CAUTION: LOOOONG chapter ahead of you!
No really, it's about six and a half Microsoft Word pages long. I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless.
I do not own Ben 10, Animorphs or Doctor Who. I only made up some of the secondary characters that'll be mentioned.
My name is Rachel. I'm the Animorph everyone refers to as "Xena the Warrior Princess." Maybe that's true, maybe not, but as far as battle goes, this new guy is crazier than Xena ANY day…and this day in particular just didn't stop getting weirder…
Hovering in Earth's atmosphere was a foreign ship. Cloaked to hide away from the prying eyes of Earth technology that wasn't in the hands of Controllers, it droned on, ready to strike if enemy ships were foolish enough to wander over to the blue-green planet below. It was pitch black, with wicked axe blade-esque protrusions on either side. Inside it contained humans and tall, reptilian bipeds, neither having anything in common.
Except for the Yeerks that controlled their brains.
Each and everyone a different personality, but all of whom were bent on planetary domination. Thanks to a single Andalite, whom only wished to help the slug species, they had dominated three planets, Earth would be their fourth.
All was quiet, as it usually was, until the doors to the bridge behind them opened with a faint swoosh, followed by hooves clopping over the metal floor. Everyone readied themselves. This visit wasn't going to be a pretty one…
What is it now? Preparations for Kandrona pools MUST be made! Visser Three growled in thought speak. Previously known as Esplin 9466, Visser Three received his high authority by claiming the best spoils of war…an Andalite body to control.
"It's Hinar 7284, Visser, sir." One human replied. "He said it was urgent."
The Visser's stalk eyes swiveled from left to right. If this was another call about the Andalite Bandits making waste of another pool, heads would certainly roll. Well? Patch the message through! He demanded, gripping the railings before him with his seven fingered hands.
Those hands started to change. Fingers molded together to form human hands. The equine hind legs and tail seemed to suck themselves into his body, while his forelegs formed into human legs. Fur turned to fine human hair, and stalk eyes retreated into a balding skull. Finally, the Visser's almond shaped eyes shrank, denying the appearance of an Andalite, and in its place, the powerful human figure Victor Trent.
Within moments, Hinar's host's voice came over the ship's intercom. "Visser Three! I have news!"
"Out with it." Visser Three said coldly.
"Um…yes, you see…I found a blue box…"
The Visser's eyes widened. "The Escafil Device?" The Escafil device was the motherload of Andalite technology…granting the ability to morph into anything one wished through the acquisition of DNA.
"Er…no sir, b-but I think it's worthwhile! It's a blue box, and I swear it on my siblings, it appeared from nowhere! A man and a woman appeared from it, too!"
It all sounded like foolish fantasies, but somehow intrigued the Visser. "I must see it. Track Hinar's location, find this 'other blue box'!"
Alien machinery hummed to life, patching through every kind of security camera possible in the corresponding area. The ship's computers bleeped in confirmation. A holographic projection appeared, pointing down an alleyway.
Visser squinted at the image, disappointed, but only for a mere moment. A blue phone booth faded in and out of thin air, finally materializing. The doors swung open and the couple Hinar mentioned appeared, and then walked off-screen.
Visser Three grinned to himself, his eyes gleaming with a sense of personal victory. "That blue box. Oh, this…" He said, strolling to the projection as if he was cornering an enemy. "THIS is perfect…I must have that blue box!"
"Sir?" One of the Controllers asked. It was fair to say that many of the Controllers present were surprised by their leader's abrupt behavior.
"With this," Visser said in a low, wicked tone. "Victory over the Andalites is as good as ours."
"Umm, not that I'm complaining, but…okay, I'm complaining, how are moles going to take down evil aliens?" Nanomech squeaked, trailing behind five shuffling rodents through an underground tunnel. Sure, sneaking into the base was a great idea, but with moles? Such an image was embarrassing to even construe.
Says the talking lightning bug. Marco scoffed in thought-speak. You sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks' lost brother or something. Did you have to bring your alien mutt with you? He referred to Ship, oozing close behind them down the tunnels.
Guys, stay focused. Rachel said. Tobias, is everything clear up there?
Tobias, as Ben and Julie came to learn, was also an Animorph. A nothlit, by Andalite standards. The morphing ability came with the price of the morpher becoming trapped in a certain form if they stayed in said form longer than two Earth hours. For Tobias, that meant becoming trapped as a red tailed hawk with the consciousness of a human boy.
He was above ground, perched in a tree above Julie. She had insisted on coming, even though she had no powers of her own.
Everything's clear up here. Same kind of crowd. Tobias reported.
Prince Jake, we're nearing the exit of the tunnel. Ax stated.
Great. Let's get going. And Ben? Jake asked.
"Yeah?"
Try to not get yourself killed. Jake said, with an utterly serious tone.
"Right, got it. Hey, wait a minute! Who says we're probably going to get killed?" Nanomech squeaked, flitting after the Animorphs.
"Doctor, aren't we supposed to be looking for trouble?" Donna asked, accepting a decorative glass of lemonade from a very happy looking party host. It was a usual occurrence for everything to appear fine and dandy at first, and then turn horrible within moments. After all, Donna had experienced a whodunit-esque series of murders, an alien slave rebellion, and even near world domination on her wedding day!
Unlike her, of course, the Doctor was having a grand time, grinning and nodding in time with the music. Everything seemed fine at the moment, so why not stop and smell the nineties?
Donna sighed. Talking him into investigating without trouble presenting itself with a big, flashy neon sign was tricky. She left to try and mingle with the party guests. It was surprising, really. She expected The Sharing to be nothing more than a noisy child's birthday party, but was she ever so wrong. Children were indeed there, but so were teens, adults, and even elderly people. All of them apparently very happy.
She spotted two women sitting by a window, talking to one another quietly over Cokes. Seemed like an innocent place to start. "Oh, hello!" Donna said in a mock pleasant voice, joining them. "Don't mind me, I'm new here. Blew into town with my, erm, coworker over there." She said, nodding towards the Doctor.
The two women introduced themselves as Shannon and Vicky. Both came from very different worlds...one a well-seasoned business woman in real estate, the other a young beauty parlor worker…who had nothing to do with each other until the Sharing.
"It's really great! Don't they have these organizations where you live?" Asked Shannon, brushing her mop of curly hair back with a heavily bangled arm.
"Well…not The Sharing, specifically…" Donna said.
"I'm surprised." Shannon said. "I hear they've got plenty locations in the United Kingdom."
"Well, I suppose they're nowhere near where I live. In fact, I haven't heard of them until today."
To Donna's surprise, the two women exchanged concerned glances. Shannon cleared her throat and smiled. "Well, you haven't seen anything yet! Wait until you get to see the big surprise!"
"We can probably go take her now. Would you like to go see it?" Vicky said. She sounded anxious. Eager, in fact. Whatever this surprise was, it must be worth it.
"Well, I suppose that would be alright…"
No sooner had those words left Donna's mouth, she was forcefully ushered to the back of the room to a door, which upon entering, led to a downward staircase. Shannon closed the door behind her and followed Donna and Vicky down.
"See anything?" Julie asked.
Same as what usually happens. Tobias said. Thanks to his new vision, he could see far beyond what he could see with human sight.
"It's just weird…it looks like your usual block party."
You haven't seen the main event.
Tobias had seen it all before. Like clock work, Controllers and non-Controllers alike mingled at a seemingly harmless party, only for the non-Controllers to be hauled off to their doom, and the human hosts of Controllers having to relive a nightmare every three days.
"So what are we waiting for?"
A signal from Jake. They should be getting close by now.
"To the Yeerk pool?"
Exactly.
"Hey!" An adult male voice startled the two. Tobias had no choice but to hide further in the tree's branches. Julie had nowhere to run, not in time, anyway.
A man donned in your everyday cubicle worker attire approached Julie. "Young lady, aren't you going to join us? The event is free of charge."
"Um, no thanks. I was just watching…"
She would have gotten away, if the man hadn't grabbed her arm. "Young lady, aren't you supposed to respect your elders?"
"I- Hey! Let go!" She demanded, as the man started pulling her towards the building.
Julie! Oh, great! Tobias panicked. Jake! Julie's being dragged in, you'd better hurry!
Down below, Jake – as well as the rest of the Animorphs – were demorphing, but not enough to cut off his ability of thought-speak.
We're in! Just keep an eye on her as long as you can.
"What?" Ben said, appearing after the green flash that signaled his transformations. "What happened?"
"Julie's being brought in. Don't panic yet, we might be able to get her out of here before anything happens. We don't have much time, you'd better morph again." Jake said, focusing. Orange fur bristled and appeared over his reshaped face and limbs, transforming into a tiger. The others did the same, with different forms. A grizzly bear, a wolf, and a gorilla. Only Ax stayed the same.
This wasn't quite the mission Ben was planning on, especially with Julie now in danger. Time to bring out the big guns…
"Donna?"
The Doctor looked around, puzzled. He could've sworn Donna was close by, chatting with some of the locals, but had disappeared altogether. He had checked the main room, the surrounding hallways, the bathrooms…where could she have run off to now?
Not only that, why was everyone staring?
"Donna?" He asked again, curiously. On the brink of giving up and assuming she had retreated to the TARDIS, he made a beeline for the door.
But then he noticed something. A lot of the party guests were retreating to nearby doors, looking over their shoulders, and closing the door behind them quickly. In this case, a teenage girl of Asian origin was being forcefully escorted to one of these doors by a man, who glared at the Doctor before abruptly leaving.
"Oh…that's unexpected." The Doctor said. "Donna!" He exclaimed, like some crazed war cry, and rushed to that door.
The Yeerk pool was massive.
Picture an in-ground swimming pool, glowing red from the Kandrona rays…which to Ben looked a lot like giant heat lamps. But that wasn't the intimidating part. A platform loomed over the pool, where Controller-humans were held over the pool, where either a Yeerk was dropped out or one crawled back in. Lining the back walls were cages, where Yeerk-free humans were begging to be set free while other Controllers stood guard.
"This is what the Yeerks are doing?" Ben asked, horrified. He, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel and Ax were all watching from a safe distance, awaiting Jake's orders.
What did you expect? Marco asked. Ripley fighting off a Yeerk monster in a robotic suit?
"Not exactly…" Honestly, the Yeerks weren't much different that the Xenocytes the Highbreed used on humans…but this was a slightly different situation. Xenocytes mutated their human hosts, making it less uncomfortable to fight them and – on occasion – extract them from hosts. This time it would mean hurting many innocent people, with a less easily extractable controlling alien.
"What do we do, exactly?"
What we normally do. Rachel responded. Make some noise, rattle the Yeerks' cage, fight off the Hork-Bajir…
And get out. Jake added.
The less non-Controllers you hurt, the better. Cassie said.
No sooner had she said that, Ben's fears were confirmed. Julie was being dragged down the stairwell to the Yeerk pool, fighting with all the strength she had. She was being dragged alongside a red-haired woman, who was also screaming for a doctor or something.
"That's it, I'm going in!" Ben said, dialing up the first alien to appear on the Ultimatrix and pressed down on the faceplate.
No, Ben! WAIT!
"Donna!" The Doctor yelled, clambering down the stairs. Clearly they weren't meant to be nice like the rest of the building. They were dark, and the walls were bare. No signs depicting what was upwards or what was downwards.
But, given that no one had come up from the passageways, downwards was the way to go.
The further down he went, voices became more apparent, some were frightened, others threatening. And, of course,
"DOCTOOOOOOR!"
He skidded out into the clearing, only to be met with sludgy pools, dozens of humans in cages or being forced into the pools, and curiously, a very, very tall anthromorphic dinosaur.
"Oh… the party just got more interesting."
Was it worth the read?
If any of you are mad about treating Julie and Donna like damsels in distress, sorry. I didn't want to make it that way, but they're going to get tangled in battle one way or another :P
Reviews are greatly appreciated!
