To my reviewers: (OMG, Mind the Green Bits, where are you? Gasp!)
Myahoo: Vertigo was freaking out—in his head. He sort of didn't want anyone to think he was a wimp and that he was going to keep his word to help his pals. If the chapter had been in Demeter's POV, there would've probably been a lot more swearing, I'm sure. Aximili has been around the humans for a while now, so I've been mixing the moments when he thinks "artificial skins" and "clothes". So, he would have a vague idea of what heels are, I guess.
Weirdo: haha You wouldn't believe how many morphs I went through for Talon. His and Demeter's battle morphs may change later in the story. (shrugs) Yeah, I practically hit my head off the keyboard when I realized how rushed it was—though, considering that all my chapters are at least ten pages in length—this one alone was 19!—and many of the stories on the Animorphs section of fanfiction rarely beat 20,000 words when COMPLETE, I'll let it side this time. However, I'll try to keep all of my chapters consistent.
&/&/&/&/&/&/&/&/&
Chapter Seven: Underground Hell
Ten birds landed in different stages of grace and clumsiness outside the gas station, Aximili's group the former, mine the latter. Really, the merlin's instincts seemed to mock me, as though having wings didn't compensate for the sixteen years of life glued to the ground. Talon's golden eagle banked to the right of us, each mighty wing beat like a drum beat in my sensitive ears. Hollow's goshawk landed between Aximili and Rachel, glaring at them with crimson eyes, but her elated and joyous state was contagious, elevating my spirits and momentarily allowing me to forget why we were here. Mercury and Vertigo came squawking overhead, their black avian forms making mock assault dives at us and tumbling to the alley's rough, cement ground, giggling.
(A whole display of American raptors sleeping contentedly in their cages, ready to be acquired, and you two choose those filthy, feathered garbage pickers,) Tobias huffed. (I can't believe there's a habitat for ravens now… Oh, wait! Someone had the sense to finally jail those scavengers.)
(Oh, shove it, Tobias,) Mercury cawed, snapping her beak with a clack.
Vertigo fanned his tail feathers and strutted confidently forward and back like a runway model. (You have to admit these birds look marvelous. Garbage pickers my arse.)
(Focus people,) Rachel groaned. (Bicker about your feathery fashions later.)
(Alright, Tobias, where's the entrance and how do we enter?) Jake asked.
(Behind the building is a small restroom for employees—almost closet size. Two of the men who work here have gone in there for hours at a time. One of the floor tiles behind the toilet is loose and if you stamp on it hard enough, the floor opens up for two minutes,) Tobias said. (There's a miniature Gleet Biofilter behind the mirror and a bunch of dead roaches and flies on the floor, so we'll all have to be in human form before we get in.)
(One question: why do these entrances have to always be in restrooms or closets or dressing rooms? I know we've compared Yeerks to certain items in toilet bowls, but come on. This is seriously getting old,) Marco grumbled, a mixture of annoyance and amusement seeping from his osprey body.
(Probably to deter the whiny Bandits who're afraid to get a bit of dirt under their nails,) Rachel said.
(Easy for you to say, Miss Eternally Clean Xena,) Marco griped.
(Everyone, demorph. Ax, Tobias, go human. We're going to pass as Controllers until we find the medical facilities connected to the pool. That's where Erek said Peca 630 would be held,) Jake said, his fingers already protruding from his primary feathers and laser eyes losing their ferocity.
I kept expecting it to hurt, for my brain to exhaust itself reporting the agony and screaming as organs relocated themselves and bones stretched at unrealistic lengths, but my body felt numb and pliable as it changed. I shut my eyes to keep the images out—watching Aximili as only an observer was one thing, myself going through the process another—and my thoughts drifted to the strangeness of our new allies, besides the fact that they were human too, not Andalites as most believed.
Jake had fallen into the leadership role the moment I had sensed him, with the practiced ease of responsibility and experience somehow imprinted on his aura, and even now I could feel his mind reviewing the plan he had in store underneath his placid, clam exterior thoughts. He reminded me of Talon weirdly enough, even though Talon rarely respected authority and he would snidely remark against anyone who saw him as one. The fact that he so easily fell under Jake seemed mind-boggling, but even after a year living with him, I knew there were secrets Talon kept from us, for reasons of his own. I tried furtively to peck inconspicuously at his mind, but I may as well have tried to dig and chip against at a steel wall.
Rachel appeared friendly and brutal in equal measures, aggression lurking in some place I kept my distance from. Cassie was the opposite, as open and honest a person I'd ever met, and I marveled at the idea of her in a fight, but now I wished she was here, since her aura had a reassuring texture to it. Marco had the air of a gregarious and joking individual, but in the first few minutes we'd met, there had been something completely icy and calculating in his eyes, especially when he'd mentioned "David". I had yet to figure much out about Tobias, except his extensive knowledge of birds and flight, and I had to keep rehashing my ideas of Aximili.
Extreme relief had washed over me when Erek hadn't joined us. While the others were a heap of blended emotions and thoughts, I hadn't felt anything from the boy. It wasn't like the mental barrier my fingers skimmed across over Talon's head or event the almost intangible slick air that surrounds a freshly dead person—I'd gone to the hospital my father had worked at to recognize it—but Erek fell into either category, though the latter might've freaked me out a little more. It was though he was empty, like he didn't' contain a soul or… I'd have to ask Meds after this.
After this mission, after we rescued Peca 630 from whatever terror Visser Three would undoubtedly use on him. I shuddered, remembering long, bitter nights of cramped cages and sand-textured pills and antiseptic smells and slimy bodies traveling into my head unsuccessfully, trying to rape my mind of its secrets and thoughts, use my body to betray others and drag them into submission in the Yeerks' power.
Talon caught my movement, his raptor yellow eyes fading into ebony orbs. "You going to be able to do this, Patches? You aren't going to go and chicken out on us are you?" He smirked tauntingly. "Need me to hold your clammy hands?"
Memories of suffering and loneliness dispersed in a cloud of sudden frustration, the exact reaction he'd wanted. "Let's hope we don't we don't have to put you on a leash before you get all fight happy. And don't call me Patches!" Something was off with Talon's face, and his arms and legs from what I could see after he'd demorphed without his jacket and his shirt and pants looked even more ragged and torn than before. I had noticed it after he'd demorphed from the rat at the zoo, but now I could see…nothing. "Your scars!"
For the first time since I'd met him, Talon started, rubbing his nose, searching for the dent that had been above his left nostril, and scraping his arms, as though a layer of grime were covering them. Any trace of the pale, haphazard array of scars was gone. The zigzagged cuts on my own arms had disappeared, as well as a few others from the Yeerks' experimenting and prodding of my body, as though that section of my life had never occurred. Mercury lifted her shirt and peered at her stomach, her belly as smooth and unmarred as an infant's, puzzlement flickering around her.
"The morphing technology ology heals any injuries joor-ees or disabilities that are not congenital al," Aximili explained.
Vertigo raised an eyebrow. "As long as they're not STD's?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Um, no. He means as long as you weren't born with them."
"The passageway intersects with a Taxxon tunnel and each ends up at opposite sides of an entrance leading away from the main Pool area. I think that's where we'll find the medical facilities," Tobias said.
"Damn, bird boy, you're good at this," Mercury said.
"Actually, it was fly boy at the time," Tobias corrected.
"Five of us will take the Taxxon tunnel, morph fly or rat, and scope out the place. The rest of you wait outside the pool and act casual. Don't do anything for them to suspect you to be anything besides lower ranking Controllers," Jake warned. "Rachel, Tobias, Hollow, and Talon, you guys come with me through the Taxxon hole. I want to see all the security they've got on Peca 630."
"Can't believe Cassie's missing this," Rachel said.
"Yeah. Woe to Cassie," Marco said indignantly. "Sucks to be her."
We left the alleyway in groups of two and three, skirting around the gas station—needn't have bothered, since the clerk was zoning out to an MP3 player—and ducking behind it, finding one of those smelly cubicles that remind me too much of plastic Port-A-Potty-like things that never work right. My nose twitched at the stench of stale urine and excrement—so the entrance worked at full standard, apparently—waiting as Jake and Tobias slipped in, kneeling onto the sticky floor and feeling around for that loose tile. Eventually one of them found it, since there was a sudden yelp of surprise and the thud of flesh smacking rock. I winced in sympathy.
"Are you guys alright?" I gasped, nervous jitters beginning to spread from me to Hollow and Aximili standing by me.
"Ow…. Yeah, Tobias broke my fall. Mostly," Jake groaned.
"I'll be wonderful once Jake gets his butt out of my face," Tobias grumbled. "Told you not to just yank that tile. Haven't you ever watched any Indiana Jones films?"
There was a shuffling sound as the rest of us crowded around outside the stall, peering in at the gaping hole in the floor, barely able to discern Tobias and Jake from the shadows. One at a time we hoisted ourselves through the opening, the landing jarring my calves despite the short drop. All of us thudded and slapped the concrete floor, making me hope the employee of the convenience store was still spacing out to music with the volume set way high, except for Rachel, who was apparently a gymnast, and Talon, greeting the ground with a graceful roll to the side.
Not much was said as we slowly went deeper into the darkness, the absolute absence of light making me slightly claustrophobic, imagining vicious, ominous creatures lurking in its depths. I shuddered, wishing someone would speak up, but no one wanted some Hork-Bajir or other Controllers drawn toward the sound. Had Orpheus felt the same way when he descended into Hades, armed with only a harp and voice, to save Eurydice? Were we that much different? Going into the bowels of an earthly Hell, with only some scraps of animal DNA in our veins? Except we weren't going to bargain or plead with the ruler of this place, but try to fight and tear through his army for one of his own people. (A/N: 1.)
I almost staggered under the raw stench of blood and rotting flesh that came drifting into my nose, the metallic scent of the former making bile rising in my throat. Vertigo and Mercury muttered a few curses, swearing an entire vocabulary for me. Someone stepped into the material that made a sickening squishing noise.
"I was wondering how you found the tunnel, Tobias," Marco muttered, his aura rearing up in disgust. "Great time to walk around without shoes."
"See you guys on the flip side," Rachel said, her voice changing as her body did.
Talon's monotone, gravelly voice seemed to condense in the darkness as he said, "Hollow, you just go with the others, alright? The Screamers'll notice more than one rat running around."
"Uh-uh, Talon. I'm going to help our comrades and the polar bear I've got will do a lot more than your beastie. Don't worry about me," she chirped. "Let's get ratty, Talon. Ja na, everyone." A small gust blew in my face and I guessed she was waving goodbye.
"Be careful," Mercury said. "I don't want to have to bust a nail saving your butts."
"They couldn't be safer with Rachel," Marco said. "She has a tendency of overdoing it in a brawl."
Wings buzzed and tiny, clawed feet clicked across the ground, and the noises disappeared to the immediate left. My stomach continued top churn and threaten to empty its contents until we put some distance between the decaying carcasses and ourselves. How the others could stand the aroma in fly and rodent bodies with tremendously sensitive nostrils I could only guess at…
The darkness seemed to continue on forever, my only awareness of the others being their steady breathing and wavy auras, leaving me to scan my own thoughts. Had I been thinking correctly when I suggested my friends' help? Would they be able to handle a hostile, bloodthirsty group of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons if this went bad, with blades slicing into their hides and teeth gnawing at their limbs? Face a group of humans and harm them with the ferocity of beasts and soldiers?
I chewed on my lip and tried to rein in my thoughts, shielding them from affecting the others. God, had I sent them into a death trap? Why couldn't I have seen this until I was too late to turn back? I knew how dangerous and merciless the Screamers were! I whispered a silent prayer to Jesus and the deities of my childhood stories, hoping one or two would listen to my beckoning and protect my little street family.
A hand grasped my shoulder and stroked the area between my neck and collarbone, a gesture of comfort and support. Not human. "We're close to the Pool area eya. Demeter eer, you should acquire Mercury ee and morph her for now. Your skin pattern urn is too unique and will draw attention shin."
"Shoot, why didn't we think of that?" Mercury said. An arm swiped the space around me until it smacked my chin, fingers grasping and squeezing it. "Get it over with and don't you dare scratch me up." I was astounded that she so willingly offered her DNA, but she must have been slightly still overwhelmed by the idea of morphing and had always been compulsive. When something had to be done, whether selling herself for food money or knocking the crap out of Vertigo and Hollow's tormentors, she never hesitated.
I smiled softly, even if she couldn't see it and absorbed her essence, a warm rush spreading across my face. I concentrated on her body, her quirks, her attitude, ignoring the exhaustion creeping through me from already morphing the merlin twice and felt the changes, most of them subtle. However, I definitely noticed the added weight and swelling in my front and back—was I really that flat? Damn, that was disappointing. I only spent a few seconds on the change, not wanting to be an exact duplicate of Mercury, since two identical people would be more suspicious than a case of leakoderma.
"So what are we up against? That Erek guy mentioned tight security, but I heard you guys usually fight a dozen or so Hork-Bajir regularly," I said, amazed at the unexpected husky undertone in my vocal cords. "I've seen Hork-Bajir in gory killer mode. What could be much worse than that?"
"Were you not aught paying attention?" Aximili asked, not rudely, just baffled at my ignorance.
"Refresh my memory," I said. I didn't mention that I'd spent too much time trying to analyze Erek's nonexistent aura to pay much observance to the discussion.
Aximili sighed. "The Yeerks have recently infested ead a new set of hosts, about twenty so far, that took four HorkBajir ear each to overtake. They are called Yarbezzazz, simply Yarbezz in singular form. Erek eek didn't get much information about the Yarbezzazz, but they have an ability similar to the morphing technology. Two of them have recently come to Earth to review the visser's progress ease, but are also acting ing as security around Peca 630."
"Course the Chee have to leave fun, little homicidal surprises for us," Marco muttered. "Asking what these things look like or how they morph would ruin the game."
A light peeked around the next corner and everyone's morale strengthened, even Marco's pessimistic mood. Despite that, our enthusiasm quickly quelled as the moans and sobs we'd heard along the tunnel in muffled cries became echoing screams of grief and outrage and hatred and despair. Beneath, around, and above those physical outbursts was a ripping, chaotic mental stream of those emotions and thoughts multiplied in force by tenfold.
How could this happen? I wanted people to with…
Fucking bastards! I'll kill you all! You'll pay for this!
Why won't Mommy listen to me? I want to go home.
Can't see Mother Sky…
Please just end this. I can't take it anymore! Kill me!
Damn you slugs to Hell!
Free or die! Free or die!
My heart skidded in my chest and breathing became a bewildering labor, the blood pounding in my aching head. My fingertips twitched, wishing to curl around a container of aspirin or even one of those dimebags I'd occasionally see Mercury have on hold, and my knees buckled underneath me. Moisture crawled down my cheeks, a mixture of tears and sweat. Once again, I felt one of Aximili's hands grip my shoulder.
"You can still eel turn around. No one's seen een you yet," Aximili said. "You too, Mercury and Vertigo."
I tried to growl back a retort, but the trembling didn't ease under the tirade of so many Screamers centered in one area. Aximili was right. I could turn around and race back to the gap in the floor of the stall, escape this craziness. I didn't owe Aximili or his friends anything.
And yet despite all the suffering, what every silent scream amounted to was a plead for help. I had a choice, but those people out there didn't, some having lost their freedom years ago. Like my father hadn't much after his attempts to "cure" me had failed and now he couldn't even scream like the rest, having departed for Heaven or the River Styx a year ago. (A/N: 2)
Mercury gave me no time to voice my resolve. "Fuckers. This is just… I can't even put a word to it." She cracked her knuckles with loud pops. "Vert, Dem, you still gearing up to sock and bash these sons of bitches?"
"Darling, like I said, I'm watching out for you," Vertigo said in a voice made calm and stoic with shock, with his thoughts fluttering with fear and revulsion.
"You sure you want to do this?" Marco asked. "Could you stand fighting creatures that could chop you into sushi? Centipedes that would eat you alive?"
Marco was testing our bravado and we all knew it. Vertigo's face twitched, but he glared at Marco with defiance in his frosty blue eyes. "Hun, I'm a queer, not a coward or chicken. Let's go."
I nodded, having regained enough poise and posture to stand straight and smooth any disgust or fury from my features. "Sure thing."
We strolled nonchalantly into the underground Hell, our faces blank and unexpressive. Cages lined many of the walls, full of sobbing, screeching, or numb humans and Hork-Bajir, their combined tsunami of auras assaulting me even though I'd wrapped my mind as secure as I could. In the middle of the enormous cavern sat a gigantic, circular steel tank, with two sets of stairs of stairs leading up to it. Around the entrances and exits to this place, Taxxon holes riddled the walls, with the bloated cannibals chattering away in their high-pitched voices around them. Near a cafeteria section of the area, sipping cocktails and joking among themselves were humans and a few Hork-Bajir with only one mindset. Not Screamers, yet…
I poked Marco's shoulder and he glanced back at me, wariness rimming his mostly vacant eyes. "Who are those people eating lunch over there? I can't feel any screaming from them and there's only, um, how do I explain? Well, there's only one, eh, voice in their heads."
"Those guys sold out their species," Marco hissed in repugnance.
"Carrion," I murmured, remembering when Talon first said it. An appropriate nickname.
"Excuse me," someone said, barging into our little group, shoving Aximili and Vertigo roughly to the side. The person was at least a foot taller than the rest of us, a massive figure with bleached blonde hair and a solemn expression. Even the guy's mind barely screamed under the Yeerk's glum air, whimpering softly instead. "What are you doing without shoes on? You'll ruin the soles of your host's feet. A waste." His pale lips pulled back into a grin without a hint of happiness. "Or can you heal that before two hours time?'
Oh no, no, no. We hadn't even reached the medical facilities and this observant Screamer had us cornered for a dress code violation. I couldn't think of an excuse for our awkward attire for the life of me. Should I demorph and shift into battle mode? How long would it take before this entire room of Screamers had us dragged to that pool of sludge and everything we'd planned was for naught? Could Jake, Rachel, Hollow, Tobias, and Talon retreat before they suspected more of us here?
Mercury curled her lip and swung her hips forward, striding toward the Screamer with the entire disregard for power one only learned on the street. "Excuse yourself then. We're volunteering for one of Irey 951's observation experiments. He needs to know how much human feet can endure without protective coverings. Right now you are interrupting our test of feet against stone floor."
"Really now?" the Screamer asked. "Strange that such a respected medical professor would sink to such menial experiments."
"Are you undermining Visser Three's personal doctor? I should report you!" Marco added. "What's your name and rank?"
The Screamer's carefully controlled aura now had a nervous tickle in it. "Why are you down here? Shouldn't you be 'experimenting' with some notes elsewhere?" he snarled.
"Actually we're looking for Irey now," Mercury said. "Our pal here screwed it up a bit."
"How so?" the Screamer asked.
Marco held up his left foot, still stained red with dried chips of blood and tidbits of flesh. I grimaced, sucking in my stomach and trying to smother it into defeat. "Yeah, I think it may be infected."
"Just because we have six billion bodies to choose from doesn't mean you should waste them so needlessly," the Screamer snarled, inspecting Marco's foot with a glimpse. His eyes flickered to the right and he smiled nastily. Uh-oh. "Well, what do you know? That's Irey 951 now. You can ask him to tell me all about your experiment and have him check that foot of yours."
Marco and Aximili exchanged glances, reluctantly following the Screamer. Vertigo and Mercury, however, snickered and pulled me between them, Vertigo waving eagerly to the trio ahead of us.
Conversing with a female Hork-Bajir and a dark-skinned woman, Meds—or Irey 951 as everyone around me kept calling him—seemed to have been punched in the gut, his shoulders slumped and his expression crestfallen, oblivious to Vertigo's antics—which I quickly ended with a swift elbow to his abdomen. Richard's usually tidy and almost glossy brunette hair stuck up in ragged clumps, as he kept running a nervous hand through it, and his Irish pale skin seemed almost grayish and ill in the light. Richard and Irey were both muttering to each other from the disruptive waves I felt from them, more than they were even talking to the Hork-Bajir and lady.
I heard no complaints from either of his companions, so they must have been Resistance members. Apprehension seized at my insides. Meds looking sick and plotting with two Resistance members, right around the time Visser Three would begin his interrogation. Something was really wrong and—bite me for the cliché—I knew the shit was about to hit the fan.
Our blonde Screamer buddy tapped Meds's shoulder and the doctor turned around, his eyes widening at the sight of Mercury and Vertigo, unable to recognize me with my spliced morph. "These five say that you are using them for a research project concerning human feet's endurance. Am I right?" I wanted to stab the jerk for the arrogance he had that he was about to rat us out. Or he simply thought so, I hoped.
Meds studied us with a stare and both Marco and Aximili's mental hackles rose, ready to give all they had if it came to a fight. Since the blonde Screamer had his back to us, Vertigo gave Meds a sly wink. "Yes, I just gave them this assignment a few days ago. I almost completely forgot about it!" He chuckled, waving his companions away. "Risu 852, Seeyi 234, it has been a pleasure sharing notes on host reproductive capabilities, but it seems I have business to attend to."
Blonde Screamer was obviously a taken back. "Oh, so you are studying…"
"I have grown very intrigued by human traits and necessities," Meds confirmed. "Although, this one was conceived mostly out of boredom as you probably already suspected, Set 696. Now, why are the five of you here?" His real meaning was obvious. Darn, though, I hadn't ever realized how polished his acting skills were, but if you are a big honcho of a secret conspiracy, I guess that came as a requirement.
Vertigo jerked a thumb at Marco. "We have a bit of an infection problem, we think."
The blonde, hulking Screamer sensed that Meds didn't care for his presence anymore and skirted away to other matters, while Meds waited for the man to be completely out of earshot. "Hm, I can take a look at that. No lacerations so you should be fine for the most part. Taxxons, despite their appetite or because of it, have enzyme in their saliva that eradicates diseases and bacteria in their food. That is where you stepped, correct? No other host eats raw flesh."
"Yeah, you're right on the money," Mercury said.
"We should get that cleaned up, though," Meds added. "Mercury, Vertigo, why are you two down here? And who are these people?"
"New friends. Well, actually, this is Dem," Vertigo whispered, pointing at me.
"Can we please talk about this somewhere a little more, eh, private?" I asked, ignoring Meds's astonished expression. "We have a job to do and I don't feel it safe discussing it here." There was also the fact that the Screamers' concentrated amounts of anguish were starting to peck away at my shields, threatening to send me into a schizophrenic meltdown. Aximili and Marco had seen enough of that already.
Meds nodded in agreement and beckoned us to follow him into a tunnel leading away from the Pool area, not suffocating dark and oppressive, but with lights along the ceiling, giving off an ironic cheery glow. It was also much wider, splitting off into separate passageways, making me wonder if anyone had ever gotten lost in its depths. Meds kept up a stately pace, with all the dignity a doctor deserved, while Mercury and Vertigo pestered Aximili and Marco forward.
Meds's agitation wafted back towards me and I cringed, shoving it away from my mind. Normally, the man and Yeerk that made up Meds were both in happy, curious moods when I saw them, only depressed and aggravated when he explained the happenings of the Yeerk and Andalite war. What had he done to cause him to be so distraught?
He stopped outside a smooth sheet of metal that was apparently a door, with what looked like one of those circuit box things people have in their basements if the electricity shut off during a storm. He pressed his palm to it, muttering a few phrases in an alien language I didn't understand. The mechanism made a strange clicking noise and slid to the side.
(Primitive,) Aximili drawled privately to us. "Ouch!" He winced; shaking his foot after Mercury had stomped on it.
"No roughhousing, please," Meds muttered, stepping through and the rest of us followed inside. He grabbed Marco's arm and pointed to a sink in the corner. "Wash that foot off. I have some decontaminator you can rub over it and the skin will absorb it." As he said it, he started scavenging in a desk drawer.
The room looked similar to the one at his own place, with a metallic, silver sheen table taking up the space in the middle of the room—not that it was a puny area, since Aximili could've comfortably strode in his natural form around it without bumping into everything. Around the perimeter of the room was a countertop that looked as though it had ritualistic cleanings, broken up only to allow space for Meds's desk and a sink in the corners. On top of it were machines whose functions I could only guess at and beneath it were hundreds of drawers marked with titles in other languages and number codes.
"So, Meds, did you steal this design off a House or ER episode?" Mercury asked.
"Are there air any security cameras ahs?" Aximili asked more importantly.
"I never watch human television shows, as they are often misled and inaccurate, and no, as a higher-ranking Yeerk, I have some liberties towards privacy," Meds answered, pulling a clear, brown container filled with some viscous liquid. He placed it on the counter and slid it down to Marco. "Don't use more than a palm-full or your foot will be numb and limp for a week." He stared at me for a while, tipping his head to the side. "Demeter, you said? Was that Andalite that grateful to give you access to a morphing cube?" He guffawed. "They're usually more stingy about that."
Aximili's eye twitched slightly.
I chuckled and focused on my own body, my breasts and butt decreasing in size, and my skin becoming splotchy and flawed, as it always had been. "Not all Andalites are the bastards you and Talon say they are." Shut up before Aximili tries to garrote you with medical tape.
Meds shrugged. "You won't find a greedier or more selfish people. Now, who are you two?"
Marco snickered as Aximili's face darkened and he snapped, "Andalites aren't greedy or selfish!"
"They're two of the Andalite Bandits, if you hadn't noticed already," I said sheepishly, not mentioning that only one of them was a blue, furry centaur in reality, gathering perplexity from Vertigo and Mercury when I didn't say so. I hadn't lied to Talon when I said I wouldn't simply give away information about Pro Metheus or Odin to the Bandits, but I also wouldn't do the same about Aximili or the others. I'd leave that for Meds and Jake to discuss. "Calm down, Aximili. If it hadn't been for Meds, Talon would've probably dumped your cadaver in a ditch by now."
Marco smirked. "Now say thank you to the brain stealing doctor, Aximili." Aximili glared at him.
Meds laughed. "I was wondering how you'd turned out."
I perched myself on the steel table, swinging my legs to rid the tension I'd sensed earlier in Meds. "So why are you so depressed, Meds?"
"How did you—oh, never mind," Meds muttered, sighing. His eyes narrowed and he messed up his hair again with another swipe of his hand. "I've had to say goodbye to a dear colleague of mine. He and his host were outstanding loyalists to the Resistance, but he was also a little too foolhardy and headstrong."
My insides grew cold and numb, having nothing to do with the chilly surface of the table deadening my bum, nor the guilt circulating around Meds. "Peca 630?"
Meds stared at me with surprise. "Is your empathy becoming keener?"
"Eh, no. We're here because of him," Mercury said. "The Andalite Bandits made us honorary recruits so we could help them on this rescue mission. Though the initiation process was a little hurried."
"You think?" Vertigo asked. "Yep, we're helping Axie and his crew save Peca. They need more help because of some Yarbitza."
"Yarbezz," Marco corrected.
Meds's eyebrows curled into half moons and his jaw want slack, then his eyes crinkled and he laughed. "Well, perhaps one good thing has happened today. That blundering dapsen Set 696 and his suspicions kept you from doing something pointlessly."
"Not exactly. He happens to have information on us Visser Three can't have," Marco said.
"That most of you are humans?" Meds asked, and before Marco or Aximili or I could stutter out an answer, he raised a hand. "Save it. Aftran was a cousin of mine and a fellow pacifist."
"Uh-huh. Well then, if you guys are such 'pacifists', why did your buddy try to assassinate the visser? If he hadn't, we wouldn't be in this mess," Marco griped.
"As I just said, Peca 630 has always been as arrogant as Andalite. Don't get angry. I'm not exaggerating about that trait," Meds snapped at Aximili's irritated glare. "We're pacifists at heart, but during times such as these, we too have to take action. Unfortunately, Peca 630 couldn't wait and has far too many secrets of the Resistance, such as the identities of most of its members." He sighed. "At least, he knew the consequences of his actions and accepted them. I will miss his company."
"Don't get all gloomy, Meds," Vertigo assured. "Just tell us where they're holding him."
"Too late for that," Meds said.
"No it is not," Aximili said. "There are five of your minutes left before the interrogation."
Meds shook his head. "In the last twenty-four hours, Peca 630 has been contained in a holding tank, a miniature version of the Pool itself. He must have known that his attempt of killing the visser might fail, so he was practically starved when we retrieved him from his host. I was one of the people adding nutrients into the tank, but added a minor dose of conium. I'm sure one of you knows what that is, if you happened to have read about Socrates's execution." He glanced at me.
One of the very un-Yeerk-like habits he'd picked up from Richard was an avid delight in ancient Earth history, especially concerning the Greeks. If I remembered it correctly, the Greeks had sentenced Socrates, a well-respected philosopher, to death suing poison hemlock, which slowly poisoned him from the feet up his waist going ever upwards until the toxins—mainly conium—paralyzed the muscles in his chest and shut off the brain. (A/N: 3)
"Oh, God," I whispered. "We have to warn the others."
"Others? Who else is here?" Meds asked, bewildered.
Without warning, Tobias's voice entered my and the others' minds, (We got Peca 630, but there's a troop of Hork-Bajir coming our way. Hurry up, morph, and get your butts over here!)
"Shit, fuck, dammit!" Vertigo spat. "Where are they now, Meds?" Just as he said that, the walls seemed to shake and shudder with the roar of a tiger, followed by the bellows of bears. "Never mind. I think we'll find them soon enough."
"Well, Rachel's not here, so let's do it," Marco announced. "Oh, and nobody tell her I said that." He handed the container of syrupy substance back to Meds. "Thanks and I'm sure we'll be meeting up again soon." Even as he said that, his face and hands became thick, black, and rubbery.
Nervousness, excitement, and apprehension swirled around Mercury and Vertigo, but their bodies altered nonetheless. Black rosettes bloomed across Mercury's skin, her dark ringlets of hair becoming stiff and tawny gold, and her ears curling and crawling to the top of her head, but somehow the transition seemed oddly beautiful, even as her canines hung like stalagmites and stalactites from her swelling jaw. Vertigo twisted and dwindled in size, watching in wonder and fear as his skin turned scarlet and scaly, his nose and lips fusing together.
The hair along the back of my neck grew into a bushy, short pale orange mane, my bangs turning the same color and hanging over my eyes before receding into a manageable length. Sandy, coarse fur spread across me, except for the black on my hands and feet, and I stared at it entranced until my knees cracked and I tipped over the steel table, hitting the floor with a yelp. I shook my head to rid the sheepish tinge in my aura, as my face elongated into a heavy muzzle, whiskers sliding from my cheeks.
The hyena's instincts melded into my brain and I cringed at the bright, electrical light illuminating the room, a low growl building in my throat. I tested my sense of smell, but I needn't have bothered, the gorilla, jaguar, human, Andalite, and red spitting cobra in plain sight. The jaguar—so much like a leopard, but heavier, stockier, and with more vicious looking bite force—spat at me, her graceful form in a defensive stance, eyeing me up. The cobra knew it was outmatched, slithering away to a corner of the room, studying us with its flat, dead eyes.
"Demeter?" the man asked, smelling not of fear, but wary and concern. I snorted at the strange odor in my presence, still facing off with the jungle feline. "You're not a dog. Stop growling."
"Grr…" I growled.
"Haaahisss-ACK!" the jaguar hissed and spat menacingly.
(Actually, the hyena is a cat from what I've read in the encyclopedia,) the Andalite said. He flicked his blade casually to the side, catching the light in an ivory blur, as well as my attention. (You three are Demeter, Mercury, and Vertigo, all human. We need to help Prince Jake and the others. Control yourselves!)
With less patience, the gorilla suddenly gripped the jaguar by the nape of her neck and shook her, causing the cat to struggle and snarl in fury. (Wakie, wakie, Mercury. Time to be human again and get to work.)
The cat blinked her lime green eyes and shrugged away from the primate's hold. (Oh, whoopsie. Sorry about that. This kitty's mean. Hey. Vert? Dem? How're you too?)
(Agh…this whole double mind junk is making me loopy. I think I know how Dem feels,) Vertigo moaned. (I need some coffee. No, scratch that. A bottle of Smirnoff and a glass of the Captain. With an umbrella.)
The female hyena's dominance shattered at the sounds of my friends' voices and I shook my compact body, tongue lolling as I registered my status as a Homo sapien. Nasty headache there—I'd join Vertigo in his drinking vice. As I did that, another roar vibrated through the walls and even here I could feel desperation from Talon, Tobias, Jake, Rachel, and Hollow. Marco was already at the door, squishing his bulk through the narrow frame.
(Let's get this party started. I join this craziness and may as well see it to the full extent,) Vertigo said. (Uh, wait, this snake isn't as fast as I thought…)
(Climb on up, then,) Mercury said, lowering her sleek head toward the serpent and Vertigo twined around her neck, his smooth head resting between her rounded ears. I almost laughed at how much they looked like some lost, living depiction of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. (A/N: 4)
Meds rubbed the bridge of his nose as we sauntered out, staring at me. "I'll need a couple explanations, Demeter."
I nodded. (Tell Pro and Odin I said hi.)
Ever open an oven door and feel the rush of heat? Or press a thumb over the spout of a hose set at full blast and be hit with the water's force? As I stepped out into the hall, the air became dense and heavy, my mind doing a double take, as I tried to filter through the pain and fury and death clogging my gray matter. In my moment of distraction, a flicker of movement and green scales and white fur peeked around the corner to our far right. Hollow, in polar bear morph, taking on a Hork-Bajir. She won, but there were an increasing number of crimson and wet cuts around her shoulders and rump.
(Don't worry, dearie! The cavalry's here!) Vertigo called.
I barked out a few rumbling, squeaky laughs, the telltale call of the hyena. I loped down the hall between Aximili and Mercury, with Marco ahead of us. We curved around the corner, Marco snatching a Hork-Bajir slashing at Jake, a Bengal tiger. Aximili darted between the bladed lizards, faster than the fleet-footed Atalanta, his tail a blur as it whipped and severed and decapitated. Mercury leapt at another of Hollow's assailants, Vertigo giving his venom-flicking fangs a test run. (A/N: 5)
A Hork-Bajir came at me, his ruby eyes blazing and blades flashing like crystals in the light. I crouched down on my haunches and leapt at his chest, knocking the air out of his chest and sending the pair of us rolling into a wall. I ran from his crumpled, dazed form, to the aid of Talon and Rachel, facing off half a dozen Hork-Bajir.
Ignoring the pulsing, erratic auras battering me from all sides, I glared at Talon. (You chose a heavyweight pig?)
(The word you're looking for is hippopotamus, Patches. And these 'heavyweight pigs' can chomp a crocodile in two,) he snarled. In demonstration, he snatched a struggling Hork-Bajir digging her blades into his massive sides into his enormous maw, with canine teeth a couple feet in length, and snapped them shut with a loud crunch in between. (Hmph. A little too sour and salty for me.) He swung his head and tossed the limp body away.
I gagged slightly, even as the scent of fresh meat and spilled blood enticed the hyena. One of the human-Controllers aimed a Dracon beam at me and I yelped as I barely dodged to the side, and then snarled threateningly at him. I barreled between Rachel and her foe, coming at the man in a blur of fur and claws and fangs, forgetting I was human and simply thinking of survival as I clamped my jaws over his arm. Crunch!
The air screamed of blades and claws coming at my left and I whipped to the side, pouncing on the Hork-Bajir and tearing at his abdomen, my muzzle soon drenched in bodily fluids. The part of me that was Demeter cried in sympathy as the pain in the Hork-Bajir and Yeerk's minds ricocheted into my own, but the hyena relished the kill, taking a few swallows before reluctantly attacking another opponent, his throat torn and spraying me with blood.
Just as I did that, someone slashed at my hind leg, slicing through flesh and muscle, making me whimper in burning pain. Rachel stalked up behind me and swiped at him with ham-sized paws. I lapped quickly at my wound, checking if it was serious, but besides the limp I'd later have, it proved to be nothing mortal or even crippling.
(Shit!) Talon growled. I swung my head at the commotion, as one of the Hork-Bajir had jumped onto the hippo's broad back, clinging with its arm and knee blades, and raking at Talon's shoulders with its forehead blades. Talon swore, bashing himself against the walls of the tunnel and swinging his head, trying to loosen the pesky Controller. The Hork-Bajir snapped a few alien and English phrases back at him, chuckling madly as it left deep, oozing gashes in the thick hide.
I snarled and raced to his side, jumping onto his enormous mouth, digging my claws into the skin as he continued to struggle underneath me. I snapped my teeth inches from the Hork-Bajir's beak and it retaliated with a swing of its head, slicing cleaning across my chest. My lips peeled back even farther from my teeth and I threw myself forward, my fangs and claws catching on the leathery skin of his collarbone. We tumbled from Talon's back, the Hork-Bajir pinning me underneath him while I sank my teeth deeper into his hide, feeling and hearing bone snap.
The Hork-Bajir howled in agony, stumbling to his taloned feet even I swung from his chest, a writhing ball of anger and bestial instinct. He slashed at my belly, but I swung to the right, tearing flesh and muscle as I hit the ground. A Dracon beam flashed behind me—tseew!—and burned my rump. (OW!) The Hork-Bajir, clutching his chest, came at me once more and this time left a deep laceration along my shoulders. I shrieked at the pain and back stepped away, readying for a pounce, but he gave me no time, matching my speed.
A stream of clear liquid splashed into his eyes and he grasped them, tripping over his feet. I looked at Vertigo, raised half a foot over Mercury's head, winking at me with one of his inky black eyes. (You owe me love. I'm almost out of this stuff.)
Finally, Talon and Marco took care of the last few Hork-Bajir. Only a handful of human-Controllers remained, as well as a few half-conscious Hork-Bajir, holding Dracon beams, but they took in stock of the cobra, hawk, jaguar, tiger, grizzly bear, polar bear, hippo, gorilla, Andalite, and hyena, quickly dispersing, scattering to the ends of the tunnel. To be sure they didn't simply get out of range to take a few easy shots at us, Jake, Hollow, and Rachel chased after them, snapping at their heels, and padding back to our group.
My group—Marco, Aximili, Mercury, Vertigo, and I—hadn't suffered much since we'd just recently joined the fight, but the others looked like a mess. Large, irregular lacerations marred Talon's sides, shoulders, and limbs, one of his ears sheered clean off. Hollow and Rachel were both matted in blood, both of Rachel's hind legs so severely burned and shredded I was amazed she could stand. Tobias looked completely exhausted, as it was next to impossible to fly in the still, closed space of the tunnel. Someone had practically plucked out Jake's left eye, a gooey mess dribbling down his muzzle and he no longer had a tail.
Without a fight to distract me, the hyena receded to the corners of my mind, ready to reappear if the situation go drastic again, and leaving me alone as the air thickened once more with death, rage, and pain. I'd always believed in souls and the Afterlife, but no put much thought in ghosts clinging to the area of their demise. However, in the corners of my sight, intangible, wavering forms seemed to compress and fade in equal intervals. I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut. No, it was just the overload coursing through my brain, but still I couldn't completely brush off the sick, icy dread creeping through me.
Rachel nudged my side with her jaw. (Hey, Spacey, Jake just said to get a move on.)
(Oh, right.) I lapped the froth and fluids from my jaw, and tailed behind the others, soon catching the scent of liquid lead. (Hey, where's Peca 630?)
(Marco told us he was dead,) Rachel said dismissively, shrugging.
A wisp of guilt stirred in me, as we should've at least left his body—whatever was left of it—with Meds, but I shoved the irrational thought aside. No time, May as well sob for the Hork-Bajir-Controllers and human-Controllers lying discarded behind us.
Jake and Talon, both in the lead, stiffened suddenly, the tiger's nose twitching and the hippo's single ear swiveling. Puzzled, I sat back on my haunches and sniffed the air, noting a new odor drifting through the tunnel, almost as strong as the smell of the Yeerk Pool. It was neither pleasant, nor revolting, a mixture of cinnamon, leather, and toilet water. Despite its unknown origin, the hyena's mind whined and shuffled uneasily beside mine.
Coming toward us was another troop of Hork-Bajir, only eight in total, and a couple of human-Controllers, cocky and swaggering, their auras so arrogant I was tempted to lash back at them with my own. And I still couldn't grasp the reason for their boldness even as the creature between them grinned sardonically at us.
The beast was as large as Aximili, though its body resembled a brontosaurus's, rather than any equine shape, with a clumsy, fat tail dragging on the ground behind it. Mounted above its chest was a sinuous neck three feet long, ending in a head that reminded me of a seal's, with horn-like projections growing out the back of its skull and glinting, jewel-like eyes of an almond shade. Think, shaggy, bronze-streaked peppery red fur covered it. Seemingly out of place with its dinosaur-seal body, two flipper-like, naked lumps of flesh hung from its shoulder blades, trailing along the ground and tripping the humans.
(That's a Yarbezz? Puh-lease,) Rachel muttered. (It can barely walk with that bloated gut it has. Ha!) Indeed, its belly was so swollen it hung down to its knees.
Why was the hyena so scared? She lived in an environment dominated by massive elephants and wildebeest and lions and crocodiles. I turned to Aximili, nipping his hand with my teeth. (What did Erek say about this thing again?)
Aximili studied me with a raised eyestalk. (You must suffer from short-term memory loss, because you seem to forget everything anyone says to you.)
(Bite me.) I clashed my teeth together, chuckling nervously. (Quit it with the dry sense of humor.)
(Teach me how to distinguish dry humor from wet humor,) Aximili retorted. (The Yarbezz has morphing powers. I suspect those growths hanging from its sides are the key to its morphing ability. I can't see them serving any other purpose.)
I shrugged. (Attracts the ladies? Something about the scent says its male.)
The Yarbezz snorted as it caught a good viewing of us with its tiny, sparkling eyes, hissing in what I expected was a chuckle. "Dessse are da Andalite Banditsss? Hsss. Vissser Three informed me dat dere vere lesss of you. Hsss, hsss. Leavesss more for my host to feassst on." A thin, milky white tongue lapped at its cheek. "Hard do imagine sssuch flimsssy beasssts morphsss have causssed my sssibling sssooo much trouble."
(Whoa, that's Visser Three's brother?) Marco exclaimed. (Well, there's the arrogant, I-shall-kill-you-all ego, that's for sure.)
Talon chuckled. (The host health standards seemed to have gone down since I was here. Hmph.) His plate-size nostrils snorted in derision. (Where's the Visser? I want to fight him, not this chubby prick.)
A blonde woman with porcelain skin waved her Dracon beam at us. "Visser Three wants them alive for their morphing abilities. We can pick them off from this distance."
The Yarbezz spat at her feet, his lipless mouth curling over his gums. "All we need isss one morph capable Andalite. We infessst him and we'll know where de morphing cube dey have isss." He snickered. "Besssidesss, I need to tessst de full capabilities of thisss hossst. Dese creaturesss look like fair game." He swung his head in front of her, growling. "Do you have any more complaintsss?"
"No, Sub-Visser Six." She swallowed fretfully. "It's just that Visser Three—"
The Yarbezz's whiskers quivered in agitation and before the woman could spout out another word, one of the oddities on its shoulders twisted and reshaped into a tentacle-like limb, two jagged blades sliding from sheaths of flesh. In a split-second of motion, the blade swung and the woman gave a surprised look at her midsection, watching in growing horror as her upper torso toppled from her pelvis. She gave one tiny, barely audible gasp of shock and her eyes clouded over, her skull cracking against the hard-packed earthen floor. The other Controllers shuddered and took a few steps away from Sub-Visser Six.
The sub-visser licked idly at one of his dripping blades and grimaced. "Tastesss like dirt." He surveyed the Controllers around him. "Anyone elssse have sssomething do complain about? I'm listening."
They decided they could voice their concerns to their visser later, with a good fifty feet between themselves and the Yarbezz, who now focused his attention on us again, his other flap of flesh morphing as well.
(Oh, shee-it,) Vertigo hissed.
That pretty summed up the rest of our feelings and thoughts. I turned my head to Jake, who glared at the sub-visser with his remaining yellow eye. (So what do the Animorphs do when the mission takes a nosedive?)
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Wow. Nineteen pages. My fingers ache. Ugh. This took TWO days of typing, so I'm expecting at least THREE reviews before I upload another chapter. If you don't, may this cliffhanger haunt your dreams! Muahahaha! I'm just that evil. Hehheh.
For the massive amount of Author's Notes:
A/N:1—Hopefully my little excerpts from Greek mythology aren't annoying you peeps. Anyway, Orpheus was a very talented musician in Greek mythology and had a beautiful oak nymph wife, Eurydice. People suspected that she was bewitching him and sent an assassin after her. She fled, but stepped over a snake's nest and died from the venom. Orpheus—being the devoted husband he was, sigh—journeyed into the Underworld, using his voice to calm Cerberus, the three-headed monster dog guarding it, and went to Hades himself to free his wife's soul and let her live again. Hades—also known as Pluto and Dis—refused, but his harpies were so charmed with Orpheu's talent that they persuaded the god of death to listen to Orpheus. Hades conceded, but said Orpheus must not look back over his shoulder for his wife until he left the Underworld. Orpheus almost made it, but just a few steps away from the exit, he peeked behind him, saw a vaporous apparition, and the shade—or ghost, if you want—returned to the Underworld's depths. Orpheus lived out the rest of his life, his songs made more beautiful with his sorrow, and died in depression and longing. Sad, ain't it?
A/N: 2—The River Styx is the river in Hades's Underworld where Charon ferries the souls of the dead to their eternal resting place.
A/N: 3—I just want to say poor Socrates and explain briefly why Meds used conium. Conium works very slowly—Socrates could walk for hours after he'd swallowed the poison hemlock concoction before his legs became paralyzed. Meds used enough that Peca 630 wouldn't die until around the time of the Visser's interrogation—slightly unrealistic that he'd survive a whole twenty-four hours, but let's pretend conium works even slower on Yeerks. It also has a mild numbing effect, so you only just notice that you're body is shutting down—Meds's wanted to be as merciful as he could with his buddy. He didn't use any quick-killing poisons because the visser might've suspected dirty work. In this case, he wanted the visser to think the stress and torment Peca 630 would feel killed him.
A/N: 4—Just FYI, Demeter mostly knows Greek/Roman mythology, and some scrap pieces of Norse and Egyptian. Sekhmet was a lioness monster who in early Egyptian legends killed and drank the blood of Ra's less admirable human children. She got out of control, so Ra got her drunk—no kidding—and tricked her into giving up her bloody, massacring ways. Ironically, she was renamed Bast and became a pretty nice goddess. Huh. Anyway, Demeter just thinks of Mercury as Bast when Vertigo becomes a sort of "crown" around her head—one of the popular embellishments pharaohs had on their headgear was a cobra of some sort.
A/N: 5—Atalanta was a very, very, very speedy-footed girl in Greek mythology. So sure of her swift running, she challenged any man to a race with her: if h won the race, he could marry her, if not, he was put to death. Well, apparently Aphrodite got pissed that Atalanta kept putting her possible lovers to death and gave Hippomenes the golden apples of Hesperides. During the race, Hippo-boy had laid them out beforehand along the path and the girl kept stopping to gather them up. He won and got Atalanta as his bride.
