The Calm Before

[Drake]

<<Drake! Guys! We have a man down!>> Aubrey's words hit Drake like a slap in the face.

<<What!? Who?>> Drake scanned the water below, and as a crack of lightning split the sky, just barely noticed the large body of a raven. <<Alain!>> If Drake hadn't lost so much altitude himself, he probably would have never seen him.

Oh man, oh man, oh man, Drake said to himself as he attempted to figure out what to do. To everyone he said, <<Aubrey, you float, right? Try to keep him from drowning. Alain, if you are a great swimmer, try demorphing. You have an otter morph, right? I'll try to get in there and help you as soon as I can. Nineteen, if you can make it to shore, go. If not, best to cut our losses here instead of getting separated.>>

Drake was already demorphing as he finished his instructions. He immediately felt heavier in the air and began to sink. It was all he could do to aim his landing before he too was in the water. Drake himself had never been a strong swimmer, and the enormous waves of the ocean terrified him. Even more terrifying was the deepness of the water below the waves. But he pushed that out of his mind now. He would never be able to forgive himself if he lost a faction member before they even reached their headquarters.

Especially when it had been his decision to fly in over the water.

[Alain]

The wave hit him like a wall of water and it was just as hard. His world turned into water and he could no longer tell which way was up or down. He was surrounded and he just had to hold on except there was nothing to hold on to. He could have been sinking further and further each second and not known it. Drake's mind voice broke through his grim determination not to panic. He wasn't the best swimmer but he wasn't bad and he'd rather be an otter in all of this than a human or a raven.

He immediately began concentrating on his own form but once he started gaining weight he could tell which way was down because he began to sink. He tried to kick to the surface but he didn't have legs or feet yet and his arms were still wings that seemed to slow him down more than help. Wings were never meant to push through water, at least not his.

He stopped struggling and just spread his arms/wings and hoped it would slow him down. He couldn't stop himself from sinking and the only thing he could do was to get into his human body and then the otter body and hope he made it. He felt like he was racing against the ocean.

[Nineteen]

<<Alain!>> The crow squawked unhappily at the same time as Nineteen cried out, and she sunk in the air as she backtracked -- or tried to. Flying in this mess was bad enough, and trying to hover around one spot was next to impossible. She'd been lowering herself towards the water when Drake gave his order. Nothing in it suggested that she head into the water herself, and she had to fight hard not to immediately tell him to piss off, that Alain was her friend.

But really, what was she going to do for him? His water morph, assuming he could get into it, was better than anything she had. And even if she managed to demorph and grab him somehow, there was no way she was getting back into the air as a soaking wet crow... definitely not after demorphing and morphing again. Nineteen let out a snarl of curses but pumped her wings hard to gain more altitude. Drake's vulture form was shifting as he headed down, and Nineteen knew he'd have to have something better suited to deal with this situation.

<<Not going anywhere,>> Nineteen finally replied, trying to using the whipping wind to circle around the location. She didn't know if she could have made it to the shore or not, but she wasn't about to try. Maybe if her faction leader had given her a direct order... but then again, maybe not. As it was, she wasn't hightailing it out of here whenever Alain could be drowning as a damn bird.

[Aubrey]

<<Yeah, I float!>> Aubrey called back to Drake, not really thinking on what he had ordered. The wind battered her face, spraying salty water into her eyes as she searched to find Alain. Before Aubrey had to turn and circle again, she noticed Drake land in the ocean. He must have found him. Thunder rumbled above them, an answer to the previous flash of lightning. Aubrey spread her wings out and dipped much lower, her bright orange feet slicing through the cold water, and landed at the top of a large wave.

Immediately, Aubrey tucked her wings against her body and headed in the same direction as Drake. Their faction leader was more human than bird now, just barely keeping his head above the towering waves. Aubrey tilted her head back and forth, black eyes searching the watery depths for her faction mate. Far below them--and getting smaller--was the dark form of Alain. <<He's too far down, I can't do anything!>> The waves kept shoving her back, and she paddled her webbed feet to keep within sight. <<Drake? What about my sea lion morph?>>

[Drake]

Drake was more than half human by the time Aubrey asked if she should morph sea lion. "Do it!" Drake shouted with his newly formed mouth. Or, at least he tried to. A large wave crashed down on his head and pushed him under. But instead of trying to go back to the surface, he struggled to go down deeper.

Water went up his nose and in his ears, but that was the least of his worries right now. he just concentrated on finding Alain. Which was even more difficult than he had expected.

Drake turned around in the dark water as the last of his bird featured dissipated. Another bolt of lightning flashed and Drake spotted a half-human half-animal figure about thirty feet away. Drake struggled toward it as his lungs began to burn and he focussed on his next shape.

Drake's most familiar water morph was a koi fish. It was the one he would have liked to choose if the situation allowed it. But this situation did not allow it. Nor his penguin morph. It was small and therefore would not likely be much help to Alain. Not enough power.

Which left just a single option. Drake only had one water-capable morph that might be able to help in this situation.

As Drake swam, his head and neck began to fuse with his torso, making it more difficult to look around. His stomach flattened and his body elongated. His arms became triangular, like two large gray flags.

Next, to his horror, Drake's legs fused together and he began to sink. Not quickly, but he lost his equilibrium as he did and lost track of where Alain was. But as the signature feature of his twenty foot long sawfish body took shape, a new sense pointed him in the right direction. He could sense the electrical output of Alain's body nearby.

Drake powered his newly formed body in Alain's direction, intending to push him to the surface if need be. <<I'm coming. Don't drown just yet.>> Please, he added silently.

[Alain]

Alain cursed his slow morph. His lungs had started burning what seemed like ages ago and the fact that they had expanded hadn't helped anything. He kept gagging as his body tried to instinctively take a breath and he stopped himself but he couldn't stop himself forever and when he did breath he swallowed sea water. That was when he really started to panic. He couldn't help himself.

He started kicking for the surface and didn't even notice that he had the legs and arms with which to do so. He didn't know how far he was away from the surface but he was drowning and his mind couldn't think of anything. His arms and legs lagged through the water and he felt his mind going fuzzy black in a way that it hadn't since his last college party and too many tequila shots.

Damn, he thought as he faded.

[Nineteen]

The crow was fairing worse and worse by the minute. Her wings felt like they weighed a pound each, and she was only feet away from the crests of the taller waves now. Below, three Animorphs had gone down to the water. Everyone but her. Her own eventual seabath was looking more and more inevitable; willpower wasn't like to keep a small bird in heavy wet air for much longer. But she knew dropping down to that churning salty mess -- waves made black by the dark of the storm -- was as good as death.

Maybe Aubrey's sealion can keep you afloat, Nineteen thought to herself. It could come to that yet. She didn't want to test it. What she wanted was for Alain to break the surface, human or otter. Drake hadn't come up yet either, and Nineteen just hoped that meant he'd completed his morph underwater -- and that it was something that breathed water.

Another strong wind buffeted her, and Nineteen cursed loudly as she was blown yards away. It was all she could do to stay in the air, let alone in one place. Please, Nineteen prayed miserably, and without true piety. Don't let me die wet.

[Aubrey]

"Do it!"

As soon as the words left Drake's lips, Aubrey began concentrating on her human form. Immediately, the bright-white feathers of her morph sucked back into her skin. As her beak began to soften and melt, she began to gain weight and sink. It quickly became a struggle to keep her face above water, as the cold ocean waves slammed down over her head. Long, wet blonde hair sprouted from her growing skull as her orange webbed feet began to separate into toes. Aubrey kicked harder and harder, feeling short waves of panic hit her. Have to stay up, have to stay above the water. Her whole body was getting tired, her arms and legs fighting to keep herself afloat. Another minute later, and she was completely human.

Then, she concentrated on the sea lion, making a mental note of the direction where Drake had gone. Long whiskers were the first to form, sprouting out around her mouth. Following after came the thick, brown coat of fur. It spread down her body like a liquid, quickly covering every part of her body with a warm layer. Folds of muscle and fat began to fill her in, causing her to grow and sink at the same time. Aubrey took a deep breath before another wave crashed above her head. A deeper panic hit her, twisting her guts into knots. She wasn't able to keep her head above water anymore. Her fingers and toes melted together, twisting her bones into usable fins while her organs churned and rearranged themselves. After what felt like an eternity, the morph finished.

Air! was the one thought that filled her mind. The sea lion swam as quick as it could in the direction of the surface and lifted its head. Aubrey took in a deep breath with her nostrils, feeling the cold rainy air fill her lungs. A warm calmness had replaced her earlier panic--the sea lion wasn't afraid of the ocean, it wasn't afraid of the water or the waves. Focusing, Aubrey dipped her head back down into the water and began swimming downwards. She wasn't sure how far down Alain had sunk by this time, and it was hard to spot anything within the dim expanse of the ocean.

Finally, the sea lion noted something. It was large enough for the animal to be wary of it, but also small enough to be prey. Getting closer, Aubrey realized it was a fish. A sawfish. Has to be Drake. And then, not too far away from Drake, the odd shape of Alain trying to morph. Ignoring the sea lion's desire to explore the relatively flat sawfish, Aubrey raced past and bumped her nose against Alain's side. Her whiskers brushed against his body as she wordlessly swam herself beneath his sinking form and started to push him upwards. <<Alain, keep morphing, keep concentrating.>> She wasn't sure whether he was conscious at this point, or even how far along he was in morphing. She just hoped it wasn't too late.

[Drake]

Before Drake could even get his lengthy body through the churning water and to Alain, A sea lion swan past. It was Aubrey, obviously, but Drake still twitched involuntarily as she swam past. His sawfish mind wanted to attack in self defense.

Which brought up a point Drake hadn't thought of yet. How was he supposed to help Alain when he currently had a weapon for a face? It would be too dangerous, especially in such turbulent weather. Best to let Aubrey try to handle it herself. She was much more agile in the water.

<<Get him to the surface. He needs air!>> As if it wasn't obvious. <<Let me know if you need help and I'll do what I can.>> And I'll try not to rip you two to shreds in the process, he added silently. If he had the time to scold himself, he would have. But right now Alain's safety was still Drake's main concern.

[Aubrey]

((Skipping ahead for the sake of getting this faction on its feet))

The sea lion surfaced at the edge of the shipyard, nostrils flaring as she took in a deep breath of cool air. The storm still churned above them, pattering the surface of the ocean with needle-thin drops of rain. However, the waves had calmed after the group of them had made it closer and closer to shore. It was a huge relief to Aubrey, and probably everyone else, since they had nearly already lost a faction member just thirty minutes before. Thankfully, Alain had made it into his otter form after she had nosed him to the surface with her sea lion morph.

<<I haven't seen the building,>> Aubrey remarked as she swam along the edge of the pier. The place looked abandoned, the great bodies of ships sitting unused and rotting in the shipyard. <<What was it again? Edda something? Ebba?>> The water shifted in her wake as she searched for a way to get onto the pier itself. Most of it was too high for her to just push herself up onto, and so getting a view of the whole shipyard wasn't easy. Then, further ahead, she noticed a narrow walkway that led down to the water. She began heading towards it.