When the World Weighs You Down

[Richard]

Feelings were not something that Richard was great with, so even though he should have talked it out with someone he was incapable of formulating the words to explain how he felt. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel sad about Dustin’s passing, but the fact that he barely knew anything about the guy made it a little easier to move on which made him feel bad.

At least they were getting an extra set of hands to help with the workload in the area for a few weeks, which was apparently growing as Willy announced that there was some trouble brewing nearby. This was exactly what Richard needed to hear. It would give him something to do that did not consist of scouting for potential Yeerk locations. Melanie’s comments brought the big picture out into the open so that it was clear to everyone if it wasn’t already.

“So the first thing we should do is scout the situation for ourselves.” The three of them together should be able to find out if this information was just hearsay or if there was some real problem that they needed to concern themselves with. If there was some plan to make it easier for the Yeerks to completely take over the planet, then Richard wanted to throw a giant wrench into the works. “Of course, we are going to have to figure out the best way to get there.”

[Willy]

"I'm not sure if they would need to leave their host's head anymore or not, Melanie," he said to the wolf. "That is one of the things we will need to find out when we go scout out the place, like Smith here suggested. And yeah, figuring out how to get there could be a problem."

Willy was purposefully not addressing Melanie's subtle suggestion that they wait three days to see if he is a controller. He had no desire to be put through that test if he didn't have to. Not that he could blame them for being cautious. He had been a faction leader once, and so knew how paranoid you had to be sometimes. Still, just because he knew waiting for three days might be necessary if they didn't trust him, it didn't mean he had to like it.

"So, do you guys have bird morphs?" Willy asked, letting his mind get back to the subject of scouting out the yeerk-controlled base. "Or at least a bug morph that can hitch a ride on my own bird morph? If not, I'm sure there are some bugs around here you could acquire easily."

[Melanie Martin]

Mel noticed that Willy didn't make any reply to her words about waiting to trust him, but she didn't press it. If he was legit, he'd know why they were so guarded. She listened to the rest of the conversation, glancing down at the watch on her paw. It was getting close, she had to demorph.

"Either way, I don't like it" she replied once she had human lips. She knew that even if they still had to leave, using any available body of water would mean no central feeding ground and make stopping them and freeing anyone a lot harder.

"I agree, that's the best route." Melanie agreed. Willy asked about bird morphs, and she nodded. "Cockatoo, kestrel...got a fly too. The owl's out naturally unless it's a night fly." The thing was great for that, but practically blind in daylight. "I suppose I could go cockatoo and pretend to be an escaped pet...happens a lot in places like this."

[Richard]

If they didn’t need to leave their hosts anymore, then it would be nearly impossible to identify who was infested and who wasn’t without a scanner. Richard wasn’t sure if things would actually become that difficult for them, but even the possibility of such a scenario was worth investigating and waiting long enough to see if this guy was a controller was out of the question at this point.

Melanie’s time in morph was obviously up when she reverted to her human form, which meant that the only real intimidation factor that they had was now altered to the power behind his fists instead of the jaws of a canine. If this guy was bad, then Richard would have to be the one that held off the Controllers while Melanie got away, but at this point it didn’t seem like anything would get out of control.

“As far as bird morphs go, all I have is a magpie morph, and I don’t my cockroach would be very good at holding onto any bird unless you are going to hold me in a foot.” Richard didn’t like the idea of being a bug that was stuck on a guy that they couldn’t trust. It just seemed assisted suicide to him, and that would just be stupid.

[Willy]

Willy was glad to hear that they both had bird morphs. It would make traveling to Cape Canaveral much more enjoyable. Not to mention bird morphs would probably be hand once they reached their destination as well.

"I think we should leave as soon as reasonably possible," Willy suggested. "Tonight or tomorrow morning if it can be managed. We should inform your faction leader, decide who is going, then gather any necessary equipment." Willy wasn't sure what kind of equipment they might be able to bring, seeing as anything that wasn't skin tight would be nearly impossible to morph.

Willy crossed his arms, stood tall, and held his head high. With a tightly restrained smirk he said, "I sure hope you two are ready for a real mission, 'cause this ain't gonna be a walk in the park."