A Strong First Impression (All of Cape Town)

[Drake]

Luckily for Drake, everyone in the shipyard seemed to be too busy to pay attention to a bird at the moment. The whole place was abuzz with controllers running every which way, seemingly in a state of confusion. Although the few people who did notice Drake would keep giving him sideways glances from time to time.

<<That's right. The bird up there might be an animorph,>> Drake said to himself. <<Keep wondering.>>

Eventually the little speck of a fox down on the ground reached an area where he wouldn't be able to blend in too well. But that's what Drake was for.

<<It looks like you are mostly clear to the left, but there is a gang of humans and hork-bajir that are heading in your general direction from the right. They'll be able to see you in about ten seconds when they get past the corner of the building over there. I'll feed you intel for as long as I can, but all the ash clinging to my feathers is making it more and more difficult to stay airborne. Where are you trying to get to, anyway?>>

[Dean]

Dean would have nodded if he could have, <Ok. Thanks. Land an keep trying to follow. We're heading for the hangar up ahead. We're going to fly out.> Dean sped up as shouts came from his sides, Just like Drake had said. Unlike the other Animorph, it was obvious what Dean was. I mean, a fox with a bundled up coat in his teeth? It practically screamed Animorph. He chanced a look to see how bad it was.

It could have been much worse, all things considered. Out of about fifteen of the controllers near Dean, only five had decided to come after him. Cape town was never known for it loyal subordinates, so it wasn't a huge shock that most of the Yeerks decided that it was more important to save their own skins.

But it wasn't a relief either.

Dracon and gunfire erupted around Dean as he continued to sprint towards the hangar, the roof of which beginning to show signs of collapsing. If this was going to work, the pair would need to get to a fighter, and quick.

Dean felt the searing pain of a bullet in his side, staggering and losing speed, but not stopping. He saw the condition of the hangar, shouting back to Drake: <Whatever happens from here on, keep moving towards that Ship!>

[Drake]

Fly out? Drake thought to himself. But I'm already a- Ohhh. What!? Is Dean really thinking what I think he is thinking?

If Drake was right, Dean was planning on stealing a ship. Most likely a bug fighter. But now that Drake thought about it, it seemed so obvious. Why else would they be trying to escape specifically toward the shipyard? Drake just hoped Dean new how to fly one of those things.

As a part of the roof collapsed, Drake swooped in through the smoldering wreckage. The smoke was thick and temporarily blinded him, but the air cleared again as he glided to the far corner.

Drake definitely had an advantage as a bird. He was already at the ship and perched on top of it by the time Dean said to keep heading toward it no matter what. But that did not mean he was safe. On the other side of the hangar he could already see Dean being chased by some controllers. And Dean already looked hurt.

<<Hold on! I'll be with you as soon As I can. Just keep them busy!>> Drake began demorphing as quickly as he could as he slid down the side of the ship to take cover behind it. It would take a couple minutes, but perhaps those controllers would think twice about picking on a little fox when an American Bison was barreling down on them.

[Dean]

The wound in Deans's side burned, but it was getting easier to deal with. Between the adrenaline and the slight loss of blood, Dean was still able to steer the foxes instincts were he needed them. The shooting continued, sparks shooting off of a rusty girder as he slipped under it. Dean veered left, the opposite direction from the hangar and Drake as more bullets and Dracon fire whizzed over head.

<<Hold on! I'll be with you as soon As I can. Just keep them busy!>>

<Damn it! NO! Stay were you are and secure a ship! One way or another, this is going to be over in a couple of seconds!> Dean snarled back. Someone is getting out of her today damn it, thought Dean stubbornly.

It was still just the five controllers chasing him, but out of those five, three were Hork-Bajir. Despite himself, Dean found his mind drawn back to the night of the invasion, were he was attacked by a small squad of Blue band Hork Bajir- The Yeerk fighting elite. He only managed to get away alive by luck and timing, but afterward he had nearly bleed to death. It was one of the more prominent nightmares that Dean had.

Dean saw an empty shipping container and jetted inside, aided but the fox's agility even with the bullet wound. He turned his muzzle to get a look. There was a slow trickle of blood dripping out, but not much. For a human. But for the fox' small build Dean would loose consciousness in the next few minuets. Without any other option, he began to demorph, shouts from his perusers mixing with the roar from the blazing city. In the first lucky thing that had happened that day, Dean was able to demorph safely.

The only problem being that now he was a human without shoes, wearing only a skin tan tight wet-suit. Dean grabbed his bundled up coat and gun belt, swinging on the former and buckling on the latter.

Then he waited for the controllers to show, the time left to escape dwindling by the second.

[Drake]

<Damn it! NO! Stay were you are and secure a ship! One way or another, this is going to be over in a couple of seconds!> Drake heard Dean say.

"One way or another," Drake mumbled to himself with his now-human mouth. "One way, yes. But I am definitely not going to let it be "the other" if I can help it."

When most of his bird features had disappeared, Drake went to the bug fighter's door and opened it. Opening and closing the door was one of the few things he had experience with on a bug fighter. Carefully, Drake looked around the corner, buffalo features starting to replace his bird ones. As far as Drake could tell, the ship was empty. Which made sense since it was still on the ground and not flying out of this crumbling city.

So far, Drake had a buffalo's hunch back and its sturdy legs, but the legs were all he was going to wait for. If Dean had been his faction leader, Drake may have stayed with the ship as instructed. But Dean wasn't his faction leader. At least not yet. And there was no way Drake was going to let Dean die just so he could guard an empty ship he didn't know how to fly.

Drake rounded the corner of the bug fighter and spotted a group of controllers approaching a hiding spot where Dean most likely was. He charged.

As he ran, Drakes morph approached completion. But even as he rammed into the back of the group, Drake's human mouth was screaming his battle cry, "Arrrahhhhh!"

[Dean]

Dean was used to waiting in the shadows, listening to his enemy's motions tho figure out what they were doing, but obviously that tactic wouldn't work. It got added to the growing list of things that was pissing the Animorph off. The good new was that anger was a great tool for fighting. Especially when anger got paired with anxiety.

A tyrannosaurus foot came into view just as Dean stuffed the last round into his pistol. He reached into one of the cavernous pockets in his duster and pulled out a flash-bang grenade. Archer aimed his weapon high to anticipate the tall, snakelike head of a Hork-Bajir and drew his arm back to throw. He saw the shadows of the rest of the group, pulling the pin out and heaving the grenade out of the container...

...Just as a loud "Arrrahhhhh!" found its way into Dean's ears...

[Drake]

Drake felt his skull make contact. There was a bright flash. Drake stumbled and tripped over a hork-bajir and fell on top of it. There was a sharp pain as at least one of the big green beast's blades punctured Drake's side.

<<What was that!?>> Drake screamed as he struggled to get up, still temporarily blind. He heard shots fired and knew he was a sitting duck. So as the smallest bits of his vision came back, Drake got up and ran. Just ran. Back in what he thought was the general direction of the ship. A moving target was harder to hit than a stationary one, no matter what the situation.

Finally his vision cleared enough just as Drake was about to collide with a wall. Drake slid on his hooves as he came to an ungraceful stop, then corrected his course.

<<I hope you got out during all that confusion. I'm heading back to the ship.>> Drake was feeling a little like a fool at the moment, but headbutting stray controllers along the way back to the ship was helping to alleviate that feeling somewhat.

<<Lets get this thing off the ground,>> he said as he slipped in through the tight entrance to the bug fighter.

[Dean]

Dean sat crouched, his coat covering his face like a cape in anticipation. The grenade detonated with a sharp 'pop' and a flash, Drake's, <<What was that!?>> filling his head. Dean took off out of the container, just as a Hork-Bajir stumbled blindly near the exit. He hit it in a lineman's tackle, alien blades and human limbs falling to the cracked asphalt in a jumble. Dean was prepared for the impact and anticipated the confusion as the Hork-Bajir Controller blindly swung with it's arm-blades. He quickly rolled away from the downed alien, but a knee-blade sliced Dean's side open. Hot blood seeped out of the wound, but he took the hit and kept moving, trying his best to ignore the pain.

He heard Drake call in thought-speak, but was distracted as two other Hork-Bajir started to come to, whipping their heads around to stare at Dean with their goblin red eyes.

So Dean leveled his pistol at the nearest and shot him in the head. Dean wasn't a perfect marksman, so it took him more than once to hit his target. The controller was still dazed enough to not instantly dart out of Dean's line of fire, but his partner recognized the sound of gunfire and charged as his companion dropped to the ground.

Dean had time to think Well...Shit, before he was hit by the full force of the limber alien.

This controller, while still a little punchy from the flashbang, knew its stolen body well. As the pair fell to the ground he drove a wrist-blade into Dean's shoulder, and a knee-blade into his thigh. Dean screamed in pain and anger, thrusting his thumbs into the Yeerk's eyes as they hit pavement. The controller slapped his hands up to cover the wounds, the small green blade pulling out of Dean's shoulder. With his arm no longer pinned, he whipped his gun hand up, stuck the barrel in the small indention that was the Hork-Bajir's ear canal, and squeezed the trigger.

Dean sat there, now covered in both his blood and the alien's, muttering "I hate Hork-Bajir."

He reached down, and with a quick jerk, got the knee-blade out of his leg. It hadn't gone completely in, by pulling the blade though the wound began to trickle blood. It wans't a clean tear either, Dean would have to have Drake patch it up if he got to the fighter in time.

When, he thought stubbornly, when I get to the Bug fighter.

So with a scoff and a grunt, Dean hauled his happy ass up from under the dead goblin/T-rex and made it over to the Bug fighter.

[Drake]

Drake started demorphing next to the doorway for the bug fighter. He was taking it slow in case something else got in before Dean. He wanted to still be mostly buffalo if there was going to be any more fighting.

But as Dean made it over to the bug fighter, and Drake secured the door, he hastened his demorphing. Luckily, out of all the pieces of equipment inside the ship that Drake had no idea how to work, the door was the one part the Drake had had experience operating before.

"Now, I've seen this done once or twice before. Sort of," Drake said as he went over to the main control panel. "But I have also seen people play the guitar. So if you have any idea how to work this thing, I think you would make a better pilot than me."

[Dean]

As Dean shambled into the bug fighter, Drake closed the door behind him, muffling the destructive sounds from outside, but not by much. He stumbled catching himself on the slick wall. It was then that he saw that trailing behind him, were bloody footprints.

Hmm, Dean thought, Who's leaving all those? It only took him another second or two (or three) to realize that they were his footprints with his blood. Drake snapped him out of his punch drunky-ness by asking him if he knew how to fly the Bug Fighter. Which was a damned good question. Considering he didn't. No use telling Drake right away though.

Dean mumbled something that could be
construed as an affirmative, and limped to what looked like the main control terminal. How hard could it be anyway? He looked at the terminal, keys and buttons obviously designed for Hork-Bajir and Taxxon claws and pincers. There was Yeerk writing on some, but Dean hadn't listened to Seyia at the Academy enough to recognize any of the characters.

So, being the supreme observer and pinnacle of intellect that he was, He pushed the green one.

Then they waited for something to happen.

[Drake]

Drake was glad to find out that Dean seemed to at least have some idea about what he was doing. Drake didn't know how Dean knew how to fly a blade ship, but he didn't really care how anyway. At least not right this second. Maybe he would ask after they escaped slaughterville.

After Dean reached the controll panel, Drake noticed a trail of blood in the bug fighter. A trail that lead straight to Dean. The man must have been seriously injured. Drake was about to say something, but then the spacecraft began to hum. And make a clunk in sound. He had never heard a bug fighter do that before. And there was something in an alien language on the display screen that looked an awful lot like warning lights.

"Are you sure you know what-" Then the ship lifted up into the air. They rose higher and higher until Drake felt them bump the roof. But that didn't stop them. The roof was not built to stop bug fighters from busting up and out, so they broke through the sheets of tin fairly quickly.

"Never mind," Drake said. "But you should probably morph away that wound of yours before you pass out. You don't want me to be left flying this thing. I don't know how to land."