We Finally Have a Mission (Mel/Willy/Richard)

[Melanie Martin]

Mel was happy to finally have a mission again, but naturally somewhat nervous as well. The mission was going to be a several day one due to the space center being 200 miles away from Miami. That isn't so bad if you're driving, but they were using morphs. They also had to eat and sleep somewhere along the line, although Melanie never slept very well during missions; her mind was too active.

Mel switched, sometimes flying, sometimes swimming, either as a seal or a shark. They had to watch how close they got to each other anyway, so as to lower the risk of attracting attention. Now, they were getting close and she was back in cockatoo morph, glad for once to have it. Parrots of various types frequently escaped even before the war, and she blended in well as long as she could avoid becoming someone's dinner along the way.

<I always wanted to come here, but not like this> she remarked. She just hoped they would know what they were looking for when they found it.

[Willy]

Having to go on a mission right after Willy reached Miami from New York was not his idea of ideal circumstances, but it was necessary. Waiting was not an option. If the yeerks really were working on a new project, they would need to find out as much as they could, as soon as they could. Which meant they would need to sneak into a yeerk controlled facility.

Things always seemed to take a turn for the worse whenever animorphs enter yeerk bases...

At leas he had some company as they traveled this time. Swimming as a whale and flying as a bird was much less boring when there were others to talk to. Almost before he knew it, they were nearing Cape Canaveral. With his screech owl morph he could see far and well, but he still wasn't sure what to be looking for.

From his temporary perch on a shrub, when he heard thought speech, Willy scanned the marshy area for a cockatoo and quickly spotted the exotic bird. <<The closest I have been to here was Disney World when I was eight,>> Willy replied to Melanie. <<I think I would have liked coming here better. But yeah, not like this.>>

[Richard]

It felt good to be doing something other than patrolling around the same areas, but Richard felt on edge that they had to take along a guy that they didn’t know very well. His experience with infiltrating a base was limited to things that he had thought up in his spare time, while trying to practice his morphs. Of course, those had been situations where danger was relatively minimal, and this was a place filled with enough Yeerks that would shoot him without blinking. They would need to be on their guard if they were going to survive this encounter with all of their limbs still attached.

The other two members of this mission were reflecting on wanting to come here when it had been normal. <<Personally, I've always wanted to visit Japan, but to each his or her own.>> Richard had lived in the area for most of his life, and not once had he ever felt the urge to visit this place until he heard that the Yeerks were doing something there.

<<So how are we doing this?>> His Mockingbird was about ready for a break to regain some energy from the time that he had been flying, but he wasn't going to set down until they had some sort of plan in order.

[Willy]

<<So how are we doing this?>> Richard asked.

It was that exact question that had been mulling over in Willy's mind ever since they left Miami. Spreading his wings, Willy took to the air again and surveyed his surroundings once more. There were buildings not more than a mile away that seemed like they would be a promising target. However, since they had no idea what sorts of defenses, or how paranoid the yeerks here would be, it probably wouldn't be smart to just fly right in. Especially since their bird morphs weren't exactly native to this marshy area.

<<Let's go in by ground,>> Willy suggested. <<Get as close as we dare by air, then morph something small and quick. I've got a mouse morph that should work. Then we can crawl over and try to find a way inside. Sound good?>>

[Melanie Martin]

<Yeah. I can say I'm seeing way more places than I ever thought I would before the war.> Mel replied. It was just too bad that she couldn't enjoy it and had to spend her time laying low, keeping hidden and fighting controllers. < Not that there's any free time these days, naturally.>

Willy talked about how it might be better to switch to ground morphs and go in that way. Mel was ambiguous, but did see the reasoning. <Well, I'm not entirely out of place, but I do see what you mean. Besides, If there is stuff going on here, it could mean bug fighters in the area, and I don't want to be Kentucky Fried Cockatoo.>

<I've got a mouse too, and my other small land morph is a leopard cat, but I don't think I'll use it,I'd still stick out too badly. Back in California I could have passed for a Margay or something, but there aren't any spotted cats this far east. Besides, the bigger I am, the harder it is to hide.>

[Richard]

Willy was the first to respond to his question, and the plan that he laid out seemed like the most logical, but Richard was reluctant to go into a small morph even if it was the only way to sneak into the place. The smallest morph that he possessed was a cockroach, which weren’t as fast the two mouse morphs that Willy and Melanie had.

<<Sounds like a solid plan even with the part about going small, but I guess I will have to suffer through the fear of getting squashed as a cockroach. Just remind me to get a new small morph with some better senses before the next time that we have to sneak into a place.>> Of course, Richard was only being partly serious about the whole new morph thing because he still had his dog morph to do those things. What he really needed was something with a little more muscle on it to intimidate these Yeerks into leaving without a fight, or at least make it easier to beat them in a fair fight.

[Willy]

<<It sounds like we have a plan of action then,>> Willy said as he dipped down close to the ground and started making his way toward the buildings. <<Lets get this over with so we can go home.>>

It was unfortunate that Richard's only small morph was a cockroach, but there wasn't much they could do about it now. Not unless they wanted to take some time to rustle up one of the critters Willy kept catching glimpses of while their team was less than a mile from a yeerk facility. Willy knew from his experiences as a tick that being a bug isn't too much fun, so he could certainly sympathize with Richard, but a cockroach may still come in handy on this mission.

When he was about as close as he dared to get, Willy said, <<I'm landing,>> then settled down into the tall grass in a ditch next to a parking lot. He demorphed as quickly as he could from owl to human, then started the transformation into mouse form. He didn't want to be big any longer than he had to be.

[Melanie Martin]

Mel landed and demorphed, something she hated in the field. She felt too vulnerable, and never stayed human very long. She remorphed, following Willy's actions morphing mouse, though she waited for him to fully morph before demorphing. That way, there was someone not caught between morph and vulnerable if trouble sprang up.

The strange part about this mouse was always when she felt its mind. It was a predator, a killer. It regarded Willy as a threat and wanted to display, wanted to howl at Willy. It wanted to go hunting and attack something for a meal. Insects, snakes, scorpions and other mice were all fair game.

<One good thing about this morph, I stand a chance if I run into any snakes along the way. It likes to eat scorpions and snakes, so it's somewhat immune. I'm just glad I've learned how to keep it from attacking the rest of you. Hated that part in the beginning...almost as much trouble as the wolf sometimes.>

She looked for Richard, knowing they could only get started once they were all ready.

[Richard]

Richard watched as Willy descended in the direction of the building that they were going to infiltrate with Melanie following suit. This was going to be an interesting experience for all of them in Richard’s opinion, but he just hoped that it wouldn’t turn into a bad experience as he had enough of those. <<Well let’s not rush through this. We don’t want to screw it up.>> He descended after them so that he could keep an eye out while the other two went through the morphing process.

After Melanie had gone through her whole morph change, Richard began his own process, which was quick when he went from bird to human but going to insect was a pain because he sort of made it that way by dragging out the process just in case he saw a wild animal that was more to his liking. He didn’t so after a long process Richard was a cockroach that was on edge be this close to two predators. Melanie sort of made the creature’s instincts worse by saying something about having to keep from attacking Willy and him.

<<Lucky for you, can someone else lead the way so I can follow the vibrations?>> Richard really wanted to get out of this morph and back to using something that had teeth. He would be useless if they ran into any trouble, which was completely possible where they were going.

[Willy]

Now that Willy was in his mouse morph, he had to work hard to control its instincts. This was only the second time he morphed it. The first time being shortly after he had acquired it in New York City. And unlike Melanie, he felt more like prey than predator. It probably wasn't helping matters that he had just recently been an animal that would have gladly eaten his current form. For these reasons Willy was glad he had morphed first. It gave him a little extra time to get used to his rodent body.

<<Melanie and I can lead the way,>> Willy said, making an effort to hide his reluctance. <<We can make sure the path is clear. Don't be afraid to climb onto my back if you have trouble following though. It would be bad if we got split up and I don't think carrying a cockroach would be too much of a burden.>>

That being said, Willy crawled to the edge of the grass by the parking lot and stuck his nose out into the open air. His senses said their were no predators in the immediate vicinity, other than a rival mouse, but he still had a hard time urging his body out into the open. <<Here we go,>> Willy said as he crawled out onto the cracked asphalt. Already the shapes of parked cars were looming overhead.

[Melanie Martin]

Melanie didn't like being this small. Even a predatory mouse was still a prime target for a lot of the predators around here. She might escape a snake, but there were a lot of other things that would readily pounce on them. And everything was so large and confusing. It was easy to get lost, though also easy to hide if they had to.

Once all three had morphed, they started off. Richard followed while she and Willy lead, with Willy telling Richard to climb on if they hit trouble. The parked cars were like giant skyscrapers, and Mel just hoped nobody decided to start one up.

<I just hope we can find what we're looking for from this vantage point.> she said. <And that we manage not to get lost. We might be able to smell our way back, but I don't want to test that out.>

[Richard]

Two mice and a cockroach seemed like an appropriate team to infiltrate and possibly eliminate a Yeerk operation, but they could have used someone to keep an eye on things from the sky. A hawk would be the perfect aerial scout, which reminded Richard of Dustin who had been able to morph into one. The roach brain was easy to deal with for Richard, since he had practiced it back at the academy. Now he was going to get to make use of all that time spent in morph to do something helpful.

<<Thanks for the offer, but I think that I can keep up with you two,>> Richard said in response to Willy’s offer. Richard didn’t want to be put into a position where someone else was in charge of where his current body was going, and that went double for a guy who he barely knew anything about. Then, they were off across the asphalt toward the certain unknown that could quite possibly get them killed if they weren’t lucky, which they probably weren’t lucky as they were in the middle of a war with a race that had the ultimate hostages.

Melanie started bringing up points that made Richard wish that they did have someone up in the sky as that someone could have kept them on the right track, but this mission was difficult as it was with only three people going in. Any less would make it nearly impossible to successfully do something to stop it. <<I don’t think that finding it will be a problem, since it will most likely be the only place in the area that has a lot of noise coming from it. If it begins to sound too quiet, then you are probably going the wrong way.>>

Of course, he might have been wrong since he couldn’t really see anything from this low on the ground, but Richard had a strong feeling that he was correct in assuming that noise would be a determining factor in finding this place.

[Willy]

Run forward. Stop under a minivan. Run forward. Stop next to a clump of weeds. Run forward. Stop under a pickup truck.

Running across a parking lot turned out to be much more stressful than Willy had anticipated, but it would be far from their biggest challenge. Finding out what was going on here would be a big challenge, sure, but first they would need to find a way into the building. And Willy doubted it would be as simple as crawling in through a vent. The building would have to be at least moderately pest-proof otherwise the natural wildlife would probably have already overrun the place.

Richard said, <<I don’t think that finding it will be a problem, since it will most likely be the only place in the area that has a lot of noise coming from it. If it begins to sound too quiet, then you are probably going the wrong way.>>

Willy's sensitive mouse ears could certainly hear noise coming from the building, which helped to locate a good choice of entrance. And he could now see a blurry outline of a door from the tire he was crouched next to, but still had no idea how to get to the other side of it.

Just then another noise reached Willy's ears, but it was coming from a different direction. <<Do you guys hear that? It sounds like... music.>>

Rolling up the path to the parking lot was a rusty station wagon with it's speakers blaring. The controller behind the wheel was singing loudly, without shame, and off key. "Everybody knows everybody, everybody calls you friend. You don’t need an invitation, kick off your shoes come on in. Yeah, we know how to work and we know how to play. We’re from the country and we like it that way!"

The lady screeched into a nearby parking space and turned off the car. She opened her door and a few soda cans and food wrappers fell out, but the woman didn't seem to care and was still humming loudly. She grabbed a binder, a laptop, and bag of chips from the back seat, then proceeded to walk toward the building in her flip-flops.

<<This is our chance,>> Willy realized. <<Follow the wannabe diva!>>

[Melanie Martin]

The movement was a lot of starting and stopping as they made their way accross the parking lot. They might not appear too suspicious, but they took no chances, dating under cars and bushes and checking for danger every step of the way. She was always surprised how much longer and bigger things were at mouse height.

She was startled by the screeching car and the various loud noises that came with it. The mouse ears picked it up better than human ones, and she could feel the vibrations of the ground as well. She did, however, have the same thought as Willy when the woman moved toward the door.

<I'm surprised the slug can tolerate such awful singing enough to actually make the host do it.> she remarked as she did what Willy said and started following the singer. <Not having natural ears definitely impairs their musical sense if you ask me. Yuck.>

[Richard]

Richard moved forward and then stopped moving because one of them had stopped moving. Then they started again and stopped again, and he was beginning to wonder if they were just avoiding danger or if the mouse pair was sort of overcome by the instincts of the animal. It seemed like a strong possibility as he stopped under what seemed like a vehicle, but these were experienced morphers who couldn’t get out willed by some small animal’s fear.

<<Do you guys hear that? It sounds like... music.>> That was Willy trying to get a cockroach to hear something , which was sort of weird as he could feel the vibrations that came from the music. It was hard to interpret into words but it definitely felt like a beat of some kind. Of course, Richard didn’t like the plan that was unfolding as he realized that there was someone singing, and Willy’s grand scheme was to follow this person. Well the roach mind said that following something larger than itself was not a smart idea, but Richard did it anyway.

His little cockroach legs motored after the large vibrations that came with a person walking. <<Aside from the Banshee voice, what do you think that this Yeerk’s job is?>> Whatever it was, it didn’t have anything to do with sanitation or nutrition as he crawled over a few wrappers that were a little ripe in his opinion, which left something along the lines of an engineer or a higher up. If they could just figure out where the heck she was going, then they might actually stand a chance at stopping this evil plan.

Then something unexpected happen with the woman dropping her bag of chips, and Richard had to stop himself to keep from being noticed. <<She definitely has greasy fingers.>> Then he had an interesting thought as the woman reached down for the bag, and Richard took off at top speed to try to set the idea in motion. It was probably suicidal, but once he felt that his legs were on something soft and his body was in a vertical direction Richard knew that he was definitely where he thought he needed to be.