Reanimation (ALL)

[Dean]

Dean Archer awoke to a cacophony of pain, noise and cold. The sound of wild winds and frantic alarms soon followed. Next came the pain. Searing, mind screaming, jaw clenching pain that threatened to make the faction leader black out again. Outside the world seemed to have lost its mind in a hurry, but Dean knew how to deal with pain.

Pain, unlike anything else, could not be overcome. It is always here to stay, weather it is external or in. But Pain could be put in its place, and you could work through it. Make it a part of you, another piece of what you are. Dean was getting pretty good at finding constructive uses for his pain. He built a Faction out of it, and it had lasted for a bit.

But the world has changed more than even Dean Archer would like to believe...

Dean refocused, bringing his one eye that could see up to the control console of the wrecked Bug Fighter. His shoulder was doing its best impression of molten lead, and he couldn't feel his left leg, but he managed to haul himself toward the side of the ship that still had a wall to cling to.

The fighter had been torn up pretty well, from what Dean could see. A decant chunk of the ship's hull had been simply blown off, and it let in the wind and the cold. The port engine was trailing thick black smoke and embers flitted in a beautiful random pattern with the plumes.

It was then that Dean noticed a few things:

One: His torn shoulder was bleeding pretty bad. Most likely fatally.

Two: Snow began to smack his face as the auto pilot switched off by one way or another. The ship was losing altitude and slowly spiraling out of control.

and Three: The radio squealed a few times haphazardly as it spat out- "Identify yourself immediately! You are guidance locked and have three seconds to respond! We will fire!"

There was no way Dean could drag his battered self over to the radio. He numbly slipped his gun out of its somehow still intact holster. He checked it, loaded a round into the chamber, then smiled. The voice on the radio yelled two.

"Welcome back to Antarctica Archer" , he said to no one with a sigh. The voice hit one. "Are you ready for the fun part?" The voice reached zero. "Because here comes the fun part."

Then the Animorphs opened fire.

[Nineteen]

Nineteen had dropped the coin she was practicing tricks with behind her desk. She cursed violently as she crawled under it, attempting to retrieve the bit of metal that had lodged itself between one leg and the wall. Of course, the heavy desk had been screwed to the floor. She supposed that was for safety measures: if the Academy's home sweet home ever had to take off into zero-gravity, you didn't really want stuff like that floating around. Especially not if they came under attack of any kind.

Still, it was annoying. Her fingernails were too short to quite reach it. "I don't even know why I have a stupid desk anyway," she grumbled to herself, scratching the wall with her index finger more than she was actually touching the half-dollar. It wasn't like she used her desk to do anything but hold clothes and trinkets. Just when she almost had the coin between her fingers, an alarm went off.

Really loudly.

Nineteen jerked by instinct, the back her skull meeting the bottom of the hard plastic desk with a resounding crack! Wincing from the pain, Nineteen's teeth grit, and the alarm continued. The tested the system once a month, and Nineteen struggled to think about what day it must be. It felt like they'd only tested it a couple weeks ago, but she wasn't exactly concerned with things like the calendar. It was bad enough people expected her to remember what day of the week it was so she could teach her classes.

Crawling out from beneath her desk, she wondered if it'd be a wimpy moved to morph away the injury. The alarm was still shrieking, emergency lights flaring, and she looked at the cheap paper calendar that was taped to her wall.

Alarm was tested last Tuesday.

Fuck.

Nineteen ran out of her room, to see more flashing lights thrumming through the hallways. She was in a pair of gym shorts and a tank top, typical attire, as she ran barefoot towards the bridge. Not that she knew exactly what she was going to do, but if there was a fight imminent, she would be damned if she was late.

Suddenly there was a great booming sound, and the whole ship seemed to vibrate. There wasn't any lose of light or sound, and no jarring impact, which she figured meant they had fired.

That's so cool, she thought, not bothering to feel guilty about it.

As she turned a corner the ship fired again, the floor thrumming under her toes. Bolting to her right, she realized someone was there just a moment to late. "Hey!" Nineteen shouted in surprise, dodging them at the last chance, but careening into one of the walls as she did so.

[Drake]

Numbness.

And pain.

Somehow both were mingling nicely together to cause Drake more discomfort than he could remember in recent memory. As his head swam together from all over his consciousness and reassembled itself, Drake cracked open an eye. All he saw was red. Tiny red crystals. Snowflakes, actually.

"Uhngh." Drake tried to move, but as soon as he did, the pain intensified and almost made him black out. Again.

What happened? Drake asked himself as he tried to recreate a memory. I remember a loud noise. Screaming. And a white wall rushing at my face. Ah, that would be the ground. And the red snowflakes... must be... Oh that is a lot of blood.

Drake's mind was starting to get fuzzy again, and even through the befuddlement he knew it probably wasn't a good sign. Time to call on that good ole panacea one more time.

Drake thought of the first morph that came to mind. At this point he wasn't going to be picky. Grey fur sprouted from his nose and he could feel, distantly, his toernails becoming claws. Not the changes I need right now, he thought even as he struggled to stay awake. Then he felt a sharp Snap! as his skull fused itself back into one piece. That definitely helped.

Next his spine shortened and his legs were dragged closer to his head. Every time his weight shifted, or a body part realigned, a different body part would scream out in discomfort. But as more changes happened, the pain became less and the transformation became easier.

As the last of the changes took place and Drake felt the animal's instincts sliding up behind his own, he took a moment to look around. Woodchuck vision wasn't the best, but it was good enough for where he was.

He was in a hole. A generally Drake-shaped hole with a floor lined in his own blood. Not a place he felt like staying in.

Drake shuddered involuntarily, then turned around and leapt for the lowest part of the depression's lip. The walls were made mostly of snow, which is probably the only reason he was still alive after being blasted out of a bug fighter. Well, the reason he survived the fall anyway. He would still be dead if it weren't for the morphing ability. It had felt like he had broken almost every bone in his body!

As Drake's little claws pulled him up and out of the hole, he turned his vision skyward. He spotted what he figured was a thick line of smoke and guessed at which direction it was headed in. Drake started walking. He had to try and find Dean.

It probably would have been smarter to change morphs. A bird would have been faster. Heck, he had even acquired a penguin specifically because it was adapted to this sort of environment. But he just couldn't bring himself to return to human form at the moment. All the memories of snapped bones and lacerated skin was still too fresh in his mind.

And so he continued to walk.

But it wasn't long before he saw a bright flash toward the horizon, shortly followed by a resonating "TSEEEWW" sound. It was dracon fire. Big dracon fire. Maybe he would have to rethink his decision not to change morphs after all.

[Jullian]

"So you like working with the newbies?" Adamo asked over lunch. He and his brother were on the ship for the next few days. Officially they were on vacation but unofficially they were helping get more of the Bladeship back online. Otherwise they probably would have been in Tahiti or some other out of the way location.

"Yeah, I do actually," Jullian said before taking a sip of the soup someone had heated up today. It wasn't bad but it was obviously out of a can. "When are you going to become one of my newbies?" jullian asked.

Adamo just shook his head. "No thanks. Turning into rodents and bugs? Not for me." Jullian shrugged but he couldn't hide the concern in his eyes. If for no other reason Jullian would feel better if Adamo and Zach had one morph each just to heal injuries with.

"Suit yourself," Jullian said, turning back to his soup right before an alarm began blaring in the mess hall. Adamo's head shot up as did everyone else's in the mess hall but before anyone else had figured out what was going on, including Jullian, Adamo was up and running towards the door.

Jullian watched him go and realized this must not be a drill. He turned back to his soup and tried to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do in this situation. He didn't have a battle station and he knew he'd only be in the way if he went to the bridge. He was a teacher, not a techie. He pushed his tray away. If he was a teacher he'd better act like one and see to his students. He was sure none of them knew what was going on either.

He stood up and began running towards the student quarters. He was a dingo before he'd made it halfway down the first hall.

[Dustin]

When the screeching started, Dustin covered his ears, went to the doorway of his room and yelled down the hall, "What do we do?" Before he heard anyone answer, he felt the whole ship vibrate. Dustin didn't know what it was, but he assumed it wasn't anything good.

He turned around and went back into his room to get his morphing suit on. He didn't know if he would have to morph, but he wanted to be prepared if he did. Dustin changed as quickly as he could, but it still seemed to take forever. He walked back out into the hall as he was zipping up the torso of his wetsuit.

"What do we do?" he asked again to nobody in particular. He didn't know if he should stay out of the way, or if there was something he should be helping with.

[Adrian]

"Damned good question," Adrian said as he stumbled out of his room, his own morphing suit partially pulled on. He'd opted for some bike shorts that ended right above his knees and a spandex t-shirt that clung to his body. Unlike some of his American compatriots, tight fitting clothing didn't bother him that much. He'd grown up in a time when it was fine in Iran, at least for males, and it never seemed to go out of style in Europe, especially in France. Besides, he was proud of his body and didn't mind showing it off.

"Maybe we should get small," Adrian suggested, looking over at Dustin. "If anything happens to the ship we're more likely to survive it as a bug than as a human don't you think?"

[Nineteen]

OOC: This post is pending Dean's sign-off, just wanna keep things moving but it is subject to change based on what he wants to do with Seiya.

Nineteen kept running, briefly looking back at the person she'd nearly run into. One of the Seiya's scientists. She wondered what he was doing in this wing of the Academy, but only briefly. There were more pressing matters.

No one tried to stop Nineteen as she made it through the long, wide hallway that led to the bridge. Without thinking about her permissions or what her boundaries were, Nineteen entered the main hub. People were hurried, but mostly sitting at stations, headsets on and tapping away at aliens keyboards. She saw Seiya standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling display screen with several other of the Academy's hotshots. She sidled up to them, and no one seemed to notice enough to tell her to get lost.

"The ship was already damaged when we opened fire. It only took a few rounds of Dracon canon-fire to bring it down. This is where the projected crash point is." The woman speaking to Seiya pressed something and the display changed to a map. At first it was hard to make out anything except the angular shape of the Blade ship and a few snow drifts. Then she turned on the thermal sensors, and both the Academy and whatever was left of the bug fighter came to life.

"This isn't good enough," Seiya said evenly, his brow deeply furrowed. "It doesn't make sense. If the Empire knew we were here, they wouldn't send one damaged bug fighter. We need eyes out there."

[Jullian]

Jullian's nails clicked against the hull of the Bladeship as he ran down the hall. His lithe, yellow body shot down one corridor after another on his way to the student quarters. He turned a corner and skidded to a halt as he saw two of the recruits standing in the hallway.

<<Do you know where everyone else is?>> Jullian demanded of both of them as he stopped in the hallway. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as his Dingo body caught it's breath and cooled down.

[Dustin]

Dustin nodded in agreement to Adrian's plan. Dustin wasn't sure if he actually agreed, but his plan was better than no plan. He prepared to start his morph but before a solid image of a grasshopper could be formed in his mind, a Dingo walked into view.

"No, I don't know where they are," he said to Jullian. "Did you try the girls' rooms yet? Or are they studying? Eating?" There were a million and one places they could be on this ship. Especially if they were in some sort of morph. Which reminded him...

"I can help you look once I get done morphing." Dustin concentrated on an image of a grasshopper and felt the changes begin. It wasn't his favorite morph, probably mostly because the blood he acquired it from was green, but at least he would have thought speech. Although he had to admit the jumping was wicked cool.

[Richard]

(OOC: I assumed that this was okay for anyone to jump in)

Richard had been fixing himself something to eat when the chaos had started to begin. Everyone was running every which way, so he figured that he should start doing that as well but with some style. He had grown accustomed to wearing his morphing outfit underneath his clothes as it was just like a second set of skin that didn't mess up his mobility. He focused on the image of his dog morph as he needed speed and his nose to find his way through the mess of the ship. Richard tried to put a rush on it because of the feeling of urgency that he had.

Black and white fur patches began showing up on his body, which was always a good sign. His bones began to shrink to the appropriate size of his dog morph. It would have been a lot better if he could shave the time it took to morph by a few more seconds, but right now he wouldn't complain. His muzzle protruded from his mouth at the same time his tail popped out. He hit the floor when his knees shifted and his hands became paws. The last thing to happen was his eyes changed color.

His little dog paws took off as soon as he was sure that he was done with morphing. Richard was going to check on the guys in his dorm area. He had to dodge the people who were still running around like the world was going to end in the next few minutes, which did not seemed to be helping the situation. His nose picked up random smells that didn't match any of the ones he had scented while practicing. He walked into the dorm area to see a dog like person and someone morphing something small. <<Someone want to tell me what the heck is going on and why he looks like he is morphing a plant?>>

[Simplicity]

Simplicity was sitting on her bed staring at the ceiling when the alarms went off. She had on the bottom of her morphing suit and a sports bra, which she found out earlier were surprisingly comfortable. She had another top she preferred to walk around in, but in the privacy of her own bunk whatever worked best was fine. It usually worked out for her, until she needed to move quickly. At first she looked around for her shirt, gave up and grabbed a thin wrap.

Pulling the wrap across he chest Sim ran barefoot in the direction of the voices down the hall way. She was sorely tempted to ask what happened but by the confused expressions she saw it probably already asked, several times. A few of the people there were either morphing or had morphed.

“What do ya’ll need me to do,” she said looking around, “I don’t have the damnest what’s happening, and I’m not sure any of my animals are good in this weather. I can shoot a gun if you need me too though."

[Adrian]

Adrian looked between Dustin and Jullian, unsure of what to do. But his plan still made sense to him and Jullian hadn't said not to morph so he closed his eyes and concentrated on the image of fly as another dog ran around the corner. He wasn't familiar with everyone's morphs so he didn't know who it was until Richard spoke up but he was too busy to answer.

The first thing to change was his size. He felt his entire body get sucked into itself and he fought down the urge to be sick as his stomach disappeared along with most of his other vital organs. Next small black hairs starting popping out all over his body. Maybe it was just hair that was already there changing. His mouth melted together to form the fly's mouth parts and his eyes bulged out and fractured into a million pieces like a shattered mirror.

His skin grew hard and shiny as he finished shrinking and extra legs popped out of his chest. Wings cracked off from his back like dried skin and shook themselves out as the morph completed.

<<What now?>> he asked.

[Alain]

Alain had slept through the alarm. He was one of the heaviest sleepers anyone had met and the insulation of the Bladeship's walls only ensured that he didn't hear the commotion going on outside of his door. The speaker above the terminal was still blaring an alarm but his mind had incorporated it into his dream. A dream he probably wouldn't remember when he woke up.

He rolled over on to his side so that one ear was blocked from the terrible noise. Even in sleep some part of his mind found the sound unpleasant and in his dream he kept trying to get rid of it. He wasn't sure what was causing the sound but he knew it was right ahead of him. He kept running after it but he could never quite catch up. So frustrating.

[Jullian]

Dustin didn't take the time to explain just what he exactly he had decided to morph but it was obvious after a couple of minutes as both he and Adrian lumbered their way into the bug morphs Jullian had only given out two days ago.

<<Looks like a grasshopper,>> Jullian said in response to Richard's question as the other canine came down the hall followed quickly by Simplicity. That accounted for almost all of the recruits except for Alain except now Jullian had to figure out what to do with them. I'm the youngest one here he thought with a bit of bitterness before taking himself to task. He was also the most experienced person here and he'd helped put this ship back together. Where would they all be safest? And where was Alain?

<<Simplicity, can you please check Alain's room. We don't want to leave him behind. In the meantime, Dustin, Adrian, can you find your way to me or Richard? We're going to move pretty quickly and I don't want either of you to get lost.>>

[Simplicity]

Simplicity stared at the fly that had formerly been Adrian. Instead of being shocked at the change, she cringed at the fact he choose a bug to change into. After a moment she then blinked back the fact he had morphed. She was looking forward to when that became old hat.

She snapped out of her train of thought when the dingo spoke to her. Emergency, loud noises, right there was important stuff going on. After nodding at the instructions she headed back to the rooms. Sim didn’t usually consider herself easily distracted, but it had taken her a few moments to get a hold fighting aliens for the first time. She just hoped it didn’t happen again.

She stopped in front of the door that she was pretty sure was Alain’s and pounded on it with the side of her fist. Following that she placed the hand on the panel, doubting it would work for her. Finally she shouted through the metal and again hoped she had the right door, “Hey! Tall, Dark and Brooding! There’s a happening and we don’t want you to miss it!”