There were some benefits of being an only child, Arnold decided. Coming home to an empty house was both a blessing and curse in this case, a blessing because he wouldn't have to drop another lie about his whereabouts or why he woke up crying in the early hours of the morning.
His mind would not leave the junkyard, it was as drawn to that moment, as he had been to the falling Andalite ship. The sheer awe of what was happening before his eyes outweighed the potential danger. Every wild dream of his longing for an adventure meant for him was about to come true right then and there. A chance to prove himself, to go and become the hero of his own story.
Like all stories, there was always an evil force at play- whether it be Siths or Sauron and his armies. The Yeerks came and extinguished that flame, that call to adventure that was the brave Andalite prince. It was then that the fairy tale opportunity faded, as did Mafala's life in front of them. The piercing cries echoed through their minds, as they sat frozen in fear behind abandoned trucks and vans.
Thus, Arnold Cunningham dreamed of possibilities, of life and death. He dreamed of a world where he was a hero, he dreamed of a world where he was dead. It was the fear of the Yeerks finding them, the monstrous, bladed Hork Bajir breaking down his door that kept Arnold from sleeping much that night.
Finally, when the sun had risen and freed Arnold from any preconceived obligation to sleep, he wandered about the house, checking, as if to assure himself that he was safe. The wood floors creaked under his feet, making his heart race as fast as they had when he'd made it home. The sheer emptiness of the rooms gave him chills. Unable to handle the silence any longer, Arnold flipped on the tv, and dug through his pantry for breakfast. He doubted he'd be able to eat much, but it was worth a shot.
It was by chance that he'd seen that news story, the one about them. Them and the alien, last night in the junkyard. Well, not really, it should have been though, the streak of light from last night- it was no….whatever they were saying it was. Arnold's hand was dialing Kevin's number before he was fully aware of what he was doing. Arnold wasn't sure if Kevin would be able to deliver on his promise to call Connor or Connor being able to call the scary kid and the pastry boy from last night.
There was nothing Arnold could do now but wait, maybe even pray to Heavenly Father.
To say that it was a relief when Kevin first appeared was an understatement, he'd nearly bowled him over, knocked him down.
"Arnold, you're gonna knock me over." He protested, struggling under the force of Arnold's hug.
"I'm so glad to see you, Kevin. I couldn't sleep at all last night- did you sleep at all?" Arnold's mouth was running a thousand miles an hour, words spilling out so fast he almost couldn't keep up with himself.
"I'm glad to see you too, buddy." Kevin replied, a weary smile spread across his face as he ran his fingers through Arnold's hair.
"So, uh, did Connor and the others-?" Arnold fidgeted with his clothes, stepping back from Kevin finally.
"He said he'd get a hold of...Poptarts?" Kevin frowned, trying to wrap his mind around the blonde kid's strange name...and nickname.
"He isn't sure about Elroy," Kevin said his name with a thinly veiled animosity and distrust, "but he can't promise he'll show up."
The conversation died between them, lingering in the air waiting to be picked up again. When they did it drifted from one subject to another, avoiding the real reason they were hooking up at Arnold's place.
"Do they know how to get here?" Arnold asked as the question suddenly occurred to him.
"I texted Connor the directions." Kevin assured him, sitting at Arnold's kitchen counter. He'd been here before a few times, it was a bit odd to see it without Mrs. Cunningham tending to this or that around the house. Kevin had offered to help her out and actually assisted her once with something.
"So, where are your parents at, if they're leaving you all alone for the weekend?" Kevin asked, checking the time. It'd been almost an hour since Arnold first called them together. Arnold had no idea where Connor lived, or anyone aside from Kevin for that matter. They had to have lived close enough to offer that shortcut, hadn't they?
"Oh, uh, they went to visit family in another state. They might be gone a little longer than the weekend, but they said they'd try to be back around Monday." He answered. Arnold was used to these impromptu trips, they'd become a lot more frequent once he became old enough to fend for himself. Of course these were more often than not over the weekend, so Arnold didn't have to worry too much. It was equal parts liberating and lonely.
"I have a lot of cousins," He explained, "I don't see them much." Arnold didn't elaborate, his family situation was...best left where it was.
The conversation fell into silence once more, an odd thing to happen considering this was Arnold Cunningham, the boy with the motor mouth.
Thankfully Connor came by not too long afterwards, with Poptarts and surprisingly Elroy in tow as well.
"Well, I hope we weren't too late, getting here." Connor announced, once Arnold let them in.
Connor wore what he had the night before, even bringing the bag with him as well.
"Huh? Oh no, no, I didn't know if you'd know how to get here." Arnold lied, he felt like he had waited for ages but he couldn't tell him that.
"How did you find Elroy?" Kevin asked, giving the teen in question a look.
"Oh, that, well-"
"I like taking strolls throughout the day,." Elroy cut off Connor, who looked somewhere between embarrassed and relieved. His voice was flat and calculating, he stood up straight, daring any of them to stare him down.
Connor cleared his throat, as to push aside the tension in the room.
"Now that we're all here, how about we get down to business. Arnold, you said you wanted us here?" Connor gave off a reassuring smile, nodding to him, as to hand over the situation to him.
"Guys, did you see the video on the news this morning?" Arnold asked, suddenly remembering.
"No, why?" Mathias asked, taking a seat. His clothes were rumpled and his blonde hair didn't seem any neater. He fished out a Poptart from Connor's bag and chowed down. Kevin raised an eyebrow but Arnold continued.
"There was a story on the news about the junkyard last night." Kevin supplied, interrupting Arnold accidentally.
There was silence, for just a moment as the other three boys looked at Kevin and Arnold, in varying states of shock and horror.
"We have to leave, now." Connor said quickly, sprinting to the door as soon as he came back to his senses.
"Wait! No, don't go." Arnold yelled after him, the other two starting to run after Connor. Kevin ran after them too, fighting Connor for the door.
In a desperate ploy to escape, Connor tried to push Kevin out of the way with Poptart's help. Elroy, more than anything watched.
"Arnold, are you mad? If they know who we are, we're all dead. You saw what happened last night."
"Guys, they haven't found us yet!" he protested so loudly, he thought his throat would give out.
"If they did, we'd be gone by now."
Silence once again fell across the house
"They would have found us by now if they knew." Arnold explained stressing his point. He swallowed hard, hoping they would slow down and listen long enough.
The trio stayed where they were, as if contemplating the news. Slowly, almost irritatingly slow, they came away from the door. Arnold wanted to pull them away, to show them-
"Look, look, I'll show you." he said, pulling out his phone.
Elroy and Kevin gave each other a look, before leaving to join the others.
The room was tense, quiet, even as everyone gathered around Arnold's phone.
As the news clip began to play, everyone's eyes were focused. Their eyes darted across the tiny screen, straining for any clue of them. As the pretty lady on the screen smiled at them and rambled on about the 'shooting star' from the night before.
The moment of truth arrived, every second coming closer to revealing them to the world.
Any second now.
Any second.
As the video reached the end, the five of them sat in stunned silence. Nothing. They weren't there, no sign of people in fact.
"See you guys? We're fine." Arnold stressed, putting the phone down.
"I'm not convinced." Elroy said, folding his arms. He glared down at the now blank screen on the table.
"What are you talking about? We just saw the video together." Kevin pushed back, throughly not wanting to go through this fight again.
"Look, people can edit videos. There's no reason to believe that they don't know." Elroy shot back, turning his attention wholly on Kevin now.
"Even so, Elroy, they haven't come for us yet. They really might have missed us. Even if they do know we still have time to make a plan." Kevin pressed, not backing down from the other boy.
Arnold looked between the two of them, starting to panic. If they started fighting now, they were going to fail before they even started. This wasn't how they should be acting- they had a destiny, a mission to accomplish. He thought back to his beloved books, where the heroes came out on top. They had their fights with each other, but they only won their battles by staying together. They needed to be in a team together.
Connor clapped his hands together, bringing attention back to himself.
"People, people, let's not start another war here. We will get nowhere if we continue to fight. I think we can agree that we need to make a plan."
"Alright, first things first, I believe we should go over what happened last night."
Elroy got up with a start, as if startled by something unseen. With eyes wide he asked a question that had yet to cross their minds until then. "Arnold, are your parents home?"
Connor just about had a heart attack, and Poptarts almost choked on his namesake snack.
"No no no, my parents are out. Kevin knows. They're not coming back until Monday. Relax, guys." Arnold flailed, trying to restore the sense of order they had had moments before. He poured Mathias a glass of water hastily. The blonde boy took it gratefully and drank.
"And yet he didn't bother to tell us." Elroy responded coldly, the not so subtle cold war between the two flared up again.
"Look, I'm sorry. When I texted Connor the directions, it just sort of slipped my mind." Kevin protested, trying to clear the air between them.
"That's a pretty important detail to leave out. One that might turn out poorly for us."
"Listen, Elroy, I-"
"That's enough from you two." Connor cut in coldly, seemingly putting the fight on hold. "We need to get down to the heart of the matter. What do we do now?"
Turning his head, he looked them both in the eyes. "It was irresponsible to leave that detail out. But there's no need to fight about that now, I'm hoping that everyone in this room is aware of the severity of these turn of events."
Now he turned around, hands clasped and back straight. No one dared to make a noise, except for the messenger bag from last night.
"Now, we all agree that last night was real, correct?"
There was a muted chorus of agreement from all parties involved. Connor stopped for a moment, contemplating something before turning around again. He closed the curtains in the kitchen. Arnold picked up on this and closed a few more. The Cunningham's backyard faced a small thicket, difficult to see during the spring and summer when the foliage was thick and green. The neighbors tended to mind their own business for the most part, only dropping by once in a great while if they happened to be picking up the mail or taking out the trash at the same time.
Going into his bag, which was a fair bit dirtier from last night, Connor pulled out the cube and the Shredders.
Elroy made a move for the weapons, but Connor swatted him away. This earned him a suspicious look from Kevin. If Elroy noticed, he didn't show it.
"Have you tested it out yet?" He asked, looking it over from its' place on the table.
Connor shook his head lightly. "No, I haven't. There was no time. Besides, I'm not crazy enough to test it out in a house filled with people." He chastised the idea, earning a sheepish look from the usually stoic Elroy Church.
"Can I hold it?" He asked tentatively. "I'm just suggesting that we get a feel for the weapon. We can test it out..somewhere else."
"Not until we've tested it somewhere else. I don't think playing with a space gun we just received yesterday is a good idea." Connor pointed out, gently shooting down the idea.
"I think we shouldn't wait too long. We don't know how good those guns are good for. If they work on a charge, who knows how long they'll last." Elroy made yet another argument, reluctant to drop the topic.
"In that case, it doesn't matter unless we're going to be jumping into a fight of some sort. Hopefully we can avoid that." Connor answered firmly, putting an end to the Shredder discussion.
"You seem awfully concerned about those Shredders, Elroy." Kevin noted, the thinly veiled distrust was back again in his voice.
"If we're going to be getting involved, we should know what we've got to work with. It's never a good idea to run into something blind. Just a suggestion from someone who would know what he's doing." Elroy replied hotly.
"Maybe we should hide it somewhere safe." Mathias pipped up, talking for the first time in the whole meeting. "You know, so no one finds it."
"That is something we need to do, yes. Not just the Shredders, but the Cube too." Connor agreed, returning to his more calm yet tired demeanor from before.
"I'm sure as long as we store it somewhere safely, we won't have to be as worried about it going off for the time being. We will return to them in the near future." The pointed message was not so subtly meant for Elroy, who gazed at the weapons on the table with all the reluctance of a child who had been denied a toy he'd sorely wanted.
"On to the other topic of our little meeting. What do we do about the morphing cube? We can already morph-"
"-We haven't actually tried it yet." Mathias pointed out, sitting on the edge of his chair as he leaned against the counter top.
"Yes, well, with the events of last night, I don't suppose anyone could really have had the time." Connor reminded them gently.
"Why don't we try it out now?" Arnold suggested, feeling a surge of eagerness. The idea of playing with these powers of theirs for the first time excited him. It would be like discovering the Force, or experimenting with magic for the first time. The thrill of getting to do something amazing, out of this world, it was tantalizing for Arnold.
He knew this was all serious business, what they were going to get into one way or another. Still, it didn't stop him from wanting to try. The thought of being something else, something cool, like a tiger, or a bear.
His mind drifted once more to the night before. Even an alien. An Andalite. The thought was tainted with a mix of excitement and mourning. Mafala had wanted them to use his form, to fight this battle. At the same time...it felt almost wrong in some regards.
"Even if we don't fight the Yeerks with the morphing ability, we should still see what it can do." Elroy chimed in, before Kevin could protest yet again he added, "We agreed to find his daughter. I think morphing is the way to do it."
Whatever Kevin would have said visibly died as he silently agreed with him.
"I'm not sure that it's the best idea right now, Arnold." Connor said hesitantly, his words came haltingly out of his mouth. Conflicted, Connor fiddled with the strap on his bag.
"There's still so much we need to discuss, before we even start on that."
"Connor, I think...I think we should go ahead the test this out." Poptarts said, almost forgotten in near the back of the group. Everyone, more or less having forgotten about the small, blonde boy turned to look at him.
"It's just the five of us here, and we know we're alone. Connor, if we're going to test this, now's the best time." Poptarts pleaded, gazing at his best friend.
Swallowing Connor was overwhelmed, looking among the others. Arnold wanted this, Elroy was supportive of the move. Poptarts had given his thoughts and Kevin was out numbered.
"Alright, it looks like we've made our decision already." Connor sighed, letting out a reluctant breath.
"If we're going to try this morphing thing, I think we should try something small. Something easy to contain." Kevin suggested, not sounding entirely on board with the whole plan.
"Like what?" Elroy asked, with rare innocent curiosity.
"Well we can probably find some bugs around here-" Arnold started, trying to list off what they could find around the house. He thought of the small spiders in the bathrooms, and the occasional roly poly or ant crawling around the floors.
Poptarts made a face. "Ew, no."
"What's wrong with bugs? Sure they're kinda…" Arnold trailed off, after thinking it over. "Well it'd be easy to find, they're everywhere. I don't have any pets."
"Arnold does have a point, we could use bugs in the future." Connor agreed, thinking it over.
The pastry boy paled at the thought. "Connor, you're not going to make me-?"
"Not for your first morph, I think we should go for something bigger. Something we're not going to lose." Connor assured his friend. Poptarts relaxed visibly, although still very unnerved.
Arnold rummaged around in his head for anything else.
"What about the Andalite?" He asked, finally. Arnold did have another idea, one more animal he could think of. He wasn't sure they'd be able to catch it without drawing attention, or if they were even there at all.
A hushed silence fell upon the kitchen. No doubt they were remembering the events of the night before. Their faces were a mix of fear, of anger and sadness. Even Elroy the tough guy seemed shaken by Mafala's death. His last cry of fear and despair was a mark upon their consciousness.
"No, not today. Perhaps...perhaps later." Connor answered, softly shooting down the suggestion.
"In that case, there is one other animal I've been thinking about. I'll need help getting it though. It might not even be there."
"What is it?" Poptarts asked, sitting up straighter. Was it because of hope or because he noticed his posture was bad?
"It's some kind of bird. A dove, I think."