Inspired by the show '24'. The Animorps face a threat bigger than anything they've ever faced, uncovering a plot unlike anything they could have imagined. It will take them an entire day to deal with the attacks, kidnappings, traitors and tortures that come at them every hour in this non-stop adventure over 24 hours of real-time action.
This story will comprise of 24 hour long chapters, where everything occurs in real-time. Not jumping from place to place or hour to hour, every minute of this day will be action packed and exciting! Hope you guys like it! Any reviews or criticism or just plain hate mail will be appreciated.
THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 1:00 P.M. AND 2:00 P.M. Events Occur in Real Time. 1:00:00 P.M.
"Hey kid!" a stern voice called, sounding almost confused.
Jacob was leaning against the wall of a building; shattered glass lay at his feet. To his right was a window that was smashed in with a brick. It must have set off some kind of alarm. Jacob looked up as three men approached him, all dressed in blue suits. He eyed the guns strapped to each of their waists, and then he eyed the badges worn on their chest.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" one of the security guards asked him. He remained silent.
Another guard reaching up to the radio strapped to his shoulder, "Hey we just got to the break, its just some kid," he said, eying the window Jacob had broken, "yeah I don't know what his deal is, we'll let you know."
"What's your name k-" the third guard began to ask, but before he could finish there was a sound from the forest behind them, and he jerked forward unexpectedly.
The other two guards spun around towards the direction the muffled gunshot had come from, as their friend toppled forward and collapsed onto the ground. Jacob watched it all as if in slow motion; before either guard to get their guns drawn, several more shots blew out of the forest, striking them precisely in the chest. Blood blew out of their backs, splattering the wall to either side of Jacob. He looked down and saw a red streak across his chest; the blood of the first man.
The man was crawling towards him, wheezing his breaths laboriously and fighting for every inch of the ground. He reached up to Jacob with his radio in hand, "Help," he managed to groan.
Jacob could only stare at him as three figures stepped out of the cover of the dense forest bushes. He looked up at the man, who was pointing a gun lazily down at the guard. He didn't have to kill him, Jacob could say so, they didn't have to do it. BAM BAM Two more shots to the mans back, and he slumped at Jacobs feet.
The man looked up at Jacob with dark eyes, "Good job Jacob."
"Jacob, wake up," Raul said, looking at Jacob with a concerned face, "we have to hide the bodies, and find their key cards; we need them to infiltrate the building."
1:04:50 P.M. ForestKeen hawk eyes scanned the valley carefully, searching every blade of grass for prey. Tobias had grown accustomed to this daily ritual. It was the life of a hawk; the life he had chosen. His own sacrifice for the war. He tried to focus on his search, but felt it was futile. He had been hunting all morning and had nothing to show for it. He would have to resume later—the others would be getting out of school soon. It was a beautiful day for flying; he could take his time getting there.
Then the slight quiver of a blade of grass drew his eye. That was all he needed. His hawk mind focused, calculating every scenario as he lifted off the soft tree branch and took to the sky. Feeling the light breeze fill his wings, he soared across the field, aiming towards his prey. The furry nose stuck itself out of its burrow, exactly when he had predicted. It sniffed the air as Tobias soared overhead, close, but not too close. Sensing the right moment he dipped downwards for the kill, raking his talons forward as the rabbit hopped out of its hole. He dug them in and immediately began feeding on its warm meat.
Feeling something above him, Tobias looked up defensively from his kill. There were other predators in the forest. What he saw was nowhere near another animal—it wasn't even of earth. Any other human would have missed the slight distortion in the wind overhead. It may have been invisible, but nothing passed through Tobias' forest without his knowing it. Tobias tried to lift off, but the downdraft coming from the ship was killing all the wind. He struggled for every inch, keeping his eye on the spot he had seen the distortion, where he knew there must be a cloaked ship. Finally giving up his climb, he landed on a low branch. All evidence of the ship was gone, but he knew it was out there. And based on the direction it had been heading, it was moving deeper into the forest. Was it simply leaving town, choosing this as the best direction to travel? Tobias felt more strongly that this was its destination, something was going on in the forest. Either way, he needed to find the others, quickly.
1:09:02 P.M. Biozyme Industries"Next, we'll bring you to one of our labs, where we'll speak to our lead geneticist," the guide said. She was walking backwards down the hall with a wide, false smile painted across her face.
"Hey, Jen!" Cassie called, speeding up to catch the small girl moving slowly with the crowd of uninterested students. The class was on a field trip at the new biotech laboratory, Biozyme, which apparently was announcing some new breakthrough later in the day.
"Oh, hey, Cassie," Jen said, looking up from her feet.
"How's it going?" Cassie asked. She stared carefully into her eyes as they walked down the hall, their tour guide leading them, constantly droning on cheerfully.
"Good," Jen said.
"You just seem a little preoccupied lately," Cassie said carefully, then added in a slightly girly voice, "We haven't talked in like the longest time."
Cassie hated doing this to friends, but it had become an important part of the war. Unfortunately, if someone was acting weird, it usually meant that they were a Controller. She waited for Jen's reply, trying to detect any evidence. It was one of her skills, one of the positive things about herself that she had been forced to use against people.
"No, it's just been a weird time for my family," Jen said slowly. "My dad hasn't really been himself lately, always tied up with work, you know how it is."
"Yeah, I do," Cassie said, although she wasn't being completely truthful. Her dad worked from home and always managed to have time for her. However, she knew that wasn't the case for all parents. Just because he was a little busy didn't mean he was a Yeerk…did it?
"And may I introduce our lead geneticist on the project," the tour guide announced, as a round faced middle-aged man came through a doorway, smiling expectantly around at the class, "Dr. Kenneth Walters."
Cassie looked over at Jen at the announcement of the name. Jen returned the gaze with an awkward smile and a little shrug as if she was silently admitting her embarrassing relation. Jen's father was average height, wore a few extra pounds around his midsection, and was beginning to bald, but it seemed to suit him well, as he wore a wide smile across his face.
"Hello, class," he beamed out at them, seeming much more genuine than the tour guide had. "As Ms. Janis has told you, I'm Dr. Walters."
"Hey, isn't that Cassie's friend's last name?" Jake muttered to Marco, who had not been paying much attention to the man, and had quite clearly not made the connection. Jake looked around and saw Jen standing with Cassie across the room.
"You actually remember her name?" Marco laughed. "I can barely remember my own last name."
Jake laughed. "Well, who would want to remember a name like-"
"Hey, little bro," Tom said in a mocking way, coming up behind Jake. "You might want to pay attention. You could learn something."
"Then why aren't you listening?" Jake returned automatically, "it seems like you've learned a lot less than me."
Tom laughed and walked back to the edge of the crowd, nudging Jakes shoulder playfully. Jake shoved him back lightheartedly, but as he turned to face the front again, he was stone-faced and livid. Tom and a few other upperclassmen had been assigned to chaperone the field trip. They stood around the group, some combing through the crowd for violations, some just staring into space, as bored as the students were.
"And this new drug," Dr. Walters continued passionately, treating the class as though they were his board of directors, "will be a cure for virtually all major environmentally based diseases. Using the human genome project, which has been around for-"
"You know," Marco whispered, looking tentatively over his shoulder for Tom, "this drug sounds pretty good."
"Yeah," Jake said, knowing exactly what Marco meant. They had come to realize that anything good that happened around here, might just be too good to be true, "but we can't check it out now."
1:21:05 P.M. Hork-Bajir ColonyArk-Telbar moved through the colony quickly, a group of seven Hork-Bajir trailing him. He saw his wife and their child stripping bark from a nearby tree and gazed happily towards them. There were small groups spread throughout the valley, harvesting the bark happily but purposefully. His wife looked up and waved before continuing her work. He would have liked to stop and strip bark with them, but he had something to do. Ark did not understand everything about the fight they were in, but he didn't have to. He knew that what he and his family had here were good, and that someone wanted to take it away. And he knew that he trusted Toby to keep it safe.
"Toby," Ark called.
"Hello, Ark," Toby called, jumping down from a tree to land in front of them.
"Ark found humans," Ark told her, feeling proud to have delivered the message so well.
"Were they nice humans?" Toby asked patiently.
"No!" another Hork-Bajir from the group chimed in, "bad ones!"
"Captured brothers with them," Ark explained.
Toby processed the information before turning back to Ark. He was a good soldier, and had gone with Toby on many missions, freeing many of their kind. He was one of the few she could trust to send out alone. "Did they see you Ark?"
"Humans never see Ark!" Ark reported proudly. "Come back to tell Toby!"
"Good," Toby said. "We have to go back now, and find out who they are."
"Ark will come," he said.
Toby knew that this would not be a casual group of controllers. The yeerks would not risk moving Hork-Bajir-Controllers out in the open, even in the forest.
1:25:32 P.M. Biozyme Industries"I don't know how good of a time it would be with your head up-"
"Hey, Rachel," Cassie said, moving through the group towards her. The guy who had been talking to her skulked away angrily.
"Hey," Rachel huffed, and then seemed to lighten up, shrugging away the apparent confrontation. She was used to it, and hated that it still got her so worked up. "What's up?"
"Well, I was talking to Jen," Cassie began carefully. She didn't want Rachel to overreact, she wasn't even sure if she was overreacting. "She seems, you know, different."
"Like, different?" Rachel asked, lowering her voice and looking out for the chaperones, many of whom they knew were members of the Sharing.
"Yeah, and she said her dad was acting differently."
"So, you think her dad is..?" Rachel asked, implying what she did not want people to overhear.
"Well, that's him" Cassie said, motioning to Dr. Walters, who had brought out a few large plastic molecule props and was waving them enthusiastically as he supposedly explained what they meant.
"Well he doesn't seem like one," Rachel said, but she knew that was a ridiculous statement, nobody seemed like a controller.
"Let's go to the bathroom," Cassie said, not wanting to be overheard as they were still closely packed in with the group.
1:28:04 P.M. ForestThe grass crunched under Ax's hooves as he ran through the meadow, gazing up at the clear afternoon sky. He didn't normally stare up so much during the day; he saved his homesick stargazing to the night. Lately, he had been confused with his place in this new world. Recently, his shorm, Tobias, had been required to morph into him. Ax was surprised at how powerful an experience it had been for him. He had accepted Tobias' acquiring of his DNA easier than he would have thought possible. Amazing, how connected he had become with these humans.
Yet, as he began to feel more at home with this world and his new friends, he began to notice more and more the things that were missing. He could never experience these things with these humans.
CRACK
A noise to his right. Ax's stalk eyes swiveled around as he came to a halt. He had learned to recognize the natural sounds of the forest and he'd disciplined himself not to overreact to the slightest noise. This was different, and as he strained his ears, he began to hear voices. Creeping slowly through the trees, he spotted a small group cutting through the bushes.
"Why the heck are we even here?" one of the men at the back of the group asked. He was tall, muscular and dressed in camouflage. He was also easily the least outstanding member. Along with one other human, seven Hork-Bajir were walking steadily forward, slicing easily through the forest with their many razor sharp blades.
"I'm not going to question him," the other human said. Ax thought he knew who the man must mean by the way he said 'him.' Visser Three, the leader of the Yeerks and murderer of Ax's brother, Elfangor. "Besides, I'd much rather be down here when-"
A twig snapped under Ax's hoof as he edged closer. The sound carried to the group, causing several Hork-Bajir to snap their snake-like necks in his direction.
"Ghafrash!"
Ax turned and took off running as all of the Hork-Bajir charged forward, covering the distance to his hiding spot surprisingly fast. Ax had a lead on them, but he knew as he darted through the trees that he could not outrun them forever.
1:35:15 P.M. Biozyme Industries"Hey man, we might not have time to wait to check this place out," Marco said, catching up to Jake in the middle of the crowd. He had fallen back from the group as they moved into the lobby, with Dr. Walters still leading them. What had stopped him was a strange feeling that they had missed something.
"Dude," Jake said, looking around to make sure they weren't being overheard.
"That's the thing," Marco explained, although he lowered his voice, "the chaperones, Tom, all his Sharing pals are gone. Something tells me they don't need all of them to pull the bus around."
Jake began looking around, trying to find his brother. Then Marco saw his face turn into a look of horror. "Holy-"
Marco followed his gaze to the front door, and matched Jakes wide mouthed shock. Half a dozen men with machine guns were rushing into the lobby. The tallest of them moved swiftly to the old security guard, who had only just begun to fumble for his gun, obviously unprepared for such a sudden attack. With one swift arc, the man hit the guard with the butt of his gun, sending him to the ground. There was a high-pitched wail as the alarms were activated. One of the men with guns dove over the desk, tackling the receptionist who had activated the alarm. The whole room had erupted into immediate chaos, unsure where to go, the herd of students pressed even closer together. Fear had crippled them, they were unable to do anything but cower and take cover in the thickening crowd. Marco and Jake tried to push their way out of the mass, knowing their only hope was to get clear of the lobby and try to morph. The crowd was pressing in on them, trapping them.
"Everybody down on the floor!" the tall, bald man shouted at the crowd, firing his gun into the air for good measure. The blast echoed around the room as the screams began to subside.
Marco broke free of the crowd and made to run for the nearest door, but he felt something pulling on him from behind. Jake was crouching low, holding Marco's shirt firmly. He shook his head with a fixed look on his face and Marco knew he was right. It wouldn't be that easy to escape. He dropped slowly to his knees with the rest of the crowd, but stayed close to the edge.
"Jacob, secure the front door," Marco heard one of the men say to an unsure looking kid. He was maybe 5 years older than them.
"If everybody stays put," the tall man continued, quieter now that he had their attention, but even more menacing now that he was able to fix them with that piercing gaze, "this will be very simple. We will not be here long. If anyone tries to interfere, things will get…complicated."
Several security guards and receptionists were dragged toward the students and thrown haphazardly into the group. One of the men was now working at the computer while the others formed a makeshift perimeter around the group, covering all the exits. The young one, Jacob, had attached a small device to the front door that blinked sinisterly. Marco could only guess that it was an explosive, ready to block an obvious rescue attempt.
"You know I was actually kind of looking forward to today," Marco muttered to Jake. "A nice break from school, fun time... I don't know why I do it to myself."
The man's voice boomed through the crowd once again, "Kenneth Walters! Dr. Walters, step forward now!"
1:44:45 P.M. Biozyme Industries"Okay, we need a plan," Cassie said, pacing quietly in the bathroom. They had heard the gunshots and the shouts, had figured out what was going on.
"Got a plan," Rachel said, beginning her favorite morph: Grizzly Bear. Yet, even as she did, she knew it wasn't the right call.
"No, Rachel," Cassie said. She gave her friend that shocked and saddened face Rachel often saw her wear when she began to show her reckless side.
"Okay, okay," Rachel said, calming her first instinct to attack. Yet every minute the terrorists, or whatever they were, had in the building, the more prepared they would be for an attack. They needed to do something.
"Check the bathrooms," said a voice from the lobby. It was loud, Rachel thought, he must have been shouting across the room to someone. Reacting quickly, both Cassie and Rachel jumped into a stall and shut the door.
"Fly," Rachel hissed, but Cassie had already begun to change.
Focusing on the fly DNA inside her, Rachel began the change as well. She could see Cassie's lips bulge outward, melting together into a long proboscis tube. With all her talents for morphing, she could do little for this morph. She was able to speed it up considerably, though, and was already about half done as Rachel began to shoot down several feet. As she felt spindly hairs sprout on her back, the bathroom door slammed open. As quietly and quickly as she could on shifting and shrinking legs, Rachel climbed up onto the toilet, just as the man leaned down to peer under the stalls. She caused a soft bump as her shifting mass rolled onto the back of the toilet.
She was about the size of a small dog as the man moved forward, turning towards the first stall, and kicked the door in. Cassie buzzed around above her, ((Come on Rachel, you can do this, focus.))
Thud. Another stall kicked in, the man continued forward. Rachel tried to take to the air, unsure if the morph had been completed enough to allow it. She still felt slight shifts going on in her now mostly insect body. The muddy brown boots came to a halt outside their stall. Rachel could hear a little nudge as the man tried to push the door open, then one boot left the ground, and the door swung inwards with a crash. Through compound eyes, Rachel looked up at the man, who looked down at her for a split second, then turned and walked out of the room satisfied.
((Okay,)) Rachel said, ((that was close. Now let's figure out what's going on.))
1:48:57 P.M. ForestAx panted as he ran through the trees. He summoned the strength to leap over a fallen tree, and felt his legs ache as he hit the ground again. He had slowed, and he knew he wouldn't last. The smart thing to do would be to turn and fight rather than waste energy running pointlessly. Coming to this realization, he turned to face the approach of the Hork-Bajir. He came to a stop with an advantage as the lead two came lunging for him. Using his momentum against him, Ax stepped aside, landing a strike with his tail blade as the alien landed behind him. He was not able to subdue the second so quickly and became locked in combat with him.
As he blocked a wrist blade flying at his head with a carefully timed swing of his tail, Ax knew that this was not good. He was giving the others time to catch up, at which point he would be completely outnumbered. He could see several of them swinging through the trees to catch up, but needed to keep his attention on the threat at hand. Blocking a strike before the Hork-Bajir could bring it down, Ax then countered with a downward slice of his blade, dropping his foe to the ground. Five Hork-Bajir now stood around him, each glaring at him and their fallen comrades. They all also aimed Dracon beams squarely at his chest.
Ax raised his head for one final look at the sky before his sure defeat, but was instead greeted by the blinding silhouette of a hawk. The hawk dove downward raking the eyes of the nearest Hork-Bajir. But Tobias hadn't allowed himself enough space to safely escape as the remaining Hork-Bajir all leveled their beams at him instead. Ax rushed forward, tail raised to help his shorm, but it proved unnecessary. Suddenly, half a dozen creatures descended from the trees above them, landing on top of the remaining enemies.
Hork-Bajir fought Hork-Bajir in a dazzling flash of blades and a spray of blood. Unsure of whom to attack, Ax stood back, watching the aliens fight each other.
((Let Toby handle them, Ax,)) Tobias said, perching on a low branch.
((How did you find me?)) Ax asked him, relieved Tobias had come to his rescue.
((Ax, did you really expect me to miss a group of six-foot tall, bladed aliens running through the forest?)) Tobias joked, ((My forest?))
1:58:29 P.M. Biozyme Industries"Rachel and Cassie aren't here," Jake said, having finished a slow scan of the group. That was the first thing, account for the team, and they were two down.
"They must have ditched out early," Marco said, "like I wanted to do."
Jake ignored Marco's second comment, but hoped the first part was true. He knew if they were in trouble they would hear the gun shots, and would just have to hope that they could handle themselves. There was something strange going on, Jake thought. Why guns?
"This is completely unlike the Yeerks," Jake muttered. "It's too public. What are they trying to gain?"
"I have to say, some of these guys don't really seem like Controllers," Marco said, staring at the closest armed man. "So, fearless leader, what do we do?"
2:00:00 P.M.