The Attack Part 11: Jake

My name is Jake.

It wasn't until Cassie gave out the most malicious growl I'd ever heard and ploughed into the Howler that I actually found the ability to move again. The wolf was being absolutely vicious, taking the spasm happy Howler completely off guard, and had them both tumbling away, but I barely even looked at that. As soon as control of my bone chilled limbs returned, I dropped to the ground, placing my hand under Warren's head, supporting and protecting it as he jerked up and down, more and more spurts of blood leaving his mouth with every choked cough.

"Warren! Come on, morph, NOW!" I cried, hyperventilating as a started having a panic attack. Blood was pouring out of the very deep claw wounds like freaking rivers and every breath he took sounded so strangled that it was amazing that he could breathe at all and every one cost him another blood-filled cough. His body was wracked with sweat and had grown almost completely white. If he didn't morph right now... "Come on, we don't have time to waste here!"

"Can...can't focus...enough." My face was good and close to his and I could barely hear him over the furious roars and crashes echoing around the room. Every word he said was accompanied by another cough and seemed to cost him greatly. His voice was rough as sandpaper one second and sounded like he was drowning the next. And that fact slammed another excruciatingly agonising realisation into my brain. He wouldn't even make it long enough to morph away the damage.

"No." I whispered as my vision blurred and my eyes stung. The others were going nuts, screaming constantly in my head and fighting so wildly and ferociously that the Howlers were actually caught off guard and losing a little ground, something that seemed to have all of them growing pretty worried. David was being particularly loud and ruthless. But I ignored it all, instead focusing my shaking, grief wracked self on the boy dying in my arms. "No, no, no! You can't...I can't...I didn't give you permission to die!"

"Heh...th-then you'll...have to br-bri...bring me back." Warren whispered hoarsely, making me panic even more as his eyes started to close. "So...you acq...acquired a-a Howler?"

"Y-yeah, I did." I sobbed as my tears fell from my face onto his. A thunderous roar met my ears and snapped my attention back to the fight in time to see a really bloody David smack into the ground, only to ignore the pain completely and roll straight back to his feet, pouncing at a Howler again with a another roar. Rachel and Ax weren't looking much better, though the Howlers looked like their bodies were having difficulty keeping up with healing the wounds they were getting, Cassie and Tobias were moving far too quickly for their spasm attacked opponents to touch and Erek was still managing to hold off the others, so it was something. I didn't watch for longer than a couple of seconds though, for Warren forced his shaky hand to grab my arm, immediately bringing my attention back to him. "Don't move War. Just focus on breathing. Please."

"Jake...just save me, ok?" His voice was almost completely gone now, little more than air leaving his mouth. His breathing was almost non-existent too, though the coughing had gone with it. The picture only got worse and forced a grief-stricken groan to leave my mouth as what I could still see of his eyes started to dull. "You can...do it...Howler is...key." And with that I screamed in misery as the last of his breath escaped his lips and he fell completely limp. I'd lost him. And now I couldn't force myself to do anything but stare at the body that died in my arms.

"He's gone."

/BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!/ David sounded positively animalistic as he threw himself into the fight with even more ferocity than ever before, despite his injuries. More than once he almost tore the still unconscious Marco to shreds as he slashed, bit and thrashed at anything red and black.

Then you'll...have to br-bri...bring me back. He'd smiled as he said that. But I wouldn't have to bring him back if I'd paid proper attention to the Howlers instead of watching Cassie.

/Jake, MORPH already!/ Rachel raged, diving for a Howler's leg with her jaws only to get brutally battered away.

Just...save me, ok? How could I possibly save him? He was already gone and we would be joining him at any moment.

/Jake, MOVE IT!/ Cassie screamed before letting loose an agonised howl as the Howler cut off her tail, before retaliating with a snarl and ripping a knife out of the Howler's belt with her teeth and sticking it through its ankle.

/If you don't snap out of it, Warren will have died for nothing!/ Tobias added right before screeching in pain. He'd lost far too much strength frequently forcing himself up into the air with no thermals or gales and wasn't fast enough to avoid a laser shot properly. He was now screeching and fluttering around like crazy and missing a foot.

You can...do it...Howler is...key. The Howler was the key? How? I mean, the Howlers had far more experience fighting in their form than I even have fighting as a human or a tiger and they have tens of thousands of years worth of memories to tap...that's it!

"Guys, keep them busy! I'll finish this, I promise." I called. Placing Warren's head gently back on the ground, I stood up and ran to a random door leading into the building, both for cover and in case I didn't get control over the malicious instincts. After all, I didn't want to be responsible for another friend's death. My stupid plan and distraction had done too much damage already.

Within a moment, my body was covered in pustules and blisters, pouring black ooze that covered and dyed my skin. My range of vision grew wider and sharper as my eyes grew bigger, wider and flatter, obscured by my fringe for only a second before my hair withered into nothing, along with my ears. My flesh thickened and roughened and I lost a finger on each hand as red joined the black, making my body look like lava. Loud groaning met the tiny holes left where my ears had once been as the bones of my legs thickened, broke and twisted forming new joints. Claws quickly grew from my wrists and I found I was unleashing and retracting them on reflex.

Then the big one happened. The change that had me nervous. My midsection started pinching in further and further until all that connected the two halves of my body was my spine. It was only visible for a moment, but I really didn't want to ever have to see it. Especially as it melted into sludge before resolidifying into steel grey cylinders, each able to turn at the base. Elastic veins and tendons grew around it a moment later, refilling a little of the area and stabilising my upper half, for which I couldn't have been more grateful. Between seeing something that I should never have to see and the fact that I almost actually did split in two, my upper body rocking while my spine reconfigured, I was quite keen to never deal with that experience ever again.

The last change was much more sudden. One second I was simply seeing with sharpened eyes and then my sensors flipped into a completely new setting. I could see everything that I could before, but now I could also see infrared heat! Not only the sources, but trails that they'd left behind over the last few seconds, making it much easier to track and predict movement. And my vision didn't just stop at the top layer of masses anymore either. Looking around the corner, I could see past the fur and skin of the polar bear and lion slamming into each other and crumpling as they tried to get up and to outlines of their rapidly over exerting heart and lungs, along with every other organ and bone. Howler eyes put even a bird of prey's eyes to shame. They weren't the eyes of a predator, but a marksman. The better to kill.

That was the last physical change, so I concentrated as the final piece fell into place. I couldn't let the savage instincts overwhelm me. I couldn't turn on the others, I couldn't risk them for even a second longer than I already had.

F-T-T-T!

"TSEER!" It felt like a mallet had ploughed into my chest as a Howler's flechette made a direct hit into the centre of Tobias' wing, sending him crashing to the ground. I took what little comfort that I could from the fact that he fell out the range of their limbs. Rachel was dead on her feet, standing futilely between Ax and David and the Howlers, both her front limbs handing lifelessly and matted with blood and burnt fur. Cassie was a little off to the side, doing everything she could to keep two of the poisoned Howlers busy, but she was whimpering the whole time, covered in slashes and her hind left leg unresponsive. David was doing all he could to help, lashing out with a paw at the legs of anyone who approached Rachel, but a few seconds later, a roar agony shook the place again as a flechette gun fired three metal darts deeply into and around his mid-leg joint. And to make it all worse, the remaining Howlers had finally pushed past Erek. And until the instincts came in and got under control, I couldn't do a thing about any of it.

I made sure that I was ready to push down instincts as aggressive as the tiger's or even as bloodthirsty as the shark's. However, when they did finally snap into existence, it wasn't anything like the super predator mind I was expecting.

The was no anger. No hatred. No bloodlust or desire to cause pain of any kind. In fact, the mind was almost...completely innocent!

/Like a dolphin./ I said quietly to myself. And that's when I felt something in the back of my brain. Something foreign to me. And then, within an instant, the collective memory hit my like a like a bulldozer. Countless worlds, animals and plants of all kinds and well beyond my imagination and countless savage, gruesome battles. Gore and screams, slaughter fests and resistance groups. I did more than see it all, I experienced it all. I was there. These were now my memories. And it made the knowledge and experience so much more vivid, more horrific than I could have ever imagined. I could even remember the Howlers' experiences while fighting us, could feel my claws ripping away at Rachel's muscles or cutting off a lion's paw. The elation of succeeding when the dart went through Tobias' wing. And I felt like a sword just ripped through my chest as I felt my claws pierce Warren's chest, felt his lungs rip open and fill with the same warm blood pouring down my hand. If I could have, I would of puked at the sense of victory I felt at the moment.

But through it all, there never a shred of malice. Irritation, confusion, jealousy and wonder, yeah, but nothing that one would expect to find in a species of homicidal maniacs. But then the answer to that was in the memories too. They were all children.

They had no adult phase, never reproduced, being created in a biological factory. They had no idea that what they were doing was wrong. They lived for three years and simply went where they were guided to have fun. They were never aware that they were actually hurting people. They thought their enemies were non-living playthings set up for them and the collective memory of endless fun in bloody battles compelled them to fight again.

/Prince Jake. It has been an honour fighting by your side./ Ax said weakly, knocking me back to reality just as Rachel fell to the ground. She was already unconscious, her pain and blood loss finally taking her. Ax was just as mangled as David, neither of them were able to do a thing as the Howlers towered over them. In a moment, the three of them and Marco would be dead.

/Erek, HELP THEM!/ Cassie screamed, pouncing one Howler to the ground in an attempt to reach the others, only to fail to notice the other. "WWOOOOOHHH!" All the remaining movement of her hind leg was instantly taken away as the Howler sunk his razor sharp teeth into her thigh. A few second later, I gagged as the memory of her blood pooling into my mouth had mine tasking copper.

"I would, but I'm barely keeping myself alive at the moment." Erek shouted back, forever swinging a screaming Guide back and forth as two Howlers aimed lasers at him.

And that was it. I couldn't let go on anymore. Not only were all of my friends dying, I was experiencing it so much that I might as well be the one doing it. I could save a group of kids being tricked into fighting a war or I could save my friends, a group of kids that were forced to fight a war for the right side. Either way, I was saving and killing kids and I was not going to let my friends do the dying. Anymore. Focusing on the connection to the collective, I opened it up completely and consciously sent every memory I had right into it, knowing full well that the first Howlers to see them would be the seven here with us, forcing Crayak to destroy them. Every joy I ever felt, from playing with my first set of blocks, to playing basketball with Tom. Every pain I ever felt, from scraping my knees on gravel to having my body ripped apart by Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Every emotional grief and insecurity I ever felt, every fear, finding out that Tom was a Controller, scared that David had killed Tobias, worried that we'd never be able to save our home...the unbearable pain and grief of a friend saving my life only to die an excruciating death in my arms.

And finally...the feeling of pure happiness that came with the looks of love and affection my family gave me. The kindness and care my friends always made a point to show me. And the pure, life completing bliss that I felt as Cassie kissed me.

The change was instantaneous. One second I'm watching as the Howler's prepared the killing blow for three of my friends and the next they were all stunned. Those that weren't poisoned went rigid as an actual understanding of what they were doing dawned on them and all of them were staring at their opponents, particularly...Warren with pure, unadulterated horror. With my memories, came my understanding and this wasn't fun anymore. Now it was the most despicable of crimes anyone could commit. And with the passing of the third second, they all disappeared.

Then came the fourth and just like that, Guide, the war-torn building, hell, all of Lego Land was gone. And so were all of our morphs.

It took only a second to realise that I was human again and that I was on my knees. Alongside me we all of my human teammates with Tobias, Ax and Erek, in their natural forms and perfectly healed. But once I saw that they were all alive and healed, allowing more relief than I've ever felt in my life flow through my being, I didn't pay any more attention to them. There were two people in front of me who demanded it more. The first and most noticeable one gave the word terrifying a whole new meaning. I knew exactly who he was, he'd invaded my nightmares far too many times, sending wave after wave of shivers down my spine and covering me in a cold sweat. He was as big as a mountain and was red and black, much like the Howlers. He sat on an enormous throne and looked like a combination of flesh and machinery. And at the top, his head was dominated by one, bone chilling, malice filled eye. That was Crayak.

And the other...it didn't nearly remove all the pain, grief, guilt and pure, petrifying terror that I felt...but, small as it was, though sure to grow later, it did still give me quite a bit of hidden relief and happiness to see Warren. Even if he was transparent.