AN: Hey everyone, Alternamorphs 2 is finally up. I'd just like to warn you now that in this one, while Warren is the main character, it does follow other people's stories as well. For example, The Exposure has what Warren and the team's doing, but it also focuses almost as much on the completely different situation Ben has fallen into.

Also, this is called Exposure instead of Exposed because while you see the parts Warren sees and alters, it is not the book. Some things may seem to suddenly spring up from the book as Warren notices them. If you haven't read The Exposed, I recommend at least finding out what Rachel's personal issues were. Well, that's about it. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. Plain, simple and obvious fact. This is on fanfiction, duh!

The Exposure Part 1

Ben

My name is Ben.

The air around me wreaked of urine and garbage. I was already contemplating burning my clothes when I got home and longing for a long, hot shower with a lot of soap. The stench was seeping into every inch of my skin, soaking into every speck of fabric of my clothes. I desperately hoped that it was just filthy water that was soaking into the denim covering my lower right leg. I wanted to gag and hurl, run as fast as my legs would take me before my inevitable, uncoordinated meeting with the pavement. But I had to sit still, breathe as softly as I could. Never make a sound. If I did, they would catch me.

The back alley was right out of one of those cliché movies, if you hadn't figured that out yet. The kind that was covered in garbage, often sheltering the homeless from the cold winds at night. And again, just like in the movies, this one too was being used for less than law abiding business. In this case, abduction.

"I don't even know why I'm going along with this." If I had been still before, I was frozen in time now. Even my breathing stopped as the gruff, irritated voiced echoed off the walls. This was exactly what I was waiting for, confused about and terrified of. The abductors were making their move. "You aren't even worth my time. You're nothing but an insignificant speck, a mere one in a million. Why should I even bother dealing with someone so powerless?"

"Leaks in information have to be dealt with quickly, no matter what the source. How do you expect us to progress if such issues are not nipped in the bud?" Another, much more familiar voice stated coldly as two large figures turned a corner. Both of their faces wore expressions cold cruelty as they swept halfway through to the alley's sealed end. My entire body erupted in a cold sweat as their eyes scanned over the entire area with an intensity comparable to the world's greatest detectives or art evaluators. I had to bite my lip as they each turned to look in my direction, desperately trying to hold back the pure terror running wild through me, demanding that I let my body shake all over before running out of there at top speed and letting loose the most embarrassing screams of my life. If they spotted me...well, I had no clue just how disastrous that could be.

Fortunately, their eyes passed over my makeshift fort of random garbage not a minute later, letting me calm down, if only slightly. This was far from over and I was confident that I was going to hate what I'd see. But still, this was the only way to get the answers I needed. I knew going into this what I was likely to find. Now I had to face it.

"And what is this leak you claim to have tracked down Iniss 226?" The first man scowled, turning his eyes heatedly on the middle aged man beside him. A man I was shocked to recognise as my former Vice Principle Chapman. "And how would you, barely able to leave the house, have noticed this leak when the rest of us did not?"

"Plenty of free time to notice minor details for a start." Chapman retorted before a cocky smirk crossed his face. "And besides, my house has obviously been watched by the enemy. After all, both sides have already acquired Chapman's face."

The first man's breath hitched and his eyes widened in realisation and fury as Chapman's smirk grew larger. Barking out a war cry, the man went for what looked like a torch sticking out of his pocket only for Chapman to expertly kick it right out of his grasp and send it flying away, quickly getting lost in the piles of discarded metal and old newspapers. Then, before the man could even react, a blond boy no older than myself leapt out of his own hiding place, behind a broken door to what looked like it could have been intended as a supply closet for gardening equipment long ago, and grabbed harshly at the side of the guy's neck.

The method was quick and quiet. Within two seconds of contact, all signs of struggle disappeared from the man, his eyes dulling like he was in a trance. And not a second after that started, the boy's hand slid a little further down the neck and clenched. The man immediately dropped toward the ground like a sack of potatoes, only being halted as Chapman's arms scooped him up.

"Ok, we've got about half an hour with him, much less time before his workmates notice he's missing." Chapman stated as the boy moved to help carry their captive.

"Plenty of time." The boy smirked, completely unphased as they stopped. Letting go of the man, he kicked an old, ragged and stained rug aside to reveal an open manhole. "Dad's got the car ready and if he wakes up before we get to the shack, knocking him out again is no challenge. You worry too much Warren."

"Because you don't worry nearly enough." 'Chapman' retorted, scowling as his arm began to shake. "Dammit, couldn't Chapman play with some weights or something once in a while? Seriously, I'm stronger than him and when it comes to weight lifting, I'm nothing special!"

"Well, what do you expect him to do when he had all those lower class Yeerks to do his work for him? I'd be surprised if the arrogant twit picked up anything more than a pen." The boy quipped as he lowered himself down the hole. Finally getting a good look at his face, I recognised him as David. He had been a new kid at school, one with a real bad attitude, but he disappeared not long after. His face had been all over the news, along with his parents', claiming that they were dangerous and that anyone with information should call the police immediately, but what they had done had never been released. Apparently it was confidential or some crap. "Just demorph. I'm not really fond of that face anyway."

"Of course not. He was an authority figure." 'Chapman' smirked back as David disappeared down the hole completely. A disgusted cry and the urge to puke both struck me hard as 'Chapman' did as David suggested while simultaneously lowering the unconscious man down to his partner. His skin looked like he had worms running under it as his body started shrinking, reshaping his appearance. The cracking and grinding of what had to be bones changing made it all way to my hiding place, making me bite down even harder on my lip, making it bleed. I didn't care though, I had to keep my mouth shut. If it opened, I'd be busted.

By the time the man had been lowered completely into the sewer below, all the details of Chapman were already gone. There were still a few lingering things, like his greying hair that was slowly shortening and turning dark brown and the adult sized hands, but mostly, he had turned into the form of a person that I was usually quite comfortable around. My best friend, Warren. My first friend in far too many years. The guy who helped me befriend Cassie, get into horseback riding. And the guy I once caught with feathers growing out of his arms. Feathers that I quickly determined were the ones of a golden eagle. A bird big enough to be one of the flyers I'd seen flying around Warren's neighbourhood not ten minutes later.

"Careful, you hit his head on the wall!" Warren cried, a little panic flaring as he stared down the hole, his body tensing a little.

"Sorry! He's a bit heavy you know!" David's voice shot back as Warren finished transforming back into himself and tugging the manhole cover as he started lowering himself down.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help you in sec. Just make sure you don't hurt him." Warren retorted with a sigh. "The slim ball won't let go, so this will be painful enough for the poor guy without a head injury being involved. We want him free and functional when this is all over."

"I know, I..." I never caught the rest of it, for it was at that moment that Warren placed the cover over the hole, the physical barrier blocking everything out.

Letting out the breath that I had held for far too long, I let my body relax. I didn't leave my hiding place though. As much as I wanted to get out of there, there was still a slight possibility that the boys or one of their captors' friends would show up in the next few minutes and if they did, I didn't want to be seen there. Though I would have liked to overhear their conversations. I definitely hadn't gotten enough information yet.

'Still, I got a bit.' I reminded myself, mulling over all that I'd heard and seen. Now I knew that Warren could turn into other people, not just animals. 'Well, other animals.' My mind stated, making me grin in a little amusement. That part of my brain sounded a lot like Warren. Well, he was the one to always remind me that humans are merely animals too, despite how most like to think that we're something beyond them. But that's off...oh wait, that could be why. Humans are animals, so turning into one would be no different for however he does it.

I also got confirmation that some sort of fight was going on. The way their captive talked, it was like he was part of a mafia or something and searching for the 'snoop'. And Chapman had been involved with that guy, a big shot too before his arrest, if what I heard was anything to go by.

Then there was the fact that even though they captured him for what sounded like a hostage situation, Warren wanted this guy, his enemy for a lack of a better word, to be unharmed. What's more, Warren was actually sympathetic to the guy and seemed to be...saving him. Free and functional. That didn't make any sense!

But then, neither did Warren working with the kid who actually made it onto the Feds' most wanted list for reasons unknown. I'd already known before today, I'd been spying for a while now, getting what I could, though I still couldn't make any sense of it. From the little I'd seen and heard, this guy was the tenth person that they'd captured like this. All of them were taken to a shack somewhere in the woods before taken somewhere else when whatever was going on was resolved. They'd mentioned freeing them and them crying for their families, neither boy looking anything but sad at that.

There was also the fact that David had the same power Warren had. I'd found out about this place by watching two golden eagles come here. A normal person would have brushed it off, considering the gap between them, but knowing that Warren had slipped off and a golden eagle had appeared nearby, it was pretty obvious to me.

Basically all that I gathered only told me that they could turn into animals, what they were doing wasn't approved by law, or whoever was influencing the law and they were strangely trying to beat and save one group of people at the same time.

'This puzzle is still missing its key piece.' I shook my head glaring at the garbage. Being a geek and actually seeing my best friend shapeshifting meant that the number of possibilities for that piece were infinite, from me just being insane to something out of Star Trek, though I was ruling out the insane part. I simply refused that I would let myself crack like that, especially when my life was finally looking up. It didn't help with this situation any though, I eradicated the easiest answer. I needed more to go on, like something about the guys Warren and David were abducting, but what? What could push Warren to kidnap these people? I had to find out the answer to that, it was the only way to find out what Warren had gotten himself into.

And until I did that, I had no way of knowing how to handle the situation. Whether to help Warren, find a way to save him or ignore it completely. I pushed down the fourth option. There was no way that I was going to turn him in.

'He has kidnapped TEN people!'

'And if this one and everything I've overheard's anything to go by, that might be a really good thing!' I didn't care what my civic duty demanded. Warren's my friend and I only cared about helping him. What that entitled was yet to be confirmed, but going to the cops was not it.

'Still, I can't determine what it entitles if I can't find out anything about who he's capturing.' I scowled, coming right back to the point of all this. If only there was something to give him just the slightest...

"The torch!" A smile crossing my face, I finally pulled myself out of the garbage and ran over to the pile of metal. Warren and David hadn't even given it a thought, so it was still there and I had a feeling that it was important. After all, Warren was quite keen to get it out of the guy's hand before he could use it.

Crouching down beside it, I quickly, but carefully dug my hand through the poles and scrap metal, careful not to cut myself on the rusted, sharp edges that promised infections. It took a few minutes of careful searching, but I found it, hidden at the very edge under a newspaper from two months ago. Carefully picking it up, my smile turned into a frown as I ran my fingers over it. It was made of a black metal that I couldn't identify. It looked naturally black, not painted, and it felt different. Too smooth for something that was obviously designed to be easy to grip. And it definitely wasn't a normal torch.

The lens at the front was missing for a start and it looked closer to a gun configuration on the inside. There was definitely no light bulb in it, that was for sure and on the top, there was both a button and a rotating knob hidden under a hinged on piece of metal that came up to reveal itself as a targeting tool, like the eyepiece on a gun. The button was round and red, standing out on the black despite its small size. The knob on the other hand, was as black as the rest of the device. Next to it was a small screen that showed the number five.

"Must have a power setting feature." I mused, staring down at it contemplatively. This thing looked a little too futuristic for my liking, a worrying thought, but at the same time it had peaked my abundant curiosity. As wary as I was of it, I wanted to know what it did.

"It might be dangerous." I muttered to myself, frowning hard. However, my fingers were already fiddling with the knob, lowering the number to one. Even if it was dangerous, it was at the lowest setting. Something so small at such a low setting couldn't do that much, right?

Deciding just to go for it, I stood up and aimed it at an old pizza box. Taking a deep breath, I set myself for any kick this thing might have and hit the button.

TSEEW!

BOOOOM!

"AH!" The amount of strangely deadly looking light that came from it nearly blinded me, causing me to jump and changing the target to a wall. One that exploded upon impact, leaving me staring up in horror at an enormous hole and who knew how much damage done to the stuff inside.

There were no alarms going off, but that was only because I managed to blow up or rip out a lot of the wiring in the place. Still, the boom would have attracted everyone within a mile radius. I had to get out there!

My panic setting in, I only wasted a few seconds checking to make sure that no one was inside at the time before running as fast as I could away from that place. Police sirens could already be heard in the distance and they had to be pretty close, considering that I could hear them over countless people's screaming.

I honestly don't know how I got away. I don't even remember much more than a few blurs after about five seconds of running. I knew that there were people running around all over the place, you'd think that one of them would have noticed the freaked kid running from place where people would assume the bomb went off. Maybe they thought I was just running away from the danger, like they were, or maybe I disappeared too fast, I don't know. I don't remember running through town. The first time I ran for more than half a minute without falling down and I don't even remember it. By the time my awareness picked up again, I found myself actually running through the forest.

My lungs felt like they were on fire as I pulled myself to a sudden halt, my legs giving out and letting me drop back onto the ground as I desperately gasped for breath. The sirens were far off now, they were barely a whisper. Good. That meant that I wasn't followed.

Still, the event was running like a runaway train through my head. I just kept seeing it over and over again. The ground in front of me torn up as my arms tore the beam from its original target. The hole the size of a small truck, the burned, shattered and half incinerated furniture, the sparking wires. What if Warren had still been below in the sewers and I hadn't jerked at the light? What if people had been in that room I'd just given a new exit? I could have killed people! What had I been thinking, playing with what my mind had already determined to be a weapon? A low setting on anything declared a weapon was still extremely dangerous! And that was supposed to be a low setting? Just how much power had that guy intended to throw at Warren with a level five setting?

And why was the weapon still in my death grip?

Throughout the whole run, the crash, all of it, I never noticed that I still had the cause of the destruction. The latch was back down thankfully, covering the button and preventing another blast, but it still caused my heart to shift into turbo gear all over again.

'It's probably best that I didn't drop it.' I decided after a few seconds, though my hand was quick to snap open and let it go. 'It's got my finger prints on it now. And besides, it's better off with me than on the ground where the next idiot can use it like a play thing.' The urge to puke came up again at that thought and this time it had nothing to do with the fact that I still stank. The idea of dropping it for someone else to do what I did...imagine if a child got it? They could have obliterated their entire family thinking it was a Star Wars or Power Rangers toy or something! No, I had to keep it. At least until I could figure out how to safely destroy it.

One thing's for sure though, I have an idea of what Warren's gotten himself into now. No one carrying concealed weapons like these is safe to have walking the streets. He was the good guy in this, between the laser and the person I knew and saw both with just me and at the end of that abduction, I couldn't be more confident about that. But he was definitely in way over his head. And I still had no clue how to react to this.

I still needed more information and I really needed it soon.