Beach Bonanza

[Drake]

Drake was a bird, soaring as well as any bird ever could. Dipping and turning and using the currents to his advantage. His stubby black and white wings made all the necessary adjustments almost automatically. Then, with a sudden surge, he broke the surface of the water and took a breath from the air above.

He looked around, but all his penguin eyes could see were waves. Even though he couldn't see the beach some inexplicable sense told him in which direction there was land. Still, eyes were necessary right now. Not only did they need to reach their destination, but they also needed to reach their destination safely.

<<Can you see anything, Sawyer? The waves are too tall for me and I need to know what's going on on land.>>

They were headed to Copacabana by water. It was the beach next to a lot of the controller residences, and there was supposed to be some sort of announcement being given there today. Drake wasn't sure what it was, but it was probably something they should know about.

Drake was wary of bringing a rookie along for this mission, but Sawyer would need experience. And he hoped this mission wouldn't be very dangerous. Sure, they were headed straight toward a large gathering of controllers, but all they needed to do was listen in and gather intel. Piece of cake.

But for some reason knowing this mission was supposed to be easy only made Drake worry more.

[Sawyer]

Sawyer who was in her dolphin form jumped out of the water to get a look at the beach ahead. She jumped around a couple more times to act like she was just a silly dolphin playing in the water in case there were controllers on the beach that could spot her. <<I see a couple guard towers with search lights but I don't see anyone in them. Maybe there are cameras on them or something. I can't be sure since I'm still a decent distance from the shore. I definitely don't see anyone on the beach though. Perhaps they are further inland?"

Sawyer was happy to finally be on a mission but she was also nervous. She felt that she was still pretty green and she was nervous about making a mistake. Of course she tried her best not to thing about that because when you are worried about messing up you tend to create a self-fulfilling prophecy and mess up. <<Well what's your call Drake. How should we move forward?"

[Drake]

Drake considered Sawyers information for a moment as he bobbed in the water. It was both good and bad news. He had flown close enough to the area before to know about the towers. He didn't know when they got used, but assumed it was for special occasions. Like maybe this occasion. However, it was the news about the people that gave him the most cause to pause.

It was in the plan to arrive early, but he assumed there would be at least a few people around. Controllers probably didn't use the beach for recreation, but it was still a good place for exercising. On scouting missions he had seen people swimming and jogging. Drake looked up at the sky. It was cloudy, but late morning sunlight still poked through in spots. The weather certainly wasn't too terrible to be out on the sand.

<<Something must be up,>> Drake finally said in response to Sawyer's question. <<I was going to have us demorph in the surf near shore and mingle in with the crowd. The beach is the one place our morphing suits wouldn't make us stand out like sore thumbs. But it seems there is nobody there to mingle with.>>

<<You are probably right. They are probably further inland.>> Drake briefly considered scraping the mission but quickly realized he had no real reason to. They weren't in any more danger now than they had been a moment ago. <<Let's head for shore. We'll look weird just walking out of the sea, but nobody will be around to see us, right? Except for maybe on the cameras if they are there.>> Drake hoped he was making the right decision as he paddled toward shore to demorph in the shallows.

[Sawyer]

<<Alright then captain>> Sawyer replied. She had a feeling that her leader was not to happy that his plan was not going well for lack of a better phrase as planned. She had to admit she too share his concerns. Despite no one being around she still felt exposed because they were in a wide open space and would stick out like a sore thumb. What concerned her the most though were those guard towers. Even if there were no controllers there the towers could still blow their cover.

As Sawyer followed Drake towards the shallows she had a nervous thought. <<Drake you don't think there could be weapons on those towers do you? I mean like dracon beams that would fire if an intruder were to come withing a certain distance. I mean I didn't see anything but wouldn't past them to create something like that especially considering they've probably invested plenty of brilliant scientists and maybe even some members of the department of defense.>>

[Drake]

Drake stopped paddling suddenly when he heard Sawyer's words. Weapons? His face would have gone pale if it could. The faction leader bobbed in the water for a moment as a confusing mix of unpleasant emotions washed over him. <<I... I didn't think of that,>> he finally admitted. If it hadn't been for Sawyer, he could have very well led them straight in front of a loaded gun, so to speak.

A change of plans was certainly called for. What that change was, he hadn't decided. He tried to recall the layout of the area from when he scouted earlier. There was the 4 km beach, the hotels behind them, and the towers out by the water. There was no way they could risk going across the beach now that Sawyer brought up the possibility of weapons in the towers.

Maybe they could try to burrow under the sand? No, Sawyer doesn't have any digging morphs, Drake thought to himself. I barely do either. And neither of us have any morphs that can fly straight out of the water, like a seagull or duck. So we can't get past the tower without risking too much. But can we go up it? Drake was almost afraid to think it.

<<Sawyer?>> Drake finally asked. <<You have a bug morph, right? Can you take another look at the beach for me? If we can get to the base of a tower while staying underwater most of the way, we should be able to morph bugs and climb up in order to try and disable what might be at the top.>> Silently he added, I hope.

<<However, even if the tide is in our favor, and you don't think the towers would be able to shoot straight down, I still want to leave the call to you. This first mission just became much more dangerous than expected. I wouldn't blame you for deciding to forego this opportunity and try again later.>> Drake didn't know if they would get another chance to find out what was going to be announced to the yeerks today, but whatever it was would not be worth the life of one of his faction members.

[Sawyer]

<<Yeah I have a bug morph>> Sawyer confirmed. <<I have an any morph but I'll have to get on land first before I can morph into it. I mean I can demorph in the water but I'll have to remorph on land. Ants and water don't mix well and even if its my mind inside the ants body I still wouldn't want to risk drowning. So I need as discrete a place as possible to get into my ant morph.>>

Sawyer hope that they could find a place away from the camera so she could morph safely. She was concerned about the new dangers of the mission but she knew if she quit now they could miss some essential plot that the Yeerks were planning. In order to save the uncle she'd always considered to be her father she would have to swallow her fear and push forward. <<Yes I understand the dangers Drake but I'm more afraid that if we don't strike now that we may never get another chance.>>

[Drake]

Drake was glad to hear that Sawyer wasn't the type to shy away from a dangerous situation when it was important. It was a good trait for an animorph to have, even if it would likely lead to an early grave.

But Sawyer was right about the cameras. If they got caught morphing, then they could end up with a lot more than a couple of towers shooting at them. The problem was, the beach was smooth and empty. No rocks to hide behind. No trees. If memory served him well, the only thing on the shore was some beach grass that the yeerks no longer bothered to keep cleared off of the former tourist destination. They were much too big to hide in grass though.

<<Unless we shrink first...>> Realizing he had said it aloud, Drake tried to clarify. <<Sawyer, lets find some grass near the water. I'll let you lead the way. We'll have to demorph in the water to stay hidden. Only come up for air when you absolutely have to.>>

Drake didn't want to say the next part, but he had to. <<Then... we will start to morph bug in the water. I know you haven't had a lot of time to practice moving around in mid-morph, and I certainly have never tried swimming while being part bug, but if we gradually move into shallower water then hopefully we will be alright. Once we are small enough we can go into the grass on the beach and finish morphing.>>

Drake was really not enjoying being the leader right now. He was used to following plans, not making them. And right now he felt he was asking too much of someone, but he had no choice if they wanted to succeed today. <<If that sounds doable, I will follow you to shore and demorph alongside you. I'll do my best to help you if you need it.>> He left out the part about not being a strong swimmer himself.

[Sawyer]

<<Ok I'll do what I can >> Sawyer replied. <<In order to win this we'll have to take some risks right?>> Sawyer didn't like the idea of having to maneuver in midmorph especially since she could not morph from human to animal form smoothly as of yet but she had to try. <<Okie dokey smokey lets do this>>. She started to swim along keeping parallel to the shore line so she could spot a heavy grass area and hopefully one that was relatively high, for grass anyways. She swam for a few minutes before spotting one that looked like it could provide decent cover.

<<Ok I think this area will work>> Sawyer said. The grass covered a few feet of the shoreline and it looked at least 4 inches in height. At her current size she'd stick out but if she could shrink down enough before getting into the ant morph maybe she could have enough cover to finish the morph online. <<Unless you think the three other tiny patches of grass I passed would work better?>> Sawyer doubted it though. The other areas she passed only had one little clump of grass. The rest was all sand.

[Drake]

<<I trust your judgement. Here is fine,>> Drake replied, mostly telling the truth. <<Lets just morph and get onto that beach.>> Drake took a deep breath and dove down to the sand near the shore and proceeded to concentrate on his human form.

As a penguin, his lungs would easily be able to hold enough oxygen to keep him underwater for the entire duration of his demorph/remorph. However, as his body grew and became less efficient at breath holding, it became apparent that he would need to surface for air at least once. He would just have to make sure it was as late as possible.

Other than getting bigger, the first changes occurred in his legs. His stubby penguin limbs elongated to near human length. He already looked like a mutated creature from some old horror movie, and it only got worse as his beak melted away and his head swelled to human proportions.

The next change happened with his coloration. The black feathers migrated to his torso while the white feathers seemed to move to his extremities. The black feathers became the tight-fitting cloth of his morphing suit and the white feathers dulled into the peachy flesh tone of his skin. Lastly, Drake's arms rounded out and grew the dexterous fingers of human hands.

By now Drake's lungs were burning and it was difficult to fight the urge to break the water's surface and gulp in the air above. And now human, he became much more aware of the waves pushing him off balance. First they would push him toward shore, then away. If he wasn't careful, he realized he may end up surfacing unintentionally.

With difficulty, Drake concentrated on one of his bug morphs. The first change was his forearms bending in half. It all of his remaining willpower to refrain from screaming out of shock. He had not morphed mantis enough times to be used to changes like that.

Even though he held back his scream, Drake's lungs were now on fire and he knew he had to risk breaking the surface. Now that he had six limbs to anchor himself to the sand beneath, Drake carefully rose his mouth above the water and took in a breath. Except he no longer had lungs. Being more mantis than human now, Drake was breathing through holes in the sides of his body. Holes that were currently covered in sea water.

<<I'm heading onto land,>> Drake said to Sawyer, trying to keep as much panic as possible out of his voice. Already he was having trouble concentrating. As he fought the waves and continued to shrink, Drake finally managed to reach a point where the water was shallower than his legs and he ran forward as quickly as his clumsy bug legs would carry him.

He was in a bit of an oxygen-deprived daze when he finally reached the grass, so he wasn't sure if he had been a small as he should have been, but he was in the grass now so he would have to hope he hadn't messed up. <<Sawyer, you here somewhere?>> he asked, still in a bit of a daze. Then the last changes of his morph occurred and the predatory instincts of the mantis kicked in.

[Sawyer]

Once Sawyer was sure the location was set she began to demorph. She sometimes liked to think of demorphing from dolphin form as reenacting that scene from The Little Mermaid because generally the first change to occur was her tail splitting into two separate parts. Next her dorsal fin began to shrink into her back and her spine straightened out. Her split tail morphed back into her legs and feet. Her other fins began to grow into arms and slowly the ends split to form her fingers on her hands. Her human torso began to form and her dolphin head stretched out to form her neck. Her long dolphin snout shrunk to form her nose and mouth.

Of course as all these changes were occurring her skin went from its slippery gray dolphin skin to her peachy human skin and her long brown hair appeared back on her head. After the morphing process was finally complete she swam to the surface but only enough so that her mouth and nose broke the surface and she could breathe. Once she had caught her breath she swam as close to shore as she could to start the next morph but still be under the cover of the water.

She concentrated on the picture of the ant in her head and soon her body began to shrink. Antenna grew out of her head and extra limbs began to appear on the side of her body. Her toso began to separate into a thorax and abdomen and she continued to get smaller once she was sure that she was small enough to hide in the grass and her little ant legs had fully formed she swam with all her might towards the shore. Luckily the she caught the small tide at the shoreline as it was going towards the shore and it pushed her onto the sand. She moved her little legs and far onto shore as possible and continued to morph. Her black exoskeleton appeared and finally tiny pincers grew out of her mouth area. She heard drake calling to her once she was finished <<Yeah I'm here in the grass>> She replied. <<Let's pray we never have to do anything like that again>>

[Drake]

Sawyer's words helped to snap Drake out of the subtle control of his morph's instincts. He was lucky. He hadn't even been aware that the mantis mind had gained some control until Sawyer reminded him just who and what he was. He shuddered to think what might have happened if he had been within striking range of Sawyer's ant morph.

<<I agree,>> Drake finally said. <<That was not fun. You got control of your morph?>> It sounded like she did, but the last thing he wanted was for Sawyer to be in the same situation he almost was in.

As he talked Drake was taking note of his own body. His main bug morph had always been his moth morph, but he was starting to like this one better. It was probably about as close to human as you could get while still being a bug. He walked erect and had eyes that were much better than most insects'. And while certainly not at the top of the food chain, he was still a predator. A predator, but not a hunter. He was patient, calm. Prey would come to him.

<<We shouldn't waste any time,>> Drake said as he spotted what he could only guess was an ant. <<We only have two hours in morph, and probably even less time before the yeerks make their announcement.>>

[Sawyer]

<< Yeah I'm in control.>> For some reason the ant instincts were not as strong as those in her other morphs specifically her white tailed deer morph. <<Ok so I'll see if I can closer to those towers so I can get a better idea of what we are dealing with here>> She moved as fast as a her little ant legs would carry her. The sand made it a bit more difficult because at ant size it was like traversing the great sand dunes of Colorado. Still she managed to make it to the towers. She looked up at the towers and tried her best to make out the features of the tower. An ant has compound eyes meaning she saw multiples of the same image.

It looked like there a squarish shaped object on the side of the tower that was moving back and forth constantly and she was almost certain it had a little blinking light. <<Damn>> she whispered in her head and then realized Drake may have heard her. <<Erm from what I can make out it looks like there are cameras up there. I can't tell if there are any weapons though. If there are seeing as nothing has gone off while I'm at such a close range maybe we'll be to small to be detected by any weapons if there are here?>>

[Drake]

<<That makes sense,>> Drake said, agreeing with Sawyer's assessment. <<If they try to shoot every bug that wanders onto the beach, those towers would probably be firing constantly. So I guess we know we are at least safe if we stay small or under the water.>> Drake noticed a crab scuttling by not too far away. <<Safe from the yeerks anyway.>>

Drake wasn't sure what their next step should be. With little bug legs, it could take them a long time to go anywhere, so they would need to be efficient. He decided to ask Sawyer for her input. <<Should we climb the tower and check it out more closely, or head across the beach to get in place for the announcement?>>

Not knowing what exactly the towers were for could cause problems for them further down the road, and if they figured them out then they might be able to safely use some non-bug morphs for their recon. On the other hand, if they didn't get into position soon enough, they could miss the announcement entirely. It was their ability to make decisions like this that caused Drake to envy his old faction leaders.

[Sawyer]

<<I think we should head over to where the announcement is being held. I mean we can't risk missing it and I worry about running into an unhappy surprise at the top of those towers.>> Even if she was pretty sure that they were safe from the cameras and probably too small to be detected on the ground that didn't mean that there weren't some sort of technology that could detect them within the towers themselves. Yeerks had taken over brilliant scientists, her uncle included, so she knew not to underestimate their technological capacities.

Plus she wanted to be sure they made it in time to hear the announcement and to reach the spot so they could sneak in in bug morphs and demorph discretely before the time limit was up. Being an ant the rest of her life was certainly not on her agenda. <<So where is the meeting spot? Oh an what's the plan once we get there seeing as we have to keep make revisions today.>> Sawyer hoped that the information given today would be something that could help the Animorphs gain an upper hand on the yeerks. Lord knows they could use any advantage they could get in this war.

[Drake]

Sawyer had a great point about the possibility of there being other defenses within the tower itself. It was yet another oversight on Drake's part. He was lucky to have someone on his team who could catch all the details he missed, otherwise the mission may have already ended in disaster.

<<Alright, to the announcement it is. I don't know where a good meeting spot will be yet, since I originally thought this event would take place on the beach.>> Drake paused to think for a couple moments. <<I can fly in this morph, sort of, so I'll scout ahead. You can try and make your way across the beach on foot.>> Drake was about to take wing, but paused. <<Or maybe I could carry you? I would rather not split up if we can help it.>>

<<I guess the overall plan is to get over to the street on the other side of the hotels and find a safe place to land. Then, if it is feasible, we can demorph and try to blend with the crowd somehow.>> Drake knew his plan had too many unknowns, but if they were going to do this, they wouldn't be able to plan for every single variable.



((OOC: Feel free to take control of Drake flying in your next post, and maybe even demorph him if that is the rout you decide to take. I'm flexible.))