All the Right Moves [Dustin]

[Jullian]

"Alright, that was good but I want you to try it again," Jullian said, looking at Dustin. They were inside the hangar bay but on the half of it where the obstacle course had been set up and maintained since the first recruits had been here. Jullian wasn't using the obstacle course itself, just one of the sand pit obstacles that worked as a convenient run way for the trick he was trying to teach Dustin.

It was something Ember had done first in Boston and she'd been able to pull it off easily because of her odd connection with her cardinal morph. But, over time, through work and discipline Jullian had been able to get similar results. He didn't think Dustin was going to get this today, if he had Jullian would have been surprised. But he wanted to see that Dustin was making progress because that would show him that Dustin knew how to practice on his own and could continue practicing when he left here and went out to a faction.

"It kind of hinges on morphing your upper body as much as possible before morphing your lower body. But our legs are our heaviest body part so you can't get off the ground if they are still human. It's an odd balance," Jullian said with a shrug. So much of morphing was intuitive and he could only really paint concepts in broad strokes. "So watch me again then see what you can do."

Jullian took a breath and then began running towards the sand pit. As he did so he concentrated on his seagull morph since he hadn't mastered this with the others yet. He allowed his breast bone to expand and his arms to melt into wings without actually growing smaller just yet. His nose and mouth melted into a beak early on since he wasn't concentrating on controlling them. He'd found that he could not control an entire morph and only tried to control the parts of it important to a specific maneuver.

As he reached the sand pit he allowed himself to shrink slowly to the ground while trying to maintain the structural integrity of his legs so that he could keep running. Eventually that was impossible and right before he could trip over his changing legs he jumped off the ground and flapped his wings madly. There was the brief moment that always seemed accompany this maneuver when he wasn't sure if he'd make it, then his body shifted a bit more, dropped a bit more weight as his bones hollowed out, and it turned out his wings were powerful enough to carry him into the air.

If he were human he would have smiled with satisfaction as he circled back towards Dustin and landed on the ground near him. <<Alright, your turn.>>

[Dustin]

Dustin had been skeptical that Jullian wouldn't be able to pull off the maneuver, but as always, Jullian proved why he was the Morphing 101 instructor. Dusting just stood and gawked for a while before he realized Jullian had spoken to him. Oh, right, my turn, he reminded himself. He went to where Jullian had started and prepared to concentrate. This was going to be his biggest challenge yet.

"Alright, here I go." Dustin closed his eyes and took a moment to stand there to prepare his mind and body for the task at hand. He would need to run and morph at the same time. That would be hard enough. But he would also need to try and morph his upper body before morphing his legs. That would be the biggest challenge.

Dustin opened his eyes and started running toward the sand. Morph everything but the legs. Morph everything but the legs, he repeated to himself. He didn't make it ten steps before his knees changed direction and he fell face forward into the ground. Hard.

"Ouch."

Without bothering to pick himself up to demorph, he said to Jullian, "This doesn't seem to be working too well."

[Jullian]

Jullian flapped over to him, hardly skimming the ground, and regarded him with one beady black eye. His seagull wanted to know if this creature had food on him and Jullian had to resist the urge to peck at Dustin's clothing, looking for scraps. He turned his head and regarded Dustin with the another, suspicious beady black eye. Was he holding out?

<<I think you did better that time. Uh, it just seemed,>> Jullian tried to put what he had seen into words, <<were you concentrating on your legs?>> he finally asked. He'd watched Dustin run towards the sandpit and the first thing that had started to change was his legs. The speed at which they had begun to change was encouraging and if he could apply that speed to the right body part he'd be well on his way to figuring this out.

[Dustin]

"No," Dustin replied automatically. Then he actually thought about what he had been concentrating on as he got back to his feet.

"Well, no. I mean, I guess I was specifically concentrating on not thinking about my legs. I was trying to get everything but my legs to morph. If that makes sense..."

While he brushed himself off, he asked, "What? Do you think there is some Don't think about zebras going on here or something? Because well, I'm not sure I can not think about zebras. How do you manage to keep everything straight in your mind?" He stared at the seagull, waiting for a response. It hardly phased him anymore that he wasn't looking at a human being.

[Jullian]

<<Yes, actually, that's kind of exactly what's going on,>> Jullian said, his seagull still eyeing Dustin, hoping for food. <<One of the first times I ever morphed, in fact, the first time I morphed my dolphin all I could think about was how inconvenient it would be if my legs morphed first and I couldn't stand up in the water. Which is exactly what happened. Which is one of the ways I learned just how much control your mind has over your morph.>>

Jullian took off and flew back to their starting point as Dustin picked himself up and followed. It was only a few feet really since Dustin's legs had morphed so fast and Jullian settled down on another obstacle that put him at eye height to Dustin. <<Instead of trying to not think about something, try concentrating more heavily on what you want to change. Don't think about not morphing your legs. Think about morphing your arms, your torso, your head. If you are concentrating on everything else, your legs shouldn't change. If anything, try picturing a bird with human legs.>>

[Dustin]

"Alright, I guess that makes sense. I'll give it a try at least." Dustin went and stood where he had started before. He closed his eyes to concentrate again before proceeding. He took a few deep breaths this time too.

Then he opened his eyes and began running, ignoring the scrapes he had acquired from his first attempt. This time when he imagined the flamingo, he imagined it on a black background with a black wall in front of it. The wall slowly got shorter and shorter, revealing more of the flamingo behind. The legs would be last to show up.

As he ran, Dustin's head began to shrink. When his eyes morphed it became more awkward to run, but he managed to keep going without too much trouble. But when the neck started morphing, it was a bit more of a challenge. He stumbled a few tines but managed to keep his balance.

Next his wings started to emerge from his arms. First they changed shape, then the feathers sprouted. Just as Dustin thought he was getting the hang of it, an image popped into his head of zebra-striped flamingo legs.

Dustin panicked and jumped into the air before his legs could have a chance to cause him problems. He flapped his wings hard and tried to continue his morph, but unfortunately he was still much too massive. Not to mention not at all aerodynamic.

He fell slower than he would have normally, and even made it as far as the sand, but he still did a graceless bellyflop on the ground. <<So close. Kind of. Should I demorph?>>

[Jullian]

Jullian watched Dustin and saw such an improvement that he was routing for Dustin to get off the ground. When he didn't Jullian was still elated. He took off immediately and winged over to where Dustin's body was slipping completely into the flamingo morph. As Dustin's straightened himself out Jullian landed next to him.

<<That was so much better. Congratulations Dustin. You'll have that one down in no time.>> He hopped around Dustin's flamingo. His seagull wasn't afraid of it. It was either to brash or too stupid to really be afraid of anything. It was getting a little agitated that there was no food anywhere to be found though. It wanted to fly off in search of food and kept fighting Jullian's insistence that they stay here, where there was no food.

<<You can demorph and try it again if you want,>> Jullian said, turning his head at an odd angle to look up at Dustin. <<Do you think you'd be too tired or anything?>>

[Dustin]

Jullian claimed that Dustin had done better this time, and he could see that. But the pains in his stomach were determined to convince him otherwise. Sure, he had generally gone through the morphing process from the top dow, but he had missed some spots. He had a lot of flamingo features by the time he jumped, but a lot of his features were still human too. But maybe one more try would be worth the effort.

<<I think I still have one more try left in me,>> he told Jullian as he began to demorph. <<I think most of my exhaustion is coming from the running. Not so much the morphing.>> He walked as he demorphed. Walking was definitely much easier to do while shapeshifting.

When he reached the beginning again, Dustin took a moment to catch his breath and finish the demorph before trying again. As he stood there, he thought of a question. "Hey Jullian, you are the first real morphing instructor here right? So who taught you to morph?"

[Jullian]

Jullian watched Dustin demorph, easily walking back to the starting line through the transition. He wondered if Dustin realized the level of mastery even that took. Most of the recruits couldn't do that. Alain even got on all fours before morphing just so he wouldn't fall over. He was making progress but, so far, Jullian had only invited Dustin to try out this exercise.

Jullian flew back to the starting line as he contemplated Dustin's question. <<Well, no one taught me to morph exactly. Not the way you're being taught. But the person who taught me the most was this guy named Rian. He was part of the Los Angeles faction before getting his own faction in Las Vegas.>> By now a lot of the recruits had heard about the Las Vegas faction so Jullian didn't feel the need to go into details. <<He used to wake us up at the crack of dawn to go flying or he would come up with these obstacle courses that we'd have to use our morphs for and stuff like that. He was the first person to teach me the running trick.>>

Jullian had begun to demorph as he spoke and had to break his story when his thoughtspeak cut out and his mouth started to reform into human lips and tongue. The feathers faded back into his skin and his own hair grew as his morphing suit appeared on his body. He wasn't wearing anything fancy today. The suit was an old one. A modified wet suit he'd gotten in LA with the insignia of the Los Angeles animorphs on the back and on the chest in a smaller version. He'd designed it himself and outfitted other morph clothing with Ember's help with the same design. Each of the LA animorphs had been allowed to choose a different color for their belt. Jullian had chosen a light, sea blue and even today he could remember all the colors everyone else had chosen. Matt had gotten gold and Rian a dark blue, Ember red of course and Kat orange. Bane had gotten purple and Stevert had gotten green. The belts were designed to hold small objects close to a person's skin so that they could be morphed and by far, was the feature that had made the suits practical.

Over the years people had changed morph outfits or those had gotten ripped or torn up. People had switched factions and felt the need to stop wearing them. Jullian had even switched factions but he'd brought his with him for memory's sake. They had new suits now. Jullian helped design them. They were more utilitarian and mostly black and full of pockets people could put small items in like dracon beams. They were form fitting but not as revealing as some of the stuff people in factions had used to have to deal with. No biker shorts or tight t-shirts. The new morphing suits fit like full-body body armor and were made of some tough material that wouldn't rip easily. The recruits would get theirs when they graduated since they had to be fitted and they'd get a few extra. Hopefully they wouldn't run through them too quickly. But even with the new suits as options Jullian had kept this one since it was one of the few still in existence.

He sat down on the ground, easily crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands as he thought about the other people who'd helped him. "Well, like I said before, my old faction leader and friend, Ember, was the first to do what we're practicing today. But," he shrugged, "a lot of morphing is intuitive. I know I keep saying that but it's true. Look at Cassie, no one really taught her. You can learn from others by watching them but you really have to find your own way of doing it. No one else's way is going to work exactly the same for you."

[Dustin]

Dustin listened patiently as Jullian answered his question. He was in no hurry to continue practicing anyway. In his mind, the more time he had to recuperate, the better. It would be hard to concentrate if he was breathing hard. Besides, what Jullian was saying was interesting. Dustin could only imagine what it would be like living in a faction with other animorphs. And any clues were very much appreciated.

But then Jullian went into his talk about how morphing is intuitive again. Dustin had a pretty good idea what he meant. All of the morphing practice had helped to clarify that. But still, he was slightly intrigued when Jullian mentioned that you had to find your own way of doing it. Dustin had a pretty good idea what his way was, but what were the ways other people did it?

"You said everyone has their own way of morphing, right?" he asked rhetorically. "Do you know what anyone else's methods are?" Dustin thought maybe he should give an example. "Like when I was trying to turn into the flamingo this last time, I imagined a flamingo that was behind a wall that kept getting shorter. That way the legs wouldn't be seen until the end."

[Jullian]

"Well that's interesting," Jullian said, thinking about how that might work for a minute before giving some thought to Dustin's question. "Well I've asked other people this and I've heard some pretty interesting responses. For example, my sister, she only thinks of one piece of the animal at a time. Like, if she were morphing a snake she'd think scales, then eyes, then...and so on. The results are pretty interesting. She's not the smoothest morpher, in fact, she's the most stilted morpher I've ever seen. But the fact that she can isolate like that is amazing. I've tried to learn it and I can only do it a bit and she just does it naturally. It has its good and bad sides I guess," he said shrugging.

He'd finally gotten a chance to spend time with his sister when he'd left Boston and before coming here. She'd changed a lot but, then again, so had he. It had been nice to see her and to know she was alive and as well as any of them could be. They'd even been given a chance to visit their family and Jullian had debated whether to drag Kovu along and decided against it. It may have been the end of the world but his parents would still object to some things and he didn't want to have to deal with it.

"And Rian, the faction leader I mentioned earlier, he used to say he would imagine what it felt like to be the animal. He wouldn't think of an image of a jaguar. He'd remember what it felt like to twitch his tail or flex his claws, stuff like that. His morphs were way smooth though not extremely fast. He got faster with practice though."

[Dustin]

"Those methods are interesting. And very different from what I was doing. Maybe I can try to incorporate those approaches during my next try. It couldn't hurt anyway." Dustin was all ready to try again, but there was still one more thing he wanted to ask Jullian about.

"So, you have a sister? And she is an animorph too? That's gotta be cool. I bet she is super impressed that you are the morphing instructor here. I have a sister too you know, but she is way too young to be doing anything like this." Actually, Dustin had no idea where his sister was, or if she was even still alive. But until he had reason to believe otherwise, he was going to assume she was alive and well, save for a possible slug on her brain.

[Jullian]

Jullian scratched his head. It seemed an oddly cartoonish way to express insecurity but he'd affected it a long time ago when he'd realized it gave him a chance to play with his hair and make sure it was in good shape without actually doing something that would have gotten him beaten up in his old school. "I guess, I mean, she's never told me she was impressed or anything but I've never told her I was impressed either." Jullian shrugged. He wasn't even sure of half the things Helena did. In fact, he was pretty sure he was not allowed to know half the things Helena did which made chatting about work pretty difficult. Which sucked because they didn't really have anything else. They were animorphs and it wasn't just their job, it was their life.

"My older sister is an animorph. Her name is Helena and we've both been animorphs for about the same amount of time. What she does it pretty important too though I don't really know most of what she does. She works directly with Cassie though and she's pretty good at being a soldier, unlike me," he said with a self depreciating laugh.

[Dustin]

Dustin thought it would be weird to not be able to talk about stuff with your sibling. Not that he had any real experience with the matter. His sister could barely answer simple questions yet, much less have stuff she didn't want him to know. Maybe it was different for older siblings. Or more likely yet, Dustin was probably just ignorant to the complexities of siblinghood. He decided not to press the matter.

"Well, if you don't think you would make such a great soldier, then it is a good thing you are here. You get to do what you like, teaching all of the new people how to morph. And you are good at it too. Not to mention you have the security of staying in a relatively safe place every night. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I envy you, Jullian." Dustin let out a half-laugh to let Jullian know he wasn't too serious about the last part.

[Jullian]

Jullian laughed a little, some of his bitterness slipping through despite his best efforts. He had thought this job was a god send when he'd first gotten it. He got to be away from the frontlines, doing something he loved with someone he loved. Now though, it didn't feel like such a good thing. Not that it felt like a bad thing either, it just felt like a neutral thing now. He'd come to believe that being an animorph was a lifestyle choice but maybe that was why he was dissatisfied. He didn't feel like he had a life, just a job. In a faction he'd been part of a family but here, without Kovu, he was just another employee, another piece of the crew.

"I guess," Jullian said, avoiding the question. Dustin wasn't his friend as he had learned the other day. Dustin was his student, a very talented student, but still a student. Someone he was responsible for and responsible too. He owed it to him to make sure he got the best education available and Dustin owed it to him to listen and learn. Nothing more.