Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2009 8:37:04 GMT -5
Back In Black
Luce:
Luce sat outside the Den on an overturned cart under the light of a singular orange street lamp. Around the corner the front of the hotel was bathed in the usual neon glow of the Strip but the stars couldn't be seen through that glow so Luce had chosen to sit in the alley instead.
The rest of the faction was around the corner and she could hear their excited chatter. Suji was supposed to be arriving sometime tonight, in the next hour or so at the most, and the Vegas faction was anxiously awaiting her arrival.
Luce had a feeling it was because everyone was feeling just a little helpless in the face of such a big mission and they were looking at Suji as the the cavalry swooping in to save them.
Luce gave one last look at the stars overhead and then decided to stop being anti-social and got up and walked around the corner and almost ran into Rian.
Rian:
Rian caught Luce as she ran into him, his arms on her shoulders and steadying her. But he dropped his hands almost immediately as she easily regained her balance. It just felt odd to help Luce. She was very much a person that gave off the air of never needing help.
Rian looked around. There were too many of them standing out here most likely. It would only draw attention to them but he wasn't about to tell people to go back inside. This past week had been hard on everyone. Rian had come up with the most basic plan ever imagined. It was very American.
Blow it up.
That was all. They simply didn't have time to come up with anything more subtle. But even preparing for such a seemingly simple operation had been complicated. Rian had had Ray, Stevert and Luce out at the hoover dam almost everyday all day, doing fly overs and bringing back as detailed sketches as they could manage. In the meantime he, Ember and Diana had been breaking into the local libraries trying to find out all they could about the Dam. Chloe had been out and about gathering what information she could about the project from controllers and Drake had been with her running back up in case Essi had made and appearance, and also just to be safe.
Nadia had been up at the base counting and counting again, trying to figure out just how much ammo they had at their disposal. The number she had come back with had been surprisingly low. Rian had considered asking Ray to talk to Vori about getting more fire power but he didn't want to involve the arms dealer. They were basically planning on massacring thousands of yeerks and no yeerk should have to take part in that plan.
He looked down the strip and then looked back into Luce's steady eyes. "This Suji? Are you sure she is as good as you say?" He didn't want to admit how hopeless he was feeling despite their plans. He wouldn't mind having someone else along, especially someone Luce recommended.
Luce:
"She's good." Luce had called in an old faction mate of hers for this. Suji had made a point of familiarize herself with any knowledge she thought might be useful. And to Suji that had included home-made bombs. Luce knew a bit about it herself but not enough that she wanted to risk making them on her own and the information they had found in books had been sketchy at best.
When Luce had called Cassie she had been surprised to learn that Suji had been relocated to Chicago recently and had been given the number to reach Raven. Rian had made the second call since, of the two, he knew Raven better, and had asked if she could loan them the animorph.
So now Suji was on her way and had claimed that she could make it here in two days from Chicago. Luce had no idea how she planned on doing that but believed her if she said she was going to do it.
Suji:
Suji had a lot on her mind. Even after the days of traveling, she hadn't had nearly enough time to work it all out. She wasn't sure she ever would. What happened with Toby, and his sister... well, even though she tended to diligently assess things in her mind, make sense of them, organize them, she didn't touch that. She tried, sure, but in the end she couldn't focus on it for long. The further she got from Chicago, the more it felt like just one really, really bad dream. A bad dream in a world that was already a nightmare.
Besides, thinking about this upcoming mission was an effective, and possibly also time-efficient, distraction. She'd been called to Las Vegas, and Suji had no doubt that that had more than a little to do with Luce. What were they planning, that they needed her? She wasn't going to complain, and if anything, she felt that the call couldn't have had better timing. Maybe running away from one's problems wasn't exactly noble, but if you were running towards helping solve some other problems, at least it wasn't being a coward. Right?
Then Suji's mind came back to Luce: it did a lot, actually. And though she might never have expected it, she felt a nearly overwhelming longing to see her old comrade again. It had been months, and the past few weeks had been the worst of it. Suji missed Luce's surly temper, the way she could intuit Suji's plans without wrecking them, the way she had always been ready to be Suji's wingman when it came to verbal confrontations, and hadn't minded that Suji return the favor with the damage-dealing parts. They'd been a team, and there was definitely truth to the idea that you didn't miss what you had until it was gone.
And now, after what had happened in Chicago... Luce was the only one Suji thought she could trust. The only one to be what they said they were, or at least presented themselves as. Even Cassie had betrayed her, in her own small way, by not telling Suji about Raven's pregnancy. It was obvious why Cassie had withheld the information: Suji wouldn't have gone. And now with Raven and Riley and that whole Toby fiasco...
...Suji re-framed her thoughts once more. No time for analysis. She'd done what had been necessary, as she would continue to. For now, this new mission, whatever it would be, would need all her attention.
Drake:
"So, tell me again. What exactly is this Suji person supposed to be helping us with when she gets here? She must some sort of expert if she is making a special trip all the way from Chicago."
Drake was sitting on the ground with his back to the wall of a building. He was starting to get tired of waiting, but was also excited to meet a new animorph. Their next mission was going to be a whopper, and they could use all the help they could get.
Ember:
Ember leaned up against the wall next to where Drake was sitting. "I dunno. But we can use all the help we can get, as they say. Besides she was Luce's friend right?" She looked over to where the woman was standing near Rian. She hadn't really spoken to him since their brain-fight at the party. It was stupid but she was annoyed and if it had to happen sometime, why not in the middle of a deadly situation? Anyway, after that she didn't feel comfortable hanging around either him or Chloe, so instead she'd been taking advantage of Drake's natural inclination to talk to anything that moved.
"I guess that means she's tough." She continued her point as they kept waiting, hoping to spark some conversation so she would fall asleep standing up. "And beyond that, inter-faction relations are important to keep up. When we win this fight, it's going to be because we all ended up working together, I guarantee it."
Suji:
Vegas was pretty, in its own way, Suji supposed. It was brighter than New York had been, and the invasion seemed to have taken less of a toll than it had on Manhattan. Probably because by the time Manhattan had been conquered, most of the country had fallen, or was quick to. Or maybe the Yeerks hadn't felt the same need to dominate the landscape in the same way that they had with the other city. Hell, maybe they thought they couldn't improve on it. From what she'd heard, Vegas was its own Yeerk tourist trap, as was the huge pool in Texas.
Which in itself explained her mode of transportation. Flying to Chicago as an owl had been grueling, but not terribly conspicuous, because there had been plenty of forestry left to hide in when she avoided the major towns. Vegas was different--the desert was a barrier in itself, and even if stopped on the outskirts and walked into the city rather than flying straight over it, she'd still be shoe-less. So, she'd opted for the trick that'd worked for her many times in NYC; hide in plain sight.
And in Vegas, 'plain' meant something a little different than most other places in the world.
Suji's motorcycle alternatively roared and purred as she throttled the engine, leaning into tight turns. The traffic wasn't as bad as New York's had been, but it was still a force to be reckoned with. She weaved in and out of cars, and found that drivers made an effort not to get in her way. Yeerks were fearful creatures, for the most part: their government bred it into them. And when they saw a lone figure on a sleek motorcycle, with a dracon gun boldly holstered to her hip, they were not likely to step in and try to stop her. 'Pretend you didn't see it,' one of the core policies of most average-ranking slugs. Doubly so in a town like Vegas.
Suji cut around the next turn, trying not to think about how much more dangerous this was than flying, which was ironic, but counterproductive. Sure if she shifted her balance a little too hard they'd have to scrape the streak of her flesh from the pavement later, but the guise was worth it. Besides. Suji was never one to be needlessly reckless, but even she had to admit that this was cool. Braking smoothly, the bike turned unto the street where she'd find the Den. She could see a few figures in the distance, and recognized Luce among them. Behind her tinted helmet, Suji smiled.
She rode slowly over to in front of the Den, where she killed the engine, and parked the bike. Between the motorcycle, the helmet, the dracon gun, and her leather jacket, Suji looked like some space-age outlaw. She pushed the helmet up and off of her head, and quickly brushed her hair back, without dismounting the hot-shot bike. And, because it seemed way too cheesy to spout off a witty line on top of all that, and because even she was a little taken aback by the fact that she really had made it here on this bike, she smiled a little awkwardly: "Hi."
Luce:
"Yeah, she's my friend, but she is also the only person I know on our side who knows how to make bombs and we'll need as many of those as we can get our hands on." Luce looked down at Drake and Ember sitting by the wall and then back down the street. She could hear a motorcycle purring in the distance and for a brief moment her mind was not thinking about anything that had to do with the war. She had wanted a motorcycle a long time ago, in another life it seemed. If they were still on the road maybe she could get one.
The rider came around the corner and Luce saw that the bike looked as beautiful as it sounded. Red flames were traced in light as it drove along the neon soaked street, black finish gleaming. The part of Luce that was still her own, that allowed her to enjoy things like ice cream and sunrises, longed for that bike and wanted it. And if it came with the rider....
Luce was jarred out of the pleasant fantasy before it had even really started by the fact that the motorcycle was slowing down. Her first reaction was the expected one. DANGER. But as her hand automatically dropped to her waist and the gun she had there the rider came to a complete stop and pulled off her helmet.
"Hi."
Luce only raised an eyebrow at the bike. "Hi Suji."
Suji:
Suji blushed in response to the raised eyebrow: just a little, but it was there. She hopped off of the bike, still holding onto the helmet. She'd actually begun to open her mouth to say something (maybe to try to cut the tension that came with riding in on a badass motorcycle), but she'd looked at Luce again, and before she could stop herself, she'd rushed forward. In a few sprinting steps she closed the distance between them, and thew her arm around the other girl's neck, pulling her into a tight hug.
She was not an impulsive person. She'd even caught herself by surprise, though she didn't immediately drop the hug. Something inside of her wanted to start babbling immediately, to tell Luce about all the horrible things that had happened in Chicago, about what she'd done. About some voice that had spoken to her and how it had been terrible. Because Luce would understand.
That, at least, she got under control before it started. And even if she had a little bit of dread that Luce would immediately jerk back, away from her, it couldn't be helped now.
Luce:
Luce was surprised to say the least when Suji hugged her. Enough so that she didn't know how to react so she didn't react at all....for about two seconds.
And then she was hugging Suji back. It was a weird reaction for her. But the past few months had been nothing but one bad dream. Things had never been bad enough to push her over the edge but they were just bad enough to give her a nice view of it. And she hadn't had anyone here to talk to accept maybe Ember and Ember was a new person and Luce wasn't the type to fall quickly into friendships.
"It is good to see you Suji."
Drake:
When the motorcycle first pulled up, Drake was immediately nervous about his safety. Then the person riding it said hi and his nervousness vanished. This must be Suji. Their temporary bomb expert.
She is so cool, Drake thought as he looked over the motorcycle. Then she went over and hugged Luce. She is so dead, was his next thought. Luce had never struck Drake as the type of person you could hug and live to talk about it. But then again, those two supposedly had history together, so maybe she was the exception to the rule. Drake was anxious to find out which was true.
Drake was shocked to find out it was the latter.
Suji:
Awkwardly, quickly, she stepped back. "I. Uh. I missed you Luce. And it's good to see you too." Suji turned to face the other Animorphs, who were strangers, even if they were all fighting on the same (hopelessly outnumbered) side of this war. At least they wouldn't know how out of place that reaction had been for her. Not yet. Though she couldn't be so naive as to think that the fact that Luce had accepted the hug and returned it wouldn't strike them as odd.
"Nice to meet you all. Any chance you guys have a place I can store that thing?" She gestured towards her bike, and then turned to Rian (who had been standing next to Luce, and therefore was likely the leader as far as Suji's instantaneous calculations went). Suji held out her hand. "Glad to be here to help. Rian, right? Any titles I should be using? Sergeant, Sir, Fearless Leader?" She smiled, and laughed lightly under her breath, hoping that the attempt at humor would deflect the awkwardness of her arrival, plus the hug.
Rian:
Rian had also taken note of the sounds of the motorcycle and as it came around the corner and he found out that their long awaited animorph was the one riding it he unknowingly shared a thought with Drake. Very cool.
He was still looking at the bike when the rider got off and ran at Luce. His first thought was, Fight. He briefly wondered if this "friend" of Luce's wasn't pissed off with her about something and wanted to take the opportunity to get a little revenge. He stepped forward to get between the two before Luce could beat her up (or vice versa if she was anything like Luce) but stopped cold when it turned out to be a hug.
He was still staring in amazement when Suji turned to introduce herself to him. He quickly wiped the look off his face and tried to act professional, or at least look like he knew what he was doing. "I was always partial to Fearless Leader myself," he said joining in on the joke and trying to get past the awkward moment.
He looked at the bike behind her. If they hadn't had a place to put it he might have made one rather than give the bike up. "Yeah, we can put it in the ballroom for now. Welcome to Vegas and thanks for coming."
Suji:
The stunned look on Rian's face did not escape Suji. Great. Now they were going to think she was utterly insane. Riding up on that thing, plus hugging Luce, and receiving a hug back? But she couldn't feel really upset by the situation, and she found that even the prospect that they thought she was a little unsound in the head didn't bother her so much. It felt like suddenly a huge weight had been taken from her shoulders. She was among people (at least Luce) who understood what she was going through, even if they didn't know.
Plus, these people were here to fight. That was the only reason she could have been called up. Not like Chicago. Not like the mess there.
"Fearless Leader then it is. And thanks for the welcome. But I won't say it's good to be here, because I have the feeling I was called up for a reason other than it being good, huh?" Suji was still talking to him as she lightly jogged down the steps, back to the bike. She didn't turn the engine back on, but she took hold of the handles. "Wanna show me the ballroom, while you all tell me what's up?" Suji looked towards the other strangers whose names she didn't know. But that could be taken care of inside. First things first, it would be good to get this motorcycle out of sight. Even if the line between conspicuous and average was blurred in Vegas, that didn't mean that it'd be a good idea to dawdle.
Luce:
Luce walked down the steps and over to the bike that Suji was currently pushing. "I think she'll have to take it around back, we can't get it up the stairs," she said over her shoulder to Rian. She didn't bother waiting for his permission to go ahead, just waved Suji in the right direction down the alley she had been in a while ago and fell in beside her.
"So where did you get the bike?" It was as good a place as any to start. They hadn't seen each other in months. Luce hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye to her since Suji had been out on assignment when she was ordered to come here. She wondered how many things could really have changed in such a short amount of time but, then again, some interesting things had come up in her own life and war had a tendency to make life move faster.
Suji:
"Swiped it from a Controller in Chicago. He won't even think that it was an Animorph, is the funny thing. Crime rates, though you can't really get reliable statistics, are higher than they were pre-Invasion." Suji smirked as she pushed the bike around the corner. "That was the way it was in New York. I'm guessing it's like that everywhere. All those slugs still living under the law of what you can take is yours, at least when Big Brother isn't watching."
Suji looked over at her old friend. She didn't look all that different. Happier, somehow, maybe. That warmed Suji slightly: maybe this faction was a good home for Luce. Suji, who felt currently between homes (or rather: homeless) tried not to feel a spark of jealousy. Luce had earned whatever happiness she found, if any--she'd likely had to fight for even that much. "So, Vegas huh? Sounds like fun." She grinned.
Rian:
Rian watched Luce and Suji walk away as if the rest of them didn't exist with a bit of an amused smile on his face. It wasn't often that he say Luce act like a normal, feeling individual but she seemed happy to have a friend around.
He started to head back into the Den. Suji was right, it wouldn't do to stand around out here. Not that their presence would exactly be noted as odd but it was better not to stick around waiting for something that could only lead to trouble to happen. Besides, he would have to unlock the loading door the two women were heading towards before Suji could wheel that bike inside.
He made a "come on" motion to Ember and Drake as he walked back inside and turned so that he could talk to them. "Well that was a little...weird. I'm going with weird. And unexpected I think. So that's Suji. What do you think about her?"
Luce:
Luce smiled sardonically. "If you call almost getting yourself killed on a regular basis fun then yeah it is fun." She thought briefly about what she had just said and then smiled, this one genuine if a little mischievous. "Ok, it's a little fun."
She looked over at Suji and caught her eyes, sharing the joke, but even though she saw that Suji understood what she had meant she also saw a deeper...sadness maybe. Disquiet. It was like a brief ripple passing over Suji's normally flawlessly calm exterior.
And if she had let it crawl up from the depths to affect her enough to let Luce see it then Luce had to wonder what was wrong. How wrong it was. But she didn't ask about it.
"At least we have hot showers here, or used to before there was this problem with the plumbing. Now they might be hot. It's really a 50/50 chance."
Drake:
"I am still just shocked that Luce let Suji hug her," Drake said quietly, afraid that Luce might overhear. "But she seems like a pretty cool girl. Still, I hope she can do what Luce said she can."
"What about you? What do you think about her? You have to admit, she knows how to make an entrance." Drake could not wait to learn more about their new, although temporary, team member.
Suji:
Suji laughed. "You know, I can't quite imagine fighting a war without a hot shower to return to. Regular meals and a place to sleep be damned, but the showers, God forsake the enemy that cuts off the water supply to the bathrooms." Light-hearted conversation, and while Suji was happy for it, it didn't stop the vice that felt like it was closing around her chest. Did Luce know? Did any of the know? No one would understand, even if they did. Suji didn't want them to understand, either.
They came to a loading door that was locked, presumably from the inside, so Suji stopped and waited. She looked over at Luce, smirking. "So, exactly what mess am I digging you all out of here?" The cockiness was feigned; Suji in no way pictured herself some star savior of the Vegas faction. But it was easier to frame the question that way, rather than acknowledging how serious things must be, for a member to be called from another faction. Unless they needed an expert bullshitter.
"Or did you just miss me too much?"
Rian:
"Yeah she really does." Rian was doing his best not to think of the new animorph as a savior but he couldn't help but feel a little...'saved.' She was only one animorph, one more person to throw into this mess, one more person to keep track of and one more life that was his responsibility to try to protect, or if he couldn't do that, use honorably.
But she had come riding up on the equivalent of a white horse dressed in armor and she came recommended by one of his members whose judgement he trusted even if he didn't exactly get along with her.
But he reminded himself that the reaction was irrational. "Like you said, I hope she can do what we need her to. If she can't I don't think we'll be able to pull this off."
The trio had reached the loading doors in the back next to the kitchen and Rian unlocked them and then turned to Drake. "Can you help me with these? They're a little heavy."
Luce:
Luce was about to shoot back that it was the second one but stopped realizing that it was true, at least partly. Normally she would have just been being sarcastic but she had missed Suji. She had missed having someone around who she actually trusted to do their job and do it well. And if she was going to go blow up a thousand foot long dam that was almost as high as it was long, she wanted Suji there.
"We're blowing up the Hoover dam and the yeerk pool they installed behind it. I thought instead of lounging around Chicago you might want to help out."
Drake:
"Yeah, sure,"Drake said, reaching over to help Rian open the loading doors. He was right, they were heavy. Admittedly, Drake was not exactly strong since he rarely exercised, but he was still surprised by the effort required.
As the doors opened, Drake realized that Rian was right. If this person could not do what they needed her to do, then their plan would never work. Still, Drake was confident that they would come up with a new plan if need be. Content with what he had determined, Drake gave the two girls a hello nod once the doors were all the way open and secure.
Suji:
Suji laughed, suddenly and loudly. It was genuine, and it caught her off guard; so much that it took force to quiet it again. Lounging around Chicago... Just the way Luce said it, though she knew Luce didn't mean anything by it, and couldn't know, almost sent her chuckling again. But wow. Blowing up the Hoover Dam? Suji had visited it once, on an family roadtrip. It was enormous.
"You're blowing it up? What kind of explosives do you have?" Though she trusted Luce with the risky nature of setting and detonating bombs, it was hard to imagine a troupe of other kids doing the same. Then again, maybe they were more experienced that what she'd seen in Chicago. Or maybe they were just crazier, though thinking back over recent events, Suji had to wonder about that one. "And yeah, trust me. I've been getting far too much cozy sleep over there. Real bore."
She smirked, trying not to let on just how wrong that was, though she figured Luce would know that it was an exaggeration. But Suji doubted she'd realize just how much of an exaggeration it was. Suji smiled at Rian and Drake when the loading doors slid open. "Thank you muchly. Luce tells me you've got some serious fireworks in mind, and it isn't even the Fourth of July yet."
Rian:
"Yeah but Christmas is on its way so I figured the yeerks deserved a present," Rian said with a grunt as he began the process of pushing the door back into place after they had gotten the bike into the small storage room behind the kitchen. After he and Drake got it closed he turned to look at Suji and ran a hand through his hair. "Um, we have dracon grenades, besides for that I'm am not quite sure. We found this army base out in the desert that we use as a back up base for us as well as a place to store the weapons we find or steal. I figured you and Luce could fly out there tomorrow and tell us what we're dealing with and what might be useful. Not to mention I hear you have some experience in making bombs too. Oh, this way," he said motioning towards the ballroom.
He walked as he talked, holding doors open so they could get through them. "I have gotten my hands on every piece of literature I could find about the dam including travel brochures. But the real find was when we got hold of a copy of the plans," he said nodding towards Drake who had gotten them while in the cop controller morph. "Of course we have no idea how to read them since none of us are architects but we've been trying." He pushed open the door to the ballroom.
"You can leave the bike in here for now. We have a lot of food stored up in the kitchen, one thing good about having industrial sized refrigerators and freezers, but you'll have to cook it." So far no one at the Den had proven themselves a wiz at cooking though everyone did it passably well by now. "And we have a ton of empty rooms as you can imagine though I would say only half of them or so are decent to live in. And by decent i mean have beds and don't smell of something awful. Sorry we can't offer you more."
Suji:
Suji nodded. She wouldn't mind surveying their inventory, though Luce would probably be able to recognize more of it that she would. Suji was in no way a weapons expert, though she'd probably read more about the stuff than the average kid. Rian mentioned that someone had told him she had experience making bombs, and Suji was surprised into a small laugh. "Yeah, I can cook up some homemade ones. It's really not that hard, actually, once you've got enough cleaner and stuff."
Suji had been good at chemistry in high school, better even than a lot of her other subjects (though she'd found just about every standard class with standard grading easy to ace, if only because you could work the system). She'd been able to make a few smaller bombs in New York after reading up on it (and getting personal instruction from one of the other Animorphs there) and really, to make the bomb more potent you generally just had to add more material to it.
She continued to listen as he talked about the Hoover Dam, and then the conversation turned to their facilities: food and board. Suji found herself feeling a little shy, even a little embarrassed when he apologized for not having anything better. What had Luce told these people? She felt awkward. She definitely didn't need or expect any special treatment, though the kindness and politeness wasn't lost on her. "Thank you. Trust me, after the last few weeks I've had, I could sleep anywhere." Suji smiled genuinely.
Then a moment of vague distance passed over her face. When she snapped out of it, her eyes were different, more serious, something sharp in then. Analytical. "What exactly were you guys planning on bombing? The structure of the dam?" But that wasn't the question she really wanted to ask. Instead, she licked her lips, quickly adding, "Are there Yeerks in that would-be pool yet?"
Rian:
As soon as she said they would need cleaner he began to think of ways to get more cleaner though they actually had a lot here now that he thought about it in janitorial closets and such. But they wouldn't necessarily have the type she might need so they might as well get more.
Plus he would want as many of his members as possible making this stuff with her. Knowing how to make homemade bombs would really come in handy and everyone should have some training in it. Rian himself planned on watching while he wasn't doing other things.
Her questions about the yeerk pool broke him out of his thoughts and he answered before he even began to wonder why she had asked. "Yeah, why?"
Suji:
Suji found herself smiling. It wasn't a particularly pleasant smile, as there was no warmth in it, and her eyes were glinting dangerously. "An explosion in water is many times more dangerous than a regular one. The water sloshes around, and the molecules keeping bumping into each other, again and again and again. That will strain the entire structure of the dam even more than just aiming for the concrete."
Now, now she couldn't keep the jittery edge out of her voice. The part that felt almost too good to say, and therefore made her reluctant to voice it. This wasn't her plan, she was just here to help, but still: Suji knew that plans could be fragile things, and you never wanted to promise something that couldn't come through. Never wanted to bank on it. But if they had already set their minds, well, then there was no harm in saying this. Her mouth was suddenly dry.
"Have you ever heard of dynamite fishing?" It was almost a whisper, her eyes completely trained, in all the unfettered intensity of the plan--the bright order of things that was practically singing to her now--on him. And it told her lovely things, about halting the Yeerk progress at least in one area, about inflicting severe casualties, possibly more than they had since the invasion began, all of that combined. After all, if they were going to use the tools of terrorists (suicide bombers knew a thing or two about homemade bombs), well, what better way to fight than like terrorists? Catch as many defenseless slugs at a time as possible. It'd be like setting off a bomb in a school cafeteria, only on a much, much grander scale. They'd done nothing but get pushed and pushed and pushed in this war, nothing but losing ground. Maybe it was time to push back.
He didn't answer her at first, so she figured an explanation might be in order. After all, for most people, the term probably wouldn't click. But Suji's parents had been worldly, and she had had plenty of National Geographic magazines growing up. Dynamite fishing was the (generally illegal) practice of throwing a grenade or stick of dynamite into a river or small lake. The pressure of the explosion caused massive underwater damage, and subsequently destroyed the brains of fish in the area. The fish could then be collected to eat once they died and rose to the surface of the water.
And really, how much difference was there between a slug and a fish? Both had sensitive skin, and even more sensitive, unprotected brains behind that thin tissue.
"Dynamite fishing is when someone chucks an explosive into a lake. The explosion," she had swallow, wetting her throat again, she was so excited. "The explosion kills all the fish in the area, while totally destroying all the ecosystem under the water. It's illegal almost everywhere because it's so devastating. You might only hear a 'pop!' if it's a low power grenade, but-" Suji illustrated with her hands, making a slow, rising motion, palms up. "-a few seconds later all the fish are floating belly-up."
She had to stop. She couldn't say it out loud. Not yet. Rian, this leader (a leader that wanted her here, if only on recommendation from Luce) he had to connect the dots for himself. Had to see. It was too... too perfect for her to just come out and say it. He'd have to imagine what she was saying, and apply it, to the Hoover Dam itself which was huge...
...and all the slugs it could possibly hold.
Rian:
Rian's face, which had been open and friendly before, grew more serious as she began to talk. When she asked him if he had heard of dynamite fishing his eyes flashed. He had of course heard of dynamite fishing. He had grown up in rural North Carolina, a hiker by hobby, and he had always hated the dumb kids who had done things like dynamite fishing.
But that wasn't what he had a problem with. No, it was the look in Suji's eyes as she said it. Intense, almost joyful as she talked about what he began to realize was the death of thousands, maybe million of sentient creatures even if they were slugs. And that he didn't like. It was dangerous, she was dangerous.
He let her continue to explain the concept of dynamite fishing. His expression didn't give away what he was thinking, that was one gift of a wartime trauma.
She finished by miming the explosion and then waited for his reaction. "Right, well that could very well work. But it's too late to think about it now. We can talk more about it in the morning along with all the other things we have to plan." And after I've had a chance to talk to Raven again. He remembered now how cold Raven had been on the phone when he had called about Suji. He had put it down to being stressed. She had told him that they were preparing to move HQ because of an exposure risk. But maybe there was more to the story than that.
"Do you want to get some food? We can talk a bit more then but I'll be honest with you, I'm beat and want to go to bed soon."
Suji:
Talk about it in the morning? Suji was stumped. Actually winded for a second, though she had the grace at least not to show it.
Oh God, she thought. Dread began eating away at her, though she tried to steel herself off from it. Oh God, not again. Not another leader who couldn't at least revel in a clear, point-to-point-to-point plan. Not another leader who didn't think in casualties and numbers when it was necessary. Had Cassie made sure to populate all of the factions' leadership positions with pseudo-pacifists? Actually, probably. It wouldn't surprise Suji.
Great, because now she sounded like she'd been overtaken by bloodlust, or something, from the way he responded. He obviously did not share the same enthusiasm for the brilliant, impossibly clear shot that had opened up for them. She wasn't bloodthirsty, no, Suji had had her fair share of blood. But she knew an opportunity when it presented itself, and unlike all these other seemingly Too Good For War leaders, she actually cared about winning and was excited when the great cosmos decided to throw them a bone.
That's not fair, Suji thought to herself, and she knew it wasn't. Of course everyone wanted to win. But it was perfectly obvious by the brush off, by his lack of shared excitement, that Rian didn't see it the way she saw it. Either he didn't think it was going to work, or he was repulsed by it on some level. And Suji doubted it was from thinking it wouldn't work--even if that was the case, he might have shown some spark at the idea itself.
But this was a chance to actually do some real, permanent damage to an enemy that was constantly moving in on them. And if that made her some kind of horrible battle-hungry monster for knowing a sound plan when she saw it, for seeing the possible road to a victory in the world of slow, steady losses--well, fine. Suji wasn't in this to make friends. She was in this to help them, and help her gods-be-damned race, though it seemed ever more hopeless with each new leader she met.
"Nah, you're right," Suji said, smiling and relaxing the tension that had been in her arms. She laughed a little under her breath, ran a still trembling hand through her hair. "It will be nice though. Actually being able to hit back for once. But yeah. In the morning." She shifted her weight: though she could have instantly switched off, collected herself, the shift from excitement to icy tranquility would have seemed too odd. And she didn't need to make an even worse first impression. Instead, she slowly allowed her outer appearance to cool. "And don't worry about me. I'm not that hungry, though I might grab something later if I can't sleep. I keep... I keep really strange hours lately."
Because I have horrifying dreams in which I watch myself kill a young girl and can't feel anything, even though that wasn't how it happened. Even though the dreams themselves mean that I feel something. Not something she added to the conversation.
"Go ahead and hit the sack. I'm sure I can find my way around, or enlist help." She smiled over at Luce and the other couple of strangers that had tagged along.
Rian:
"Ok. Well then, if Luce wouldn't mind showing you around and to a room I'm gonna head to bed." He was glad that she seemed ok with putting off talking about dynamite fishing until the morning. He really didn't want to think through the moral implications of killing that many yeerks. He trotted up the stairs heading towards his room.
And her words were a little too tempting. Hit back for once. Yeah, damn if it wouldn't be nice to hit back for once. He had been taking every opportunity to hit back since the war had started and he had risked his own life again and again. And when he'd become a faction leader he had had the exact same attitude, in fact he was pretty sure those exact words had come out of his mouth. And then Ember had kindly pointed out what the repercussions would be.
"If we're planning to overthrow Vegas we've got to be prepared for the consequences. It's not just us we're putting on the line. It's all the animorph factions in every city. Just think about what will happen if we lose and one of them gets a hold of our information."
But this time they might win, and not just a little win but a big one. And there was Ember's voice again, "AND think about what would happen if we won! That's almost even worse. Every major player would crack down on Vegas so hard we'd never knew what'd hit us."
Her words at that meeting had stung so much he remembered them. He hated having his hands tied like that, almost enough to make him wish he was on his own again. But she had been right, they did this and they would light up whatever the yeerk equivalent of a switchboard was for miles around and put every city on alert. But it might be worth it and it might be necessary.
But could he live with it. Yeah he could. But could he make Drake live with it, and Ember and Chloe and Diana? They were kids and most of them hadn't killed anyone before, not directly, not with intent. And now he was asking them to kill millions?
And even if he could tell them to do it would they? He wasn't going to make the decision for them. He'd call a meeting in the morning. If they all agreed then they would do it. Kill a lake full of yeerks.
As he got to his room and closed the door behind him he lifted a hand to his eyes and rubbed his temples to alleviate the headache that was beginning to form. Who had Luce brought them?
Luce:
Luce had listened quietly while Suji had explained her plan. It had potential. They would wipe out a lot of yeerks all at the same time, make a mark that wouldn't be forgotten for a long time in Vegas and stop the yeerks from scoring a game winning move. If this pool went up they might as well move out of Vegas. Hell, they might as well as move out of Earth but since that wasn't an option they had to stop the pool from going up.
The only problem she could see was the reaction it might illicit. But maybe that could be solved by getting out of town for a while. It was something that had to be thought about. She motioned towards Suji and headed for the elevators instead of the stairs. She nodded to Drake and Ember as they left.
Once they were in the elevators Luce smiled a bit. "Dynamite fishing?" She looked over at Suji who still looked subdued that Rian hadn't immediately jumped at her idea. She began laughing. It was too Suji to suggest something like that.
Suji:
Suji looked at Luce, who didn't really wait around for Suji to socialize. Suji looked back to Drake and Ember, giving them both a tired half-smile. Hopefully they hadn't felt the same way that Rian had. Hopefully they were at least excited about the idea of this. She couldn't be the only one that thought it was a good option, something worth really considering, right? But she wasn't here to sew mutiny. She just hadn't expected such complete and utter dismissal.
"I promise I'll get both of your names tomorrow sometime!" Suji said as she began to follow Luce. "It was really nice to meet you. Be good and maybe I'll take you for a ride on the bike, right?" She winked back at both of them, clapping her hands together, and then quickly darted into the open elevator, where the door shut after her. Once inside, she stood quietly, perfectly straight. She was still brooding, and still showing as little of that as possible.
Then Luce started laughing.
Suji looked over, blinking a few times. And slowly, she started laughing too. They laughed for what felt like forever, until Suji's sides hurt. Until Suji began to realize that she didn't really feel like laughing at all, she felt a lot more like crying, and that she was teetering over the edge of the point where her laughter would transform into soul-wracking sobs. Calming herself before that could happen, Suji leaned back against the elevator wall, letting out a deep sigh. Tears stood out on her eyes, but she wiped them away (hiding the motion behind sweeping her hair behind one ear).
"He didn't seem to think so," Suji said, shaking her head. Her smile trembled for a moment, but she instantly corrected it, took another deep breath. Had to learn to let the punches roll off. Couldn't take it personally. Maybe he didn't think it would work. Maybe he hadn't been judging her. Maybe he really was just tired (though a part of her was certain that that was the kind of idea that should wake anyone up, let alone a leader). "God, Luce." Suji groaned, thumping her head back against the wall of the elevator. "I have the most profane, vulgar urge to gossip. That's your warning, so make sure you duck out as soon as you show me a room, or I swear, you will be trapped."
Luce:
The door to the elevator had opened while they were laughing and then closed again though the elevator hadn't moved so Luce just pushed the 3rd floor button again and walked out when the golden doors opened. The 3rd floor had the best rooms in her opinion. Some of the ones higher were full suites but she felt like a very small pea kicking around in a very large pod in those rooms. Plus, get to far from the section where everyone had claimed rooms and the place started to feel haunted. Not in a scary way, at least not to her, just in a sad way. In fact she wasn't surprised they had all ended up with rooms in the same part of the hotel, even Ember who, for some reason, switched between a group of 3 or 4 rooms.
"Arg! Not gossip. Well not bad gossip anyway. I hear enough of that around here though it isn't as bad as it could be. For a group of teenagers the group is surprisingly reserved about romantic entanglements. But there are still enough that I hear about them too often. If you have interesting gossip I'd listen."
Suji:
Suji snickered as Luce led her to one of the empty rooms. It was much bigger than the one she'd left in Chicago, as well as her old room in New York. It was almost like having a real bedroom again... because at least this room was designed to be slept in. It took all of Suji's restraint not to run over and flop on the bed.
"Oh, it's about as bad as it gets," Suji said, stifling a yawn. "So I can be merciful and spare you now, but I'm going to have to vent it sooner or later. Choose the hour of your fate, I guess," she said laughing lightly. The room smelled a little old, but other than that, it was pretty serviceable. She couldn't wait to sleep--even if she'd had a bit of rest before trekking over here, the trip itself had been tiring, and her days in Chicago had killed much of the reserves of her energy.
Luce:
"Mmm." Luce looked at Suji. Really looked for the first time and she saw how worn she looked. It was almost like you could see through her. Well it wasn't that bad but she did have a wraith like quality that she hadn't had before and that Luce didn't like. But she probably only needed sleep Luce told herself.
"Well if you're sure then I'm gonna go out on patrol. I'm a little to keyed up to sleep anyway but you look like you might need it." Luce didn't betray how appealing the prospect of talking to Suji had been. If there was anyone who could help her figure out the Sedra situation Suji could or at least provide an opinion she trusted.
But it would have been selfish to keep Suji up just so she could listen to her problems. "I'll see you in the morning yeah?"
Suji:
Luce gave Suji one of those searching looks, the kind that Suji wasn't overly fond of. Well, usually they didn't bother her because usually she had her shit together enough that she could easily look calm and collected. But Luce knew her better than just about any other person in this war, and Suji knew that she wasn't in the best of mental shape. She didn't have the ability to cover up all the cracks that had recently fractured her down to her foundation: being able to hide it from people that didn't know her was natural, but hiding it from Luce would have taken energy and resolve that she just didn't have to spare at the moment.
She just had to hope that whatever Luce saw, it didn't run as deep as the real problems went.
"Ouch," Suji replied. "Telling me I need my beauty rest?" She snickered lightly, and nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you." Suji looked at her for a moment longer, and then smiled softly. After Luce was gone she shut the door, and shrugged off the leather jacket she'd been wearing. Suji put away the dracon gun, and had barely kicked off her shoes before tumbling into bed and a deep sleep.
Luce:
Luce walked down the hall and to her own room. She didn't like rooms, she didn't like enclosed spaces period. They reminded her too much of cages and she'd had enough cages for a life time so the room was really just a place to store her stuff. When she slept she did so on the roof. Nobody else knew that and she'd like to keep it that way. She didn't want anyone to get the idea that camp outs under the stars would be fun fun fun. Then again no one in Vegas had proven themselves that immature, not even Steve though he could be a chatterbox so maybe she was being uncharitable towards her team mates.
Maybe she kept it a secret because it was just another scar that she carried from her past experiences. And a scar, instead of being a sign of bravery, was just a sign that you could be damaged. At least scars like this were.
She had told Suji she was going out on patrol but it actually wasn't her turn. She had somewhere else she wanted to go to tonight.
She slipped out of her outer clothing, letting the jacket drop to the ground and pulling of the pants after she'd kicked off her shoes. For a moment she just stood there in her room enjoyed the feeling of the cool, night air coming in from the window and then she began to morph. Even though both of her bird morphs were nocturnal she chose to use the owl this night.
The owl felt more confident in the air and she needed confidence tonight. Besides she loved the feeling of flying silently through the night and nothing could fly as quietly as an owl.
When she had taken on the avian form she hopped up to her window sill and launched herself into the neon air of the strip at night. She veered away from the bright lights where it would be easier to be spotted and headed out over the quieter, more city-like parts of Vegas flying west.
She didn't have far to fly, Sedra's house came into view soon enough and Luce landed in the roof of the house across the street. The distance was nothing to her owl's eyes and she saw the house and, into the house, easily enough. She really shouldn't be here but she came here anyway. It helped her think except she was thinking about things she shouldn't even be considering. Like saying hi.
There was no one home. Luce flew away.
Luce:
Luce sat outside the Den on an overturned cart under the light of a singular orange street lamp. Around the corner the front of the hotel was bathed in the usual neon glow of the Strip but the stars couldn't be seen through that glow so Luce had chosen to sit in the alley instead.
The rest of the faction was around the corner and she could hear their excited chatter. Suji was supposed to be arriving sometime tonight, in the next hour or so at the most, and the Vegas faction was anxiously awaiting her arrival.
Luce had a feeling it was because everyone was feeling just a little helpless in the face of such a big mission and they were looking at Suji as the the cavalry swooping in to save them.
Luce gave one last look at the stars overhead and then decided to stop being anti-social and got up and walked around the corner and almost ran into Rian.
Rian:
Rian caught Luce as she ran into him, his arms on her shoulders and steadying her. But he dropped his hands almost immediately as she easily regained her balance. It just felt odd to help Luce. She was very much a person that gave off the air of never needing help.
Rian looked around. There were too many of them standing out here most likely. It would only draw attention to them but he wasn't about to tell people to go back inside. This past week had been hard on everyone. Rian had come up with the most basic plan ever imagined. It was very American.
Blow it up.
That was all. They simply didn't have time to come up with anything more subtle. But even preparing for such a seemingly simple operation had been complicated. Rian had had Ray, Stevert and Luce out at the hoover dam almost everyday all day, doing fly overs and bringing back as detailed sketches as they could manage. In the meantime he, Ember and Diana had been breaking into the local libraries trying to find out all they could about the Dam. Chloe had been out and about gathering what information she could about the project from controllers and Drake had been with her running back up in case Essi had made and appearance, and also just to be safe.
Nadia had been up at the base counting and counting again, trying to figure out just how much ammo they had at their disposal. The number she had come back with had been surprisingly low. Rian had considered asking Ray to talk to Vori about getting more fire power but he didn't want to involve the arms dealer. They were basically planning on massacring thousands of yeerks and no yeerk should have to take part in that plan.
He looked down the strip and then looked back into Luce's steady eyes. "This Suji? Are you sure she is as good as you say?" He didn't want to admit how hopeless he was feeling despite their plans. He wouldn't mind having someone else along, especially someone Luce recommended.
Luce:
"She's good." Luce had called in an old faction mate of hers for this. Suji had made a point of familiarize herself with any knowledge she thought might be useful. And to Suji that had included home-made bombs. Luce knew a bit about it herself but not enough that she wanted to risk making them on her own and the information they had found in books had been sketchy at best.
When Luce had called Cassie she had been surprised to learn that Suji had been relocated to Chicago recently and had been given the number to reach Raven. Rian had made the second call since, of the two, he knew Raven better, and had asked if she could loan them the animorph.
So now Suji was on her way and had claimed that she could make it here in two days from Chicago. Luce had no idea how she planned on doing that but believed her if she said she was going to do it.
Suji:
Suji had a lot on her mind. Even after the days of traveling, she hadn't had nearly enough time to work it all out. She wasn't sure she ever would. What happened with Toby, and his sister... well, even though she tended to diligently assess things in her mind, make sense of them, organize them, she didn't touch that. She tried, sure, but in the end she couldn't focus on it for long. The further she got from Chicago, the more it felt like just one really, really bad dream. A bad dream in a world that was already a nightmare.
Besides, thinking about this upcoming mission was an effective, and possibly also time-efficient, distraction. She'd been called to Las Vegas, and Suji had no doubt that that had more than a little to do with Luce. What were they planning, that they needed her? She wasn't going to complain, and if anything, she felt that the call couldn't have had better timing. Maybe running away from one's problems wasn't exactly noble, but if you were running towards helping solve some other problems, at least it wasn't being a coward. Right?
Then Suji's mind came back to Luce: it did a lot, actually. And though she might never have expected it, she felt a nearly overwhelming longing to see her old comrade again. It had been months, and the past few weeks had been the worst of it. Suji missed Luce's surly temper, the way she could intuit Suji's plans without wrecking them, the way she had always been ready to be Suji's wingman when it came to verbal confrontations, and hadn't minded that Suji return the favor with the damage-dealing parts. They'd been a team, and there was definitely truth to the idea that you didn't miss what you had until it was gone.
And now, after what had happened in Chicago... Luce was the only one Suji thought she could trust. The only one to be what they said they were, or at least presented themselves as. Even Cassie had betrayed her, in her own small way, by not telling Suji about Raven's pregnancy. It was obvious why Cassie had withheld the information: Suji wouldn't have gone. And now with Raven and Riley and that whole Toby fiasco...
...Suji re-framed her thoughts once more. No time for analysis. She'd done what had been necessary, as she would continue to. For now, this new mission, whatever it would be, would need all her attention.
Drake:
"So, tell me again. What exactly is this Suji person supposed to be helping us with when she gets here? She must some sort of expert if she is making a special trip all the way from Chicago."
Drake was sitting on the ground with his back to the wall of a building. He was starting to get tired of waiting, but was also excited to meet a new animorph. Their next mission was going to be a whopper, and they could use all the help they could get.
Ember:
Ember leaned up against the wall next to where Drake was sitting. "I dunno. But we can use all the help we can get, as they say. Besides she was Luce's friend right?" She looked over to where the woman was standing near Rian. She hadn't really spoken to him since their brain-fight at the party. It was stupid but she was annoyed and if it had to happen sometime, why not in the middle of a deadly situation? Anyway, after that she didn't feel comfortable hanging around either him or Chloe, so instead she'd been taking advantage of Drake's natural inclination to talk to anything that moved.
"I guess that means she's tough." She continued her point as they kept waiting, hoping to spark some conversation so she would fall asleep standing up. "And beyond that, inter-faction relations are important to keep up. When we win this fight, it's going to be because we all ended up working together, I guarantee it."
Suji:
Vegas was pretty, in its own way, Suji supposed. It was brighter than New York had been, and the invasion seemed to have taken less of a toll than it had on Manhattan. Probably because by the time Manhattan had been conquered, most of the country had fallen, or was quick to. Or maybe the Yeerks hadn't felt the same need to dominate the landscape in the same way that they had with the other city. Hell, maybe they thought they couldn't improve on it. From what she'd heard, Vegas was its own Yeerk tourist trap, as was the huge pool in Texas.
Which in itself explained her mode of transportation. Flying to Chicago as an owl had been grueling, but not terribly conspicuous, because there had been plenty of forestry left to hide in when she avoided the major towns. Vegas was different--the desert was a barrier in itself, and even if stopped on the outskirts and walked into the city rather than flying straight over it, she'd still be shoe-less. So, she'd opted for the trick that'd worked for her many times in NYC; hide in plain sight.
And in Vegas, 'plain' meant something a little different than most other places in the world.
Suji's motorcycle alternatively roared and purred as she throttled the engine, leaning into tight turns. The traffic wasn't as bad as New York's had been, but it was still a force to be reckoned with. She weaved in and out of cars, and found that drivers made an effort not to get in her way. Yeerks were fearful creatures, for the most part: their government bred it into them. And when they saw a lone figure on a sleek motorcycle, with a dracon gun boldly holstered to her hip, they were not likely to step in and try to stop her. 'Pretend you didn't see it,' one of the core policies of most average-ranking slugs. Doubly so in a town like Vegas.
Suji cut around the next turn, trying not to think about how much more dangerous this was than flying, which was ironic, but counterproductive. Sure if she shifted her balance a little too hard they'd have to scrape the streak of her flesh from the pavement later, but the guise was worth it. Besides. Suji was never one to be needlessly reckless, but even she had to admit that this was cool. Braking smoothly, the bike turned unto the street where she'd find the Den. She could see a few figures in the distance, and recognized Luce among them. Behind her tinted helmet, Suji smiled.
She rode slowly over to in front of the Den, where she killed the engine, and parked the bike. Between the motorcycle, the helmet, the dracon gun, and her leather jacket, Suji looked like some space-age outlaw. She pushed the helmet up and off of her head, and quickly brushed her hair back, without dismounting the hot-shot bike. And, because it seemed way too cheesy to spout off a witty line on top of all that, and because even she was a little taken aback by the fact that she really had made it here on this bike, she smiled a little awkwardly: "Hi."
Luce:
"Yeah, she's my friend, but she is also the only person I know on our side who knows how to make bombs and we'll need as many of those as we can get our hands on." Luce looked down at Drake and Ember sitting by the wall and then back down the street. She could hear a motorcycle purring in the distance and for a brief moment her mind was not thinking about anything that had to do with the war. She had wanted a motorcycle a long time ago, in another life it seemed. If they were still on the road maybe she could get one.
The rider came around the corner and Luce saw that the bike looked as beautiful as it sounded. Red flames were traced in light as it drove along the neon soaked street, black finish gleaming. The part of Luce that was still her own, that allowed her to enjoy things like ice cream and sunrises, longed for that bike and wanted it. And if it came with the rider....
Luce was jarred out of the pleasant fantasy before it had even really started by the fact that the motorcycle was slowing down. Her first reaction was the expected one. DANGER. But as her hand automatically dropped to her waist and the gun she had there the rider came to a complete stop and pulled off her helmet.
"Hi."
Luce only raised an eyebrow at the bike. "Hi Suji."
Suji:
Suji blushed in response to the raised eyebrow: just a little, but it was there. She hopped off of the bike, still holding onto the helmet. She'd actually begun to open her mouth to say something (maybe to try to cut the tension that came with riding in on a badass motorcycle), but she'd looked at Luce again, and before she could stop herself, she'd rushed forward. In a few sprinting steps she closed the distance between them, and thew her arm around the other girl's neck, pulling her into a tight hug.
She was not an impulsive person. She'd even caught herself by surprise, though she didn't immediately drop the hug. Something inside of her wanted to start babbling immediately, to tell Luce about all the horrible things that had happened in Chicago, about what she'd done. About some voice that had spoken to her and how it had been terrible. Because Luce would understand.
That, at least, she got under control before it started. And even if she had a little bit of dread that Luce would immediately jerk back, away from her, it couldn't be helped now.
Luce:
Luce was surprised to say the least when Suji hugged her. Enough so that she didn't know how to react so she didn't react at all....for about two seconds.
And then she was hugging Suji back. It was a weird reaction for her. But the past few months had been nothing but one bad dream. Things had never been bad enough to push her over the edge but they were just bad enough to give her a nice view of it. And she hadn't had anyone here to talk to accept maybe Ember and Ember was a new person and Luce wasn't the type to fall quickly into friendships.
"It is good to see you Suji."
Drake:
When the motorcycle first pulled up, Drake was immediately nervous about his safety. Then the person riding it said hi and his nervousness vanished. This must be Suji. Their temporary bomb expert.
She is so cool, Drake thought as he looked over the motorcycle. Then she went over and hugged Luce. She is so dead, was his next thought. Luce had never struck Drake as the type of person you could hug and live to talk about it. But then again, those two supposedly had history together, so maybe she was the exception to the rule. Drake was anxious to find out which was true.
Drake was shocked to find out it was the latter.
Suji:
Awkwardly, quickly, she stepped back. "I. Uh. I missed you Luce. And it's good to see you too." Suji turned to face the other Animorphs, who were strangers, even if they were all fighting on the same (hopelessly outnumbered) side of this war. At least they wouldn't know how out of place that reaction had been for her. Not yet. Though she couldn't be so naive as to think that the fact that Luce had accepted the hug and returned it wouldn't strike them as odd.
"Nice to meet you all. Any chance you guys have a place I can store that thing?" She gestured towards her bike, and then turned to Rian (who had been standing next to Luce, and therefore was likely the leader as far as Suji's instantaneous calculations went). Suji held out her hand. "Glad to be here to help. Rian, right? Any titles I should be using? Sergeant, Sir, Fearless Leader?" She smiled, and laughed lightly under her breath, hoping that the attempt at humor would deflect the awkwardness of her arrival, plus the hug.
Rian:
Rian had also taken note of the sounds of the motorcycle and as it came around the corner and he found out that their long awaited animorph was the one riding it he unknowingly shared a thought with Drake. Very cool.
He was still looking at the bike when the rider got off and ran at Luce. His first thought was, Fight. He briefly wondered if this "friend" of Luce's wasn't pissed off with her about something and wanted to take the opportunity to get a little revenge. He stepped forward to get between the two before Luce could beat her up (or vice versa if she was anything like Luce) but stopped cold when it turned out to be a hug.
He was still staring in amazement when Suji turned to introduce herself to him. He quickly wiped the look off his face and tried to act professional, or at least look like he knew what he was doing. "I was always partial to Fearless Leader myself," he said joining in on the joke and trying to get past the awkward moment.
He looked at the bike behind her. If they hadn't had a place to put it he might have made one rather than give the bike up. "Yeah, we can put it in the ballroom for now. Welcome to Vegas and thanks for coming."
Suji:
The stunned look on Rian's face did not escape Suji. Great. Now they were going to think she was utterly insane. Riding up on that thing, plus hugging Luce, and receiving a hug back? But she couldn't feel really upset by the situation, and she found that even the prospect that they thought she was a little unsound in the head didn't bother her so much. It felt like suddenly a huge weight had been taken from her shoulders. She was among people (at least Luce) who understood what she was going through, even if they didn't know.
Plus, these people were here to fight. That was the only reason she could have been called up. Not like Chicago. Not like the mess there.
"Fearless Leader then it is. And thanks for the welcome. But I won't say it's good to be here, because I have the feeling I was called up for a reason other than it being good, huh?" Suji was still talking to him as she lightly jogged down the steps, back to the bike. She didn't turn the engine back on, but she took hold of the handles. "Wanna show me the ballroom, while you all tell me what's up?" Suji looked towards the other strangers whose names she didn't know. But that could be taken care of inside. First things first, it would be good to get this motorcycle out of sight. Even if the line between conspicuous and average was blurred in Vegas, that didn't mean that it'd be a good idea to dawdle.
Luce:
Luce walked down the steps and over to the bike that Suji was currently pushing. "I think she'll have to take it around back, we can't get it up the stairs," she said over her shoulder to Rian. She didn't bother waiting for his permission to go ahead, just waved Suji in the right direction down the alley she had been in a while ago and fell in beside her.
"So where did you get the bike?" It was as good a place as any to start. They hadn't seen each other in months. Luce hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye to her since Suji had been out on assignment when she was ordered to come here. She wondered how many things could really have changed in such a short amount of time but, then again, some interesting things had come up in her own life and war had a tendency to make life move faster.
Suji:
"Swiped it from a Controller in Chicago. He won't even think that it was an Animorph, is the funny thing. Crime rates, though you can't really get reliable statistics, are higher than they were pre-Invasion." Suji smirked as she pushed the bike around the corner. "That was the way it was in New York. I'm guessing it's like that everywhere. All those slugs still living under the law of what you can take is yours, at least when Big Brother isn't watching."
Suji looked over at her old friend. She didn't look all that different. Happier, somehow, maybe. That warmed Suji slightly: maybe this faction was a good home for Luce. Suji, who felt currently between homes (or rather: homeless) tried not to feel a spark of jealousy. Luce had earned whatever happiness she found, if any--she'd likely had to fight for even that much. "So, Vegas huh? Sounds like fun." She grinned.
Rian:
Rian watched Luce and Suji walk away as if the rest of them didn't exist with a bit of an amused smile on his face. It wasn't often that he say Luce act like a normal, feeling individual but she seemed happy to have a friend around.
He started to head back into the Den. Suji was right, it wouldn't do to stand around out here. Not that their presence would exactly be noted as odd but it was better not to stick around waiting for something that could only lead to trouble to happen. Besides, he would have to unlock the loading door the two women were heading towards before Suji could wheel that bike inside.
He made a "come on" motion to Ember and Drake as he walked back inside and turned so that he could talk to them. "Well that was a little...weird. I'm going with weird. And unexpected I think. So that's Suji. What do you think about her?"
Luce:
Luce smiled sardonically. "If you call almost getting yourself killed on a regular basis fun then yeah it is fun." She thought briefly about what she had just said and then smiled, this one genuine if a little mischievous. "Ok, it's a little fun."
She looked over at Suji and caught her eyes, sharing the joke, but even though she saw that Suji understood what she had meant she also saw a deeper...sadness maybe. Disquiet. It was like a brief ripple passing over Suji's normally flawlessly calm exterior.
And if she had let it crawl up from the depths to affect her enough to let Luce see it then Luce had to wonder what was wrong. How wrong it was. But she didn't ask about it.
"At least we have hot showers here, or used to before there was this problem with the plumbing. Now they might be hot. It's really a 50/50 chance."
Drake:
"I am still just shocked that Luce let Suji hug her," Drake said quietly, afraid that Luce might overhear. "But she seems like a pretty cool girl. Still, I hope she can do what Luce said she can."
"What about you? What do you think about her? You have to admit, she knows how to make an entrance." Drake could not wait to learn more about their new, although temporary, team member.
Suji:
Suji laughed. "You know, I can't quite imagine fighting a war without a hot shower to return to. Regular meals and a place to sleep be damned, but the showers, God forsake the enemy that cuts off the water supply to the bathrooms." Light-hearted conversation, and while Suji was happy for it, it didn't stop the vice that felt like it was closing around her chest. Did Luce know? Did any of the know? No one would understand, even if they did. Suji didn't want them to understand, either.
They came to a loading door that was locked, presumably from the inside, so Suji stopped and waited. She looked over at Luce, smirking. "So, exactly what mess am I digging you all out of here?" The cockiness was feigned; Suji in no way pictured herself some star savior of the Vegas faction. But it was easier to frame the question that way, rather than acknowledging how serious things must be, for a member to be called from another faction. Unless they needed an expert bullshitter.
"Or did you just miss me too much?"
Rian:
"Yeah she really does." Rian was doing his best not to think of the new animorph as a savior but he couldn't help but feel a little...'saved.' She was only one animorph, one more person to throw into this mess, one more person to keep track of and one more life that was his responsibility to try to protect, or if he couldn't do that, use honorably.
But she had come riding up on the equivalent of a white horse dressed in armor and she came recommended by one of his members whose judgement he trusted even if he didn't exactly get along with her.
But he reminded himself that the reaction was irrational. "Like you said, I hope she can do what we need her to. If she can't I don't think we'll be able to pull this off."
The trio had reached the loading doors in the back next to the kitchen and Rian unlocked them and then turned to Drake. "Can you help me with these? They're a little heavy."
Luce:
Luce was about to shoot back that it was the second one but stopped realizing that it was true, at least partly. Normally she would have just been being sarcastic but she had missed Suji. She had missed having someone around who she actually trusted to do their job and do it well. And if she was going to go blow up a thousand foot long dam that was almost as high as it was long, she wanted Suji there.
"We're blowing up the Hoover dam and the yeerk pool they installed behind it. I thought instead of lounging around Chicago you might want to help out."
Drake:
"Yeah, sure,"Drake said, reaching over to help Rian open the loading doors. He was right, they were heavy. Admittedly, Drake was not exactly strong since he rarely exercised, but he was still surprised by the effort required.
As the doors opened, Drake realized that Rian was right. If this person could not do what they needed her to do, then their plan would never work. Still, Drake was confident that they would come up with a new plan if need be. Content with what he had determined, Drake gave the two girls a hello nod once the doors were all the way open and secure.
Suji:
Suji laughed, suddenly and loudly. It was genuine, and it caught her off guard; so much that it took force to quiet it again. Lounging around Chicago... Just the way Luce said it, though she knew Luce didn't mean anything by it, and couldn't know, almost sent her chuckling again. But wow. Blowing up the Hoover Dam? Suji had visited it once, on an family roadtrip. It was enormous.
"You're blowing it up? What kind of explosives do you have?" Though she trusted Luce with the risky nature of setting and detonating bombs, it was hard to imagine a troupe of other kids doing the same. Then again, maybe they were more experienced that what she'd seen in Chicago. Or maybe they were just crazier, though thinking back over recent events, Suji had to wonder about that one. "And yeah, trust me. I've been getting far too much cozy sleep over there. Real bore."
She smirked, trying not to let on just how wrong that was, though she figured Luce would know that it was an exaggeration. But Suji doubted she'd realize just how much of an exaggeration it was. Suji smiled at Rian and Drake when the loading doors slid open. "Thank you muchly. Luce tells me you've got some serious fireworks in mind, and it isn't even the Fourth of July yet."
Rian:
"Yeah but Christmas is on its way so I figured the yeerks deserved a present," Rian said with a grunt as he began the process of pushing the door back into place after they had gotten the bike into the small storage room behind the kitchen. After he and Drake got it closed he turned to look at Suji and ran a hand through his hair. "Um, we have dracon grenades, besides for that I'm am not quite sure. We found this army base out in the desert that we use as a back up base for us as well as a place to store the weapons we find or steal. I figured you and Luce could fly out there tomorrow and tell us what we're dealing with and what might be useful. Not to mention I hear you have some experience in making bombs too. Oh, this way," he said motioning towards the ballroom.
He walked as he talked, holding doors open so they could get through them. "I have gotten my hands on every piece of literature I could find about the dam including travel brochures. But the real find was when we got hold of a copy of the plans," he said nodding towards Drake who had gotten them while in the cop controller morph. "Of course we have no idea how to read them since none of us are architects but we've been trying." He pushed open the door to the ballroom.
"You can leave the bike in here for now. We have a lot of food stored up in the kitchen, one thing good about having industrial sized refrigerators and freezers, but you'll have to cook it." So far no one at the Den had proven themselves a wiz at cooking though everyone did it passably well by now. "And we have a ton of empty rooms as you can imagine though I would say only half of them or so are decent to live in. And by decent i mean have beds and don't smell of something awful. Sorry we can't offer you more."
Suji:
Suji nodded. She wouldn't mind surveying their inventory, though Luce would probably be able to recognize more of it that she would. Suji was in no way a weapons expert, though she'd probably read more about the stuff than the average kid. Rian mentioned that someone had told him she had experience making bombs, and Suji was surprised into a small laugh. "Yeah, I can cook up some homemade ones. It's really not that hard, actually, once you've got enough cleaner and stuff."
Suji had been good at chemistry in high school, better even than a lot of her other subjects (though she'd found just about every standard class with standard grading easy to ace, if only because you could work the system). She'd been able to make a few smaller bombs in New York after reading up on it (and getting personal instruction from one of the other Animorphs there) and really, to make the bomb more potent you generally just had to add more material to it.
She continued to listen as he talked about the Hoover Dam, and then the conversation turned to their facilities: food and board. Suji found herself feeling a little shy, even a little embarrassed when he apologized for not having anything better. What had Luce told these people? She felt awkward. She definitely didn't need or expect any special treatment, though the kindness and politeness wasn't lost on her. "Thank you. Trust me, after the last few weeks I've had, I could sleep anywhere." Suji smiled genuinely.
Then a moment of vague distance passed over her face. When she snapped out of it, her eyes were different, more serious, something sharp in then. Analytical. "What exactly were you guys planning on bombing? The structure of the dam?" But that wasn't the question she really wanted to ask. Instead, she licked her lips, quickly adding, "Are there Yeerks in that would-be pool yet?"
Rian:
As soon as she said they would need cleaner he began to think of ways to get more cleaner though they actually had a lot here now that he thought about it in janitorial closets and such. But they wouldn't necessarily have the type she might need so they might as well get more.
Plus he would want as many of his members as possible making this stuff with her. Knowing how to make homemade bombs would really come in handy and everyone should have some training in it. Rian himself planned on watching while he wasn't doing other things.
Her questions about the yeerk pool broke him out of his thoughts and he answered before he even began to wonder why she had asked. "Yeah, why?"
Suji:
Suji found herself smiling. It wasn't a particularly pleasant smile, as there was no warmth in it, and her eyes were glinting dangerously. "An explosion in water is many times more dangerous than a regular one. The water sloshes around, and the molecules keeping bumping into each other, again and again and again. That will strain the entire structure of the dam even more than just aiming for the concrete."
Now, now she couldn't keep the jittery edge out of her voice. The part that felt almost too good to say, and therefore made her reluctant to voice it. This wasn't her plan, she was just here to help, but still: Suji knew that plans could be fragile things, and you never wanted to promise something that couldn't come through. Never wanted to bank on it. But if they had already set their minds, well, then there was no harm in saying this. Her mouth was suddenly dry.
"Have you ever heard of dynamite fishing?" It was almost a whisper, her eyes completely trained, in all the unfettered intensity of the plan--the bright order of things that was practically singing to her now--on him. And it told her lovely things, about halting the Yeerk progress at least in one area, about inflicting severe casualties, possibly more than they had since the invasion began, all of that combined. After all, if they were going to use the tools of terrorists (suicide bombers knew a thing or two about homemade bombs), well, what better way to fight than like terrorists? Catch as many defenseless slugs at a time as possible. It'd be like setting off a bomb in a school cafeteria, only on a much, much grander scale. They'd done nothing but get pushed and pushed and pushed in this war, nothing but losing ground. Maybe it was time to push back.
He didn't answer her at first, so she figured an explanation might be in order. After all, for most people, the term probably wouldn't click. But Suji's parents had been worldly, and she had had plenty of National Geographic magazines growing up. Dynamite fishing was the (generally illegal) practice of throwing a grenade or stick of dynamite into a river or small lake. The pressure of the explosion caused massive underwater damage, and subsequently destroyed the brains of fish in the area. The fish could then be collected to eat once they died and rose to the surface of the water.
And really, how much difference was there between a slug and a fish? Both had sensitive skin, and even more sensitive, unprotected brains behind that thin tissue.
"Dynamite fishing is when someone chucks an explosive into a lake. The explosion," she had swallow, wetting her throat again, she was so excited. "The explosion kills all the fish in the area, while totally destroying all the ecosystem under the water. It's illegal almost everywhere because it's so devastating. You might only hear a 'pop!' if it's a low power grenade, but-" Suji illustrated with her hands, making a slow, rising motion, palms up. "-a few seconds later all the fish are floating belly-up."
She had to stop. She couldn't say it out loud. Not yet. Rian, this leader (a leader that wanted her here, if only on recommendation from Luce) he had to connect the dots for himself. Had to see. It was too... too perfect for her to just come out and say it. He'd have to imagine what she was saying, and apply it, to the Hoover Dam itself which was huge...
...and all the slugs it could possibly hold.
Rian:
Rian's face, which had been open and friendly before, grew more serious as she began to talk. When she asked him if he had heard of dynamite fishing his eyes flashed. He had of course heard of dynamite fishing. He had grown up in rural North Carolina, a hiker by hobby, and he had always hated the dumb kids who had done things like dynamite fishing.
But that wasn't what he had a problem with. No, it was the look in Suji's eyes as she said it. Intense, almost joyful as she talked about what he began to realize was the death of thousands, maybe million of sentient creatures even if they were slugs. And that he didn't like. It was dangerous, she was dangerous.
He let her continue to explain the concept of dynamite fishing. His expression didn't give away what he was thinking, that was one gift of a wartime trauma.
She finished by miming the explosion and then waited for his reaction. "Right, well that could very well work. But it's too late to think about it now. We can talk more about it in the morning along with all the other things we have to plan." And after I've had a chance to talk to Raven again. He remembered now how cold Raven had been on the phone when he had called about Suji. He had put it down to being stressed. She had told him that they were preparing to move HQ because of an exposure risk. But maybe there was more to the story than that.
"Do you want to get some food? We can talk a bit more then but I'll be honest with you, I'm beat and want to go to bed soon."
Suji:
Talk about it in the morning? Suji was stumped. Actually winded for a second, though she had the grace at least not to show it.
Oh God, she thought. Dread began eating away at her, though she tried to steel herself off from it. Oh God, not again. Not another leader who couldn't at least revel in a clear, point-to-point-to-point plan. Not another leader who didn't think in casualties and numbers when it was necessary. Had Cassie made sure to populate all of the factions' leadership positions with pseudo-pacifists? Actually, probably. It wouldn't surprise Suji.
Great, because now she sounded like she'd been overtaken by bloodlust, or something, from the way he responded. He obviously did not share the same enthusiasm for the brilliant, impossibly clear shot that had opened up for them. She wasn't bloodthirsty, no, Suji had had her fair share of blood. But she knew an opportunity when it presented itself, and unlike all these other seemingly Too Good For War leaders, she actually cared about winning and was excited when the great cosmos decided to throw them a bone.
That's not fair, Suji thought to herself, and she knew it wasn't. Of course everyone wanted to win. But it was perfectly obvious by the brush off, by his lack of shared excitement, that Rian didn't see it the way she saw it. Either he didn't think it was going to work, or he was repulsed by it on some level. And Suji doubted it was from thinking it wouldn't work--even if that was the case, he might have shown some spark at the idea itself.
But this was a chance to actually do some real, permanent damage to an enemy that was constantly moving in on them. And if that made her some kind of horrible battle-hungry monster for knowing a sound plan when she saw it, for seeing the possible road to a victory in the world of slow, steady losses--well, fine. Suji wasn't in this to make friends. She was in this to help them, and help her gods-be-damned race, though it seemed ever more hopeless with each new leader she met.
"Nah, you're right," Suji said, smiling and relaxing the tension that had been in her arms. She laughed a little under her breath, ran a still trembling hand through her hair. "It will be nice though. Actually being able to hit back for once. But yeah. In the morning." She shifted her weight: though she could have instantly switched off, collected herself, the shift from excitement to icy tranquility would have seemed too odd. And she didn't need to make an even worse first impression. Instead, she slowly allowed her outer appearance to cool. "And don't worry about me. I'm not that hungry, though I might grab something later if I can't sleep. I keep... I keep really strange hours lately."
Because I have horrifying dreams in which I watch myself kill a young girl and can't feel anything, even though that wasn't how it happened. Even though the dreams themselves mean that I feel something. Not something she added to the conversation.
"Go ahead and hit the sack. I'm sure I can find my way around, or enlist help." She smiled over at Luce and the other couple of strangers that had tagged along.
Rian:
"Ok. Well then, if Luce wouldn't mind showing you around and to a room I'm gonna head to bed." He was glad that she seemed ok with putting off talking about dynamite fishing until the morning. He really didn't want to think through the moral implications of killing that many yeerks. He trotted up the stairs heading towards his room.
And her words were a little too tempting. Hit back for once. Yeah, damn if it wouldn't be nice to hit back for once. He had been taking every opportunity to hit back since the war had started and he had risked his own life again and again. And when he'd become a faction leader he had had the exact same attitude, in fact he was pretty sure those exact words had come out of his mouth. And then Ember had kindly pointed out what the repercussions would be.
"If we're planning to overthrow Vegas we've got to be prepared for the consequences. It's not just us we're putting on the line. It's all the animorph factions in every city. Just think about what will happen if we lose and one of them gets a hold of our information."
But this time they might win, and not just a little win but a big one. And there was Ember's voice again, "AND think about what would happen if we won! That's almost even worse. Every major player would crack down on Vegas so hard we'd never knew what'd hit us."
Her words at that meeting had stung so much he remembered them. He hated having his hands tied like that, almost enough to make him wish he was on his own again. But she had been right, they did this and they would light up whatever the yeerk equivalent of a switchboard was for miles around and put every city on alert. But it might be worth it and it might be necessary.
But could he live with it. Yeah he could. But could he make Drake live with it, and Ember and Chloe and Diana? They were kids and most of them hadn't killed anyone before, not directly, not with intent. And now he was asking them to kill millions?
And even if he could tell them to do it would they? He wasn't going to make the decision for them. He'd call a meeting in the morning. If they all agreed then they would do it. Kill a lake full of yeerks.
As he got to his room and closed the door behind him he lifted a hand to his eyes and rubbed his temples to alleviate the headache that was beginning to form. Who had Luce brought them?
Luce:
Luce had listened quietly while Suji had explained her plan. It had potential. They would wipe out a lot of yeerks all at the same time, make a mark that wouldn't be forgotten for a long time in Vegas and stop the yeerks from scoring a game winning move. If this pool went up they might as well move out of Vegas. Hell, they might as well as move out of Earth but since that wasn't an option they had to stop the pool from going up.
The only problem she could see was the reaction it might illicit. But maybe that could be solved by getting out of town for a while. It was something that had to be thought about. She motioned towards Suji and headed for the elevators instead of the stairs. She nodded to Drake and Ember as they left.
Once they were in the elevators Luce smiled a bit. "Dynamite fishing?" She looked over at Suji who still looked subdued that Rian hadn't immediately jumped at her idea. She began laughing. It was too Suji to suggest something like that.
Suji:
Suji looked at Luce, who didn't really wait around for Suji to socialize. Suji looked back to Drake and Ember, giving them both a tired half-smile. Hopefully they hadn't felt the same way that Rian had. Hopefully they were at least excited about the idea of this. She couldn't be the only one that thought it was a good option, something worth really considering, right? But she wasn't here to sew mutiny. She just hadn't expected such complete and utter dismissal.
"I promise I'll get both of your names tomorrow sometime!" Suji said as she began to follow Luce. "It was really nice to meet you. Be good and maybe I'll take you for a ride on the bike, right?" She winked back at both of them, clapping her hands together, and then quickly darted into the open elevator, where the door shut after her. Once inside, she stood quietly, perfectly straight. She was still brooding, and still showing as little of that as possible.
Then Luce started laughing.
Suji looked over, blinking a few times. And slowly, she started laughing too. They laughed for what felt like forever, until Suji's sides hurt. Until Suji began to realize that she didn't really feel like laughing at all, she felt a lot more like crying, and that she was teetering over the edge of the point where her laughter would transform into soul-wracking sobs. Calming herself before that could happen, Suji leaned back against the elevator wall, letting out a deep sigh. Tears stood out on her eyes, but she wiped them away (hiding the motion behind sweeping her hair behind one ear).
"He didn't seem to think so," Suji said, shaking her head. Her smile trembled for a moment, but she instantly corrected it, took another deep breath. Had to learn to let the punches roll off. Couldn't take it personally. Maybe he didn't think it would work. Maybe he hadn't been judging her. Maybe he really was just tired (though a part of her was certain that that was the kind of idea that should wake anyone up, let alone a leader). "God, Luce." Suji groaned, thumping her head back against the wall of the elevator. "I have the most profane, vulgar urge to gossip. That's your warning, so make sure you duck out as soon as you show me a room, or I swear, you will be trapped."
Luce:
The door to the elevator had opened while they were laughing and then closed again though the elevator hadn't moved so Luce just pushed the 3rd floor button again and walked out when the golden doors opened. The 3rd floor had the best rooms in her opinion. Some of the ones higher were full suites but she felt like a very small pea kicking around in a very large pod in those rooms. Plus, get to far from the section where everyone had claimed rooms and the place started to feel haunted. Not in a scary way, at least not to her, just in a sad way. In fact she wasn't surprised they had all ended up with rooms in the same part of the hotel, even Ember who, for some reason, switched between a group of 3 or 4 rooms.
"Arg! Not gossip. Well not bad gossip anyway. I hear enough of that around here though it isn't as bad as it could be. For a group of teenagers the group is surprisingly reserved about romantic entanglements. But there are still enough that I hear about them too often. If you have interesting gossip I'd listen."
Suji:
Suji snickered as Luce led her to one of the empty rooms. It was much bigger than the one she'd left in Chicago, as well as her old room in New York. It was almost like having a real bedroom again... because at least this room was designed to be slept in. It took all of Suji's restraint not to run over and flop on the bed.
"Oh, it's about as bad as it gets," Suji said, stifling a yawn. "So I can be merciful and spare you now, but I'm going to have to vent it sooner or later. Choose the hour of your fate, I guess," she said laughing lightly. The room smelled a little old, but other than that, it was pretty serviceable. She couldn't wait to sleep--even if she'd had a bit of rest before trekking over here, the trip itself had been tiring, and her days in Chicago had killed much of the reserves of her energy.
Luce:
"Mmm." Luce looked at Suji. Really looked for the first time and she saw how worn she looked. It was almost like you could see through her. Well it wasn't that bad but she did have a wraith like quality that she hadn't had before and that Luce didn't like. But she probably only needed sleep Luce told herself.
"Well if you're sure then I'm gonna go out on patrol. I'm a little to keyed up to sleep anyway but you look like you might need it." Luce didn't betray how appealing the prospect of talking to Suji had been. If there was anyone who could help her figure out the Sedra situation Suji could or at least provide an opinion she trusted.
But it would have been selfish to keep Suji up just so she could listen to her problems. "I'll see you in the morning yeah?"
Suji:
Luce gave Suji one of those searching looks, the kind that Suji wasn't overly fond of. Well, usually they didn't bother her because usually she had her shit together enough that she could easily look calm and collected. But Luce knew her better than just about any other person in this war, and Suji knew that she wasn't in the best of mental shape. She didn't have the ability to cover up all the cracks that had recently fractured her down to her foundation: being able to hide it from people that didn't know her was natural, but hiding it from Luce would have taken energy and resolve that she just didn't have to spare at the moment.
She just had to hope that whatever Luce saw, it didn't run as deep as the real problems went.
"Ouch," Suji replied. "Telling me I need my beauty rest?" She snickered lightly, and nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you." Suji looked at her for a moment longer, and then smiled softly. After Luce was gone she shut the door, and shrugged off the leather jacket she'd been wearing. Suji put away the dracon gun, and had barely kicked off her shoes before tumbling into bed and a deep sleep.
Luce:
Luce walked down the hall and to her own room. She didn't like rooms, she didn't like enclosed spaces period. They reminded her too much of cages and she'd had enough cages for a life time so the room was really just a place to store her stuff. When she slept she did so on the roof. Nobody else knew that and she'd like to keep it that way. She didn't want anyone to get the idea that camp outs under the stars would be fun fun fun. Then again no one in Vegas had proven themselves that immature, not even Steve though he could be a chatterbox so maybe she was being uncharitable towards her team mates.
Maybe she kept it a secret because it was just another scar that she carried from her past experiences. And a scar, instead of being a sign of bravery, was just a sign that you could be damaged. At least scars like this were.
She had told Suji she was going out on patrol but it actually wasn't her turn. She had somewhere else she wanted to go to tonight.
She slipped out of her outer clothing, letting the jacket drop to the ground and pulling of the pants after she'd kicked off her shoes. For a moment she just stood there in her room enjoyed the feeling of the cool, night air coming in from the window and then she began to morph. Even though both of her bird morphs were nocturnal she chose to use the owl this night.
The owl felt more confident in the air and she needed confidence tonight. Besides she loved the feeling of flying silently through the night and nothing could fly as quietly as an owl.
When she had taken on the avian form she hopped up to her window sill and launched herself into the neon air of the strip at night. She veered away from the bright lights where it would be easier to be spotted and headed out over the quieter, more city-like parts of Vegas flying west.
She didn't have far to fly, Sedra's house came into view soon enough and Luce landed in the roof of the house across the street. The distance was nothing to her owl's eyes and she saw the house and, into the house, easily enough. She really shouldn't be here but she came here anyway. It helped her think except she was thinking about things she shouldn't even be considering. Like saying hi.
There was no one home. Luce flew away.