The Calm Before

[Drake]

"This is as far as we go," the pilot said. "The risk of being spotted is too great if we go any closer."

"Yeah, but over the water?" Drake asked.

"Well, we could drop you off on land, but we would be just as far away, and then you would have to cross the entire city too. Would you prefer that?"

Drake considered it for a moment then decided against it. He wanted to keep as low of a profile as they could for now. And flying in over the city would not help them to do that. "Nah. Lets get going. Open 'er up."

The pilot smiled and pushed a couple buttons as Drake headed back to where he had left his new faction members. "Alright, listen up guys. We are flying in as birds, so start morphing. We have about an hour of ocean to fly over, so prepare yourself. If anyone has any trouble, don't hesitate to tell me or Aubrey." Drake was extremely grateful that he had Aubrey in his faction. If he didn't have a veteran that he knew on his team, he probably would not have been nearly as calm right now.

The back of the bug fighter opened up and Drake could see the water about twenty feet below. But the water wasn't what concerned him. It was the sky. It was all grey and cloudy, and in the distance he could see lightning. Hopefully they would make it to land before it reached them.

With a sigh, Drake began concentrating on his turkey vulture morph.

[Alain]

Alain had taken the time on the trip to sleep since he could fall asleep anywhere and sleep through almost anything (as he'd proven once before). He had curled up in a corner and rested his head against the bug fighter wall. He hadn't brought much with him from the Academy, there just wasn't much that could be brought. He'd been given a morphing suit that fit, which was a luxury for him, and it had come equipped with enough pockets that he could probably hide a world's worth of 99 cent store crap on his person.

Besides for the suit he'd brought a book. He'd stolen it from the library and had only felt the slightest bit of guilt. Books were hard to come by these days which should probably make him feel like they had to be protected in places like the Bladeship. But what was a book worth if it couldn't be read? So he'd taken a copy of The Eye of the World, a book he'd always meant to pick up as a child and it was currently squirreled away in one of his many pockets along with some small snacks and a deck of cards.

About an hour before they'd reached their destination Alain had woken up and chatted with Nineteen for a bit until Drake came back and told them it was time to go. Alain pushed himself up off the wall he'd been leaning on and stood up. In the past few weeks his morphing balance had improved and he hardly fell over when he tried to morph...most times. He still had to close his eyes though so he did and pictured the large black bird that had become one of his favorite morphs.

The familiar feather pattern began to spread across his skin, the outlines of the feathers thick and black like tattoo ink. He smiled as the feathers slowly began to peel away from his skin, becoming 3-D versions of themselves. The thicker they became the blacker they grew.

He almost lost his balance when his toes melted together but they split up almost immediately, forming the raven's talons. His skin grew scaly as he began to shrink. His shoulders shifted back and his arms began to contract into strong, broad wings as his mouth and nose melted together and began to push out into his thick beak.

His tail was the last thing to show up, giving him needed balance as he flapped his wings a few times and hopped around to loosen them up. <<I'm ready,>> Alain reported, standing still and watching Drake while he and the raven he'd morphed exchanged curious thoughts.

[Aubrey]

It'd been quite a flight back from the Academy, and Aubrey was more than eager to get away from being locked up in ships. As Drake returned from talking with the pilots Aubrey smiled widely, nervous excitement buzzing through her body. A new faction. She hadn't been in a new faction since Dallas. Even New York had basically only been the quiet edge for her, with only some simple duties like scouting or keeping watch given to her. Nothing too hard or life-threatening--discounting the whole Kandrona-YPM briefcase incident.

Yet, some touch of uneasiness about returning to the front-lines still lingered in her. It did help that the faction leader was someone she knew well. It was a bit weird, though, viewing Drake as her superior, when she'd always viewed him as her faction mate. At the same time, she was happy that he was one. While she hadn't been able to step up and meet that challenge, Drake had.

The wind whipped into the bug fighter as the back opened, catching Aubrey's hair and tossing it around. Ignoring the pins-and-needles feeling she got from glancing out of the back of the ship--and seeing the water--she concentrated on her air morph. Feathers sprouted all along her body, a bright white with touches of gray and black. Her bones began to grind and twist, forming into huge human-wings. Her toes melted together, turning scaly and orange and webbed. A couple minutes later, Aubrey stood on the floor as a seagull. <<I'm ready!>>

[Nineteen]

Nineteen watched her faction mates shrink and sprout feathers. The coordination only made the transformations even more like a horror flick. She smirked, and started her own morph. Another freak for the show, she thought, as feathers itched their way to the surface of her skin.

Her morph looked pretty similar to Alain's, though she ended up smaller. What the crow lacked in size, however, it definitely had in attitude. It wasn't frightened at the collection of other birds, even the much larger turkey vulture. Letting out a defiant ca-caw, Nineteen flapped up to perch on a piece of equipment in the Bug Fighter.

What the crow was worried about, however, was the dark sky outside of the hatch. Flying in rain wasn't fun, and flying in a storm might be downright suicidal. Out of the two options though, Nineteen would take the air. As fragile as the crow might be when the winds picked up, the thought of being caught in the water below was worse. The only thing she had that called the water home was a fish that was sold in pint-sized plastic cups. <<Geronimo?>>

[Drake]

<<Geronimo,>> Drake agreed. He beat his wings once to hop over to the edge of the bug fighter, then he beat them again to launch himself out the back. One moment the ground was right beneath his feet, and the next there was a twenty foot drop down into the roiling waves of the Atlantic ocean. Even now, after all his time in flight, Drake still loved the feeling of being airborn. Just the freedom to go higher and lower at will was enough to feel like nothing could hold you back.

Well, except the air itself. Drake was not used to flying over ocean air, and it wasn't as effortless as he was used to. He actually had to flap, and fairly often. There were gusts of wind that would occasionally help him out, but for the most part he had to keep himself airborne with his own power. Hopefully Everyone else with their smaller bird morphs would have an easier time. Aubrey, at lest, had a bird designed for sea flight.

<<Once everyone gets more comfortable in the air, we will need to spread out. We will look too suspicious if we fly in from the ocean in one big group. I'll go up high, so if someone wants to go right, left, and low, we should be set.>> Drake wasn't sure if he should appoint who goes where or not, so he decided he would only tell them if they asked.

<<Our headquarters is supposed to be located somewhere in the old shipyard, so be on the lookout for a structure labeled "Ebba Maersk" when we get close.>>

[Alain]

Alain hopped into the air and began to flap his wings and the wind did the rest, carrying him out over the sea. The raven may not have been able to say as much in words but it was the most intelligent animal he'd morphed so far and Alain acutely felt the raven's fear as well as its sense of excitement.

<<Me too buddy,>> Alain said though only to himself as he settled down into flapping. He didn't want to drift too far from the others until they were closer to land and had to. If someone went down in the water they'd have to help each other and he wanted to be close.

He craned his head around to make sure he could keep an eye on the others as he sought to ride the sea winds to help compliment his work. <<Ebba Maersk,>> Alain said, this time "out-loud." <<Is there any plan other than for getting there?>> Alain asked. It looked like getting there was going to be difficult enough with a storm on the way but Alain wasn't sure if the place would have supplies or if they'd need to pick some up on their way in.

[Aubrey]

Ebba Maersk, Ebba Maersk, Aubrey repeated the unfamiliar words to herself, and eyed the storm that was brewing outside the hatch. They had an hour of flight time, and the heavy clouds that sat in the sky looked about ready to burst right over them. Fantastic. As the others took flight, she waddled over to the edge and spread out the seagull's white and gray wings. Her morph would be comfortable flying over the water, thankfully enough, although Aubrey didn't exactly share the bird's ease.

One hop forward launched her over the edge, and she flapped her wings hard to gain air. The wind kicked up, billowing beneath her wings. Suddenly, there was nothing but sea and air below her webbed feet. She was airborne. The feeling of flying was exhilarating, freeing, even after doing it as much as she had.

<<I'll take low,>> She said in reply to Drake. Adjusting her wings, she dipped below the others. The waves lurched up at her as she glided above them, and she flapped occasionally to keep herself a comfortable distance above the salty spray of the sea.

[Drake]

<<Is there any plan other than for getting there?>> Alain asked.

It was something Drake had been going over in his head for days now. He had been trying and trying to figure out the best course of action when they arrived. Should they scout out the area first? Do a thorough search of their headquarters? Search for supplies? There were countless other options he had considered as well. He had nearly gone crazy trying to figure it all out.

But now that someone had actually asked him, it all seemed so simple. <<First we find our hideout, we make sure there are no immediate threats, then we get settled in and figure out who sleeps where and whatnot. Once the basics are covered, we will establish some security protocol and chore routines. Sound like a good plan for our first day here?>> Drake asked rhetorically, but he was still secretly hoping for an honest answer.

[Nineteen]

Nineteen was glad that Aubrey had volunteered to fly closer to the ocean. The crow was unhappy enough as it was, and getting its feathers even more wet was about as appealing as diving straight into a wave. Already she felt the weight pressing down on her wings; and when you were a bird, even added gram was like a small anchor.

Had to go with crow. Couldn't get a nice duck morph. Ugh. She tried not to be jealous of Aubrey's seagull, but she was failing. It got a little easier when Drake started explaining the plan, at least. By the time he mentioned chores, though, Nineteen felt her enthusiasm flag. Fly through a storm, demorph, then go through a bunch of rules and procedures? She was getting exhausted just thinking about it.

<<Sounds good, boss.>> She wasn't about to whine over it, at least. <<If there are bunks, I call top.>>

[Alain]

<<When you put it that way,>> Alain said, trying not to feel how heavy his wings were. He craned his head a bit to look up at Drake. He wondered if Drake's bigger bird made this flight easier or harder. <<sounds like we have enough work for one day without borrowing any.>>

His raven chortled, that was the word that came to Alain's mind when he heard the sound that came from his beak and felt the raven's amusement. <<I would name you but it's like you get reborn every time,>> he said to the bird privately. It was almost like having a pet except it was a pet that died every time he demorphed and was brought back to life every time he remorphed. It was a disturbing thought and one too complicated for the raven to understand so Alain turned his mind to other things.

<<I think if anyone got the top bunk it should be me,>> he sent to Nineteen privately, <<otherwise I'm going to be hitting my head every time I sit up.>> He tried to send her a mental picture of himself with stars around his head. He didn't know if it worked. No one had ever told him exactly how mind speak operated and what its limits were.
<<It was a hard learned lesson from summer camp.>>

[Aubrey]

Aubrey skimmed over the waves, her gray wings flapping, and felt a light drizzle of rain on her feathered back. The seagull was used to being somewhat damp, and so the wetness didn't bother it that much; though Aubrey wondered how the other's morphs would do if the storm decided to go full force on them before they got to the hideout.

<<Sounds good to me too,>> Aubrey replied, twisting her head sideways and watching a particularly tall ocean wave glide past harmlessly below her. Adjusting her wings slightly, Aubrey angled a couple inches higher. Nineteen claimed the top bunk bed, and Aubrey didn't fight it. She'd spent the first months at Los Angeles sleeping outside in a hammock, then later on a couch. In Dallas, she'd spent some time sleeping on the floor. When it came down to it, she wasn't particularly picky when it came to where she slept.

<<Do you think there's going to be any food there? Or will we have to go out and get some at some point?>> In Aubrey's experience, at least with Dallas, there had been some old food stored in the Church--mostly nasty canned stuff that lasted through the war, but it was food enough until they had gone out and found something more sustainable. She was hoping that this old 'shipyard' hideout would have something once they got there. They still had roughly an hour or so of flight left, and Aubrey was already feeling kind of hungry.

[Drake]

Nobody said his plan was horrible, so he assumed it was good enough. At least to start off with. It had started to rain a little and now his bird morph wanted to seek out cover. But the only cover was miles away over open ocean, and so he hustled even more.

<<Probably both, Aubrey. There should be food there, but I'm sure we will also want to locate more before too long. Maybe even go hunting, If anyone knows how.>> Drake thought back to when they had eaten the wild boar back in Dallas. The bacon was delicious, but they had Fin back then to carve it up. Drake had no idea how you would go about preparing a wild animal for cooking.

As they flew, the rain started to come down harder and harder. By the time they were about five minutes from the shore, it was pouring rain and the wind was gusting. Drake was starting to feel like a plastic bag blowing across a parking lot. <<Alright, forget formations! Just head for land and we'll figure out where to go from there.>> Drake did his best to angle his wings to head for shore, but mother nature was doing her best to thwart his attempts.

[Nineteen]

Nineteen got a blurry image of a bunk bed in a cabin, but it was gone quickly: it was about as watery as the air right now. Still, it was something, and she was mildly impressed that Alain was able to pull it off. She hadn't really thought about doing that before. <<Maybe there will be top bunks for everyone,>> she added hopefully. She'd gotten used to having her own space at the Academy, and though she wouldn't refuse to room with someone else (obviously), she wasn't really looking forward to giving up that small luxury... along with all the other niceties of the bladeship.

Aubrey mentioned food, and though part of Nineteen was hungry, mostly she didn't want to think about eating right now. The idea of food made her feel heavier, and Nineteen had never been so concerned about her weight as she was right now. Even if she was a fraction of her human bodies size, she was feeling every ounce as she struggled to keep herself aloft in the blowing winds.

<<You got it.>> Nineteen replied to Drake, though she did feel herself start to get worried. Did the break in formations mean they were more screwed than previously imagined? She flapped harder, and tried not to realize that each time she looked down, she'd somehow gotten closer to the water.

[Alain]

Alain's wings felt like they were going to fall off. He'd long ago stopped trying to figure out how Drake was still in the air. Alain was significantly smaller then him and he felt like someone had attached lead weights to his feet. His mind and the raven's had both focused in on one task, stay in the air. He wasn't even really conscious of where or how far away the shore was. The wind was tossing him in a way that would have made him sick to his stomach if he'd been human and yet, after every gust or throw, he seemed to end up closer to the water than he'd been before.

He heard Drake's orders and was broken out of his narrow world view enough to try to see where the others were. It was a mistake. Just as he turned his head another gust of wind hit him and the angle of his head affected his flight enough that it sent him first sideways and then down as he lost control. He tried to right himself and managed to get his wings back into a flight formation but he was skimming the water, his claws throwing up splashes.

He flapped to get higher before one of the waves that had been growing larger could over take him and he felt like the muscles in his wings were going to snap. A wave came at him and he managed to get over it but it was like climbing a hill in the air. He wasn't so lucky with the second wave.

[Aubrey]

((I wasn't entirely clear if Alain went down, so hopefully this works.))

<<Right-o, Drake,>> Aubrey replied to his last order. He'd told them to cut formation, and she was more than glad to do so. The waves were getting bigger and bigger as time passed on, and heavy droplets of water soaked her small body. Adjusting her wings as best she could in the wind, Aubrey attempted to edge further away from the growing ocean waves and flapped hard, her orange feet flailing beneath her. It was getting harder to control where she was going and she didn't want to accidentally end up in the water. Even now the wind was picking up, exaggerating every tiny adjustment she made to her flight.

<<How much lon-->> The bird in front of her--a raven--suddenly disappeared beneath one of the waves. It took a moment for the realization to hit her; someone had just gone down. Not good. Unsure exactly what to do, Aubrey called out immediately, <<Drake! Guys! We have a man down!>> The wind was battering her back and forth, and she struggled to get a look back at the spot where Alain had just been.