctica. He kept looking for signs of life,but there was nothing there. No animals, no plants and no people. He was getting really bored, so he started playing with his knives. He flipped them in the hair and spin them around his fingers. He asked the guards if they had any cards or something to keep himself amused. He got no reply from them.

The bug fighter landed and he was escorted out with his stuff. He was wearing a jacket and blue jeans. His hair was longer than he liked and his shirt was covered in dirt. He put his backpack on and looked for whoever he was suppose to meet. He was wondering where he was and what he was going to be put through. All he knew was that this was the resistance. This was the Animorphs, and he was going to do whatever it took to become a part of it. This is what his life would be. He would be a resistance fighter if it killed him.

[gabriel]

Gage sat on top of the obstacle course wall and practiced rolling the coin he'd managed to dig out of an old pair of jeans he hadn't worn since he got here across his knuckles. He'd decided he needed a hobby outside of dancing. He still loved to dance of course but the sad truth of the Academy was that there was no music here. They'd have to fix that eventually because the lack of beats was driving Gage a little crazy.

He knew that his time at the Academy would come to an end eventually and he hadn't heard anything about where he'd be assigned or to whom. He wondered if they'd send him back to LA and he wondered if he'd welcome it.

A part of him was always missing home but he felt like going back to LA would be a step backwards. It would almost be like nothing had changed and he'd signed up to fight for a reason.

Gage let out a sigh and then sharply drew it back in as the doors to the hangar bay opened to admit the Cameron's Bug Fighter. He watched it come in for a smooth landing in the half of the hangar that was still in use as a hangar and he saw a new person walk down the ramp as it slid open. A male person. Of course they had gotten another guy. Lack of eligible females, that was something else they'd have to fix at the Academy.

He stuffed the coin in his pocket and swung a leg over the top of the wall and climbed down the rope side, easily lowering himself to the ground after weeks of practice with the course. His hands had grown the required calluses and the rope no longer burned them as he let it slide, controlled, through his hands.

He knew that Seiya, the dean of this Academy, tried to assign someone to greet new members when they arrived. Gage hadn't been tapped this time so he supposed someone else would show soon but he wanted to meet the new guy too if he could.

As he made his way out of the obstacle course he saw the guy wheel a bicycle down the ramp of the Bug Fighter. "You plan on competing against Armstrong?" Gage asked as he walked up. "Because I think he's a controller."

[berserker09]

He stopped about three feet from the Bug Fighter. Paul turned his head toward the guy. "That would just give me more of a reason to beat him." He looked around to see what kind of building he was going to be living in for awhile. He pulled out some jerky he had got before getting on the Bug Fighter and started to chew on it.

"Actually, it is one of two thing that my dad left me when he died." He studied the guy. Only thing that he could come up with was that this place really got you into shape. Paul knocked down the kickstand and let the bike sit there. "My name is Paul. How are you on this fine and freezing day?" He dropped his bag to the ground and pulled out a hoodie to where under his jacket. He approached the guy slowly and looked around to see if there was anyone else in this room. He put the knife he was playing with back into his bag, so that he wouldn't lose it.

[gabriel]

He smiled when the guy joked back. The last recruit to arrive at the Academy had had no sense of humor. In fact he'd hardly had a personality outside of, 'I don't like you. Piss off.' The only friend he felt he'd made since coming here was Xander and sometimes it was stressful to be around Xander. Maybe it was how they'd met but he always felt like he was competing with the other recruit. They were two of the first ones here and they'd be the first ones to graduate, top of the class and all that. He felt like they got heat from the teachers and were expected to know all of the same stuff.

"I'm doing pretty good Paul. Name's Gabriel Legend. I got a lot of nicknames but I figure you'll hear them eventually," he said, shaking Paul's hand. Welcome to sunny Antarctica. At least the ship keeps us warm," Gabriel said rolling his eyes at the inside of the Bladeship. "Come on," he said, picking up Paul's one bag and completely forgetting that someone may show up looking for him if Seiya really had sent someone down here, "let's get you settled in. We get rooms up on one of the other levels of the Bladeship and there's food. That plus warmth is pretty much all there is to recommend the place."

[berserker09]

"I'll take food and warmth any day." At least, this place wasn't full of a bunch of stiffs. He liked the idea of having some jokesters on this ship. He followed Gabriel around the ship and wondered how many people lived here.

"So what is this place like? I mean the classes and what not." He was sort of anxious to get started here. He hated being clueless to anything.

[gabriel]

"Ah, well the first thing I should warn you about is our lack of females. We have like no girls here. Well we have two. Well we have more but the other ones are like teachers or such," Gabriel said as he walked away, waving over his shoulder at Zach and Adamo. The two had been out of sorts lately, like family stuff or something. He didn't know much about it but he figured it was none of his business. Either way they only really nodded at him and Adamo waved but neither smiled.

"So like, everyone here is our age. Except for Seiya. Like the "older" animorphs," Gabriel said, air quoting older, "are actually younger than us, or me at least. I'm 20. And like, Matt is 18 or something. And Jullian, he's the morph instructor, kid is 15 if he's a day. But like, they've been animorphs for two years or more so they have experience out in the field and all that. And then there is Seiya who is like the dinosaur of the Academy. He's in his upper 20's I think and he's been an animorph for like ever. But, back to girls. So there are only two girls here who are recruits. And then there are like two more who are teachers and our age and totally off-limits because they're dating other teachers. So very not cool," Gabriel said, shaking his head. "And like 5 guys, that's where the unfair part comes in," he added as clarification.

"But the classes are cool. I mean, I feel like I'm learning what I need to know and all of that." He indicated the obstacle course set up in the other half of the hangar bay. The full thing actually extended into the near hallways but the two storie climbing wall he'd been sitting on could be seen from here. "We have to run that thing at least once a day though I'd recommend doing it more. It's a good work out you know. And then there is the yeerk culture class that is taught by one of those hot teachers we can't touch. And we learn about the basic structure of the yeerk empire. Like the Visser system and how they are always at each other's throats. Stuff to help us imitate controllers if we have to and I guess to help us exploit local politics if have the opportunity to do so."

Gabriel stopped to take a breath. The last recruit he'd met had not asked any questions. This was so refreshing. He hadn't gotten a chance to just chat for a while.

"So, well do you want me to tell you about the other classes or is that too much stuff to take in for now?"

[berserker09]

Paul was hit hard by the fact that there was a lack of females on site. He had really expected there to be more of them here. He didn't mind the fact that one of his teachers was like over three years younger than him. Paul knew that it was about age, but experience. He looked at the obstacle course that Gabriel pointed out. Should be fun to run that a couple of times.

"You can keep going. I should take it all in now,so that I am not surprised later," Paul replied. He was contemplating what life would be like here and just how long he would be here. This was going to a whole new type of education for him. Paul knew that he was going to be freaked out later, but for now he was not going to show that.

[gabriel]

"All right but I kinda lost my place, hold up," Gabriel thought back over what he'd told Paul about so far. He hadn't realized how different Academy life was from a the normal routine. Then, as he had that thought, he realized that "normal routine" was a concept that most people didn't have before coming here or, if they did, it consisted of running and hiding. He wondered if that was one of the reasons their lives could be so structured here sometimes. Maybe it was a welcome change for some people. To Gabriel, who had grown up in a hidden city mostly protected from the effects of the invasion, it felt constricting. But he'd be out eventually. Training only lasted for 8 weeks.

"Well, then there is morphing class which we haven't had yet. Not really anyway. We've all met with Jullian a bit and have worked on meditation techniques of all things. He tells us that morphing is about having a clear mind. You'll need it to control the animal instincts, to control the morphing process itself, stuff like that. So my morphing experience currently consists of sitting around in a room pretending to concentrate. But I guess it helps. Jules can turn into a dozen things and we have a teacher here who turns into a tiger which is pretty cool except for the fact that he's the boyfriend of the pretty teacher so doubly don't want to mess with her."

They had entered the hallways and Gabriel had started walking towards the dorm hallway without thinking about it. After working out on the obstacle course he always hit up his room for a shower so his feet had just taken him in that direction. Considering that is where they needed to be he didn't bother correcting himself.

"So the ship," Gabriel said, turning to Paul, "figure that's a good thing to know about. We live in the Bladeship as you can probably see," he said waving around him to take in the hallways of the ship they were currently walking through. "I don't know how they got it away from the yeerks or how they even got it down here but its here. And it works, kind of. I don't think they can fly it, at least not really fly it, without a crew which we don't have. That or they are just hiding it by not turning it on all the way. Whatever the reason it doesn't really move. And its mostly off too so there are whole sections that are dark and unused. The ones that are used require power so if you ever get lost just follow the power cords back," Gabriel said, stopping and pointing to the ceiling above them where there were tubes set into the metal that glowed a soft red.

"We're headed to the hallway where the current recruits sleep. There are like seven of us or something. You're number eight. And four teachers, two pilots and the captian/dean/in charge person. So not many people to get to know. We can get you a room and then we can go get some food from the caf."

[berserker09]

Paul waited for Gabriel to collect his thoughts. He looked around the room and saw that it was pretty much devoid of life. Gabriel was right. There was a lack of people on this ship. Paul thought about the fact that this place was going to be his home for a while and that there would not be many people coming and going while he was here. This is just like home, he thought. He didn’t need to get used to the lifestyle. He had already lived it apparently. Paul really wanted to know where he would be sent to when he was gone from this place and what he would be doing after he left this place. He was already restless about having to go through school again.

When Gabriel talked about the morphing class, Paul made sure to pay attention. He already knew some meditation techniques, but those were just to help control one’s breathing. Paul couldn’t wait to try and morph into something. He wondered what his first morph should be. Paul made a mental note not to mess with any of the female teachers for fear of tiger attack. While he thought about this, Paul followed Gabriel through the hallways.

Paul had been wondering what he had been walking in for the last hour or so. Blade ship was the weirdest name he had ever heard for a ship. Paul agreed with Gabriel’s assessment about not being able to fly this ship. He had barely seen anyone on the way in and it looked pretty stuck from the outside. Paul knew he was going to get lost in here, so it was a good thing that Gabriel pointed out the power cords.

“Good, I need to stash my stuff somewhere.” Paul was getting tired of pulling his bike around with him. At the thought of food, a question popped into Paul’s head. “What kind of food do they got here anyway?”

[gabriel]

Gabriel was prepared this time. Sable had asked the same question and he hadn't been able to really answer. He had never paid close attention to the food nor had the question ever occurred to him as one that someone would ask. Food was food and he had just assumed that the Academy would provide him with something edible. What more did people need. But some people cared about what they ate or, if they didn't, they at least cared who prepared it. So he'd actually looked in the storage room after his run in with Sable and now he could answer the question a little easier.

"Lot's of stuff," he said before rattling off a list of what he'd seen in the pantry. Canned goods for the most part, some bags of rice and wheat and other grains that wouldn't go bad quickly, dried fruits, dried meat and a lot of stuff that he basically thought of as junk food. It had all been stuffed into one corner of the pantry and he hadn't remembered eating much of it often so he assumed it was in case they ran out of everything else.

There were your classic junk food desserts but there was also boxes of easy made macaroni and cheese, pancake mix, noodle soups, hot cereals and other things of that nature.

And then, in one corner, was a little mountain of ginger and maple instant oatmeal. There was red caution tape around the stuff and he had been really confused about that so he'd asked the first person he'd run into about it and it had happened to be Tess. She had told him that specific type of oatmeal drove yeerks insane and it was cordoned off for her benefit. Well, her's and Nomar's her yeerk and partner. The two were part of the Yeerk Peace Movement or they would have been in the empire. Here they just the Yeerk culture teachers. The ginger and maple oatmeal was sectioned off so that no one accidentally gave her some. Still, if he'd remembered correctly, it had been one of the first things he'd ever eaten when he'd gotten here. He supposed it was as good a way as any to make sure no controllers snuck into the Academy.

"And we make our own food for lunches and breakfasts mostly. For dinner, someone is usually assigned or volunteers to cook for everyone. Here we are," he said as they turned into the hallway where everyone slept. "All of these are occupied," he said as they walked past doors. "but all of these are open," he said stopping next to a door and motioning to the other doors further along in the same hallway. "And they are easy to open see," he said, pressing his hand to the pad next to the door and making it slide open. "you settle in and I'll go see if anyone else is home."

[berserker09]

Paul was happy to hear that he was going to be making his own food. He liked the idea of trying his hand at preparing a meal for once. Paul had always been a fast food type of guy, but now was his chance to broaden his skill range. "Okay," said Paul as Gabriel left.

Paul pulled his bike into the room. He set it up against the wall. He thought he would use it to exercise, but maybe he wouldn't need it with the training program here. He put his only clothes into the closet and set his knife set on the desk beside his bed. He was really not in the mood to get up. He wanted to sleep for the rest of the day, but his mind told him that it was an impossibility.

Paul sat up and started to replay everything that had happened. He had almost been Yeerkified, betrayed by his mom, rammed into some Hork-bajir, flown to Antarctica, and now sitting in an alien ship waiting for his new friend. His life was extremely turned around. He closed his eyes and hoped that it would all be a dream when he opened them. It wasn't. He was living this nightmare. Paul knew what he had to do. He needed to change what was happening. "This is my life and I am taking it back," he said softly to himself. He had said those words when his dad had died and everything was coming down on him. He had sort of changed it, but really did nothing at all. Paul had not kept his vow, but this time was different. He meant it this time with all his heart.

[gabriel]

Gage walked through the halls and knocked on Xander's and Jon's door first. He didn't wait to see if he got a response. Even if either of them was home he saw them too often as it was and he wanted to check on some of the more beautiful members of the student body. He knocked on Stevie's and Liz's doors, hoping that one of them was home and hoping that he'd have a chance to talk to them before any of the guys came back out into the hallway.

There was no answer from Stevie but he waited around hoping that Liz was just being quiet as she usually was but was actually coming to her door.

((Anyone can join or Paul can come back out into the hallway and we could go get food. Whatever keeps the thread moving I guess.))

[berserker09]

Paul layed back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He was going to be put through a lot worse than anything that he had previously experienced. His body and his mind were going to be run through a completely different type of training and he needed to accept that. He closed his eyes and started to fall asleep. It had seemed like forever since he had gotten any sleep that lasted for more than a couple of hours. Paul drifted off into sleep and started to dream about being an animal. It would soon become a reality for him in a couple of days.

(( I guess we could end it here with Paul falling asleep. What do you think?))