Throwing in the Towel (Nineteen)

[Nineteen]

As soon as Alain held up his hands, Nineteen jerked her momentum to a stop. Her body was tired but in a good way; she hadn't had a sparring match this decent since before Kovu left. In no way had she been prepared to stop, and she would have kept going until her body collapsed. But as soon as Alain signaled that he was finished, she had no problem backing off. Once upon a time that might not have been the case, but she'd fought for whatever bit of mental stability she'd regained since then.

Nineteen nodded, taking a step back. "Sure, sounds good." She wiped her forehead, and went to pick up the sweatpants she'd never bothered to put back on. "Protein time? Shower and chow in thirty?"

[Alain]

When Nineteen stopped gunning for him he breathed a sigh of relief and stood up straighter. He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe some of the sweat off of his forehead but his shirt was almost as wet as he was. He wasn't a stranger to other people's sweat or his own but he remembered having to get used to it when he first started training in Judo.

"Sounds good to me," he said when he heard her suggestion. "But what type of protein is there around here to eat?" He thought of cold canned beans and grimaced, unaware how amusing the expression looked to other people.

[Nineteen]

Alain made a face that she'd come to associate with him pretty often: like he was thinking too hard or deeply disappointed about something. It was kind of comical, and she was still searching for a good term for it, so she could turn it into a joke. Even better, a nickname. Nothing had come to her yet, though. "Occasionally we get meat, but it's mostly legumes, eggs, and tofu. There's also a lot of that powder whey stuff, if you feel like adding it to something."

The quality of the food generally depended on who was cooking. The thing was, the cooks actually seemed to be the same group of people very frequently. Nineteen suspected it was because people swapped chores. Folks that liked cooking would trade their clean-up duty for cooking, and vice versa. In the end, it meant the meals were generally all right. Sometimes you hit rock bottom though.

They walked back towards the rooms, and Nineteen split off early to her personal quarters. "All right, see you in a few."

[Alain]

Alain nodded, resigned to his fate. He didn't mind protein shakes so much because it was easy to just throw them down. But he wasn't sure how long any of those man made proteins could be trusted after all these years. He'd have to look into it himself at some point when he had free time.

Nineteen pealed off and Alain waved as he headed towards his own room. The teachers rooms and the recruit's rooms weren't that far away from each other but they were located in a separate hallway. For a second he thought he was lost but he found his way back to his own room eventually and palmed the door open.

He pulled off his sweaty clothing on his way across the room, and allowed it to drop on the floor as he headed towards the bathroom and the shower it contained. He would pick up all the clothing when he got out but he didn't worry much about making temporary messes.

He stepped into the cramped shower stall inside the bathroom. He'd learned to get used to it after a while and he pushed the button for hot water. He was glad this was one of the newer yeerk ships. Old bladeships hadn't even had hot water. They thought of it is a human luxury. But there were enough human vissers and sub-vissers now that the practice had mostly been eliminated.

As he often did he wondered how the animorphs had gotten their hands on this ship. It obviously wasn't in the best repair because they were constantly doing work on it. But it wasn't in such bad shape that it would have been thrown away and things like the shower stalls and the computer terminals showed that it was pretty new. Probably built within the last couple of years. So who had let an animorph get their hands on it?

He hadn't heard any rumors that the Animorphs had taken a Bladeship but that wasn't all that surprising. The yeerk political structure didn't inspire honesty about these sort of things and it actually hampered their effectiveness. No one could patch a hole they didn't know existed and the yeerks tendency to gloss over their failures only led to more failures.

All the better for us then, he thought as he finished showering. He stepped out of the stall and walked back into his room with a towel wrapped around his waist. He pulled out some dry clothes and toweled off completely before pulling them on. When he was ready he left the room and headed towards the mess hall.

[Nineteen]

"Oh sweet!" Nineteen said loudly, swaggering up to the serving area. Her hair was still wet from the shower but it was pulled back into a ponytail, and she'd changed in a worn pair of jeans and a tee shirt. Dimitra was behind the counter, and the Russian girl smiled widely when Nineteen approached. She was about as standardly beautiful as a young woman could be: tall, blonde, blue eyed, and well-endowed. Basically, the kind of woman that heated up the dreams of Aryan supremecists. Which was pretty funny, considering that she was the biggest Commie Nineteen knew (which probably wasn't saying much), amongst other things.

"Nineteen!" Dimitra smiled loudly, coming around the counter so they could hug.

"It's been way too long D," Nineteen replied, and felt the Russian woman's arms go around her. And, as usual, the hug was a little too tight, and her hands rested a little too low for absolute normal. They stepped back. "Shit, so you're back huh? Secret training camp?"

"Iv I told you, it would not be secret, yes?" Dimitra shot her a beauty-pageant grin.

"Yeah yeah, keep your secrets. I like my women mysterious anyway." Nineteen winked, and watched Dimitra flush. Too easy. "Really though, it's great to see you back. And cooking duty, no less!"

"Yes. I lost bet last night. Too much poker." Dimitra shrugged, and sighed.

"That'll do it. And don't take this the wrong way, but your loss, our gain." There was no doubt that Dimitra was one of the best cooks the Academy had ever seen. It was one of her many, many skills: the woman seemed to be walking Swiss Army Knife of useful training and self-sufficiency. Which meant that she was away on different trips very often.

When Alain entered across the room, Nineteen waved him over. Dimitra looked him up and down once, and frowned a little. "Alain, meet Dimitra, Dimitra, Alain. D is almost all classified ops for the Academy, but more importantly, she's pretty much the best chef on the continent. Alain is one of the recruits." Nineteen's eyes flicked over to see Dimitra's hardened expression soften at the last few words.

"Oh, so you are student," Dimitra asked in a heavy accent. "Very nice to meet you."

[Alain]

Alain walked into the mess hall and was greeted by the very low murmur of voices. He'd never been to the mess hall and found it empty. Even when he'd come here in the middle of the night once there had been a poker game going on at one of the tables in the corner. Alain had sat in for a while and though he hadn't played any hands, he had gotten one of the chemists over in the science wing to give him some lab time to see if he could squeeze a decent beer out of the lack of ingredients found at the Academy. So far he'd been unsuccessful and the chemist always teased him about what a bad investment he was, but it was fun to try nonetheless and it had made him a few acquaintances that he could eat lunch with.

He didn't spot many of them now and the few he did see were engaged in conversation but Nineteen waved him over to the chow line so he didn't have to think about interrupting them. "Hi," he said, holding out his hand in the gesture of greeting that was habitual to almost all Americans, a polite smile on his face. "It's nice to meet you too."

Dimitra shook his hand slowly, using the handshake to study him with her eyes before letting go. Alain took his hand back and almost put it in his pocket but not quite, an almost shy look of confusion on his face. That had been a bit odd but he supposed there was no harm in it.

Looking for a way to get over what was an awkward moment for him though the two women seemed completely fine with it, Alain looked down at the food. "So what's on the menu today?"

[Nineteen]

"Kung Pao tofu stew and rice." Dimitra answered, smiling deviously. Nineteen wasn't so sure about how it sounded, or at least she might not have been if she didn't have complete faith in Dimitra's ability. If anyone could re-purpose what had once upon a time been tasty take-out food, D probably could.

Dimitra grabbed a plate, and began scooping a small mountain of rice onto it. Then she ladled on the thick strew, the smell of it undeniable oriental. It was a very generous amount of food overall, and she handed it to Alain, and waited for him to take it before sticking in a fork. Even as big of a guy as Alain was, it was hard to imagine anyone consuming that sheer amount of substance. "You will like."

She handed Nineteen a similarly large portion, though not quick as much. "Hot sauce is at end of table," Dimitra smiled to Nineteen, gesturing a few feet away.

"Thanks D," Nineteen nodded, lifting her plate. "I'm sure it'll be delicious. You should come by the training room some time. I'll set up the boxing targets."

"Yes, I will."

"Til then, then." Nineteen walked down and squirted a few shots of hot sauce onto her plate, before heading over to a table, looking over her shoulder to see if Alain was following.

[Alain]

Alain accepted the plate with a smile and a murmured 'thank you'. He wasn't sure how he was going to eat it all and he even felt slightly guilty, wondering if he was getting more than his share of the Academy's limited supplies. But Dimitra heaped an almost equal amount of food on Nineteen's plate so Alain decided not to worry about it too much. Nineteen was a teacher and surely she would have said something if they was a problem so Alain just thanked Dimitra again before turning and following Nineteen over to a table.

He set his tray down and swung his legs over the bench. He'd always found picnic-style lunch tables an extremely awkward design but they seemed to be standard almost everywhere. He used his fork to spear some of his food but didn't begin eating right away. "So the Academy runs classified ops?" he asked before putting the food in his mouth.

[Nineteen]

Nineteen sat down, and had already taken a large bite of food by the time Alain asked his question. To her credit, she waited until she'd chewed and swallowed before trying to answer.

"Yeah, but a lot stuff is classified. Cassie's probably the only one that knows everything about everything, but Seiya knows what goes on at the Academy. Other than that, no one person knows it all. So even mundane stuff gets labeled 'classified'." Nineteen gestured towards him with a fork. "Not, that is, that D's stuff is mundane. I'm pretty convinced she helps them work on defense systems. Not just the hi-tech stuff, but y'know, helping rebel colonies set up better fortifications, staying hidden, all of that."

[Alain]

"Uh, that's interesting," Alain said before taking another bite of his food. He thought about what kind of operations the animorphs were running as he chewed on his food. He supposed he'd figured he would just be fighting the good fight, going head to head with Hork Bajir and Controllers. But he guessed the resistance was a bit more subtle than he'd assumed. Which was probably a good thing.

"Are we going to be doing stuff like that?" Alain asked, looking over at Nineteen and deciding he should start educating himself about what it meant to be an animorph. "Helping support local resistance groups and such?"

[Nineteen]

Nineteen shrugged. "Hard to say. You end up doing whatever Seiya and Cassie think you're suited for, generally. For example, I know this is hard to believe," she started, the smirk on her face clearly showing that she was joking, "but I didn't exactly want to be a teacher. Yet here I am." She pushed her food around on her plate a moment before eating some more. It really was some of the best stuff she'd eaten in what felt like eons, but talking about her current occupation tended to leave a bad taste in her mouth.

"As for what faction Animorphs do, I don't know if they're really 'support' for anyone. I think it's probably more the other way around. I mean, to be honest, it seems like people around here complain about rebel forces more than they praise them. Doesn't sound like they like us too much either -- the power we have, how picky we are with recruits, all of that."

Nineteen rubbed the back of her neck. "Like I said though. I've never been in a faction. I just know what I hear." And even if Nineteen wasn't the smartest person, she knew how to keep her ear to the ground well enough. She dug into her food with renewed vigor, as if refusing to let the topic ruin her appetite.

[Alain]

"Interesting," Alain said, looking at Nineteen from under what were quickly becoming bangs, especially when his head was bent towards his food. "I guess that means we should watch our step," Alain said after some thought. "I mean, if you're a rebel fighter who's been fighting in an area for a couple of years wouldn't you be pissed off if some people just moved in and decided they could do a better job? We don't want them fighting us along with the yeerks, that would be dumb," he said, eating more of the food. Nineteen was right, it was some of the best he'd tasted since he'd come here.

"I'm going to have to compliment Dimitra again on this," he said as he swallowed his current mouthful. "Not every day you meet a woman that can cook and be a spy," he said jokingly, "think she'd give me her number?" Since cell phones no longer existed it was obvious he wasn't serious, at least not completely.

[Nineteen]

"Maybe I'd be pissed if I were them, I don't know. But if they're stupid enough to get in our way, let alone fight us, fuck 'em. Saving the world isn't some territorial pissing contest." Nineteen shrugged. Empathy was not one of her strong suits, and she'd been brought up in a world were might was right. Even if you were fighting on the side of "Good" or whatever, whoever was most powerful got to make the rules. If they tiptoed around some rebel group's pride, that was just a waste of time and energy.

Nineteen snickered when he mentioned Dimitra's number. "I guess you'd have to ask her," she said with a smile, wolfing down some more of her food. "Please make sure I'm there when you do, though," she added with a smirk.

"So what're your mighty morphin' power-forms? Besides the rodent."

[Alain]

"Uh, let's see. I can become the mighty meerkat," Alain said with a smile. "If you get a warthog morph we'd be quite a pair." He thought through his other morphs. It wasn't like it was hard to remember. He could become animals and that was pretty new. You didn't just forget which animals you could become. At least not now. He wondered if he'd ever reach the point when he forgot all of his morphs.

"I also have a river otter swimming in my blood and a beetle of some sort. Jullian said it was a scarab beetle but if I remember my Egyptian mythology right that means it's a dung beetle. And it is attracted to toilets so I fear the worst."

[Nineteen]

"An otter, huh?" Nineteen stabbed at the rest of her stew, and appeared to be thinking very hard about whether or not to tell him something. "It seems such a same, you know? To have all these morphs and never be able to unleash them anywhere? I mean, dogs and horses that can't run, birds that have to fly without any air circulation, fish that can't swim..."

Nineteen leaned forward, looking to each side for dramatic effect. "Between you and me though, I hear we're getting a pool sometime soon. In one of the areas that's been blocked off for construction. Maybe you'll actually get to test-run your otter, huh?" Even just swimming in a pool as a human would be nice. Nineteen hadn't been swimming since before she'd been captured, and the idea of it was absolutely wonderful on its own.