Nitty Gritty

[Drake]

Ebba Mærsk

Drake was still having a hard time getting over just how big their new hideout was. In Las Vegas, their hideouts had been in a hotel and an air force base, but somehow both places still seemed small compared to this one. How could something so huge float? <<Buoyancy, Drake,>> he said to himself, but it still seemed mind-boggling.

It was partially because of the ship/hideout's grand size that he had put off his current task for so long. The task of searching the entire ship, thoroughly. Which is why he was currently in a horned lizard morph. As humans, he and his faction members surveyed the entire place, even the dark and scary lower decks, but they needed to know the layout of this ship inside and out. Which meant crawling inside walls, along pipes, and through the vents so they could know every potential escape rout or hiding place the Ebba Mærsk had to offer.

Of course, just because the task had to be done didn't mean it had to be done alone. Drake had asked for volunteers to help him. He figured it would be more fun to do as a group, and would helpfully get the faction members to know each other better. There was nothing like doing something unpleasant to bring people closer together. That was the idea anyway.

Drake walked along the top of a pipe near the ceiling, careful not to let his claws loose their grip. He ran head first into a cobweb and had to back up to unattach himself. <<Gross,>> he muttered. Then louder, <<Remember, if you run into any trouble, or see something interesting, let everyone know. I definitely don't want anyone getting hurt in our own hideout.>> It sounded a little silly, but Drake knew from experience that it could happen.

[Sawyer]

"Darn it" Sawyer grumbled to herself, "I usually have such a great sense of direction. I mean this is a ship not Venice. I shouldn't be this lost. Oh well if I keep walking I'm sure to find my way back or at least run into someone on the team." Sawyer had decided to stretch her legs with a quick stroll around the ship but she hadn't paying attention to the route she was taking and now she had no clue how to get back. She could only hope she'd run into one of the team volunteers that had been set out to re-explore the ship. "Ok I swear I passed that stack of crates before. Just perfect I think I'm going in circles."

Sawyer took a deep breath. "Ok don't panic maybe if I can figure out what level I'm on I'll have a better chance of figuring out a way to get back to my cabin or up to the deck if nothing else." She looked around the walls to see if she could find any numbers or writing to give her clues. Her eyes glanced up at the ceiling to see a horned lizard hanging from the pipe. "Yah!" she yelped at the unexpected site and she tripped backwards promptly falling on her buttocks. "Ow! Darn it. A horned lizard? Really? You couldn't have picked a morph that was smaller and less noticeable with which to explore the ship?"

[Aubrey]

<<Aye, aye, Captain Drake! No trouble down here so far,>> Aubrey cheerfully replied. While Drake had opted to go the ceiling route, Aubrey had chosen to run along the floor in her chipmunk morph. She had a much smaller morph, of course, that would fit into tiny spaces--her leopard moth--but her very first experience with the insect had been horrid; she'd nearly been devoured by a hungry spider, all to grab a bouncy ball that had rolled into the wrong place. Because of that, she would bend over backwards to fit one of her other morphs to the job before considering using that one. Besides, the chipmunk had sharper senses for exploring.

Stopping, with one paw lifted up beneath her chest, Aubrey sniffed at the air. Her whiskers twitched. <<I think-->> Before she finished, her ears picked up the definite sound of someone's footsteps. Aubrey pressed her small furry body against the wall, hoping that whoever was coming didn't manage to step on her. <<Yep, someone's here.>> Craning her neck upwards, Aubrey managed to catch sight of the faction member before she fell to the ground. It was one of the new members, and Aubrey paused a moment to remember her name. <<Hey, Sawyer! You alright?>>

[Sawyer]

Sawyer looked around at the sound of a voice. She didn't see anyone but then realized she'd heard the voice in her head. "I swear I'll never get use to this thought speak thing. If I didn't know what it was I'd swear sometimes that I'm going schizo!" Out of her peripheral she saw a small movement and looked to see a what looked like a chipmunk looking at her. "Ok who spoke to me? What it the chipmunk or small dark and scary up there?"

Sawyer didn't know everyone by there morphs and considering that most of the Animorphs especially the leaders had several different morphs she doubted she ever would. "Well either way I'm fine." She groaned and stood up. "I think I'm more embarrassed than I am hurt." Sawyer was trying to make a good impression on her new team mates and it already seemed she was failing. What if they thought she was some klutz and ineffectual in battle? She just hoped that whomever these two where they weren't anyone too important within the faction.

[Drake]

Drake was having fun up at his vantage point, watching Sawyer's reactions. It reminded himself of when he had been new to the whole "saving humanity" thing. He still couldn't claim he had warmed up to the idea, but it was something he had grown used to. Being a faction leader, on the other hand, was something he still had to work on. The tremendous responsibility weighed down on his shoulders whenever he thought about it too hard, so he tried not to.

<<It must be Aubrey talking to you,>>Drake said, trying to sound lighthearted. <<I haven't said anything yet. By the way, I'm the lizard. Watch your heads, I'm coming down.>> He dug his little lizard claws into the side of the pipe and propelled himself over the edge. Drake had once jumped off of a three story building in this morph, so the few feet to the ground didn't seem like such a big deal. But that didn't make his landing any less graceless, or the floor less solid. THUD.

Drake's body began to swell as he focused on his human form. <<If you are still a little squeamish about morphing, Sawyer, you may want to look away. I'm changing back.>> But just because he was busy morphing didn't mean Drake couldn't continue the conversation. As human ears popped out of the side of his head, he asked casually, <<So what brings you down here anyway? Were you looking for us or were you just passing through?>>

[Sawyer]

"Ah I see" Sawyer nodded. "Sorry it's kind of hard to judge where a voice is coming from when it's in your head. Hello then Lt. Aubrey." She smiled nervously down at the chipmunk. Great! she thought to herself. I got lost and just now I made a fool of myself in front of one of the faction officers. I don't think I could be any more embarrassed. Sawyer turned at the sound of a plop and saw that the lizard had dropped to the ground.

She then heard him say that he was going to demorph and warned her not to look if she was squeamish. "Thanks for the warning I am a bit squeamish about the whole morphing thing. I can only hope I shall one day get use to it." She turned her head and closed her eyes as an extra precaution. "I actually was trying to take a quick walk to stretch my legs and I got lost. I've been wandering around the ship for a good several minutes now. Pretty stupid huh?"

[Drake]

<<Several minutes? That's not too long to be lost in a place this big. Now if you had said several hours I might be concerned.>> Truth be told, Drake wasn't entirely sure exactly where on the ship he was at the moment either. Which was pretty inexcusable since he and Aubrey were supposed to be keeping an eye out for potential emergency escape routs.

Drake's body continued to expand and get taller as his organs stretched and shifted. Before too long he was human enough to use his voice again. "I know this will probably sound like an abuse of resources or something, but have you considered using a morph to find your way around? I mean, if we have these abilities we might as well get as much use out of them as we can, right?" Drake didn't usually rely too heavily on his own morphing abilities when he could get by with his natural body, but Sawyer herself said she wasn't used to morphing yet, so Drake thought he might as well encourage her.

"Hey Aubrey," he said, turning to his most experienced faction member. "You have a dog morph, right? If Sawyer is interested, maybe you could give her a tracking demonstration."

[Aubrey]

<<Yup, it was me. And don't be too embarassed, it's happened to the best of us.>> Aubrey reassured her. As the two of her faction mates spoke together, she concentrated on her human form. Blonde hair sprouted from the top of her head, spilling down across her shoulders as her bones and organs loudly twisted inside of her. The sleek chestnut brown fur of the chipmunk sucked back into her body, turning into pink flesh and the jet black of her morphing suit. Her extended stay in New York--recovering from Dallas--meant that she'd received a new suit that had matched her body type slightly better than the one given to her in Los Angeles. It was nice, but it had made her sad to have to give up the pieced-together suit that Jullian had picked out.

A couple minutes later, Aubrey was fully human and standing next to Drake. "I do indeed have a dog morph Captain, and I'm up for anything. What do you want me to do?" The Alaskan Malamute had always been--and continued to be--Aubrey's favorite morph. Flying was amazing, yes, and having the absolute power that the Cape Buffalo had was useful in dire situations, but nothing could beat the hyperactive happiness that this particular morph exhibited. Everything was ten times more fun as a dog.

[Sawyer]

Well Sawyer was wrong. She could be more embarrassed. Why did I think that? That's a phrase that is a guaranteed to fall under the category of famous last words. Sure enough she turned around to see that the lizard was her captain and she had not only fallen on her butt in front of him but she had also referred to him as small, dark, and scary. Despite Aubrey's and his attempts to convince her otherwise she felt like a complete and utter idiot. It was no wonder that the kids she went to school with thought her a weirdo. Nevermind that. Brush it off and forget it. There are more pressing matters at hand than your social life

"I did think about using a morph but I only have three so far and I doubted they would help much. I mean there's my ant morph but with the ship being so vast and the morph being so small it could take a while to get back even if I could figure out where to go. Then I have the white tailed deer but it seems more appropriate for sensing and escaping danger rather than tracking. Actually, the last morph I have could potentially be used for tracking cause it can utilize echolocation but I can't use it cause I need to be in water. If I morphed that right now I'd literally be a fish out of water...er...well a mammal that looks like a fish out of water seeing as it's a dolphin." Sawyer took a breath to recover from that long winded explanation. "But I would like to have a land or air morph where I could develop tracking abilities seeing as I would not like to get lost every time I step foot out of my cabin"

[Drake]

Drake listened to Sawyer's explanations for why her morphs wouldn't work too well for getting around the ship, and he had to admit that she brought up some good points. He thought maybe her deer morph could be used, but as she pointed out, it was probably better for alerts than searching.

"I see what you mean." Drake considered for a moment. "We should probably work on getting you another morph or two. Something with wings would probably be good. But then again, you can never underestimate something with good ears or nostrils. At any rate, we should probably find you something."

Drake looked over at Aubrey. "Why don't you go dog anyway. Even if Sawyer doesn't have a comparable morph, a quick lesson wouldn't hurt." Drake winked at Sawyer. "Once we get up top we can decide if we should hunt for a native animal or get some animal DNA from our blood bank."

[Aubrey]

Aubrey listened intently to Sawyer's explanation along with Drake, brushing her fingers through her hair. They'd all been there before, as new recruits--but if anything, having so few morphs to begin with had helped Aubrey think of unique ways to best utilize the little she had had. Still, getting her faction-mate some wings or something else sounded like a good idea. "Yeah, I totally agree with Drake. If you get a bird morph, you'll get to see how cool it is to fly." The Animorph flashed Sawyer another smile. Then she nodded to her faction leader and concentrated on her dog morph.

The first change was skeletal; Aubrey crouched down as the bones in her arms and legs shortened, and she could hear the sounds of the bones crunching beneath her skin as her joints twisted. Her jaw and nose elongated at the same time, the teeth behind her lips growing sharper and more pronounced. Then suddenly a fluffy mane of gray and snow-white fur poofed out around her face and shoulders. The rest of the fur hadn't appeared yet, however, and her spine extended behind her into a furless tail that curled just above her lower back. Once her hands and feet--now paws--had grown dog-like nails, the rest of the Alaskan Malamute's gray and white fur sprouted along her body and melded with the mane.

After a couple more seconds, Aubrey stood on all fours next to the two of them fully morphed. With a huge dog-grin on her face and the distinct fluff of her tail wagging back and forth in excitement, Aubrey stared up at them. <<Ready, Capitán. What am I looking for?>> The dog's wet, pitch-black nose twitched as she spoke, detecting the very subtle scents that permeated the area. While she waited for her next orders, Aubrey had to quell the compulsive urge to let her morph go sniffing around and exploring. There were just too many scents to not pay attention to--and what was this? There'd been a chipmunk around here sometime earlier...

[Sawyer]

This time Sawyer tried to stomach watching someone morph. Whether is grossed her out or not she had to morph in order to have any chance of fighting the yeerks. Sawyer noticed that Aubrey morphed more smoothly than the first couple times Sawyer had tried morphing when at the academy. Sawyer figured it was Aubrey had more practice morphing which gave Sawyer some hope that she could get better at morphing eventually as well. Sawyer was relieved when finally Aubrey was fully morphed into a husky or at least Sawyer guessed the breed was a husky.

Sawyer resisted the urged to scratch Aubrey's ears even though she figured Aubrey the dog would probably like that what with the animal instincts and all. "So what's it like being a dog?" Sawyer asked. "Are you really colorblind or is that just a myth?" That was something a teacher had told her once along with the fact that chocolate was poison to dogs. Of course the teacher had also said that there was so such things as aliens but that sure proved to be wrong now didn't it? Sawyer hoped Aubrey could use her dog senses to find a way back to the cabins since the hallway getting a bit drafty.

[Drake]

"I'm curious too," Drake admitted. "I have been a lot of things, but a dog has never been one of them. I may have to change that one day." He had seen strays in the street, so the opportunity could definitely arise. However, he had been attacked by a coyote before, so he wasn't sure he actually wanted to turn into something related.

"On that note," he said to Aubrey, getting back to her question. "How about you lead us out of here. Up to the deck, to the cabins, or even a porthole we can open, just so long as we can get to somewhere recognizable. Other than that, I'll leave the doggy choices up to you, Aubrey. Lead the way."