No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

[Suji]

OOC: Thread limit is 3, including Suji. I'm perfectly fine with only having one other character, but I'd liked to keep it limited to three total. The odd person out (if it's just one person) will be on patrolling duty.

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"Today's a training day. Hands-on. Let me know when you're ready to go." Suji had said, and whether they moved because they were interested or because they took it for an order, two of her Animorphs had accompanied her. In the backseat on the ride over she explained the plan.

"I don't know if either of you saw my fifteen minutes of fame on the hologram from Dallas, but I can't walk around as myself any more. People would recognize me pretty quickly. There's no shortage of other people to morph, but I want all of you to have a sense of what it takes to pass as a Controller. Today we're getting some real groceries. I'm sure you're just as tired of canned food as I am."

She could see that they were worried, at least a little. She'd be concerned if they weren't. But Suji was confident that her team was full of competent Animorphs, and the only way to get the measure of a person was to expect a lot of them and see if they still rose to meet your expectations. "Yeerks use cash and credit cards, because it was easier to adopt that than try to make up their own currency. We've brought capitalism to the aliens, I'm sure Marx is rolling in his grave." The majority of wealth was collected in the hands of the higher ranking Yeerks.

"I'm going to morph. You two can decide who gets to have the wasp riding them." Suji leaned into the backseat, and began concentrating on her wasp. The cockroach might have been safer, but the wasp could fly, and that was hard to beat.

[Dustin]

Dustin had been nervous the whole ride over, but he tried to hide it. This wasn't his first mission, but it was his first one that had danger in the job description. If they messed up... It was all too easy to imagine himself being dragged to the nearest yeerk pool for infestation. It was an image that had haunted his dreams even before he had been made into an animorph.

"I'll volunteer to be the bug carrier, I guess." Dustin had been debating weather he actually wanted that type of responsibility or not. On the one hand, if something went wrong then his faction leader would be right there with him. On the other hand, there was a very real possibility that he could accidentally crush Suji, and he didn't want to have that on his conscience. But in the end he figured Suji could handle herself. After all, as she had partially pointed out herself, she had died right before the yeerks' eyes and yet she lived. Dustin hadn't seen it himself, but he had certainly heard the stories.

Dustin glanced into the back seat to see if the morph was almost complete, but instantly regretted it. A shriveling, crunchy-skinned girl with a segmented body was not what he needed to see right now. He turned back to look out the front window, took a few breaths to calm himself down, and straightened out the hat he was wearing as part of his disguise.

"When you're ready, just let me know." Dustin tried to sound calm and collected even though his stomach was busy doing back flips.

[Suji]

<<All right. I'll ride in your pocket. Least likely to cause instinctive swatting, I think.>> Suji zipped up from the backseat. Navigating the car as a wasp was entirely, entirely unlike flying as her tiny owl, or the large vulture. It was more like a roller coaster, jarring, frenetic. Not totally unenjoyable, but certainly not the thrill of riding thermals. She found Dustin, and landed on his chest. He was wearing regular clothes over his morphing suit, as instructed. She crawled along the fabric until she found a shirt pocket, and crawled inside. From the close distance, she could feel the vibrations of his heartbeat as they thrummed through the wasp's delicate body.

The rest of the ride was short enough. Their driver, one of the other factionmates, took them to the drop-off point before turning back around. The car would be parked somewhere inconspicuous, and then guarded. If all went well, they'd head back to the Grove with a trunk full of food.

Being inside of Dustin's pocket was actually more unsettling than she'd originally planned on. The wasp didn't seem too bothered, being used to confined spaces, though it didn't like that it was so close to something living. She, however, was completely aware of how blind she was. Good thing she'd studied the maps back in her quarters.

<<What do you see?>> Hopefully, a strip mall that wasn't too crowded, with a renovated grocery store somewhere along it.

[Dustin]

Dustin got out of the vehicle when it stopped and stood under a nearby bus stop until it was out of site. He knew Suji was with him, but he couldn't help but feel all alone. The plexiglass enclosure that was meant to protect bus passengers from the elements was spray painted and broken in some spots, but still managed to shelter him from the slight drizzle.

<<What do you see?>> Suji asked.

Dustin looked around to make sure nobody was watching him. Aside from a few cars on the streets and a couple people walking away from him, the place was almost like a ghost town. Dustin mumbled toward his front pocket as discretely as possible. "Across the street is a parking lot and at the other side there is a row of stores. I'm heading over there now."

The stop light at the corner was blinking red, so Dustin looked both ways then crossed to the other side of the street. The parking lot had a few cars in it, but was nowhere near filled to capacity. A brisk wind picked up and Dustin crossed his arms in front of his chest to conserve heat. He was beginning to wish he had brought a light jacket.

"Where do I go next?" he asked his pocket as he pulled open the door to the main entrance. A blast of warm air met him as he entered the hallway conjoining the stores. It wasn't quite as empty on the inside as it looked on the outside.

[Suji]

<<It'll be between almost on its own, but near a few small clothing stores, according to the blue print.>> Suji was relentlessly cleaning her antennae. She could have forced the morph to stop the nervous movement, but it seemed harmless enough. Better to not waste the willpower.

<<Don't worry too much about putting on a show. Just try not to be jumpy. Yeerks aren't always swaggering braggarts, so you don't need to pretend to be one.>> Besides, if he tried and failed, it would be worse. Suji had usually gotten away with it, but that'd always been in trying circumstances to begin with, and she never pulled a stunt like that if she didn't have to.

<<Once we're inside the store, you'll have two options. If you want to look around, feel free. Whenever you're done, head to the back. They keep already-packaged boxes back there, and I called us in an order. It's already paid for, you just have to get it.>> The experience of coming alone had to be trying enough. Suji didn't want to completely through Dustin to the wolves. Yet.

[Dustin]

Dustin ventured forward cautiously. He tried to follow Suji's advice and not act jumpy, but it was difficult. More difficult than he would have expected. Every time he walked past somebody he felt like they could read his mind. Like they knew he was an animorph infiltrating their shopping district. It was all he could do to keep himself from veering away from the controllers to give them a wider berth.

But he pulled his hat low, stuffed his hands tightly into his pockets, kept his head down, and tried not to look around too much. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a minute or two, Dustin found the store Suji had described.

The sign said Toy Emporium, but apparently the yeerks didn't have much use for such frivolities. Where games and stuffed animals used to be stored, there were now bland boxes and cans of food. Labeled to describe their contents, but little else. Dustin thought he would be excited to see a whole store full of fresh food, but it was kind of depressing. As he walked down an aisle, Dustin realized he never noticed how colorful and interesting people made their food labels until they no longer did.

"Do you need help?" a voice asked, not at all friendly. Dustin jumped a little and turned around. Standing behind him was a silver-haired lady who barely came up to the middle of his chest. She pulled her glasses down to the end of her nose and squinted up at him. "You look lost."

Dusting could feel his face going flush. "I, uh, no. I mean..." Ah, you're blowing it!