Let There Be Light

[Suji]

Suji could hear Dustin's tension, but didn't comment on it. She'd given him an easy out to demorph and settle his nerves, but he hadn't taken it. She didn't get the sense that he was trying to show off or demonstrate some great bravery by sticking to the morph. Maybe he was just trying to save face, but there was something measured to it. Suji appreciated that. It was a good sign that he could work through the situation -- it said a lot more about him than being startled in the first place did.

While Adrian morphed, Suji groomed herself lightly, picking at her fur with the mongoose's tiny hands, testing the pliancy of her tail. Dustin teased Adrian's bat morph for its ugliness, and Suji snickered along with it. <<Echolocation should help. Also, and I guess this goes more for you, Dustin, and less Adrian, but watch out for snakes. Wouldn't surprise me all that much if we ran into any.>> Her voice didn't reveal any grave concern; even poisonous snakes didn't exactly kill quickly. They'd have plenty of time to demorph before being swallowed whole.

...which would still be pretty traumatizing. <<Yeah, just keep an eye out. Let's split up. I'll go along the left wall, Dustin you take the right. We'll make a perimeter check. Adrian, you can handle the mid-ground.>> With that, Suji slipped down the steps and to the left, her body moving with a curiously slinky feeling.

[Adrian]

<<Got it,>> Adrian said before jumping into the air. His bat was capable of long, sustained flight but in small spaces like this he'd tended to find that the bat flew like a mouse. It moved from spot to spot in quick, hurried flights and he let its natural caution have free reign. It was much better at spotting danger than he was and he'd rather not run into any nasty surprises down here.

He fired off a burst of echolocation and his extremely versatile ears twisted and turned to catch the echoes as they came back to him. The contours of the tunnel sounded sharp and clear to him. This wasn't a natural formation, definitely man made if they had needed any confirmation of that. But since man had made them nature had begun to reclaim them. There were cracks in the stone that dripped soil and roots and served him as perches as he made his way cautiously farther down, a little ahead of those on the ground since he would probably hear anything too nasty before it reached them if it decided to come their way.

<<Are we mapping this for anything in particular or just exploring?>> Adrian asked, craning his head at an angle that would have meant a broken neck in a human, pointing one ear in the mongoose's direction while the other still faced down the tunnel.

[Dustin]

Dustin hopped down the last few steps and headed toward the right side of the basement like Suji instructed. His opossum body seemed kind of clunky when you looked at it, but it was surprisingly agile. It had great balance at least. He felt like he was a cat in the body of a rat. Although he had never been either so the comparison was purely speculative.

He had just started to climb over a small pile of odds and ends when Adrian located a tunnel. He turned around and headed back in his teammate's direction. Suji had mentioned that there was more than one tunnel around here, but he assumed they would all search the same one. If not, one of them might get lost or stuck and be completely out of thought speech range. That got Dustin wondering if dirt would somehow interfere with thought speech. Probably not, but it might be worth looking into.

<<Hmm, your tunnel is pretty spacious, but it is kinda dark. Even with my night vision.>> Dustin had enough room to turn around, but saying the tunnel was spacious might have been an overstatement. But the comment about it being dark was not. No light equals no sight no matter how good your eyes are. Unless, of course, you were lucky enough to be able to "see" with echolocation.

[Suji]

<<Not looking for anything specific.>> Suji answered him. The mongoose handled well. There were people who had morphed many more creatures than she had, and she'd come to see the wisdom in limiting the range of animals Animorphs could acquire in the beginning. You got to know your morphs well, knew which to use when. A Swiss Army knife with a handful of useful devices was much preferable to one that was comically over-wrought. Even if the more elaborate one had more to it, you were just as likely to forget what was all there, or fumble for the wrong tool.

After morphing some dozen-odd creatures, Suji found that there were definitely some that were more pleasant than others. The mongoose was one of them. It was sleek and quick, and there was a cold bright intelligence in the mind that rested beneath her own. Mean, too. Yes, the rodent wasn't armed with sharp little fangs for nothing. But she'd morphed meaner. And, truly, there was hardly anything meaner than a human being anyway. Except maybe a Yeerk.

And she'd been one of those too.

<<I want to get a lay of where these tunnels are. They should be added to the patrol routes. It'd be best if everyone knew them by heart.>> Suji wondered about it as she said it, but her voice didn't betray her thoughts. Was it better that they all know about the tunnels? Would it be safer if only a select few did? Only her? If someone was taken by the Yeerks and knew about the tunnels, secret escape plans wouldn't be so secret. In the end, she thought that it'd be best if it was shared knowledge. Ultimately, it'd be worse if an escape was needed and no one present knew about the tunnels.

Besides, she told herself. I can always make more tunnels. Maybe none of the tunnels would even be big enough to allow for a human body to pass through anyway. The thought of a basement made into a labyrinth of tunnel systems might have made her smirk if she had a mouth. As it was, her sensitive nose twitched.

While Dustin and Adrian inspect a tunnel, Suji had found another. It sloped down into where the floor met the wall, and it smelled dank. And orangey. Everything in this place had a citrus smell to it. <<This one is big enough to admit a dog, maybe someone crawling on their knees.>> Moving smoothly over the debris on the basement floor, Suji came back to the two of them. <<Let's have a go at yours first.>> She'd meant for them to split up to find tunnels, but actually going into of them was a different story. <<Adrian, if you'd prefer not to fly inside, you're welcome come with your fox. It might get cramped if the tunnel narrows, but it seems fine for now.>>

Suji sat up, resting on her back haunches. The long body of the mongoose made her feel disproportionately tall. <<If you want to stay here and search for more tunnels, I think we'll start delving into them in a clockwise rotation.>>