Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2009 8:54:44 GMT -5
Danger of Deception
Ember:
Ember folded her arms, looking out across the Dam and the great body of water that it only barely seemed to hold back. All the power and strength of Las Vegas lay within that structure... and now they were going to go play with explosives around it.
Well, best get started then. She smirked as the sounds of controllers floated up to where they stood on the mountainside. Soon enough she'd get to lay her brand new morph's claws on some very deserving yeerks. Even the cold wind and growing nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach couldn't stop her from going down there and finally getting some hands on action. Then, Rian called the signal and they were off.
She dived off the edge of the cliff and morphed mid-way down. The Cardinal wasn't made for long distance gliding, but the diving start helped boost her speed to be able to catch up with Rian's kestrel.
Rian:
Rian floated easily on the strong breeze in the canyon, enjoying the view even though he knew it boaded ill for them. If you didn't know they were controllers down there you could almost be fooled by the sun, the blue of the water reflecting a sky only dotted with clouds, into thinking it was a nice day.
But if you looked closely you noticed that the blue water was surging, the surface broken a billion different times by the billion different bodies moving in it. And if he listened closely you noticed that the sound that should be there, the sound of the dam working to pass water rushing at 85 mph through its turbines to create electricity, that was gone, shut down. The yeerks were finding some other way to pass water so that the pressure on the dam didn't become unbearable but Rian didn't know what it was.
<<Are you ready for this?" He asked Ember. He knew that she had a new morph for the job but he was worried because neither of them had much experience with the cats. They had used their "munificent" free time in the past week to test out the morphs in the ballroom but he didn't think that would prepare them for fighting hork-bajir.
And there was no way in prepared either of them for the death they were about to deal out to people, who for the most part, were just the average controller. Cogs in the Empire's machine but in no way evil. Rian had done the best he could to make sure no YPM would be down there today, asking Ray to tell Vorri to spread the word, but that didn't mean innocents weren't going to die.
He didn't even want to think about the slugs.
Ember:
He only asked her if she felt ready, but even in thought speak she could tell the question held a lot more weight to it than just that. Was she ready to die? Was she ready to kill? Was she able to control her new morph, the most deadly she'd acquired and also a CAT which was one species she never seemed to be able to control well. To be honest she didn't know the answer to any of those questions.
So far adrenaline had pushed her forward, and it was pumping stronger in her veins the closer they got. If it would be enough to push her over the edge though... she just had to wait and find out. She already knew that she didn't want to kill anyone. These people... if she didn't think they had any chance of redemption then it would be different. But... she couldn't ignore that they were still human somewhere deep inside.
Not that she hadn't killed before.. albeit it was kind of an accident that happened because she panicked. And it was back in LA when she knew it was either kill or be killed. Plus it wasn't as if she'd stuck around to see exactly how many bodies she'd piled up, so as far as she could plausibly deny, she hadn't actually killed anyone. And even before the invasion she'd considered most people to be a waste of space, a bunch of jerks and backstabbers that didn't deserve to go on living. But that didn't mean that she wanted to kill them with her own hands...
But he'd asked her the question. <<Yeah. I'm fine. Let's go.>> She'd learned from Luce that a warrior can't hesitate, not for one second, because their enemy will not take that luxury. She was fighting for the whole human race, even the ones down there that she might have to put down. And she'd seen enough war movies to know all the golden quotes... 'crack a few eggs to make an omelet ' and so forth. Although that only made her want to throw up a bit. So that thought got squashed down there in the back of her brain along with everything else she'd been holding back. There'd be time for therapy sessions later. Today she had a job, and she wasn't going to let Rian down by being weak.
Rian:
<<Alright then.>> He didn't say much else. He still wasn't sure what to say to her. They had all been so busy preparing for this mission that he had never taken the time to try to talk to her about the fight at the party. Then again she hadn't tried to talk to him either. He was starting to think that it wasn't worth it to try. He and Ember had drifted apart since he had become the faction leader. Never had the concept of the loneliness of command seem more real to him than on that long flight down to the dam.
When you weren't the one who had to make the decisions you could be everyone's friend. Well maybe not everyone's but at least people didn't only look to you for orders but sometimes they just looked to you for company. Rian had watched how easily Luce and Suji worked together over the past couple of days, how easy things had been for Stevert and Drake, and had been surprised at how jealous he was of them.
He was alone. He had been alone for a long time. And then, for a while there had been Matt and Raven and then later Jullian and Stevert and Kat and, yeah, Ember. And he had started to feel like he was actually a part of a team, that he had friends. But then he had moved to Vegas and become a faction leader.
He could put his lack of close friendships down to being busy. Lord knew that he had been kept awake more than one night while trying to figure out not only how to survive but how to strike back. They weren't here just to play around, they were here to fight. But trying to figure out how to strike a force so much more powerful than you was so hard it seemed impossible most days.
And even when they found some weakness to exploit it was always dangerous and he worried about someone getting killed. It hadn't happened yet but he knew it was just a matter of time. They couldn't stay lucky for ever and he just hoped their luck didn't run out today.
It was all stressful and he found that he had an almost overwhelming desire to just fly by the dam, fly and keep flying and just leave it all behind. The open blue sky and the desert that seemed to stretch on forever called to him more than he was wiling to admit. But he knew that the freedom they represented was only an illusion. The only freedom that was real was whatever they won for themselves today and everyday that they fought.
<<Let's land over by that box thing, you see it? The white one that looks like some sort of storage crate or something.>> The "box" in question was about twice his normal height and double that in length. It was also pushed almost right to the edge of the dam on the Lake Mead side with a small space behind it where they could hide until they got the signal to start the distraction.
And it looked like they were right in time. The controller who had made the speech at the party was just climbing up onto the platform to make another. And what speech is going to explain why you let this thing get blown up, he directed at the raven haired woman.
Tenaj:
Tenaj climbed up onto this dam that the humans had called the "Hoover Dam". She didn't really want to be climbing up like this, but it would be worth it. To see the glorious new Yeerk Pool on the other side.
Behind her were a couple of controllers. She had been told of the efforts of the Animorphs in this area and she couldn't take any chances. She had around six low-ranking controllers with her, though more would be on thier way. No one was going to take this potential promotion from her.
She finally made it on to the platform and looked at what they had done. She smiled evilly. <<What do you think, human? Its such an astonishing achievment.>> she told her host. <<I think that this is going to be gone by the end of the day>> Janet retorted. She too heard what Tenaj heard about the Vegas Animorphs and she guessed they wouldn't be standing still while this was going on.
<<We'll see, human. We'll see>>
Ember:
<<Right. I see it.>>
Great. Now they were down to three word sentences to each other. She'd hoped that maybe he would say something more, but she couldn't blame him either... after their fight things had been tense between them. And Luce, who was the only other person at the Den she felt she could go and actually talk to, was busy with her own issues and probably wouldn't have cared anyway. So instead she'd ignored that they'd even had a fight, and instead waited for Rian to give her an opening to make it up. But that hadn't happened. They'd been too busy almost losing their lives. And now, they were about to go do it again...
She swooped in, keeping as low beneath the dam as possible so the controllers on top wouldn't notice the vibrant red bird flying at them. But then they reached the wall and she had to forcibly power her wings upwards, using all the muscle her cardinal possessed to make it to their designated hiding spot. When she landed it was far from graceful, but it was good enough to start de-morphing immediately, squeezing into the space behind it to wait for the signal to start their distraction.
She wanted to steal a look at Rian, but half of her wasn't sure he'd look back at her the way she wanted him to. So she let it go and kept her back turned, focusing all her frustration and fear on the controllers she was about to encounter.
Adele:
All in all, the Hoover Dam was an impressive sight by human standards. The lake made for a ridiculously large Yeerk pool and Sazoirl felt generally unmoved by the entire thing. She exited from Adele's favorite navy Porsche and, balancing on equally admired heels, Sazoirl walked to the area of the dam where host Janet Drake, sub-visser 30, watched and waited with half a dozen lesser ranking Yeerks. Of course Sazoirl would be here with thesub-visser---she was the closest in rank to her than any of the other controllers in Las Vegas.
<<Getting a little pompous, are we?>>
<<And how exactly does that make me any different than you, human?>>
Adele lifted the pricey sunglasses from her eyes as she approached the sub-visser, giving her a nod of respect, scanning the skies with her intense grey eyes.
Tenaj:
Tenaj gave her own nod to Sub-Visser 39. She know the sub-visser very well, but she hadn't done anything to get on her nerves......yet. Well, maybe almost allowing the birth mother project to not be able to be continued, urked her a bit, but if she hadn't stopped her funding then Tenaj wouldn't have it under her control now.
She looked down at her watch. It was time to make her speech. And introduce this yeerk pool to the world. There was a podium set up with a mic and she walked up to it. She took a bretah before starting to talk.
"Welcome all," she began. "I thank you for coming. It is a pleasure to see you all here for this glorious moment." <<Yeah, so glorious to watch you jab about your project some more>> Janet commented to Tenaj. Tenaj just continued. "We are now ready for this area to be used." She turned to look at the dam, before turning back.
"Let's not waste any more time. This pool will now be in use!" she exclaimed and signaled for the fireworks to go off. She wasn't particular to them, but Visser 12 sure like things to be flashy. So, she had no choice as her reprisentative but to use them as well.
Rian:
Rian had demorphed so that he would be ready to go clouded leopard as soon as the signal went off. He was avoiding Ember's gaze because it made him very, very uncomfortable to be like this, especially around her. He didn't want to appear as anything less than someone she might want and he hated that she would see him like this. But every second would count on the dam and he couldn't afford even the time it would have taken for him to demorph and remorph before they started.
He heard the Sub-Visser's lack of speech and was caught a bit off-guard. Normally stuff like this was accompanied by pompous pontificating. He had honestly been hoping to have a bit more time but they just didn't.
Rian saw the signal. "That's it, our turn." He pulled a very small stick from his belt and some matches. He and Ember were the only two in the faction who had suits that could carry things like this and he sent a prayer of thanks to Jullian wherever he was.
He struck the matches and lit the fuse and threw the stick over the side of the box they were behind. He looked over at Ember even as he began morphing. The smoke bomb would add to the confusion and fear of the controllers on the other side of the box since they were packed in and some monsters were about to come and start reeking havoc. <<We go as fast as possible. Injure if you can, just injure but cause damage.>>
He wanted to say more but he just couldn't. He didn't know what would bridge the gap that had grown between them. It felt like he should be making some sort of long speech, the kind they didn't have time for. But he wanted to say something. But in the end, in this one thing, Rian was a coward. He just finished the morph and ran around the box as soon as Ember was ready.
Ember:
"That's it, our turn."
Ember heard a voice and didn't recognize it. She whipped her head around as Rian was pulling the smoke bomb from his belt, so he didn't see her eyes widen, or her mouth fall open. By the time he threw the bomb she was already turned back... Mechanically she threw her own, already lost in her own thoughts.
She'd forgotten. It was really easy to, since he was so careful. And she'd long ago accepted that Rian was who he portrayed himself as in his brother's body. After all, hell, she'd lived in California, if you don't have an open mind there where can you have one? But... seeing his other form... in LA she remembered seeing him use it when they'd rescued Robert. At the time she'd laughed. It was so clear to her that he wasn't a girl that it was like seeing Rian in drag. Now though, she didn't feel like laughing. Back then she never thought she'd be this insane- to- to what? She didn't even know what she felt with Rian. Everything was confused and seeing him like that just made it all the more clear that she had no idea who Rian was. What he might be hiding from her... what he might never trust her with.
Too late. There wasn't enough time. She wanted to scream at all the times she'd had to abandon her thoughts just because there wasn't time to think about them! Even when they argued it was in a room full of yeerks and no time to talk because a flipping Dam is about to explode!
Ember morphed, it took all her focus to pull her thoughts back together and concentrate on her new morph. She'd used it once when she'd gotten it, run the agile cat around the ballroom a few times. But she was in such disarray that as soon as her whole morph had formed the African Cat's mind took over. Rian's voice barely filtered through to her... something about damage. Ha, oh yes, the cat grinned showing its fangs. She would do some damage!
She barreled forward, red fur flashing in the light as she sunk her teeth into the neck of the closest controller. The skin tore like paper... then, Red, gushing red... hot and sweet like meat. The cat loved it, ripping it's head upward to look around at the stunned crowd of people, snarling and rearing up onto its hind legs before bounding forth again to tear into an elderly man standing a little too close. Her claws flexed and Ember could feel the power rushing to the animal's head as screams erupted around her and mass chaos ensued.
Ember:
Rian and Ember emerged from behind the crate, two large cats materializing out of the smoke. He had forgotten how cool this morph was. Not cool as in good, cool as in ice. The clouded leopard was calm and smooth. It had no enemies and no problems. It felt like it was in control and its self assuredness was almost overwhelming.
The first time Rian had morphed this cat he had lost control, lost himself in the cat's confidence. It knew what it was a lot more than Rian did and its presence in the back of his mind could not be denied. But he didn't let its sense of self over take his own.
A woman looked back at him and saw the large, silver cat stalking calmly towards her and tried to run. Rian pounced, almost lazily since it took no real effort, and landed on the woman's back. He claws dug into her clothing holding him to her as his weight forced her to fall forward and land on her face, probably causing a broken nose. She went limp under him. He guessed that she had hit something vital on the uncompromising concrete. Oh well.
Rian hopped off her and went after the next person. He saw a flash of red, smooth and quick as lightning land on an old man and rip his throat out. The clouded leopard didn't like that there was another cat around much and growled a bit deep in its throat but otherwise moved on. The other predator was an equal, not worth fighting for the prey when there was so many others to go after.
Rian's paw shot out faster than even his eyes could track, leaving deep gashes on a young girl's stomach. Any closer and he probably would have ripped her guts out but she would just carry those scars for the rest of her life. Good, she wasn't dead.
A small part of Rian's mind realized that he'd let the leopard get the best of him just a little. But he liked the coolness of the clouded cat's mind. It kept him from thinking too much about what they were doing.
And they were having the desired affect. The smoke form the bombs was so thick that he and Ember were like monsters appearing out of the haze. It added a lot of fear to their attack and people were panicking. Since the dam had been packed so thick to begin with he was pretty sure that some people would get trampled for this.
And if there was this much chaos on the dam no one would be watching the lake.
His sensitive ears picked up the sound of the first bomb going on. Interesting. That was all the leopard had to say about it.
Ember:
Ember panicked, screaming inside as she felt her control slip away. The African Cat wore down any resistance she tried to build up in her mind, using all of her anger and fear against her as a source of energy as it tore through person after person, killing and maiming anything that got in its way. It was savage and blood thirsty, and worse, it knew that Ember wanted it to fight, to kill, to destroy those things she saw as enemies. So it did, and no matter how hard she fought back it wouldn't stop.
A prisoner in her own mind, Ember sought for a way to regain control. But it felt like... like the first time she'd ever been on skis. It was stupid comparison, but she had been five when her mother and father brought her to a mountain for the first time. They didn't teach her anything, just shoved her off the top and let her fend for herself. The ice and snow slipped under her, making her race out of control straight down the slope, screaming for help, screaming for someone to stop her. But no one came. And she knew no one would come now.
She felt powerless, and cold. Like a chunk of ice was sitting on top of her skull, trickling cold water down her spine.
Just give in The dark thought bubbled into her subconscious. It's what you wanted. Kill them all. They are the enemy, this is a war. They deserve to die, and this animal is powerful enough to kill them. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. Ember stalled her rampant memories and started to pay attention. The cat had ripped through another victim, their blood soaking into her already darkened red fur. The controller woman fell under her weight, the cat snatching at her head like a toy until she heard a crack and the woman stopped struggling. Then it grew bored and leapt onto a nearby man in a waiter's uniform. The man tried to hold the metal tray out as a shield but Ember's cat just batted it away and lunged for his throat.
Slowly Ember's terror started to ebb. It was horrifying, how easy it was for her morph to kill. She knew she should try to stop it, and a part of her kept fighting back, but... another part... a more vicious, darker side than she ever had felt before, was enjoying herself...
Slowly Ember's breathing returned to a steady pace. She knew she couldn't control her morph, but it didn't need to be controlled.
Tenaj:
Tenaj was furious. One moment she was done giving her speech. The next, chaos. Controllers were being picked off. "Animorphs......." she whispered with hatred. "What are you all doing?! Shoot them!" she yelled out.
Granted, they couldn't see much due to smoke. She would not have this ruined like this. She then took out her own dracon beam and started hearing other controllers fire thiers. She then walked through the smoke, heels clacking one after the other.
She aimed her dracon at something and shot. She wasn't sure if she hit what she wanted, or anything at all. The smoke was too thick. She shot another. Hopefully she would get lucky.
Rian:
Rian growled as the dracon beam grazed his flank, leaving a streak of blackened, burnt fur and seared skin. His head whipped around though all he could see were people running everywhere and smoke. His paw shot out lightning fast and leaving deep lacerations on a passing controller woman as she saw the leopard and turned and tried to run away.
The smoke cleared for a moment and he saw the woman who had made the speech looking around widely, a dracon beam in her hand, looking for something to shoot. Rian growled so that he would be heard, so that she'd see him and then he backed up, his silver form disappearing into the smoke as if he had never been there. Let her come further into his territory. He would kill her.
Tenaj:
Tenaj turned when she heard the growl and saw the leopard. She smiled evilly. So, there was one of them. She watched the form retreat back into the smoke. She knew the game this one wanted to play.
"Well, well there's one. Why don't you come out and face me face to face?" she taunted to the retreating form, dracon beam at ready. "You Animorphs, always hiding. Always unwilling to face your enemy face to face. If you're so fearsome, why can't you come to me?"
She knew what she was dealing with, but maybe if the animorph was enraged enough it would slip up. She laughed. "I guess all you can rely on are smoke and mirror tricks." she mocked. "What a shame, you shouldn't even be worth our time."
Rian:
The controller's comments landed home, very much so. Rian was ready to attack her even though he knew it was the wrong move and he even started slinking in her direction to prepare to attack.
The only thing that saved him was the cat's quiet, ruthless mind. The cat couldn't think the way Rian could but its mood affected his own mind and calmed him down enough that he didn't leap out at the yeerk leader.
Instead he called out to her. <<Some mighty ruler of the galaxy you are. A bunch of kids keep managing to mess up your plans. Poor yeerk. What are they going to do to you when they find out how you screwed this up?>>
As Rian had been talking he had also been hunting, bringing down controllers around him and basically causing panic though he had enough prescence of mind that he was driving the controllers OFF the dam. It would have been the ultimate massacre if they got the yeerks in the pool and the controllers on the dam as well when the thing collapsed but he somehow didn't think that would fly with all his members.
So even though he could have tried to keep them here he let them run knowing what was coming.
He batted the body of a dead boy towards the controller and jumped away. He hadn't killed the boy himself. He wasn't sure what had. The kid had claw marks all over him but he also looked like he had been trampled. Still he was a good example of what the rest of the controllers on the dam were beginning to look like.
<<Here, have a gift.>>
Tenaj:
Tenaj looked around, hoping her comments had worked. Unfortunately, she didn't see the leopard come any closer, so she could blast it. Though she eventually heard a voice and she grinned. She at least knew she was on the right track.
"Who says I screwed it up?" she told him. "There are so many others afraid of me, that they'll take the blame for me instead." She then laughed. "Even you're afraid of me! You won't even come out of you're little shadows." She laugehd some more.
She then saw a body come her way and looked at it with a grin. She slowly headed in that direction. "Oh my, how ruthless you are. Its sad really, I wish more Yeerks were as ruthless you." she commented to him. She then just kicked the body aside, since it was in her way. "Too bad I didn't get to witness it, or hear his screams of pain. I'm sure it was enjoyable,"
Adele:
Through the smoke, Sazoirl saw the sub-visser. He mouth moved, her face displaying annoyance and then holding onto a smirk. She was talking to one of them, she knew. The faint outline of a body, dead, on the ground took Sazoirl by surprise.
<<Pity.>> Adele. <<He looked like a strong one. Guess he was misjudged.>>
Holding her dracon beam in an offensive position, Adele walked briskly and fired into the smoke, knowing that she very well could have blown the head off of one of her own. Sazoirl pressed onward, hoping to find one of the beasts so she could give them a proper ending.
Ember:
Ember tried hard not to struggle, but it was hard when your whole existence seemed to have fallen into pitch black. The agonizing, rushing tunnel that she fell downwards through threatened to suck her mind away completely... but she couldn't get back. Even if she miraculously regained enough control to demorph, she was surrounded by enemies who would kill her before she took her first breath.
She was trapped, barely aware of what the vicious African Cat was doing now that it was wholly on its own. Her rage had faded, replaced by a sickly fear. Her mind and the cat's were chasms apart, she was only dimly aware of it's desire to kill these things that had gotten in its territory. It was fiercely prideful, and to Ember's mind, completely psychotic with animal rage. With the scent of blood all around, she doubted it would calm down any time soon.
<<Arghhh!!>> Ember groaned, feeling something very sharp just above her head. For a split second she and the Cats mind connected as they both swerved around to see what had dared to attack them. Ember, more than her morph, felt the hot liquid trickle down her chin. Her ear had been almost completely sliced away, only a chunk of it hung by a strip of skin, the blood filling her ear cavity. In unison Ember and the Cat's anger flared and the sensation of falling was stopped as they both focused in on their new target. A blonde haired female controller... vaguely familiar although Ember couldn't search her memories to discover from where. The controller was holding a dracon beam out in front of her, but it seemed like she hadn't seen Ember yet.
No Mercy. Kill her now before she knows what's hit her. The dark voice inside Ember spoke up. This time, Ember followed willingly. The Cat leaped forward off it's tight haunches, into the air, appearing out of the smoke like a thing from hell!
Rian:
Rian's anger almost boiled over. <<Don't compare yourself to me yeerk. I may kill you but I don't go around enslaving your kind.>> He slunk around. He couldn't pin point her in all this noise and he couldn't see her through the smoke. Smell was also being affected so, even though he had heightened senses, he was actually no better off than she.
With one exception. He blended in and she did not. He slunk around. He had almost lost all interest in hurting the controllers around him. They were well and truly panicked now and nothing he did would add to the confusion. Instead he stalked the controller woman.
He stopped moving as she emerged from the smoke near the body of the boy he'd used as bait. Rian, at his most basic level, was a trapper. And seeing his enemy walk into his trap with such ease, having her in his power, it sent a rush of excitement flooding through his system.
He gathered himself, his blue eyes glowing malevolently, not even letting a growl escape his throat so as not to betray his presence. Gray wifts of smoke drifted by his eyes and around the liquid steel form of the cat.
His mind and the cat's merged completely as his prey came closer and he felt a darkness he hadn't known was in him creep into his heart. Funny thing about darkness, when it comes, you don't fear it, you don't shrink away, and you don't deny it. It is there at his own invitation and he welcomed its presence as it wiped away his doubts about this mission, about the dam, about the lake and about this kill.
Bye bye yeerk. he thought with unholy glee and anticipation of the kill. She was his enemy and he was going to kill her and he was going to win and he would enjoy both. His lips beginning to curl over the yellow fangs, saliva dripping from one razor sharp end. Time to get a little back.
But then a flash of red leaped over him. His cat's instincts turned him around before he had had a chance to think about it, preparing to defend itself against the other predator and he saw who Ember was attacking. The controller had a dracon beam raised and would shoot her out of the air if he didn't do something.
<<Ember no!>> His concern for her completely broke him out of the spell and he bounded after her. <<Ember!>>
Adele:
Everything that exists is centered somewhere in the vicinity of the bloodied scorch on the hide of the large sand color cat that, presently, was falling onto the unforgiving concrete of the dam. In all truthfulness, Sazoirl had never had the displeasure of actually wounding anything with a Dracon beam. The glamorous life of her host prevented many...inconveniences that might have accompanied the life of a less fortunate host. Watching with those intense grey eyes, Adele strafed around the Animorph slowly.
She listened, hearing the sound of cat paws slapping on the ground. At least that's what Adele knew it was. She'd had a few cats when she was a girl as well as a wood floor that the felines like skidding across. But this was a big cat. Another one. Sazoirl's concentration flinched.
<<Steady, dear.>> Adele projected her thoughts with a great deal of sarcasm and command. <<You can't just let us get killed when we're doing so well.>>
Sedra:
((Double-posted from "They Occasionally Come Home". Hope this works.))
A small smile perked at the edge of Sedra's lips as she watched Bidaut take part of the group into the tower. With the Sub-Visser up there, she felt a tiny part of her relax. The tower should be covered now, there would hopefully be no screw-ups with the Kandrona. However, things on the dam looked terrible. The smoke had grown so thick that it had swallowed up all the controllers on it. The only thing visible were the brief flashes of dracon beams, illuminating the chaos.
Sedra glanced back, motioning her guards. They moved quickly, forming a tight perimeter near the tower's entrance, their dracon beams out and ready. The air was crackling with all the noise; screeching and shouting, the occasional loud scream of agony or pain. Added onto this was Catherine in the back of Sedra's mind, excited. It was all making Sedra's head pound. She rubbed her fingers against her temples, clenching her eyes close for a second. She needed her concentration. There was so much happening all at once, it was hard for it all to register.
Suddenly, overhead, the sky tore apart with the sound of a bug fighter's dracon beams. Sedra flinched, instinctively ducking. Then she looked up. "Shit." She had caught sight of the birds and the bug fighter. Just as she reacted, one of the grenades Drake had dropped exploded, showering a mess of fire and shrapnel down from the sky. Sedra watched helplessly as the bug fighter spiraled, hitting against the nearby cliff. She muttered a curse under her breath. She needed to get in contact with somebody immediately, they needed back up.
Resting against her ear was a miniature radio transceiver, something meant to keep her in contact with the other controllers protecting the dam. She tapped at it frantically, shouting for a response. There was nothing. She tried somebody on the dam, anybody. Nothing. Angry, furious, Sedra ripped the thing from her ear and threw it down. It clattered against the concrete, broken pieces scattering across the ground like bugs. She stepped forward--hearing it crunch under her boots--and locked dark, angry eyes with the guards around the tower.
"Stay here, don't screw up. Protect the Kandrona at all costs." The took her orders with stony expressions, bodies stiff. Satisfied, Sedra took off towards the dam. She needed to find somebody to take down the birds in the sky. To do something with all this chaos besides scream and whine and panic like cowards.
She figured the Animorphs had some sort of weapons, something to be able to cause this chaos and destruction. Then it clicked. The dracon grenades. The Animorphs were using her stolen dracon grenades. Hot anger welled within her chest, and her hand clenched tighter around the dracon beam, draining all the blood from her hand. It was happening all over again. They were attacking and she once again couldn't stop it. How did this keep happening? What was she doing wrong?
<<This is too crazy. I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe they're actually doing this.>> Catherine murmured, awed.
Sedra began running towards the dam, heavy boots hitting hard against the concrete. Why were the Animorphs split up? Why even bother with being on the dam if they were trying to bomb it? Is that even what they were doing? Sedra's gaze wandered briefly past the large pool, then focused on the dam. By now, the smoke had begun to clear off from the wind, revealing the whole mess. Controllers were stumbling away, some bloody, some dragging others that were wounded. Animorphs. She could see them now, attacking a couple Sub-Vissers. Tenaj.
<<Oh my god.>> Catherine whispered. Her voice was so far away in Sedra's mind that she didn't hear her host at first. <<The pool... Look at it...>> Something in the way Catherine said that reached Sedra's attention. What had her host noticed that she hadn't?
Her gait slowed as she brought her gaze back to the pool. She didn't realize what she was seeing at first, as it didn't quite make sense. The pool was sloshing around frantically, bubbling and boiling... Boiling? The thought struck her hard, sharp. In a sudden rush Sedra ran forward, her hip hitting against one of the concrete ledges. With her hands bracing her from falling she leaned over to look, black tendrils of hair brushing across her cheeks.
There were hundreds, no thousands, of Yeerk bodies--Yeerk corpses--floating up and down with the pool's waves, sloshing around the boiling pool. Dead. The sight was so shocking, so... horrifying, that Sedra froze up for the second time this day.
Suddenly, she couldn't hear anything. Not the yelling or screaming around her, or the sound of the pool gurgling nearby. The only thing that reached her was Catherine--the internal thought, murmuring for a second time. <<Oh my god.>>
Ember:
<<Ember no!!>>
Too late. Ember leapt and the controller fired. Like walking out into traffic, she saw it coming, and knew also that she would never be able to avoid it. Why had she jumped? Why had she..?
<<Ehngh!>> The blow struck her in the gut, knocking her from the air. Like someone had driven a blunt pipe through her, she felt the pain long after the beam had ripped through her organs and out through her back. For a few seconds she just lay there, stunned, in pain, unable to comprehend what had happened. <<R-Rian!?>> Ember called out, her mind flooding with sudden realization. She- she was dying? She was dying. Dead. She screwed up, lost control of her morph and now, death.
No, no she could demorph, it would be ok if she could just. Convulsions hit her body, wracking her muscles. She couldn't think, couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't focus, she could only feel panic. She wanted to cry, to scream, to beg, to laugh. Wave after crushing wave of agony made her senseless. The only thing she could think of was how much she didn't want to die... but she couldn't keep it from happening.
Rian:
<<Em!>> Rian saw her get hit, saw her go down and he was too far away to stop any of it. The graceful red cat fell to the concrete of the dam, a bloody mess. Rian ran up to her and stopped on a dime, his silvery head bowed over her red one, his nose just barely brushing one ear. <<Em? Ember?>> His voice didn't sound brave, or strong or any of the things a leader's voice should sound like in the middle of a battle. He just sounded like he was lost and scared.
When he heard her reply he thought he might faint in relief. She was alive, but she wouldn't be for long, not like this. The thought of losing her was so painful that he couldn't deal with it, not now. He pushed it away and just spoke calmly, <<Ember, you have to demorph ok? Just begin demorphing. Please.>> His words may have been calm but the emotional overtones that were going with them were anything but and for once he was grateful that he couldn't lie mind to mind, that he couldn't hide. He wanted her to know how he felt, he wanted her to come back.
The noise of heels on concrete distracted him from Ember and he looked up to see the controller that had shot her standing over them, her dracon beam still aimed. Seeing her standing there like that, standing there ok while Ember bled her life out did something to Rian. In that moment he didn't care about what was right or what was needed. He didn't care about the mission or winning or the war. He just wanted her dead.
A low growl escaped his throat and quickly grew into a type of roar that his species was capable of and Rian leaped at her. The movement was quick and she had made the mistake of coming just a bit too close. Maybe another cat wouldn't have been able to reach her but his could.
He landed on the woman, his claws, designed to help the cats climb trees and hang from branches (even upside down) latched on. His teeth, the largest of all the cats in proportion to its body size and so thought to prove a genetic link to saber tooth tigers, wanted to rip out her throat and might have except for the fact that damn beam was still pointed at Ember.
He sunk all two inches of them into her arm instead, leaving puncture wounds reminiscent of vampires...if vampires had been the size of demi gods, and jumped away as she began to bleed, hoping the last of the smoke and her preoccupation with her own pain would hide him well enough.
He ran back towards Ember and, gently, bit the scruff of her neck and began dragging her towards an abandoned car hoping to give her enough cover to morph. He knew he couldn't do this for long, once cats of any size grew up grabbing them this way cut off blood flow because of their increased weight, but the car wasn't far.
When they were out of sight he laid down next to her. He was reminded so strongly of that one day in the ally after their disastrous shopping trip when she had just needed a moment to recover. He'd held her then too. He just hoped that all she needed was time. Too bad she didn't have any.
<<Ember?>>
Adele:
The pain was, admittedly, far worse that Adele or Sazoril could fathom and it took only a matter of seconds for the beast to force her to the ground, strike, and leap away into the smoke. She was sure that her arm was broken as well as bloody; Sazoirl had heard a sickening crunch when the large cat's maw clamped down. Naturally she had screamed with fright and agony. Blood stained her blouse and skirt, seeping from the punctures, courtesy of the Animorph's claws, but Sazoril was more concerned about the flow coming for the torn flesh of her arm. Adele cried out in pain.
<<God, that hurts.>>
<<Really! I didn't notice!>> If Adele was in control of her body, she would have been gritting her teeth. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. This was worse than falling off the roof when she was seven, but the same panic arose from when the wind had been knocked out of her and she couldn't breathe.
It was too much to hope that another controller would come over and help her. There was too much going on. Sazoril, fighting the pain that she could very easily cause her to pass out, dragged her battered body to the railing on the dam. She propped her body against the short wall and with her good arm, ripped a strip of fabric from the hem of her skirt. It took several tries, but through the pain she managed to wrap her wound tightly in a tourniquet fashion. But it would not last long. Adele could already see blood seeping through.
Her knees buckled when she tried to stand. Through the smoke, Adele could make out the outline of her car. If she could just reach it, she could lay down safely and call for help. Later she would not be able to recount just exactly how she did it, but Sazoirl remembered stumbling into the driver's seat and grabbing Adele's cell phone and dialing the number to reach Isath 165, and gasping out a cry for help. Then her world faded to black.
Ember:
Oh god it hurt...
Ember's cat writhed on the ground, panicked, her claws scratching at the concrete as her jaws clenched together and gnashed open again, silently screaming. She- she'd been hit before but not like this. That had only been for a few seconds, not long enough for real pain to set in. And then, in her cardinal morph she'd been able to immediately change back because of their connection. With her cat, she couldn't wrest control away to get back to herself. They were both pulling in different directions and she couldn't force it to let her change back.
Like a child who has hurt themselves for the first time, all she could do was cry out, hoping that someone would make it stop. <<RIAN! oh god Rian it- it hurts! Ahhgg..!!!>> Echoing her thoughts, the cat mewled pitifully and convulsed in on itself, trying to escape the needle sharp spasms.
A cold kind of hysteria threatened to swallow her conscious even as Rian tried to get her to demorph. He.. he was saying something, but her mind was spinning dangerously and she couldn't open her eyes. She wanted to reach out, grab onto him, hold herself tightly to him and never let go. He was the only thing she could think of... but then he was gone. She couldn't feel him anymore, just the cold smoke and the blistering sensation that turned her eyes upward. Shadows engulfed the edges of her vision. She couldn't fight this for long. She had to- to focus- fo....
<<AAAYHHHHHH!!!>> She screamed, and screamed, and screamed to keep herself awake. Because she couldn't die here. Because she had to find him.
Something dragged her, teeth biting into her numbed skin, pulling on her nerves until they deadened. It felt like eternity, as fire tore at her guts and her mind struggled to concentrate on anything else. <<Ennnhhhh...!>> Ember groaned as she came to a stop and she started to feel the pain from the wound being torn open farther. A sick acid rose in her throat, causing her to retch out blood onto the pavement. Far... far away she heard... <<rian?>> Ember dug deep into herself and pulled away from the pain, physically tearing herself apart from the African Cat, molecule by molecule. Skin from skin. Her nose realigned, eyes shifting back, and hair shrinking back before flowing back in brown on her head. Her hands stretched out from extended claws, slapping down sharply and balling into fists with effort. Then her upper body, shoulder blades tightening even as her morphing suit reformed around her, pale skin in a cold sweat. Her jaw clenched tight as she demorphed her torso, her damaged insides gradually flooding with renewed life as the wound finally closed over. Ember gasped at the sudden alleviation, taking in heavy breaths, gratefully breathing in the rest of the change as at last she was free.
"I- I'm..." Ember felt hot tears streaming down her face as she felt Rian's cat laying next to her "I'm ok. Don't- don't worry about me." She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, curling into a ball and hoping that she could just lay there like that forever.
Tenaj:
Tenaj could barely see, but she knew what she saw. It looked like Sub-Visser 31 had managed to shoot one of them. The one she had been stalking seemed freaked. She started walking over there, but it looked like the Sub-Visser had been bitten.
It wasn't a pretty sight. And the other two were getting away. You aren't getting off that easily...... she thought. She followed the blood stains leading away from the dam.
On the way she heard screams in her head. She couldn't help but smile. They weren't Janet's but another girl's. They were over here, in this abandonded car. She got her dracon beam ready as she approached the car.
She soon found them. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here," she said as she spotted the two. She got ready to pull the trigger.....
Rian:
Rian was curled up next to Ember like an oversized pet as he hoped she would demorph. They weren't exactly safe but they were as safe as they could be right now. The human controllers left on the dam were in a state of panic, running from the two cats that were currently out of commission though of course they didn't know that. The dam was emptying quickly, which was good. The others, the ones who'd survived their assignments that is, would be here soon and they could finish the job, blow the dam and get out of here. That was the mission.
And it was the farthest thing from Rian's mind. His attention was focused on the cat and the girl it represented. He kept repeating one stupid phrase but he hoped repetition would give it power to break through whatever pain might be clouding her mind. <<Ember, come back, please come back.>>
As she began to demorph he just repeated it more, not willing to believe the evidence of his eyes until she was safe. Why had he brought her here? Why had he given her the morph? He knew she had trouble with feline morphs. They could have found something else, anything else. But that little detail had slipped his mind in his planning. The little fact that he was taking the girl he loved on a suicide mission had slipped his mind.
Never had the huge disparity between what he had been making is priority and what his priorities should be been so clear to him. It wasn't like she hadn't wanted to come, she was as much a fighter as anyone else in the faction. But he could have done more to help in the past week. He could even have just spent time with her. But he'd been too busy.
As she finally achieved full humanity he stood and butted his head against her arms which she had wrapped around her. <<I'm always going to worry about you.>> He couldn't purr exactly but he did something close enough.
He ignored the sounds of footsteps coming closer to them, taking them to be just one other panicked controller fleeing the confusion but he shouldn't have made that mistake. The footsteps were evenly paced and calm. But for once he wasn't concentrating on the mission.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Rian spun around, and with the speed only cats could achieve he knocked the dracon beam out of her hand, leaving deep claw marks on her arm.
Unfortunately for him he wasn't quite fast enough to stop from getting shot at point blank range.
He dropped to the ground without a sound, a hole in his chest.
Erik:
Isath was driving much too fast for his own good and having nearly run off the road and, consequently, off a cliff, he decided to ignore Erik's thoughts which were a primary source of distraction. They consisted of frantic and baseless threats regarding his wife's fate and if they were to stumble upon her lifeless body, there were a number of unspeakable things that he insisted would be done to Isath and his kind.
The scene at the dam was appalling. The boiling lake made Isath's mind spin with rage and Erik to quiet. He spotted Adele's deep navy Porsche parked just off the road, still tiny and quite a distance away. Erik thought of the horror that had befallen him when he heard her voice, shaking and breathless, cry out his name. Not Isath. Erik. It was unnerving to hear his strong-willed wife in such a state. Erik lifted his mind's eye to the sky and breathed a prayer of desperation. The prayer of a desperate, godless man.
Isath had not come unarmed. No less that three Dracon beams were strapped in holsters in easily accessible places. They were all set some where between a five and an eight. Deadly.
The car door of the Porsche was ajar. Erik's heart skipped and memories of picking out the car and buying it for Adele on their tenth anniversary flashed by. Nothing could prepare him for the sight of his beautiful Adele, unconscious, badly wounded, and still bleeding. Blood stained the interior and the door handle, and Adele's hands. Her ring. She could be saved, Isath knew. But it would take weeks of recovery for her to be back to normal. With hands fumbling about, as though they were weighed down by lead, Isath pulled the first-aid kit, of Yeerk design, from the back seat of his own luxury car. He acted quickly, speeding the healing of the punctures for the most part. A new technology developed by their own company. Adele groaned in pain. Her eyes fluttered open, looking up at Erik. A tired smile crossed her face.
"You came."
Her head lolled back again as Isath scooped her into his arms with great care. Setting her carefully down in his backseat, Isath strode confidently toward the dam, fueled by Erik's desire to see the hellish beasts that hurt his beloved blasted into oblivion.
Tenaj:
Tenaj whinced in pain. Her host had screamed out, but she wouldn't give this........insect the pleasure. Normally she would be furious. Normally. She had managed to put a whole through the leopard's chest. After the pain past, she smiled and began laughed.
"So much for the "scary" Animorphs," she boasted. She wasn't sure if she had killed it yet though. Plus there was a girl there still as well.
She then reached out for the knife she had on her. She had started carrying it on her, ever since that incident with Esor 229's host. She grinned evily. "Time to finish this beast off," she said and aimed the knife for its heart.
Ember:
"RIAN!" Ember cried out, a scream that brought the whole world crashing back down on her. She had only just turned around in time to see Rian's cat's body hit the ground, the smell of burnt skin and blood hitting her in a nauseous wave. Oh god no. Not now!
She rolled onto her knees, tears still wet on her cheeks as she took a runners stance. "YOU F@#%$ B$#^#!!" Ember roared at Tenaj, screwing any sense of warfare. Anger, thick with hatred and electric from overly stressed nerves, shot through her body, renewing her like nothing else could. She wasn't dead because of Rian. And nothing was going to keep her from saving him in return. Not her tired muscles, not her fragmented mind, and definitely not the knife the controller pulled! Ember smiled savagely, launching herself with everything she had left. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, probably the only thing keeping her standing, and she would pay for it later... but right now nothing mattered but Rian, and wiping that stupid look off that controller's face!
If her excruciating sessions with Luce had taught her anything, it was that the human body was the deadliest weapon she possessed. Morphs were only good if you were in them, but otherwise you had to be able to count on your own body to be a dependable form. That meant fighting against guns, knives, and hand to hand. All of which Ember now had developed defenses to, and that showed in her confident smirk as she slapped Tenaj's weapon aside and drove her fist into the woman's stomach.
"You. Won't. Touch him!" Ember felt the blade scrape the back of her arm and was forced to back away, but the controller was winded, giving her time to stand between her and Rian. Oddly, she thought of the first time she'd fought Kat.
Tenaj:
Tenaj hadn't expected the girl to come at her and was taken off guard by her punch. She staggered back a bit, having to catch her breath slightly.
She looked back up at the girl. She really wasn't in the mood for this. But if she wanted to fight, she'd get one. "You know.....I was just going to end it quickly," she told the girl. She held her ground, watching the girl making sure she didn't do anything yet. "But you've gotten on my bad side. I'm going to make sure your deaths are slow and painful. I don't care which one of you it is!"
She felt her anger start to boil over. She would take care of this girl. She would kill her slowly. And if she was lucky, maybe the leopard was alive and would get to watch. She then rushed at the girl, knife in hand and aimed for a stab to her stomach.
Ember:
Ember dodged, barely, letting the knife slip past her ribs and latching onto Tenaj's arm, holding it tightly to her side. Then with her right fist she swung back, "You talk too much."
THWACK!! Ember's fist connected with the woman's nose, crunching brutally with an instant geyser of rushing blood. It looked a lot worse than it was, but she got a lot of satisfaction out knowing the controller bitch would have a black and blue face for at least a month.
Tenaj couldn't be held for long though, especially with an extra burst of pain boosting her reaction. Ember felt a sharp paper-cut type pain along her waist as the knife was pulled back through, cutting through her morphing suit and nicking the surface of her skin. She sucked in a breath, dancing back out of reach as both of them re-caught their breath.
Rian. Rian. Rian....?!! The only thing Ember wanted in the world was to turn back, to see that he was ok, that he'd demorphed... but she couldn't take her eyes off Tenaj or they'd both be killed. She wished she could use thought speak, to connect to him again and pull him back from the brink just as he'd done for her. The blade flashed as the smoke flares started to fade and the sun crept onto the Dam. They needed to get out of there before they got surrounded. This fight had to end.
She could already feel the energy draining from her as they faced off. Her breaths came in wheezing gasps, muscles strained with every movement. "I- I hate this... I hate you! Yeerks, controllers! You've made my life hell! I can't take a moment to look at the sky, or watch a movie, or- or fall in love. It's too hard. Fighting back, trying to reclaim whats already mine from disgusting scumbag wastes of space! F-ing slugs!! I could squash you with a newspaper!!" Ember snarled, baring her bloody fists. "So why don't you do the universe a favor, you sick, psychotic, UGLY FUCKER!"
Ember lunged, "And just die already."
Erik:
Erik's strides were long and quick. His loosened tie fluttered in the breeze and the two Dracon beams holstered close to his person complimented the matching one in his hand. Shielding the sun from his eyes with the other, he hurried to the first place were he saw that there was trouble. There were many shouts and quite a number of profanities falling from the mouth of a young lady with rage contorting her otherwise young and pretty face. Isath recognized Sub-visser 30's host even though her face was bloodied. It was quite possible that this girl now lunging at her had very well broken the Sub-visser's nose.
The second thing that Erik noticed was a bloody, furry mass laying on it's side. It appeared to be a large cat, an Animorph, no doubt. Unfortunately, Isath was still quite a ways away from being able to do anything. His pace quickened, his lips pursed in concentration. There was killing to be done.
Tenaj:
Tenaj felt her arm grabbed by this girl and then she felt an intense shot of pain in her face. This girl had just broken her nose! HER NOSE! Tenaj had manged to cut her only slightly, and that wasn't good enough.
Her host had screamed out in pain, but she would not. SHe would not give the satisfaction. Blood was dripping from her nose. She took her sleeve and wiped it best she could. She was furious! More furious then one could possibly imagine.
But then.....the girl had started to speak. Whining about how the Yeerks had taken over. The girl then lunged at her. But the girl's movements were blinded by anger, and her little speech had calmed Tenaj down a bit. She knew she was making this one angry, and she was about to make it a lot worse.
She was feeling woozy from the blood she was losing, but she managed to grab Ember's arm with her free hand, and with the armed hand, punched her in the face. She let her go for a second and then lunged with the knife, aimed for her stomach.
"You die first," she told her. "And let me enjoy your screams of agony,"
Ember:
Ember folded her arms, looking out across the Dam and the great body of water that it only barely seemed to hold back. All the power and strength of Las Vegas lay within that structure... and now they were going to go play with explosives around it.
Well, best get started then. She smirked as the sounds of controllers floated up to where they stood on the mountainside. Soon enough she'd get to lay her brand new morph's claws on some very deserving yeerks. Even the cold wind and growing nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach couldn't stop her from going down there and finally getting some hands on action. Then, Rian called the signal and they were off.
She dived off the edge of the cliff and morphed mid-way down. The Cardinal wasn't made for long distance gliding, but the diving start helped boost her speed to be able to catch up with Rian's kestrel.
Rian:
Rian floated easily on the strong breeze in the canyon, enjoying the view even though he knew it boaded ill for them. If you didn't know they were controllers down there you could almost be fooled by the sun, the blue of the water reflecting a sky only dotted with clouds, into thinking it was a nice day.
But if you looked closely you noticed that the blue water was surging, the surface broken a billion different times by the billion different bodies moving in it. And if he listened closely you noticed that the sound that should be there, the sound of the dam working to pass water rushing at 85 mph through its turbines to create electricity, that was gone, shut down. The yeerks were finding some other way to pass water so that the pressure on the dam didn't become unbearable but Rian didn't know what it was.
<<Are you ready for this?" He asked Ember. He knew that she had a new morph for the job but he was worried because neither of them had much experience with the cats. They had used their "munificent" free time in the past week to test out the morphs in the ballroom but he didn't think that would prepare them for fighting hork-bajir.
And there was no way in prepared either of them for the death they were about to deal out to people, who for the most part, were just the average controller. Cogs in the Empire's machine but in no way evil. Rian had done the best he could to make sure no YPM would be down there today, asking Ray to tell Vorri to spread the word, but that didn't mean innocents weren't going to die.
He didn't even want to think about the slugs.
Ember:
He only asked her if she felt ready, but even in thought speak she could tell the question held a lot more weight to it than just that. Was she ready to die? Was she ready to kill? Was she able to control her new morph, the most deadly she'd acquired and also a CAT which was one species she never seemed to be able to control well. To be honest she didn't know the answer to any of those questions.
So far adrenaline had pushed her forward, and it was pumping stronger in her veins the closer they got. If it would be enough to push her over the edge though... she just had to wait and find out. She already knew that she didn't want to kill anyone. These people... if she didn't think they had any chance of redemption then it would be different. But... she couldn't ignore that they were still human somewhere deep inside.
Not that she hadn't killed before.. albeit it was kind of an accident that happened because she panicked. And it was back in LA when she knew it was either kill or be killed. Plus it wasn't as if she'd stuck around to see exactly how many bodies she'd piled up, so as far as she could plausibly deny, she hadn't actually killed anyone. And even before the invasion she'd considered most people to be a waste of space, a bunch of jerks and backstabbers that didn't deserve to go on living. But that didn't mean that she wanted to kill them with her own hands...
But he'd asked her the question. <<Yeah. I'm fine. Let's go.>> She'd learned from Luce that a warrior can't hesitate, not for one second, because their enemy will not take that luxury. She was fighting for the whole human race, even the ones down there that she might have to put down. And she'd seen enough war movies to know all the golden quotes... 'crack a few eggs to make an omelet ' and so forth. Although that only made her want to throw up a bit. So that thought got squashed down there in the back of her brain along with everything else she'd been holding back. There'd be time for therapy sessions later. Today she had a job, and she wasn't going to let Rian down by being weak.
Rian:
<<Alright then.>> He didn't say much else. He still wasn't sure what to say to her. They had all been so busy preparing for this mission that he had never taken the time to try to talk to her about the fight at the party. Then again she hadn't tried to talk to him either. He was starting to think that it wasn't worth it to try. He and Ember had drifted apart since he had become the faction leader. Never had the concept of the loneliness of command seem more real to him than on that long flight down to the dam.
When you weren't the one who had to make the decisions you could be everyone's friend. Well maybe not everyone's but at least people didn't only look to you for orders but sometimes they just looked to you for company. Rian had watched how easily Luce and Suji worked together over the past couple of days, how easy things had been for Stevert and Drake, and had been surprised at how jealous he was of them.
He was alone. He had been alone for a long time. And then, for a while there had been Matt and Raven and then later Jullian and Stevert and Kat and, yeah, Ember. And he had started to feel like he was actually a part of a team, that he had friends. But then he had moved to Vegas and become a faction leader.
He could put his lack of close friendships down to being busy. Lord knew that he had been kept awake more than one night while trying to figure out not only how to survive but how to strike back. They weren't here just to play around, they were here to fight. But trying to figure out how to strike a force so much more powerful than you was so hard it seemed impossible most days.
And even when they found some weakness to exploit it was always dangerous and he worried about someone getting killed. It hadn't happened yet but he knew it was just a matter of time. They couldn't stay lucky for ever and he just hoped their luck didn't run out today.
It was all stressful and he found that he had an almost overwhelming desire to just fly by the dam, fly and keep flying and just leave it all behind. The open blue sky and the desert that seemed to stretch on forever called to him more than he was wiling to admit. But he knew that the freedom they represented was only an illusion. The only freedom that was real was whatever they won for themselves today and everyday that they fought.
<<Let's land over by that box thing, you see it? The white one that looks like some sort of storage crate or something.>> The "box" in question was about twice his normal height and double that in length. It was also pushed almost right to the edge of the dam on the Lake Mead side with a small space behind it where they could hide until they got the signal to start the distraction.
And it looked like they were right in time. The controller who had made the speech at the party was just climbing up onto the platform to make another. And what speech is going to explain why you let this thing get blown up, he directed at the raven haired woman.
Tenaj:
Tenaj climbed up onto this dam that the humans had called the "Hoover Dam". She didn't really want to be climbing up like this, but it would be worth it. To see the glorious new Yeerk Pool on the other side.
Behind her were a couple of controllers. She had been told of the efforts of the Animorphs in this area and she couldn't take any chances. She had around six low-ranking controllers with her, though more would be on thier way. No one was going to take this potential promotion from her.
She finally made it on to the platform and looked at what they had done. She smiled evilly. <<What do you think, human? Its such an astonishing achievment.>> she told her host. <<I think that this is going to be gone by the end of the day>> Janet retorted. She too heard what Tenaj heard about the Vegas Animorphs and she guessed they wouldn't be standing still while this was going on.
<<We'll see, human. We'll see>>
Ember:
<<Right. I see it.>>
Great. Now they were down to three word sentences to each other. She'd hoped that maybe he would say something more, but she couldn't blame him either... after their fight things had been tense between them. And Luce, who was the only other person at the Den she felt she could go and actually talk to, was busy with her own issues and probably wouldn't have cared anyway. So instead she'd ignored that they'd even had a fight, and instead waited for Rian to give her an opening to make it up. But that hadn't happened. They'd been too busy almost losing their lives. And now, they were about to go do it again...
She swooped in, keeping as low beneath the dam as possible so the controllers on top wouldn't notice the vibrant red bird flying at them. But then they reached the wall and she had to forcibly power her wings upwards, using all the muscle her cardinal possessed to make it to their designated hiding spot. When she landed it was far from graceful, but it was good enough to start de-morphing immediately, squeezing into the space behind it to wait for the signal to start their distraction.
She wanted to steal a look at Rian, but half of her wasn't sure he'd look back at her the way she wanted him to. So she let it go and kept her back turned, focusing all her frustration and fear on the controllers she was about to encounter.
Adele:
All in all, the Hoover Dam was an impressive sight by human standards. The lake made for a ridiculously large Yeerk pool and Sazoirl felt generally unmoved by the entire thing. She exited from Adele's favorite navy Porsche and, balancing on equally admired heels, Sazoirl walked to the area of the dam where host Janet Drake, sub-visser 30, watched and waited with half a dozen lesser ranking Yeerks. Of course Sazoirl would be here with thesub-visser---she was the closest in rank to her than any of the other controllers in Las Vegas.
<<Getting a little pompous, are we?>>
<<And how exactly does that make me any different than you, human?>>
Adele lifted the pricey sunglasses from her eyes as she approached the sub-visser, giving her a nod of respect, scanning the skies with her intense grey eyes.
Tenaj:
Tenaj gave her own nod to Sub-Visser 39. She know the sub-visser very well, but she hadn't done anything to get on her nerves......yet. Well, maybe almost allowing the birth mother project to not be able to be continued, urked her a bit, but if she hadn't stopped her funding then Tenaj wouldn't have it under her control now.
She looked down at her watch. It was time to make her speech. And introduce this yeerk pool to the world. There was a podium set up with a mic and she walked up to it. She took a bretah before starting to talk.
"Welcome all," she began. "I thank you for coming. It is a pleasure to see you all here for this glorious moment." <<Yeah, so glorious to watch you jab about your project some more>> Janet commented to Tenaj. Tenaj just continued. "We are now ready for this area to be used." She turned to look at the dam, before turning back.
"Let's not waste any more time. This pool will now be in use!" she exclaimed and signaled for the fireworks to go off. She wasn't particular to them, but Visser 12 sure like things to be flashy. So, she had no choice as her reprisentative but to use them as well.
Rian:
Rian had demorphed so that he would be ready to go clouded leopard as soon as the signal went off. He was avoiding Ember's gaze because it made him very, very uncomfortable to be like this, especially around her. He didn't want to appear as anything less than someone she might want and he hated that she would see him like this. But every second would count on the dam and he couldn't afford even the time it would have taken for him to demorph and remorph before they started.
He heard the Sub-Visser's lack of speech and was caught a bit off-guard. Normally stuff like this was accompanied by pompous pontificating. He had honestly been hoping to have a bit more time but they just didn't.
Rian saw the signal. "That's it, our turn." He pulled a very small stick from his belt and some matches. He and Ember were the only two in the faction who had suits that could carry things like this and he sent a prayer of thanks to Jullian wherever he was.
He struck the matches and lit the fuse and threw the stick over the side of the box they were behind. He looked over at Ember even as he began morphing. The smoke bomb would add to the confusion and fear of the controllers on the other side of the box since they were packed in and some monsters were about to come and start reeking havoc. <<We go as fast as possible. Injure if you can, just injure but cause damage.>>
He wanted to say more but he just couldn't. He didn't know what would bridge the gap that had grown between them. It felt like he should be making some sort of long speech, the kind they didn't have time for. But he wanted to say something. But in the end, in this one thing, Rian was a coward. He just finished the morph and ran around the box as soon as Ember was ready.
Ember:
"That's it, our turn."
Ember heard a voice and didn't recognize it. She whipped her head around as Rian was pulling the smoke bomb from his belt, so he didn't see her eyes widen, or her mouth fall open. By the time he threw the bomb she was already turned back... Mechanically she threw her own, already lost in her own thoughts.
She'd forgotten. It was really easy to, since he was so careful. And she'd long ago accepted that Rian was who he portrayed himself as in his brother's body. After all, hell, she'd lived in California, if you don't have an open mind there where can you have one? But... seeing his other form... in LA she remembered seeing him use it when they'd rescued Robert. At the time she'd laughed. It was so clear to her that he wasn't a girl that it was like seeing Rian in drag. Now though, she didn't feel like laughing. Back then she never thought she'd be this insane- to- to what? She didn't even know what she felt with Rian. Everything was confused and seeing him like that just made it all the more clear that she had no idea who Rian was. What he might be hiding from her... what he might never trust her with.
Too late. There wasn't enough time. She wanted to scream at all the times she'd had to abandon her thoughts just because there wasn't time to think about them! Even when they argued it was in a room full of yeerks and no time to talk because a flipping Dam is about to explode!
Ember morphed, it took all her focus to pull her thoughts back together and concentrate on her new morph. She'd used it once when she'd gotten it, run the agile cat around the ballroom a few times. But she was in such disarray that as soon as her whole morph had formed the African Cat's mind took over. Rian's voice barely filtered through to her... something about damage. Ha, oh yes, the cat grinned showing its fangs. She would do some damage!
She barreled forward, red fur flashing in the light as she sunk her teeth into the neck of the closest controller. The skin tore like paper... then, Red, gushing red... hot and sweet like meat. The cat loved it, ripping it's head upward to look around at the stunned crowd of people, snarling and rearing up onto its hind legs before bounding forth again to tear into an elderly man standing a little too close. Her claws flexed and Ember could feel the power rushing to the animal's head as screams erupted around her and mass chaos ensued.
Ember:
Rian and Ember emerged from behind the crate, two large cats materializing out of the smoke. He had forgotten how cool this morph was. Not cool as in good, cool as in ice. The clouded leopard was calm and smooth. It had no enemies and no problems. It felt like it was in control and its self assuredness was almost overwhelming.
The first time Rian had morphed this cat he had lost control, lost himself in the cat's confidence. It knew what it was a lot more than Rian did and its presence in the back of his mind could not be denied. But he didn't let its sense of self over take his own.
A woman looked back at him and saw the large, silver cat stalking calmly towards her and tried to run. Rian pounced, almost lazily since it took no real effort, and landed on the woman's back. He claws dug into her clothing holding him to her as his weight forced her to fall forward and land on her face, probably causing a broken nose. She went limp under him. He guessed that she had hit something vital on the uncompromising concrete. Oh well.
Rian hopped off her and went after the next person. He saw a flash of red, smooth and quick as lightning land on an old man and rip his throat out. The clouded leopard didn't like that there was another cat around much and growled a bit deep in its throat but otherwise moved on. The other predator was an equal, not worth fighting for the prey when there was so many others to go after.
Rian's paw shot out faster than even his eyes could track, leaving deep gashes on a young girl's stomach. Any closer and he probably would have ripped her guts out but she would just carry those scars for the rest of her life. Good, she wasn't dead.
A small part of Rian's mind realized that he'd let the leopard get the best of him just a little. But he liked the coolness of the clouded cat's mind. It kept him from thinking too much about what they were doing.
And they were having the desired affect. The smoke form the bombs was so thick that he and Ember were like monsters appearing out of the haze. It added a lot of fear to their attack and people were panicking. Since the dam had been packed so thick to begin with he was pretty sure that some people would get trampled for this.
And if there was this much chaos on the dam no one would be watching the lake.
His sensitive ears picked up the sound of the first bomb going on. Interesting. That was all the leopard had to say about it.
Ember:
Ember panicked, screaming inside as she felt her control slip away. The African Cat wore down any resistance she tried to build up in her mind, using all of her anger and fear against her as a source of energy as it tore through person after person, killing and maiming anything that got in its way. It was savage and blood thirsty, and worse, it knew that Ember wanted it to fight, to kill, to destroy those things she saw as enemies. So it did, and no matter how hard she fought back it wouldn't stop.
A prisoner in her own mind, Ember sought for a way to regain control. But it felt like... like the first time she'd ever been on skis. It was stupid comparison, but she had been five when her mother and father brought her to a mountain for the first time. They didn't teach her anything, just shoved her off the top and let her fend for herself. The ice and snow slipped under her, making her race out of control straight down the slope, screaming for help, screaming for someone to stop her. But no one came. And she knew no one would come now.
She felt powerless, and cold. Like a chunk of ice was sitting on top of her skull, trickling cold water down her spine.
Just give in The dark thought bubbled into her subconscious. It's what you wanted. Kill them all. They are the enemy, this is a war. They deserve to die, and this animal is powerful enough to kill them. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. Ember stalled her rampant memories and started to pay attention. The cat had ripped through another victim, their blood soaking into her already darkened red fur. The controller woman fell under her weight, the cat snatching at her head like a toy until she heard a crack and the woman stopped struggling. Then it grew bored and leapt onto a nearby man in a waiter's uniform. The man tried to hold the metal tray out as a shield but Ember's cat just batted it away and lunged for his throat.
Slowly Ember's terror started to ebb. It was horrifying, how easy it was for her morph to kill. She knew she should try to stop it, and a part of her kept fighting back, but... another part... a more vicious, darker side than she ever had felt before, was enjoying herself...
Slowly Ember's breathing returned to a steady pace. She knew she couldn't control her morph, but it didn't need to be controlled.
Tenaj:
Tenaj was furious. One moment she was done giving her speech. The next, chaos. Controllers were being picked off. "Animorphs......." she whispered with hatred. "What are you all doing?! Shoot them!" she yelled out.
Granted, they couldn't see much due to smoke. She would not have this ruined like this. She then took out her own dracon beam and started hearing other controllers fire thiers. She then walked through the smoke, heels clacking one after the other.
She aimed her dracon at something and shot. She wasn't sure if she hit what she wanted, or anything at all. The smoke was too thick. She shot another. Hopefully she would get lucky.
Rian:
Rian growled as the dracon beam grazed his flank, leaving a streak of blackened, burnt fur and seared skin. His head whipped around though all he could see were people running everywhere and smoke. His paw shot out lightning fast and leaving deep lacerations on a passing controller woman as she saw the leopard and turned and tried to run away.
The smoke cleared for a moment and he saw the woman who had made the speech looking around widely, a dracon beam in her hand, looking for something to shoot. Rian growled so that he would be heard, so that she'd see him and then he backed up, his silver form disappearing into the smoke as if he had never been there. Let her come further into his territory. He would kill her.
Tenaj:
Tenaj turned when she heard the growl and saw the leopard. She smiled evilly. So, there was one of them. She watched the form retreat back into the smoke. She knew the game this one wanted to play.
"Well, well there's one. Why don't you come out and face me face to face?" she taunted to the retreating form, dracon beam at ready. "You Animorphs, always hiding. Always unwilling to face your enemy face to face. If you're so fearsome, why can't you come to me?"
She knew what she was dealing with, but maybe if the animorph was enraged enough it would slip up. She laughed. "I guess all you can rely on are smoke and mirror tricks." she mocked. "What a shame, you shouldn't even be worth our time."
Rian:
The controller's comments landed home, very much so. Rian was ready to attack her even though he knew it was the wrong move and he even started slinking in her direction to prepare to attack.
The only thing that saved him was the cat's quiet, ruthless mind. The cat couldn't think the way Rian could but its mood affected his own mind and calmed him down enough that he didn't leap out at the yeerk leader.
Instead he called out to her. <<Some mighty ruler of the galaxy you are. A bunch of kids keep managing to mess up your plans. Poor yeerk. What are they going to do to you when they find out how you screwed this up?>>
As Rian had been talking he had also been hunting, bringing down controllers around him and basically causing panic though he had enough prescence of mind that he was driving the controllers OFF the dam. It would have been the ultimate massacre if they got the yeerks in the pool and the controllers on the dam as well when the thing collapsed but he somehow didn't think that would fly with all his members.
So even though he could have tried to keep them here he let them run knowing what was coming.
He batted the body of a dead boy towards the controller and jumped away. He hadn't killed the boy himself. He wasn't sure what had. The kid had claw marks all over him but he also looked like he had been trampled. Still he was a good example of what the rest of the controllers on the dam were beginning to look like.
<<Here, have a gift.>>
Tenaj:
Tenaj looked around, hoping her comments had worked. Unfortunately, she didn't see the leopard come any closer, so she could blast it. Though she eventually heard a voice and she grinned. She at least knew she was on the right track.
"Who says I screwed it up?" she told him. "There are so many others afraid of me, that they'll take the blame for me instead." She then laughed. "Even you're afraid of me! You won't even come out of you're little shadows." She laugehd some more.
She then saw a body come her way and looked at it with a grin. She slowly headed in that direction. "Oh my, how ruthless you are. Its sad really, I wish more Yeerks were as ruthless you." she commented to him. She then just kicked the body aside, since it was in her way. "Too bad I didn't get to witness it, or hear his screams of pain. I'm sure it was enjoyable,"
Adele:
Through the smoke, Sazoirl saw the sub-visser. He mouth moved, her face displaying annoyance and then holding onto a smirk. She was talking to one of them, she knew. The faint outline of a body, dead, on the ground took Sazoirl by surprise.
<<Pity.>> Adele. <<He looked like a strong one. Guess he was misjudged.>>
Holding her dracon beam in an offensive position, Adele walked briskly and fired into the smoke, knowing that she very well could have blown the head off of one of her own. Sazoirl pressed onward, hoping to find one of the beasts so she could give them a proper ending.
Ember:
Ember tried hard not to struggle, but it was hard when your whole existence seemed to have fallen into pitch black. The agonizing, rushing tunnel that she fell downwards through threatened to suck her mind away completely... but she couldn't get back. Even if she miraculously regained enough control to demorph, she was surrounded by enemies who would kill her before she took her first breath.
She was trapped, barely aware of what the vicious African Cat was doing now that it was wholly on its own. Her rage had faded, replaced by a sickly fear. Her mind and the cat's were chasms apart, she was only dimly aware of it's desire to kill these things that had gotten in its territory. It was fiercely prideful, and to Ember's mind, completely psychotic with animal rage. With the scent of blood all around, she doubted it would calm down any time soon.
<<Arghhh!!>> Ember groaned, feeling something very sharp just above her head. For a split second she and the Cats mind connected as they both swerved around to see what had dared to attack them. Ember, more than her morph, felt the hot liquid trickle down her chin. Her ear had been almost completely sliced away, only a chunk of it hung by a strip of skin, the blood filling her ear cavity. In unison Ember and the Cat's anger flared and the sensation of falling was stopped as they both focused in on their new target. A blonde haired female controller... vaguely familiar although Ember couldn't search her memories to discover from where. The controller was holding a dracon beam out in front of her, but it seemed like she hadn't seen Ember yet.
No Mercy. Kill her now before she knows what's hit her. The dark voice inside Ember spoke up. This time, Ember followed willingly. The Cat leaped forward off it's tight haunches, into the air, appearing out of the smoke like a thing from hell!
Rian:
Rian's anger almost boiled over. <<Don't compare yourself to me yeerk. I may kill you but I don't go around enslaving your kind.>> He slunk around. He couldn't pin point her in all this noise and he couldn't see her through the smoke. Smell was also being affected so, even though he had heightened senses, he was actually no better off than she.
With one exception. He blended in and she did not. He slunk around. He had almost lost all interest in hurting the controllers around him. They were well and truly panicked now and nothing he did would add to the confusion. Instead he stalked the controller woman.
He stopped moving as she emerged from the smoke near the body of the boy he'd used as bait. Rian, at his most basic level, was a trapper. And seeing his enemy walk into his trap with such ease, having her in his power, it sent a rush of excitement flooding through his system.
He gathered himself, his blue eyes glowing malevolently, not even letting a growl escape his throat so as not to betray his presence. Gray wifts of smoke drifted by his eyes and around the liquid steel form of the cat.
His mind and the cat's merged completely as his prey came closer and he felt a darkness he hadn't known was in him creep into his heart. Funny thing about darkness, when it comes, you don't fear it, you don't shrink away, and you don't deny it. It is there at his own invitation and he welcomed its presence as it wiped away his doubts about this mission, about the dam, about the lake and about this kill.
Bye bye yeerk. he thought with unholy glee and anticipation of the kill. She was his enemy and he was going to kill her and he was going to win and he would enjoy both. His lips beginning to curl over the yellow fangs, saliva dripping from one razor sharp end. Time to get a little back.
But then a flash of red leaped over him. His cat's instincts turned him around before he had had a chance to think about it, preparing to defend itself against the other predator and he saw who Ember was attacking. The controller had a dracon beam raised and would shoot her out of the air if he didn't do something.
<<Ember no!>> His concern for her completely broke him out of the spell and he bounded after her. <<Ember!>>
Adele:
Everything that exists is centered somewhere in the vicinity of the bloodied scorch on the hide of the large sand color cat that, presently, was falling onto the unforgiving concrete of the dam. In all truthfulness, Sazoirl had never had the displeasure of actually wounding anything with a Dracon beam. The glamorous life of her host prevented many...inconveniences that might have accompanied the life of a less fortunate host. Watching with those intense grey eyes, Adele strafed around the Animorph slowly.
She listened, hearing the sound of cat paws slapping on the ground. At least that's what Adele knew it was. She'd had a few cats when she was a girl as well as a wood floor that the felines like skidding across. But this was a big cat. Another one. Sazoirl's concentration flinched.
<<Steady, dear.>> Adele projected her thoughts with a great deal of sarcasm and command. <<You can't just let us get killed when we're doing so well.>>
Sedra:
((Double-posted from "They Occasionally Come Home". Hope this works.))
A small smile perked at the edge of Sedra's lips as she watched Bidaut take part of the group into the tower. With the Sub-Visser up there, she felt a tiny part of her relax. The tower should be covered now, there would hopefully be no screw-ups with the Kandrona. However, things on the dam looked terrible. The smoke had grown so thick that it had swallowed up all the controllers on it. The only thing visible were the brief flashes of dracon beams, illuminating the chaos.
Sedra glanced back, motioning her guards. They moved quickly, forming a tight perimeter near the tower's entrance, their dracon beams out and ready. The air was crackling with all the noise; screeching and shouting, the occasional loud scream of agony or pain. Added onto this was Catherine in the back of Sedra's mind, excited. It was all making Sedra's head pound. She rubbed her fingers against her temples, clenching her eyes close for a second. She needed her concentration. There was so much happening all at once, it was hard for it all to register.
Suddenly, overhead, the sky tore apart with the sound of a bug fighter's dracon beams. Sedra flinched, instinctively ducking. Then she looked up. "Shit." She had caught sight of the birds and the bug fighter. Just as she reacted, one of the grenades Drake had dropped exploded, showering a mess of fire and shrapnel down from the sky. Sedra watched helplessly as the bug fighter spiraled, hitting against the nearby cliff. She muttered a curse under her breath. She needed to get in contact with somebody immediately, they needed back up.
Resting against her ear was a miniature radio transceiver, something meant to keep her in contact with the other controllers protecting the dam. She tapped at it frantically, shouting for a response. There was nothing. She tried somebody on the dam, anybody. Nothing. Angry, furious, Sedra ripped the thing from her ear and threw it down. It clattered against the concrete, broken pieces scattering across the ground like bugs. She stepped forward--hearing it crunch under her boots--and locked dark, angry eyes with the guards around the tower.
"Stay here, don't screw up. Protect the Kandrona at all costs." The took her orders with stony expressions, bodies stiff. Satisfied, Sedra took off towards the dam. She needed to find somebody to take down the birds in the sky. To do something with all this chaos besides scream and whine and panic like cowards.
She figured the Animorphs had some sort of weapons, something to be able to cause this chaos and destruction. Then it clicked. The dracon grenades. The Animorphs were using her stolen dracon grenades. Hot anger welled within her chest, and her hand clenched tighter around the dracon beam, draining all the blood from her hand. It was happening all over again. They were attacking and she once again couldn't stop it. How did this keep happening? What was she doing wrong?
<<This is too crazy. I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe they're actually doing this.>> Catherine murmured, awed.
Sedra began running towards the dam, heavy boots hitting hard against the concrete. Why were the Animorphs split up? Why even bother with being on the dam if they were trying to bomb it? Is that even what they were doing? Sedra's gaze wandered briefly past the large pool, then focused on the dam. By now, the smoke had begun to clear off from the wind, revealing the whole mess. Controllers were stumbling away, some bloody, some dragging others that were wounded. Animorphs. She could see them now, attacking a couple Sub-Vissers. Tenaj.
<<Oh my god.>> Catherine whispered. Her voice was so far away in Sedra's mind that she didn't hear her host at first. <<The pool... Look at it...>> Something in the way Catherine said that reached Sedra's attention. What had her host noticed that she hadn't?
Her gait slowed as she brought her gaze back to the pool. She didn't realize what she was seeing at first, as it didn't quite make sense. The pool was sloshing around frantically, bubbling and boiling... Boiling? The thought struck her hard, sharp. In a sudden rush Sedra ran forward, her hip hitting against one of the concrete ledges. With her hands bracing her from falling she leaned over to look, black tendrils of hair brushing across her cheeks.
There were hundreds, no thousands, of Yeerk bodies--Yeerk corpses--floating up and down with the pool's waves, sloshing around the boiling pool. Dead. The sight was so shocking, so... horrifying, that Sedra froze up for the second time this day.
Suddenly, she couldn't hear anything. Not the yelling or screaming around her, or the sound of the pool gurgling nearby. The only thing that reached her was Catherine--the internal thought, murmuring for a second time. <<Oh my god.>>
Ember:
<<Ember no!!>>
Too late. Ember leapt and the controller fired. Like walking out into traffic, she saw it coming, and knew also that she would never be able to avoid it. Why had she jumped? Why had she..?
<<Ehngh!>> The blow struck her in the gut, knocking her from the air. Like someone had driven a blunt pipe through her, she felt the pain long after the beam had ripped through her organs and out through her back. For a few seconds she just lay there, stunned, in pain, unable to comprehend what had happened. <<R-Rian!?>> Ember called out, her mind flooding with sudden realization. She- she was dying? She was dying. Dead. She screwed up, lost control of her morph and now, death.
No, no she could demorph, it would be ok if she could just. Convulsions hit her body, wracking her muscles. She couldn't think, couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't focus, she could only feel panic. She wanted to cry, to scream, to beg, to laugh. Wave after crushing wave of agony made her senseless. The only thing she could think of was how much she didn't want to die... but she couldn't keep it from happening.
Rian:
<<Em!>> Rian saw her get hit, saw her go down and he was too far away to stop any of it. The graceful red cat fell to the concrete of the dam, a bloody mess. Rian ran up to her and stopped on a dime, his silvery head bowed over her red one, his nose just barely brushing one ear. <<Em? Ember?>> His voice didn't sound brave, or strong or any of the things a leader's voice should sound like in the middle of a battle. He just sounded like he was lost and scared.
When he heard her reply he thought he might faint in relief. She was alive, but she wouldn't be for long, not like this. The thought of losing her was so painful that he couldn't deal with it, not now. He pushed it away and just spoke calmly, <<Ember, you have to demorph ok? Just begin demorphing. Please.>> His words may have been calm but the emotional overtones that were going with them were anything but and for once he was grateful that he couldn't lie mind to mind, that he couldn't hide. He wanted her to know how he felt, he wanted her to come back.
The noise of heels on concrete distracted him from Ember and he looked up to see the controller that had shot her standing over them, her dracon beam still aimed. Seeing her standing there like that, standing there ok while Ember bled her life out did something to Rian. In that moment he didn't care about what was right or what was needed. He didn't care about the mission or winning or the war. He just wanted her dead.
A low growl escaped his throat and quickly grew into a type of roar that his species was capable of and Rian leaped at her. The movement was quick and she had made the mistake of coming just a bit too close. Maybe another cat wouldn't have been able to reach her but his could.
He landed on the woman, his claws, designed to help the cats climb trees and hang from branches (even upside down) latched on. His teeth, the largest of all the cats in proportion to its body size and so thought to prove a genetic link to saber tooth tigers, wanted to rip out her throat and might have except for the fact that damn beam was still pointed at Ember.
He sunk all two inches of them into her arm instead, leaving puncture wounds reminiscent of vampires...if vampires had been the size of demi gods, and jumped away as she began to bleed, hoping the last of the smoke and her preoccupation with her own pain would hide him well enough.
He ran back towards Ember and, gently, bit the scruff of her neck and began dragging her towards an abandoned car hoping to give her enough cover to morph. He knew he couldn't do this for long, once cats of any size grew up grabbing them this way cut off blood flow because of their increased weight, but the car wasn't far.
When they were out of sight he laid down next to her. He was reminded so strongly of that one day in the ally after their disastrous shopping trip when she had just needed a moment to recover. He'd held her then too. He just hoped that all she needed was time. Too bad she didn't have any.
<<Ember?>>
Adele:
The pain was, admittedly, far worse that Adele or Sazoril could fathom and it took only a matter of seconds for the beast to force her to the ground, strike, and leap away into the smoke. She was sure that her arm was broken as well as bloody; Sazoirl had heard a sickening crunch when the large cat's maw clamped down. Naturally she had screamed with fright and agony. Blood stained her blouse and skirt, seeping from the punctures, courtesy of the Animorph's claws, but Sazoril was more concerned about the flow coming for the torn flesh of her arm. Adele cried out in pain.
<<God, that hurts.>>
<<Really! I didn't notice!>> If Adele was in control of her body, she would have been gritting her teeth. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. This was worse than falling off the roof when she was seven, but the same panic arose from when the wind had been knocked out of her and she couldn't breathe.
It was too much to hope that another controller would come over and help her. There was too much going on. Sazoril, fighting the pain that she could very easily cause her to pass out, dragged her battered body to the railing on the dam. She propped her body against the short wall and with her good arm, ripped a strip of fabric from the hem of her skirt. It took several tries, but through the pain she managed to wrap her wound tightly in a tourniquet fashion. But it would not last long. Adele could already see blood seeping through.
Her knees buckled when she tried to stand. Through the smoke, Adele could make out the outline of her car. If she could just reach it, she could lay down safely and call for help. Later she would not be able to recount just exactly how she did it, but Sazoirl remembered stumbling into the driver's seat and grabbing Adele's cell phone and dialing the number to reach Isath 165, and gasping out a cry for help. Then her world faded to black.
Ember:
Oh god it hurt...
Ember's cat writhed on the ground, panicked, her claws scratching at the concrete as her jaws clenched together and gnashed open again, silently screaming. She- she'd been hit before but not like this. That had only been for a few seconds, not long enough for real pain to set in. And then, in her cardinal morph she'd been able to immediately change back because of their connection. With her cat, she couldn't wrest control away to get back to herself. They were both pulling in different directions and she couldn't force it to let her change back.
Like a child who has hurt themselves for the first time, all she could do was cry out, hoping that someone would make it stop. <<RIAN! oh god Rian it- it hurts! Ahhgg..!!!>> Echoing her thoughts, the cat mewled pitifully and convulsed in on itself, trying to escape the needle sharp spasms.
A cold kind of hysteria threatened to swallow her conscious even as Rian tried to get her to demorph. He.. he was saying something, but her mind was spinning dangerously and she couldn't open her eyes. She wanted to reach out, grab onto him, hold herself tightly to him and never let go. He was the only thing she could think of... but then he was gone. She couldn't feel him anymore, just the cold smoke and the blistering sensation that turned her eyes upward. Shadows engulfed the edges of her vision. She couldn't fight this for long. She had to- to focus- fo....
<<AAAYHHHHHH!!!>> She screamed, and screamed, and screamed to keep herself awake. Because she couldn't die here. Because she had to find him.
Something dragged her, teeth biting into her numbed skin, pulling on her nerves until they deadened. It felt like eternity, as fire tore at her guts and her mind struggled to concentrate on anything else. <<Ennnhhhh...!>> Ember groaned as she came to a stop and she started to feel the pain from the wound being torn open farther. A sick acid rose in her throat, causing her to retch out blood onto the pavement. Far... far away she heard... <<rian?>> Ember dug deep into herself and pulled away from the pain, physically tearing herself apart from the African Cat, molecule by molecule. Skin from skin. Her nose realigned, eyes shifting back, and hair shrinking back before flowing back in brown on her head. Her hands stretched out from extended claws, slapping down sharply and balling into fists with effort. Then her upper body, shoulder blades tightening even as her morphing suit reformed around her, pale skin in a cold sweat. Her jaw clenched tight as she demorphed her torso, her damaged insides gradually flooding with renewed life as the wound finally closed over. Ember gasped at the sudden alleviation, taking in heavy breaths, gratefully breathing in the rest of the change as at last she was free.
"I- I'm..." Ember felt hot tears streaming down her face as she felt Rian's cat laying next to her "I'm ok. Don't- don't worry about me." She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself, curling into a ball and hoping that she could just lay there like that forever.
Tenaj:
Tenaj could barely see, but she knew what she saw. It looked like Sub-Visser 31 had managed to shoot one of them. The one she had been stalking seemed freaked. She started walking over there, but it looked like the Sub-Visser had been bitten.
It wasn't a pretty sight. And the other two were getting away. You aren't getting off that easily...... she thought. She followed the blood stains leading away from the dam.
On the way she heard screams in her head. She couldn't help but smile. They weren't Janet's but another girl's. They were over here, in this abandonded car. She got her dracon beam ready as she approached the car.
She soon found them. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here," she said as she spotted the two. She got ready to pull the trigger.....
Rian:
Rian was curled up next to Ember like an oversized pet as he hoped she would demorph. They weren't exactly safe but they were as safe as they could be right now. The human controllers left on the dam were in a state of panic, running from the two cats that were currently out of commission though of course they didn't know that. The dam was emptying quickly, which was good. The others, the ones who'd survived their assignments that is, would be here soon and they could finish the job, blow the dam and get out of here. That was the mission.
And it was the farthest thing from Rian's mind. His attention was focused on the cat and the girl it represented. He kept repeating one stupid phrase but he hoped repetition would give it power to break through whatever pain might be clouding her mind. <<Ember, come back, please come back.>>
As she began to demorph he just repeated it more, not willing to believe the evidence of his eyes until she was safe. Why had he brought her here? Why had he given her the morph? He knew she had trouble with feline morphs. They could have found something else, anything else. But that little detail had slipped his mind in his planning. The little fact that he was taking the girl he loved on a suicide mission had slipped his mind.
Never had the huge disparity between what he had been making is priority and what his priorities should be been so clear to him. It wasn't like she hadn't wanted to come, she was as much a fighter as anyone else in the faction. But he could have done more to help in the past week. He could even have just spent time with her. But he'd been too busy.
As she finally achieved full humanity he stood and butted his head against her arms which she had wrapped around her. <<I'm always going to worry about you.>> He couldn't purr exactly but he did something close enough.
He ignored the sounds of footsteps coming closer to them, taking them to be just one other panicked controller fleeing the confusion but he shouldn't have made that mistake. The footsteps were evenly paced and calm. But for once he wasn't concentrating on the mission.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." Rian spun around, and with the speed only cats could achieve he knocked the dracon beam out of her hand, leaving deep claw marks on her arm.
Unfortunately for him he wasn't quite fast enough to stop from getting shot at point blank range.
He dropped to the ground without a sound, a hole in his chest.
Erik:
Isath was driving much too fast for his own good and having nearly run off the road and, consequently, off a cliff, he decided to ignore Erik's thoughts which were a primary source of distraction. They consisted of frantic and baseless threats regarding his wife's fate and if they were to stumble upon her lifeless body, there were a number of unspeakable things that he insisted would be done to Isath and his kind.
The scene at the dam was appalling. The boiling lake made Isath's mind spin with rage and Erik to quiet. He spotted Adele's deep navy Porsche parked just off the road, still tiny and quite a distance away. Erik thought of the horror that had befallen him when he heard her voice, shaking and breathless, cry out his name. Not Isath. Erik. It was unnerving to hear his strong-willed wife in such a state. Erik lifted his mind's eye to the sky and breathed a prayer of desperation. The prayer of a desperate, godless man.
Isath had not come unarmed. No less that three Dracon beams were strapped in holsters in easily accessible places. They were all set some where between a five and an eight. Deadly.
The car door of the Porsche was ajar. Erik's heart skipped and memories of picking out the car and buying it for Adele on their tenth anniversary flashed by. Nothing could prepare him for the sight of his beautiful Adele, unconscious, badly wounded, and still bleeding. Blood stained the interior and the door handle, and Adele's hands. Her ring. She could be saved, Isath knew. But it would take weeks of recovery for her to be back to normal. With hands fumbling about, as though they were weighed down by lead, Isath pulled the first-aid kit, of Yeerk design, from the back seat of his own luxury car. He acted quickly, speeding the healing of the punctures for the most part. A new technology developed by their own company. Adele groaned in pain. Her eyes fluttered open, looking up at Erik. A tired smile crossed her face.
"You came."
Her head lolled back again as Isath scooped her into his arms with great care. Setting her carefully down in his backseat, Isath strode confidently toward the dam, fueled by Erik's desire to see the hellish beasts that hurt his beloved blasted into oblivion.
Tenaj:
Tenaj whinced in pain. Her host had screamed out, but she wouldn't give this........insect the pleasure. Normally she would be furious. Normally. She had managed to put a whole through the leopard's chest. After the pain past, she smiled and began laughed.
"So much for the "scary" Animorphs," she boasted. She wasn't sure if she had killed it yet though. Plus there was a girl there still as well.
She then reached out for the knife she had on her. She had started carrying it on her, ever since that incident with Esor 229's host. She grinned evily. "Time to finish this beast off," she said and aimed the knife for its heart.
Ember:
"RIAN!" Ember cried out, a scream that brought the whole world crashing back down on her. She had only just turned around in time to see Rian's cat's body hit the ground, the smell of burnt skin and blood hitting her in a nauseous wave. Oh god no. Not now!
She rolled onto her knees, tears still wet on her cheeks as she took a runners stance. "YOU F@#%$ B$#^#!!" Ember roared at Tenaj, screwing any sense of warfare. Anger, thick with hatred and electric from overly stressed nerves, shot through her body, renewing her like nothing else could. She wasn't dead because of Rian. And nothing was going to keep her from saving him in return. Not her tired muscles, not her fragmented mind, and definitely not the knife the controller pulled! Ember smiled savagely, launching herself with everything she had left. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, probably the only thing keeping her standing, and she would pay for it later... but right now nothing mattered but Rian, and wiping that stupid look off that controller's face!
If her excruciating sessions with Luce had taught her anything, it was that the human body was the deadliest weapon she possessed. Morphs were only good if you were in them, but otherwise you had to be able to count on your own body to be a dependable form. That meant fighting against guns, knives, and hand to hand. All of which Ember now had developed defenses to, and that showed in her confident smirk as she slapped Tenaj's weapon aside and drove her fist into the woman's stomach.
"You. Won't. Touch him!" Ember felt the blade scrape the back of her arm and was forced to back away, but the controller was winded, giving her time to stand between her and Rian. Oddly, she thought of the first time she'd fought Kat.
Tenaj:
Tenaj hadn't expected the girl to come at her and was taken off guard by her punch. She staggered back a bit, having to catch her breath slightly.
She looked back up at the girl. She really wasn't in the mood for this. But if she wanted to fight, she'd get one. "You know.....I was just going to end it quickly," she told the girl. She held her ground, watching the girl making sure she didn't do anything yet. "But you've gotten on my bad side. I'm going to make sure your deaths are slow and painful. I don't care which one of you it is!"
She felt her anger start to boil over. She would take care of this girl. She would kill her slowly. And if she was lucky, maybe the leopard was alive and would get to watch. She then rushed at the girl, knife in hand and aimed for a stab to her stomach.
Ember:
Ember dodged, barely, letting the knife slip past her ribs and latching onto Tenaj's arm, holding it tightly to her side. Then with her right fist she swung back, "You talk too much."
THWACK!! Ember's fist connected with the woman's nose, crunching brutally with an instant geyser of rushing blood. It looked a lot worse than it was, but she got a lot of satisfaction out knowing the controller bitch would have a black and blue face for at least a month.
Tenaj couldn't be held for long though, especially with an extra burst of pain boosting her reaction. Ember felt a sharp paper-cut type pain along her waist as the knife was pulled back through, cutting through her morphing suit and nicking the surface of her skin. She sucked in a breath, dancing back out of reach as both of them re-caught their breath.
Rian. Rian. Rian....?!! The only thing Ember wanted in the world was to turn back, to see that he was ok, that he'd demorphed... but she couldn't take her eyes off Tenaj or they'd both be killed. She wished she could use thought speak, to connect to him again and pull him back from the brink just as he'd done for her. The blade flashed as the smoke flares started to fade and the sun crept onto the Dam. They needed to get out of there before they got surrounded. This fight had to end.
She could already feel the energy draining from her as they faced off. Her breaths came in wheezing gasps, muscles strained with every movement. "I- I hate this... I hate you! Yeerks, controllers! You've made my life hell! I can't take a moment to look at the sky, or watch a movie, or- or fall in love. It's too hard. Fighting back, trying to reclaim whats already mine from disgusting scumbag wastes of space! F-ing slugs!! I could squash you with a newspaper!!" Ember snarled, baring her bloody fists. "So why don't you do the universe a favor, you sick, psychotic, UGLY FUCKER!"
Ember lunged, "And just die already."
Erik:
Erik's strides were long and quick. His loosened tie fluttered in the breeze and the two Dracon beams holstered close to his person complimented the matching one in his hand. Shielding the sun from his eyes with the other, he hurried to the first place were he saw that there was trouble. There were many shouts and quite a number of profanities falling from the mouth of a young lady with rage contorting her otherwise young and pretty face. Isath recognized Sub-visser 30's host even though her face was bloodied. It was quite possible that this girl now lunging at her had very well broken the Sub-visser's nose.
The second thing that Erik noticed was a bloody, furry mass laying on it's side. It appeared to be a large cat, an Animorph, no doubt. Unfortunately, Isath was still quite a ways away from being able to do anything. His pace quickened, his lips pursed in concentration. There was killing to be done.
Tenaj:
Tenaj felt her arm grabbed by this girl and then she felt an intense shot of pain in her face. This girl had just broken her nose! HER NOSE! Tenaj had manged to cut her only slightly, and that wasn't good enough.
Her host had screamed out in pain, but she would not. SHe would not give the satisfaction. Blood was dripping from her nose. She took her sleeve and wiped it best she could. She was furious! More furious then one could possibly imagine.
But then.....the girl had started to speak. Whining about how the Yeerks had taken over. The girl then lunged at her. But the girl's movements were blinded by anger, and her little speech had calmed Tenaj down a bit. She knew she was making this one angry, and she was about to make it a lot worse.
She was feeling woozy from the blood she was losing, but she managed to grab Ember's arm with her free hand, and with the armed hand, punched her in the face. She let her go for a second and then lunged with the knife, aimed for her stomach.
"You die first," she told her. "And let me enjoy your screams of agony,"