A young man, about twenty, stepped through the doorway, swinging his dracon beam back and forth. When nothing suspicious revealed itself to him, he hissed into his walkie-talkie. "Pok, Terry, Hobbes, let's go!"
A Hork-Bajir known as Pok eased himself through the narrow doorframe, followed by two middle-aged men who's names logically must have been Terry and Hobbes.
One of the middle-aged man snatched the walkie-talkie from the young man. "Eleri, I told you that wasn't necessary. And my name is not Terry, it's Meridai 538!"
Hobbes shrugged. He didn't mind people calling him by his host's name.
"We don't want any humans to know we're yeerks, duh." Eleri said.
Meridai gestured wordlessly to the seven-foot alien behind them.
"Fine, I'll call you Meridai." Eleri said. "Now, you take the upstairs, while Pok and I check out this floor."
Meridai pulled out a hand-held signal tracer and consulted it. "Our target is downstairs, Eleri. The distometer is acting up, though. According to it, we'd have to tunnel about a mile under the surface."
Meridai chuckled, but neither of his companions cracked a smile.
"Hey," Hobbes said. "Do you hear that?"
Every fell silent, and they heard the faint sound of a shower upstairs.
"Someone must be up there." Eleri said excitedly. "Let's go check it out!"
Hobbes grabbed Eleri's arm before he could race off. "It's probably a decoy, or just an innocent human. I'll go check it out, you three head down."
Hobbes crept quietly upstairs, his dracon beam drawn. Eleri sighed disappointedly and walked over to the basement door.
"I'll go first." Eleri said, and started kicking at it with his booted foot.
Pok looked at Meridai. "Grubs these days. Much derskash to the human culture."
Meridai sighed his agreement, and tapped Eleri on the shoulder. "There's a security keypad. This is definitely the work of the bandits."
"Well, you're the code breaker." Eleri sneered. "Get to it."
Meridai pulled out his mechkey set. It was state of the art, designed to break even the toughest locks. But when he searched for a sub-atomic code signature, it turned up blank. He ran the search again, and received the same result. Something must have been screwing up the electronics in this place.
"Get comfortable." Meridai groaned. "I'll have to brute force this thing."
He pulled on a thick glove to protect against any booby traps the Andalites may have put on it, and began taping at the keypad. With 9 digits to choose from, and a limit of twelve digits, the possibilities were endless.
0. Nothing happened, not that he expected it to. He hit the clear, and tried again.
1. Clear.
2. Yawn, Clear.
4. Clear
5. Meridai itched to skip right to the eight digit passwords, but this was the procedure taught during training. No andalite in their right mind would have a one digit-
He pressed the six button, and the door swung open.
"Woah." Eleri said, impressed. "That was fast. Nice job, Meridai."
He clapped him on the shoulder and walked into the elevator. Pok followed him.
"Wait!" Meridai commanded. It had to be a trap. "This is- too easy."
"Warning," A deep voice said, making them all jump. "The speed restrictions of the elevators have been deactivated. If you cannot withstand fifteen to thirty gravities of acceleration, please exit the elevator NOW, and do not pull the switch upon the wall. Thank you."
"They just try scare us." Pok grumbled out. "Dusi fine."
Eleri reached for the lever on the wall.
"Wait! What if they want us to think it's not a trap, but it is?" Meridai said.
"What if they want us think they think we think it's not trap?" Pok argued.
"But what if they want us to think that it's not a trap, and they think that we'll think that it's not-"
Eleri impatiently pulled the lever, and they shot into the darkness at a deadly thirty Pemalite gravities.
(Sweet move, Ax-man.) Tobias said, hearing the elevator crash to a stop.
(It was nothing, really.) Ax said modestly, still tapping at the control panel. (I have also created a new security code that, combined with the Chee's anti-signature technology, will prevent further yeerk troops from entering.)
"So if you have four digits." Marco lectured a few yards away. "That makes 9 x 9 x 9 x 9 possibilities, or..."
"6,561 possibilities!" Erek said, amazed. "That's incredible! I've never looked at it that way before! A whole new, secure world has opened up for me!"
(Actually, Marco, you are not using the correct formula...) Ax trailed off as the elevator shuddered.
Two large, clawed hands forced the elevator doors apart a crack. Rachel narrowed her eyes. "Something survived."
There was a pained grunting noise, and the heavy metal doors crunched apart. Out staggered the largest Hork-Bajir any of them have ever seen, looking bewildered.
"Where I?" Pok demanded, holding Eleri's dracon beam. His fingers didn't fit inside of the trigger, he had to use his claw instead.
(You are where you do not belong.) Ax said, stepping towards him. Ax looked like a miniature pony compared to Pok.
Pok growled. "Andalite filth!"
TSEEW!
Ax skittered to the side, barely dodging the dracon beam. It created a small crater in the ground, igniting the grass around it.
Pok, despite his host's choppy speech, was actually brilliant. He realized that those Andalites in human morph could demorph and butcher him in a second, no matter how large his host was. He also realized that this whole area looked highly flammable, and pointed his dracon beam at the largest tree.
"No!" Erek yelled. "That's the control tree! It's packed with electronics!"
Ax leapt forward.
TSEEW!
The tree reacted better than Pok would have expected. The trunk went up in a column of fire, and every individual leave started exploding.
"No! No! No!" Erek yelled.
FWAPP!
The Dracon beam went flying into the air, and Ax and Pok began fighting furious
POP! POP! POP! POP!
The leaves on the tree exploded, raining down sparks in all directions and setting the grassy field ablaze. Pok had unwittingly picked a perfect target.
"I have to go shield the transmitter!" Erek yelled. "You guys get out of here!"
Marco and Jake jumped to their feet, but Rachel grabbed their arms.
"Cassie's still down here!" Rachel said.
"It's a wolf-" Marco started, but Jake cut him off.
"Erek!" Jake yelled at the retreating android, covering his head as a shower of sparks flecked his skin. "Where do you turn off the holding area force fields?"
"Across the field!" Erek yelled, waving his hand towards the far end of the basement. "There's an emergency release switch! On the little pine tree!"
"Tobias, help take out that Hork-Bajir!" Jake snapped. "Rachel's the fastest, you go pull the release switch. Marco and I will get to the cells!"
Jake kneeled down, and his skin started shifting. Marco had no idea what he was morphing.
"What are you doing?" Marco yelled.
"Go!" Jake barked, and everybody took off
FWAPP!
SWISH!
Pok and Ax circled each other, trading blows. Ax was visibly tiring.
"Die, little Andalite!" Pok growled.
"TSEER!"
Pok looked up, and instantly regretted it. Tobias raked his talons across his eyes, blinding him in his left eye.
"GRASH DERNASH!" Pok bellowed.
FWAPP! Pok felt the little andalite cut into his leg, and slashed downwards. Ax took the wrist blade on his left arm.
(Yeerk filth!) Ax said defiantly, and slashed at Pok. Pok ducked, seeing the hawk dive downwards again. The bird fluttered past harmlessly.
Small patches of fire were now joining together, lowering the number of safe paths. Rachel ran as fast as she could, swearing to her scorched feet that if she lived, she would find a way to morph shoes.
"Pine tree, pine tree!" Rachel said to herself, leaping over a short wall of fire. She looked around for a pine tree desperately, but saw only fire and smoke everywhere she looked.
A cluster of leaves burst over her head, and tiny bits of red-hot metal pelted her face.
"What kind of morons make their machines out of trees, anyway?" She screamed to nobody, slapping at the burning embers.
Meanwhile, Marco had gotten himself thoroughly lost. A patch of young, green trees had caught fire, filling the air with smoke. He coughed, picked a direction at random, and dashed forward.
Pok blocked the tail of the little andalite, wondering where the bird had gotten to. If his left eye had still been functioning, he would have seen the hawk hopping harmlessly towards him, holding a not so harmless device.
TSEEW!
Pok's left leg disintegrated, and he toppled over sideways. Ax swung his tail, and Pok lost a far more important body part.
(Ax, follow me!) Tobias said, dropping the dracon beam and taking off. (The others are- actually, I don't know what the others are doing. I just know they're somehow going to need us to save them.)
(Marco!) Jake called.
"Jake!" Marco yelled.
(Marco, you're headed the wrong way.) Jake yelled. Marco spun around, and saw a wolf bound into his clearing. (The holding area is this way.)
Jake took off, and Marco hurried thankfully after him.
Quietly, and without warning, the glowing orb above them winked out. The only light was the eerie flickering orange light from the fire. Marco swore as he accidentally crashed into a burning tree.
Tobias also swore. Through the smoke, he thought he could make out a figure surrounded by fire. (Rachel, is that you? You're in a very bad spot, you know!)
"I know that!" Rachel yelled. "Just tell me how to get to the freaking pine tree!"
(You're right on top of it!) Tobias yelled. (It's that tree that's on fire!)
"Well that narrows it down!" Rachel bellowed. "I'm being cooked alive here, Tobias!"
(To your left!) Tobias yelled. Rachel gritted her teeth and grabbed the burning lever.
Jake and Marco emerged panting next to Cassie's cell just as the red button started blinking. Marco slammed his fist onto it, and the force field disappeared. Inside, the wolf was whimpering pitifully, but when Marco came closer it growled at him.
"How do you plan on getting her out of here?" Marco asked. Jake barked at the wolf, and it walked over to him submissively.
(I acquired the alpha male, remember?) Jake said, racing for the forest. He yapped at the wolf and it ran after him. Marco paused to get his catch as much breath as he could from the smoky air.
"Hey!" A hoarse voice yelled from far off. "Hey!"
Marco pushed his way towards the voice, scrambling over a fallen tree.
"HEY!" The voice screamed. Marco coughed and emerged next to another holding cell. The entire inside area was filled with smoke, and he could barely see the girl pressed up against the force field, screaming at the top of her lungs. "HEY!"
"What do you want?" Marco demanded. "I'm trying to get out of a burning alien wilderness here!"
"So am I! Let me out!" She yelled, coughing and slamming her palms against the force field. "I'm suffocating!"
"You still seem to be able to scream awful loud." Marco commented, squinting at her mouth.
"Open the door, or whatever the hell this is!" She gasped, sliding down the force field.
Marco looked at her sideways. "Are you going to try to bite me again?"
"No!" She rasped, falling onto the floor. "I swear! I wasn't in control of myself! It was the person in my head."
Marco, now having heard her pronounce three 'W' words flawlessly, pressed the red button. The girl fell forward, gasping for air. The fire inside of the cell roared and leapt towards the new supply of oxygen, and she was almost yanked back inside by the backdraft.
Marco punched the red button again, trapping the fire inside of the cell.
"Come on. You're not safe yet." He said. The girl rolled over and gave him the evil eye.
(Come on!) Jake said. He, Ax, Rachel, and the wolf were running for the elevator.
(Not the elevator!) Tobias yelled, floating high above for a clear view everyone. (You never take the elevator! Take a hard left and head for the stairs! Marco, Vampire, you are going the wrong way!)
"My name is not 'vampire'!" She snarled weakly, staggering through the burning grass. "It is-"
"Don't care!" Marco said. They came to the stairwell door, which was already flung wide open. The other five were dashing up a mile's worth of stairs. Ax was ahead, but tiring, and Jake and the wolf were catching up. Tobias had simply floated straight up on the hot air created by the fire and was waiting for them at the top.
Five minutes later, Jake and his follower came to the final step. Ax came thirty seconds later, making loud wheezing noises through his bloody nose. Rachel was right behind him, holding her side.
(Open the door!) Jake yelled. Ax grabbed the doorknob with his delicate hand and pushed open the door.
(NOOO!) Tobias yelled. (Don't open the door until everybody's here!)
It was too late. The massive vacuum that was the basement began sucking in air.
(Don't you remember your fire safety?) Tobias ranted at Jake, as they dashed through the door. Rachel grabbed the corner of the wall and yanked herself to safety. (Huh?)
Ax snagged Tobias before he got sucked back down, and forced his way through the door against the suction.
Marco and the vampire girl were a normal staircase's length away from the exit when the suction hit them. The girl was pulled down a few steps before she managed to catch herself.
"What's happening?" She screamed.
Marco didn't answer and, using each step like a ladder rung, started pulling himself upwards. The vampire grudgingly followed his example.
(Come on!) Tobias yelled. Marco pulled himself up to the final step, and strained to reach the edge of the floor. (Reach for it!)
Jake leaned forward and bit into Marco's arm. The wolf, mistaking Jake's intent, snarled and snapped at Marco's head.
"Ow! Ow! Pain!" Marco said, as Jake dragged him around the corner. The wolf snapped at him again, and Jake growled to make her stop.
"Out of the way!" Erek yelled from somewhere below. "Out of the way!"
The android was zooming up the stairs, flames licking his heels. The stairs were crumbling away literally milliseconds after his foot left them.
The vampire screamed. Erek, like some action movie hero, snatched her up, dove through the doorway, and slammed the door in one fluid movement. The dull red metal door immediately glowed white hot.
(Will that door hold?) Ax asked.
"It should, at least for the first couple of days." Erek said. Then he added sadly, "That fire is going to burn for at least a week."
"What were you doing down there?" Marco asked, panting. "I thought you'd have been gotten out."
"I told you, shielding the transmitter." Erek said. "If that thing had overheated, the resulting explosion would have killed everything within a half-mile radius."
(Oh. That wouldn't have been fun.) Jake said. (So, is that thing still transmitting?)
"Yup."
(Can yeerks still pick up the signal? You know, track it?)
Erek closed his eyes, and listened for the high-pitched whining. "It's pretty quiet, but if I can hear it there's no reason they shouldn't be able to."
(Let's go somewhere else.) Jake suggested.