The Attack Part 10: David

My name is David.

It took everything I had just to stop myself from firing randomly into the area as the Howlers spotted Ax. The Andalite was holding his position, acting as if he hadn't noticed them yet, waiting for them to get close. But I just wanted him to get the hell out of there. The sooner Warren was back behind our line, the better. I wanted my friend safe dammit!

But he wouldn't be happy if I killed the bunch of idiot Iskoorts hanging around and watching the show as Ax finally took off at a run. That...well, and the fact that the Howlers were still out of my range, were the only reasons I was holding back.

/Ax, take the left fork, the right's cluttered with onlookers, you'll never get through./ Tobias exclaimed, Ax instantly swerving to his left. A move that worked out perfectly for me. Now that his head had moved, I had a clear shot.

TSEEEW! TSEEW, TSEEW! Their attention drawn by the laser fire, the first three Howlers dived to the side and continued on, bringing a scowl to my face as the shots struck nothing but a tree, but it quickly turned into a smirk as it crashed down on two Howlers, leaving them stuck and blocking the path of another. It wouldn't take long for them to deal with it, but with them and the poisoned one, who'd already fallen behind the others, distracted, it gave me plenty of time to worry about the ones that slipped by me before.

/David, cover your ears!/ Tobias shouted, panicked as he suddenly changed course in the air and went to move as high and far from the Howlers as he could. It only took a second to figure out what he meant and for once, I gladly did as I was told, ducking behind the wall I'd set up using a loose piece of the roof and pressing the heels of my hands to my ears as hard as I could.

"KEEEEEEEEErow!"

"AUGH!" Muffled and dulled as it was, it still got through and that left me screaming as a giant migraine struck my head, only continuing to grow more and more painful as the scream continued. My hands were shaking so much that I almost dropped the laser and my crouched legs gave way, leaving me falling helplessly onto my belly. And just because all that wasn't enough, liquid started pouring down into my silently screaming mouth, the coppery taste of blood meeting my tastebuds. Blood was pouring out of my nose. If this kept up, I was going to die.

However, the screaming was over a moment later, dying down to nothing almost immediately, leaving me completely confused, grateful of course, but still confused. The first one we fought screamed a whole lot more than that before moving on to anything else and they had to know that doing it stopped me from firing on them. Opening watery eyes, squinting hard to try and see the blur, it took me a moment to focus on them, but when their features did resharpen I found them glaring frustratedly in two different directions. One was the obvious one, where Ax was still galloping, neither he or warren even slightly affected by that scream. The other was where the two forked roads that divided Ax' path before reconnected. And there, their diaphragms whining louder than ever, was a large group of Iskoort.

HA! Can't hurt them yet, can ya? I thought with a pained grin. For once I was actually happy to see the pathetic, annoying pain in the butts. They actually just managed to save my life. Not that I was ever going to admit any of that to anyone, that would be just humiliating. Circumstances saved my life! Yep, that's it, it wasn't actually them.

/Ready your stinger!/ Ax exclaimed, snapping me back to reality. What was I thinking? I could worry about my reputation later. /I will twitch my tail one second before striking/

/Just make sure your tail's furred area can touch the Howler!/ Warren responded with a tone that revealed a great deal of focus. Looking back down at them, I saw the flick right before Ax' tail struck a Howler kicking off a tree. Tail blade met wolverine claws, causing Ax to flinch painfully as the claws carved down the sharp edge of the blade and down to the softer, fur covered flesh. However, the hand jerked away good and fast as the Howler noticed the black, armoured scorpion in place a moment too late to avoid it. With that, the Howler flopped to the ground and was quickly trampled by two of his brethren, a third one jumping over him as he started his sporadic jerking.

/Ax, right path, then middle, right again and then straight to the door./ Tobias instructed, not looking much better than I felt as he swooped back over the area only to bank a hard left with a scream as a flechette gun fired right at him. Forcing myself to ignore the pain and blood coming from my own head, I pulled myself back up and fired again and again, both at the Howlers and at the trees and boxes between them and Ax, disrupting their charges as much as I could. It didn't matter whether I hit one or not, their bodies healed too fast and at this distance, even a blow to the head wasn't killing any of them. I blew them off their feet, they got back up and kept running, so making things fall on them or in their way was a lot more effective.

That is, until they made it to the home stretch just five seconds after Ax and got a clear line to me. Within two seconds, I was gasping at a flechette gun and two lasers being pointed right at me.

There was no time for thinking, so I just let my instincts take over, diving to the ground and rolling away like my dad taught me just as the sounds of fire went off, destroying my little defensive wall a second later and sending charred, shattered pieces into the air. Right at me.

"SHIT!" Panic taking over, I didn't even bother pulling myself up. Instead, I sped up my roll pushing of the roof with my hands whenever they met. I didn't stop until I reached the trapdoor I'd used to get up there in the first place, thanking whoever was listening for the common sense that had me leaving it wide open on the way up as I rolled right to and through it.

"Argh!" My shoulder and hip screamed bloody murder at me as I fell ten feet to the floor and landed right on them, but I ignored it and forced myself to my feet, more than a little motivated as laser fire, a few booms and Tobias screaming 'watch out' echoed all around from just outside the building's walls. Gritting my teeth, I half ran, half hopped back down the stairs and towards the welcoming area, leaning against a wall just out of sight as Ax galloped into the room, two Howlers right on his tail.

/Warren!/

/Ready./ Before Warren had even finished responding, Ax' tail had lashed out again, Warren striking half a second later, both tail blades piercing the first Howler's shoulder. However, at the same time, the Howler thrust up his claws.

/AARRGGHH!/

/Hey, I wasn't at the end of the line yet!/ Warren shouted as he flew through the air. Still attached to a foot of Ax' tail.

/I apologise, I am only experiencing a lot of pain and missing a tail!/ Ax shouted back as Rachel moved right to the door and sent the entire Howler flying back out with a mighty swing of her paw. At the same time, Marco leapt right behind the other Howler and swung a devastating right hook into the back of the other's head, sending it flying face down on the ground across the room.

/Jake, Erek, do your thing fast!/ Marco called, turning back to the door.

/DOWN!/ And that's when the plan began its decent into failure. For just as Erek grabbed Guide and a stupidly human Jake rushed towards the Howler, Tobias swooped inside in a blind panic with the very distinct sound of laser fire following after him.

I was lucky enough to be safe where I was, but every single one of the others had to dive and roll straight to the ground as three beams flew through the room and blew up a bench and two walls, followed a few seconds later by two more shots that barely made it into the door, but still burnt the fur down Rachel's back. Two of our poison victims no doubt.

It got worse from there, for though Erek managed to take a spare second to get in the doorway, holding a terrified Guide, the laser fire had blown through the door frame, widening it and the Howler we'd knocked down had plenty of time to jump back onto his feet.

"Cassie, Quick!" Jake cried, throwing himself back onto his feet and at the Howler. Reaching the freak, he almost had to bend his body back and in half to dodge to sharp claws aiming for his neck, which resulted in him falling to the ground. However, he was quick to improvise and wrapped his bare legs around the Howler's just as Cassie made it to them and closed his eyes, concentrating.

He was acquiring the thing? That's how he chose to subdue it? That was far too risky, the resulting trance occurring was no guarantee. And of course, for once fate had to prove me right.

Jake's legs wrapping around his own did startle the Howler a little and that was the only reason Cassie survived. As she ran in with the memory viewing device, the Howler spent a split second a little unsure who to strike down first. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, he decided that Cassie and her item were the bigger threat and whipped up his laser gun, aiming right for her heart and firing.

"/CASSIE!/" With the exception of Warren, who could see what was going on, everyone screamed simultaneously, stopping everything we were doing as the beam sailed towards her, seemingly in slow motion.

BOOM!

"ARGH!" Thank God that girl thinks quick! A split second before the blast would have burned right through her heart, the threw the brain projector in the way. The device exploded in her hands, burning them good and flung her away. She was breathing hard, in shock and no doubt a lot of pain, but she was alive.

The Howler on the other hand wasn't paying her any attention. Deeming her dealt with, he was already turning his claws back towards Jake and he was in no position to do anything about it except lose his head.

Gritting my teeth, I ripped myself from the wall and fired straight at the Howler's chest, just like he'd done to Cassie. However, were his was a short burst, I launched a continuous stream. The freak barely even turned his head towards it before it struck home and consumed the upper half of his body as Jake rolled away. The laser's batteries or whatever went dead a moment later, but it was worth it, for when energy disappeared, it revealed that the Howler was laying in misshapen mess before it disappeared completely.

But we were far from out of danger. Checking my other weapon at my side, I scowled as I found its barrel bent out of my shape. That would explain why my hip hurt so much, the gun had been under me when I fell. Tossing it away, I backed up around the door again and concentrated on the lion, my only defence now.

"Get ready, they're getting through!" Erek yelled as he forced himself more to one side, blocking a Howler only for another to squeeze through the new gap. Marco and Rachel were quick to respond, but the Howler simply used its multi-jointed legs to drop below Marco's punch and Rachel's attempt to bite his neck before taking a long knife and sticking it into Marco's leg and spinning his upper body, launching a fierce uppercut at Rachel. Seeing it coming, Rachel managed to yank her head away, saving her life, however, the assault still collided with her shoulder and the metal-like claws shot out to full length, ripping right through the muscle and out the other side.

"HHRROOOOAARRR!"

"HHHRRRAAAA!" Both bear and gorilla screamed enough to wake the dead as they stumbled back, the Howler moving in for the kill as another of his brethren made it past Guide and Erek. The only thing that saved them was good timing on Tobias' part.

"Tseer!" Diving fast as a missile, he ripped his wings open at the last second and glided his talons right into the Howler's eyes.

"AAHH!" Looking more panicked than anything else, probably at the sudden lack of the ability to see, he stumbled back onto his buddy, his hands flying up to his face and just missing Tobias as he flew away. It didn't do much, but it distracted one and put him in a position that disrupted the other's attack plan, buying Rachel and Marco the time they needed to recover their focus and push them back towards the door.

/Prince Jake, what do we do now that? The plan has failed./ Ax asked from off to the side of the room. Like me, both he and Warren were about halfway between changing their forms, Ax bulking up with his fur turning white while Warren was growing into a humanoid scorpion across the room.

/It did? Crap, we're doomed!/ Warren cried. Having no ears and near-useless eyes, he was a little behind on the updates.

/I thought that was my line!/ Marco grunted painfully before crying out as his bulk hit the ground. He managed to kick back the Howler who'd put deep lines across his side, but it only delayed the inevitable. A fact that was only emphasised as he tried to get back up only to fall back with a strangled groan. /Guys, I'm not getting back up. In fact...night...night./

"MARCO!" Jake screamed, staring at the gorilla with a look of horror and heartbreak. It was only Cassie's burnt arms wrapping around his torso and the agonised scream the move unleashed from her throat that stopped him from rushing defencelessly straight into the most dangerous place in this battle.

/He's still breathing Jake./ Tobias called as Rachel stepped protectively in front of Marco, eliciting a deep breath from Jake as he turned to gently disentangle Cassie from him.

"But none of us will be for long if we don't come up with one hell of a plan." Erek shouted as he blocked the last two perfectly healthy Howlers only for two of the jerky ones to make it into the room.

/An amazing escape plan sounds really good right now./ Warren commented with forced calm that could break at any moment. He'd reached the point in his morph that he could see with human eyes again and at the rate we were going, we'd be dead before he made it all the way back to human.

That was the only ending I could see. There was no way that we could escape now. We didn't have the time to get everyone morphed once, let alone the time it would take to then go from human to bird. The rest of us could try a break for it while Tobias, Rachel and Marco's unconscious body distracted the enemy or Tobias could fly away, but none of the others would abandon anyone and it would only delay the inevitable. So, just as Ax finished morphing and barrelled up to Rachel's side as a polar bear and Cassie started growing grey fur, I stepped out from my hiding spot.

"RRROOOAAAARRRR!" A tremor rocked the entire building as I roared, startling the Howlers, if only for half a second, before I ran at them with enough speed to cross an entire football field in six seconds and crashed into one of the jerking Howlers, rolling along the floor until I had the extended claws of my right front paw pinning its head to the ground. /If we're going down, I'm going down fighting./

/Agreed./ Ax stated as he slammed his shoulder into one of the healthy Howlers before plummeting onto his belly and forcing his body to roll away as best he could as the Howler's upper half spun around and tried to rip open his back. Beside him, Rachel tried grappling with the other healthy one and biting at his neck, but he tossed her to the ground, heralding a loud howl as she landed on her injured shoulder. It moved in for the kill, but Tobias swooped down and distracted it by grazing his talons alone its neck before banking a hard left out of its hands' range. /Prince Jake, I suggest you morph too./

"But a tiger won't change anything." I barely heard Jake muttering to himself as my victim threw me off and fired a laser shot at me, my life only being spared by the fact that I was rolling and his arm spasmed as he fired. Sparing him a glance as I pulled myself onto my feet, I found him standing right beside the still morphing Cassie, biting his lip as he scowled at the ground. "Neither will a rhino or a wolf or a falcon. Nothing I've got will even make a dent."

/Fighting them was never going end with our victory./ Rachel snapped, albeit raggedly as she slowly forced her battered body up again, breathing hard and down one arm. Thanks to her shoulder wound, her connecting limb had become limp and useless. /Now we can only cause them as much irritation as we can./

"I know, but I..."

/For God's sake, if you still want to do some real damage before you're dead, use the Howler and go out with a bang!/ I exclaimed furiously, barely avoiding the random, jerky laser fire of my target only to have to duck as Rachel's opponent swung around and tried to tear through my ribs.

It was when I spared a look through the corner of my eye that I realised another problem. /Jake, Cassie, move NOW!/ Tobias, Rachel, Ax and I were stumbling around with three Howlers, Erek had managed to keep another three out, but we forgot about the other poisoned one. Looking up, Both Jake and an almost fully morphed Cassie gasped in horror to find it a mere five feet away. And though its movement was being hindered by its jerking, it was still moving too fast for either to avoid it.

"AAHHH!"

/JAKE, CASSIE!/

/Prince Jake!/ Our screaming only made it harder for anyone to focus and Rachel, Ax and I were rewarded for our lack of attention with a new deep slash or a staggering blow to the ground. We only survived because my opponent jerked again. This time it was such a violent jerk the his flailing hand's wrist mounted claws actually lucked out and struck one of his buddies right in between where the two halves of its body joined together, causing it to hitch and jerk onto the third's shoulder before falling down, forcing the third to spin its upper body and jump away so as not to be sent down with him. But for all the consequences, Jake and Cassie were no safer as the Howler thrust out his claws to gut Jake, the boy squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to see his doom.

So he never saw the boy rushing in front of him. He never had to feel his blood turning into solid ice like mine did as the wrist mounted claws sank deep into the boy's torso, ripping apart his lower ribs just below the heart in the process, no doubt tearing apart multiple other vital organs. He didn't know anything had happened until the claws were removed and the boy fell to his knees and back against Jake's legs, his breathing choked as he coughed up blood.

But I saw it all. And with it came the greatest horror, pain and grief that I had ever felt in my entire life. It was so much worse than when I found out my parents were Controllers, worse than every moment of that horrid few days after, worse than when I thought I was going to be a rat forever. The last time I felt like this was when I was very young and some thug almost murdered my mother. It was the pain of watching someone you care about die and knowing that there is nothing you can do to change their fate.

/WARREN!/