An Animorph of unknown origin and intention has appeared before Harry and Alice, confronting them with knowledge he should have no possible way of knowing. But in the disturbance Lotr created, the information he gave proved sound, after he showed to Alice the way to detect and bypass The Controller's surveilance systems, a meeting is called the next day when Cassie's first morphing clothes are finally completed to enlighten the rest of the group to the situation. At the end of the day, the children realize they must learn how to step on glass without being cut, and Marco, the ever intelligient and wary boy he is, lays his underlying suspicions before the group, but is he right, or is his common sense giving way to paranoia?

Probing Call, I

Day 14, Morning

We entered the meeting room once again, Harry was leading the group, he was a surprisingly slow walker, and so we had extra time to chat.

"-when taking that we can't use this facility's native power generators into account, that's why the blackouts keep happening!" Harry just finished explaining the frequent power outages this fortress keeps suffering.

"And why it took twice as long to make Cassie's stuff," Rachel ruefully said, obviously thinking on how she might be the one recieving her clothing today...if the place didn't malfunction so often.

"Hey, I'm just glad mine was able to be completed by the time Tobias got you," Harry said, stretching out the waistband of his speedo-swimsuit thing and letting it snap back onto his pale, almost pasty skin. He's bad enough almost naked, I do NOT want to see what the rest of him looks like!

"Please keep that diaper on," Rachel muttered, I was pretty sure Cassie was blushing in the dark. But my eyes widened, I knew it wasn't a diaper, it was obviously not a diaper, though it had a lot of coverage it was nowhere near thick enough.

Oh no.

"Wh-it's not a diaper!" Harry started raising his voice to defend himself, the loudest I've heard him talk so far. "If this is a diaper, then what's Jake wearing?"

"Welcome!" Ellen said, holding the same box she presented my own morphing underwear in. "I'm sorry it took so long, Cassie, but your clothes are finally complete!"

"Where's Alice and Ben?" Marco asked.

Ellen was the only one sitting at the round table, she looked rather lonely, being the only person in such a huge room, another reminder that this place is almost entirely deserted.

"Ben's been trying to make sure the generator doesn't malfunction," Ellen explained. "Intensive work. Alice is out taking care of some solo mission."

"Did she find a lead on Them?" I asked as we all took a seat.

"For sure," Harry said, leaning back on his chair, wiping sweat from his brow. Smiling. "So I hope you all stayed put, like she said. It'd be very bad if you were to leave in-!"

"Okay, moving on," Marco interrupted. "How intelligient is Eyelizard, exactly?"

"What kind of intelligience do you mean?" Ellen said, her wrinkly face growing thoughtful.

"The critter's smart enough to follow complex commands, and type coherent words without anyone telling it to. It proactively records and consistently recognizes people, is aware of its surroundings and stealthy enough to sneak around and even go across the country completely unnoticed. Clearly there's a lot more going on with the thing than is immediately apparent?" Marco demanded.

When he put it like that, I agree. That is a little much just for a living surveilance camera.

"Dunno," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. "We didn't build him. Tobias' Dad just showed up with him one day."

"Oh, that's right," I said as Rachel snapped her fingers. "The little guy's a Pemalite Relic."

"It," Marco said, emphasizing the word, motioning to the forest of giant computer blocks surrounding us. "Is a living camera capable of functioning by itself. It follows orders, but do we know that it's because it's programmed to, or does it choose to? And therefore, can choose to ignore said orders? Is it smart enough to think like us? We know it can act on its own, but can it think on its own? And more importantly, can that giant bug-eyed gecko hold an agenda?"

Good question.

"And if it does have an agenda, we need to make sure at barest minimum, it doesn't align against our own! How do we know it won't drop a dime on us, or Tobias?"

"Marco, I know you're the security chief and all," Cassie pointed out as Ellen slid the box with her clothes to her. "But I think that's a little too paranoid."

"Yeah, it seems cracked," I said, reaching over to hold Cassie's hand. "You know what's also cracked? We're deep in the middle of a secret ancient alien mountain bunker, making plans on how to resist another alien invasion with the power to change our bodies!"

"Did Tobias even tell you how long that thing's been with us? Eyelizard was smart enough to be able to communicate, something it certainly didn't tell anybody before Cassie!" Marco questioned.

"Greetings," a voice suddenly called out. I turned and saw a figure emerge from the shadows, cradling a purse.

"Alice!" I said in shock.

"If there happens to be anything wrong with Eyelizard, we would've seen it long ago, he's been with us for six years. Now, did any of you morph and fly outside of the town beyond the distance between the boonies and the mountains?"

"No," I said.

"Of course not," Cassie said.

"And what's going on with that?" Marco asked.

Alice walked over to the table, entering a lighter part of the room.

"Bad news: we have a problem," Alice flicked her wrist, sending an envelope with a collection of photos scrambling on the table.

We leaned forward and started picking through the pictures. It was seen in various places, but in all of the pictures was an image of the same thing, a large black sphere, covered in gray swirling patterns, making it look like a floating marble.

"What are those?" I asked.

"Drones," Alice said, taking a map of the city out of her purse. "Machines with advanced observation capabilities, hiding in the shadows, watching everything around them. My scanners had great difficulty penetrating their shell, which means that these cameras have a lot more defenses than one would assume just by looking. I don't know whether they're remote controlled, or if they're autonomous, or even how advanced their AI is."

"Oh," I said.

"And you haven't been exactly on the level with us on this," Marco pointed out.

Alice turned to him.

"And what do you think I've been doing for the last day and a half?" Alice said, throwing the map onto the table, the map of our home, and marked on it with red stickers was a circle. She reached into her purse again.

"The red dots are where all of the photographs of these machines, these Hunters, I've tracked down were taken. As for what happens if you cross them..."

She reached into her purse and again threw its contents at us, it was a ziplock baggie, and inside of it was a lot of ash. Alice leaned down and opened it, letting a crapton of steam out.

"What are y-" Marco said until he realized, and I saw them at the same time he did.

Bones, inside that pile of smoking ash were the bones of some raccoon, bleached pure what by the fire of the machines that they incinerated them.

"Tobias! Did he-" I said.

"He's fine, he got out undetected, we just talked."

"Talked?" Marco asked incredulously. "Over a phone?"

"As long we're on the same planet, we can hold a conversation in thoughtspeech, though it is tiring."

"So the town's locked down?" Cassie said, her face showing a great amount of concern, I leaned over and put my arm on her shoulder.

"Exactly," Alice elaborated as I examined the map. "Each drone has a territory of at least several hundred meters."

Wait a minute, I said as I noticed something.

"That sighting," I whispered in surprise. "Is that-"

"As Jake has already noticed, their defenses almost overlap right on top of our sanctuary! The last photo I took was of the Hunter closest to our fort, and the entrance to our sanctuary is only a few hundred meters from the farthest fringes of its patrol zone!"

"They must've only erected this barrier recently," Rachel observed. "Otherwise they would've detected you moving in from outside."

"So we're stuck in here?" Marco said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Quarantined like animals that needs its own space in order to leave the quote-unquote civilized creatures alone?"

"We've seen what they're capable of doing," Alice motioned to the bag of charred remains of the creature the size of a large house cat. "If anything trips up their threat classification index, it's gone within moments. I don't know what method of scanning they employ, but a source has said there was a way to bypass their perimeter."

"A source?" I asked. "What kind of source?"

I heard a scratching sound and looked to see Harry scratching the back of his head, he was giving Alice a questioning look. They were very obviously having a private thoguht conversation, especially since she returned the stare for an awkward amount of time. Harry's face turned unsure, and he lowered his body, spreading his arms out in a questioning gesture. This lasted for a few moments more before Alice nodded, and Harry turned to speak to us, getting up from his seat.

"You know those 'Animorphs' that ETCS has been hunting for, right?" Harry asked.

Marco's eyes widened until they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

"No," Marco said in disbelief.

"We found one," Harry said.

"But they're camped out in Oregon!" Rachel said.

"The one they can track is, his colleagues are far more slippery. In reality, this collaborator of his found me while we were monitering the city for Controller activity."

"Did he do something to you?" I asked.

"Dad's told me about some of the damage these creatures are doing," Marco seethed. "Whatever he did it can't be pretty."

Alice gave Marco a sideways glance.

"Actually...nothing."

"Nothing?" Marco asked incredulously. "He did nothing?"

"He did nothing," Alice repeated calmly. "All he did was alert me to the presence of the perimeter, and inform me of his way of bypassing it."

"But why?" I asked. "Why would he want to do this?"

"In his words, he is 'an enemy of The Parasite,'" Alice elaborated. "He fights them as well, and offered the information freely for the sake of aiding our resistance, and 'establishing a foundation of trust to build future interactions off of.'"

"Supposedly," Marco pointed out. "You were involved with ETCS' Data Warrior Program, right? Do you know what this creature that has my Dad so spooked, he's threatening to take me out of town if it gets any closer, is?"

I turned to Marco, eyes wide, Oh, yeah, his Dad is seriously thinking of moving out, isn't he?

We haven't even taken part in our first battle, and already it looks like the team's fracturing and it's nobody's fault!

Alice took a deep breath, her eyes thoughtful, clearly reminiscing on some dark time unknown to us all. For all her youthful splendor, this was the first reminder that she was very much an adult.

"I think it'll be easier if we discuss the one I actually saw in person first. This individual who approached me was an Animorph, calling himself Lotr."

Animorph...there's that word again. Who are these people? I really might have to change the team's name.

"He was black, wearing a green poncho with orange writing in an unknown script, his feet were bare, and he wore stained and faded tan cargo pants, with hair coming down in dreadlocks. His most striking feature, however, were his purple glowing eyes, they were so...shockingly...bright, I've never seen anyone's eyes glow like that, or in that color!"

"Okay," I asked. "Do you know about his partner, the other one?"

"Yes. Him I know all too well," Alice nodded, a scared look entering her eyes. "A merciless predator, whose feral mind is bent towards hunting all of his enemies into extinction. He possesses devastating weaponry, and the malice to use all of it, his dehumanized mind has retained most of its intelligience, his capacity to strategize on top of his extensive knowledge of Pemalite Relics and Lore, he can wipe out entire armies on his own, and his creativity and feral nature combine with his intelligience to form a strange mind that's impossible to predict. Lotr is playing with fire, he's the third deadliest member of all his race we have imprisoned on this planet. He calls himself Warlike."

We were all stunned into silence, the cold, dead way Alice said the words. There wasn't a hunt of uncertainty in her voice, it echoed across the silent room, delivering the information with a finality blacker than the darkness between the stars. The entire room seemed colder, as we all sat in silence and processed the dark message.

A chair creaked, we turned when the person sitting in it spoke.

"Glad I was comatose when he was a thing," Ellen commented.

Alice smashed her hand against the table. "Lotr is a fool for thinking he can co-exist with one of his kind without dominating him! He's juggling live grenades, sooner or later it's going to blow up in his face!"

"Then why wasn't this Lotr person-" Rachel asked.

"You said the drones are designed to only detect morphs, right?" Marco interrupted, eagerly. "What if we leave town in human form and once we're out of sight of these thing's security zone?"

"A good idea," Alice said. "However, I don't think they'd slack up their surveilance on suspicious human activity, remember, they're expecting shapeshifters: beings that can disguise themselves as any living animal they have ever touched. They would be monitoring the highways, especially since these Ballistic Animorphs, disguised themselves as human, and entered the scenes of their assault on wheels multiple times."

"Gah!" Rachel said. "Whoever they are, these Animorph guys are a menace! All of this trouble is their fault!"

And I decided to give our group the same name.

Harry chuckled and raised his fist, "Same here, Blondieshell."

Uh oh.

Rachel gave Harry her own fish-eye.

"Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I said blo-oh, oh no," Harry answered before correcting himself, his pale face twisted into an expression of horror. I saw Rachel's eyes widen ever so slightly as Harry talked, barely noticable except to someone good at looking for it. "I'm sorry, that just came out, I didn't actually mean it, and-"

"Harry," Alice said. "Calm down."

"So, flying out of town in bird morph is not an option, and stowing away on cars is a very complicated thing not likely to work. What's this Lotr guy's solution for bypassing the defenses?" I said.

"Well, this is either going to be very easy, or very difficult" Alice said. "Before I say anything, though, I suggest that Cassie get into her morphing underwear if she hasn't already."

Cassie grabbed the box and briskly walked out of the room, I watched her form recede into the darkness and disappear.

"What about the Last Recorder?" I asked. "That thing Elfangor said we had to get to, first. Do you think Lotr knows anything about it?"

Alice looked down in contemplation, trying to think to find something.

((Jake,)) Marco suddenly said to me in private thought speech, his tone the most serious I've ever heard. ((Do not ask anything about Lotr or Warlike, or anything involving these enemy Animorphs.))

It occurred to me that Rachel wasn't reacting to Harry, I knew what it meant when Marco got that tone of voice. He's found something.

Alice finally shook her head.

"No, I don't know if he knows anything or has access to The Recorder," Alice said. "It's possible, given what he already knows about Them. He knows they're parasites who take people over by directly controlling them, rather than remote control. But it's just as possible that he simply has more experience dealing with them."

"So...Warlike's not a very nice person," Cassie said in that nervous tone of voice she gets whenever she says something she thinks might be out of left field. "Lotr, on the other hand, seems pretty reasonable, do you guys think it's possible we could...ask him about The Last Recorder?"

"That's an enormous risk," Harry said. "That stuff's top secret to the highest level, if the Andalites caught Elfangor trying to reveal its location, they would've executed him then and there!"

"The Last Recorder is one of the most well-kept secrets in the galaxy," Alice said in a quiet and deathly serious tone. "Outside the highest authorities in Andalite government, the only individuals who knew of its existence before we gathered here is myself, and Elfangor, its true location was only ever known by the Andalite's most trusted leader on Earth."

I was suddenly transported back to the Ghost Town, the abomination that attacked us had just been defeated, blasted to smitherines by Tobias' rocket, and his Dad was mortally wounded. Just minutes earlier we had recieved the gift of morphing, took it to fight the threat The Controllers posed to the earth, to stop their invasion, to save the world and everything we love.

With his dying breath he expressed his love for his son, and tried to give us the coordinates. We had only known his for less than ten minutes, and yet we felt more connected and understood him like we'd known him our whole lives. He felt every bit the great man that Tobias admired him as, if only he had a few more breaths in him.

Day 14, Afternoon

We entered the tiny clearing and stripped down to morph, we had practiced our morphing for quite some time, we had worked up a bit of an appetite, and as we stripped down to morph again, I took in Cassie's own underwear. The articles were the same dark blue as my own morphing underwear, but with green as the secondary color instead of red, the black portion of the pants were at the bottom like mine, her bra was a blue strip that hugged her torso without straps, it had a lot of tiny green marks that looked like lightning, or trees stripped bare of leaves. The edges of Cassie's bra were black, and both of her articles were thick and had very wide coverage, like mine.

When she looked my way we both averted our gaze, blushing, it wasn't long until we were focused on turning feathery. Thank goodness we can change the appearance of our morphing clothing to actually resemble human underwear, and that these things'll grow with us as we age.

((It looks like I'm catching up to you guys when it comes to morphing speed,)) Marco said, satisfied as we flapped upward to the sky.

((So,)) Cassie asked. ((What has you so scared?))

((It's The 'Old Bloods,')) Marco said as we caugght a thermal and began circling up into the sky. The glorious rising hot air heating me up in the best way imaginable, the warmth pushing us up higher in the air. ((They don't associate with ETCS or have a high opinion of them, these two Animorphs begin massacring ETCS personell two months ago, one month before The Andalites were massacred, and when you named us 'Animorphs?' None of the Old Blood objected to it, despite Alice, likely the entire group, knowing that ETCS knows about these creatures and have them classified as a hostile species. And add to that, the fact that this encounter with one of these Ballistic Animorphs as Alice called them, went on perfectly fine with no attempts to fight each-other.))

((Wait a minute,)) I could almost see Rachel's eyes looking down in contemplation.

((They're connected! You seriously don't see it now? Alice, Harry, Ellen, Ben, and Tobias? The other "Old Bloods" that Tobias is hauling back here? The Animorphs that are laying waste to ETCS and "The Old Bloods" are one in the same!))

((What are you...) I asked.

((The Old Bloods are tricking us! They're Animorphs, an alien species of unknown origin that aims at subverting humanity for their own benefit and goals, The Controllers are just a competitor!))

((That's insane!)) I said. Marco's accusation felt wrong, if Elfangor's words truly are a deception, then...it was just wrong.

((Why would Tobias ever want to do something like that? Why would Elfangor? What about the Old Blood's connection to the Andalites?))

((A lot can happen in five years. Is there a more likely conclusion than the one I've come to in your head? I'm all ears,)) Marco rebutted. ((Harry gives me bad vibes, he feels like he's hiding something. And on their supposed connection to the Andalites, didn't it seem odd to you that we never saw so much as a hint of Elfangor's true form despite him claiming to be an alien?))

((Marco, are you serious?)) Rachel asked. ((You know why he couldn't morph, those crystals-))

((Shouldn't affect the DNA, or the cell division process once they're removed from the body, which is most likely how this morphing technology's regeneration works. Think about it, if the DNA for growing a new gut was messed up, then that would mean that literally all of his DNA was damaged, therefore, he should'nt have been able to heal at all!))

((We don't know everything about the morphing technology-)) I countered before he interrupted.

And what do we know about them? How do we know that they're not lying about their connection to the Andalites. I believe that The 'Old Bloods' as they call themselves and the Andalites are two separate factions.))

It just felt so wrong! Why would he lie? Why would Elfangor lie?

((But what about Tobias, or Ben?)) Cassie advocated. ((Do those people seem like liars to you? What could they possibly gain from decieving us?))

((They're desperate,)) Marco said. ((Their numbers are scattered across the continent that they wish to gather up, the anti-morph serum is just as likely, if not more, to be manufactured and distributed by ETCS than Them to target morphers, especially if it's across the continent. Their bodies are wracked with deformities that their supposed "Andalite Parent's" medical technology should've had no problem healing. They have an absurd amount of knowledge on Pemalite relics, and have existed here for an unknown length of time. Even if Ben, Tobias, and the others like them would be less willing to lie to our faces, then what sort of desperation would it take for them to pull the wool over our eyes?))

We were silent for a few seconds as we begun soaring over the woods back to the barn, clothes in the handbags meant to carry them in.

((Desperate enough,)) Marco continued. ((That they'd try to raise an army of morph capable warriors from humans they've convinced to join their cause and indoctrinated to do whatever they want without question! And the 'rescuing of the other Old Bloods?' Divide in conquer, how would we be able to resist if they outnumber us?))

((Marco, just think about what you're saying!)) I pointed out. ((We're Tobias' best friends! He's lost everyone else, why would he go along with controlling us like this if they do want to do that?))

((Do you think that the Old Bloods are in league with the Ballistic Animorphs?)) Rachel asked Marco incredulously.

((No, of course not. But when have creatures capable of complex thought been entirely unified?)) Marco pointed out. ((The Mashtimee have different political factions within their stronghold in Portugal and Spain. The Nartec's Generals have different desires that sometimes conflict with eachother, why wouldn't these Animorphs be the same? Alice said herself, they locked him up! He might as well have been a member of a different Animorph faction that was defeated by the dominant one and subjugated for all we know!))

Again we were stunned into silence at Marco's words as we soared through the sky, travelling in distances far enough away from each-other that nobody would notice that we're actually in a group. But this time we didn't break it until we were back at the Barn. We flew into the rafters through the square window one by one, making sure to time our entrances properly.

Cassie and I demorphed in the middle of the barn's main room with the bags while Marco and Rachel hopped and then flew into a pair of empty horse stalls to demorph.

"So what do you think we're supposed to do?" I asked as I brought Rachel and Marco's handbags to them.

((Everything I just said is a suspicion, I don't really know if it's true or not, but we keep quiet,)) Marco advised, still demorphing. ((We don't know their intentions, I don't trust them, but we should avoid provoking them. We need them, they have resources we desperately need, and they outnumber us. I don't know if they're actually antagonistic, but tipping them off to the fact that we know their jig is up, or betraying their trust is not going to help with anything, especially if it turns out that they are legit.))

"Alright," I said, sitting down on a haybale. "I think I've had enough of this."

"Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Look at us! We've been focusing on the party for two weeks straight, now! What's happened to our lives?" I said. "I feel so worn out, everything we did involved Mexicans, almost everything! We need some time off! Who said we needed to abandon the society we seek to protect, who said that?"

Rachel nodded in agreement as she left the stall, pulling her dress down her shoulders as she walked out, "Yeah, it's been way too long since I spent some time with Melissa."

As we all left, I looked at Cassie, fully dressed. I felt a bit sad deep down, I really liked her morphing outfit.

"There's no balance," Cassie observed. "Preparing for this war's eaten all of our focus. Even at home trying to go to sleep I feel Them, watching, waiting, every day it feels as if I'm going to fall into their trap without a single one of us even realizing."

"Exactly! And Marco?" I started as he got out of the stall, putting his shirt on. "It's clear we've been going into this thing for too long, The day after tomorrow, we'll try to bypass the perimeter using the information Lotr gave Alice, just like we agreed. But tomorrow? We will enjoy tomorrow, I certainly know we've earned it."

[3 Weeks before Jake, Rachel, and Cassie received the morphing power]

Morning, Soon to Dawn

Warlike was a very busy creature, his days were never idle, and as such he was installing power cables and pipes into the base Lotr had set up, the unfortunate Chee who was just a head and a gut-sack had been placed onto a chair that was specially made for him, which provided all the support he needed. Lotr was in the center of the room, sitting at a work-bench and wearing black goggles, tinkering with an object that was glowing a bright orange with a series of long needle-like prods stuck to the ends of his fingers. Warlike's decoy was floating, where one of the Chee was using it to help him stand up.

"You're good at installing technology, Warlike," Lonos complimented, she was able to stand now, albeit very shakily.

"I had practice," he muttered as he sealed another segment of the alien pipework with a glue on his thumb that expanded and became the same material as the pipe itself when applied. "I'd rather not talk about it."

A ticking noise began to emanate from Lotr's project, he smiled as a faint beeping noise could be heard, causing Warlike to turn towards the man.

"If you set off a bomb-" Warlike threatened.

"No!" Lonos said. "It's not a bomb!"

"Have faith, Warlike," Lotr said as he manipulated the casing of the device closed before removing the long manipulators from his fingers by placing them on specially designed racks. Lotr got up and removed the goggles to look at his handiwork with his own purple eyes in the cave, he nodded, smiling. "Come take a look!"

Warlike finished sealing the pipe, once the last of the residue was off of his fingers he lumbered over to where the far smaller individual stood and looked at his creation not he workbench. He examined it, looking at it as orange light leaked out from the gaps in its casing, tilting his head as his own orange eyes drank in the sight of the device the size of a volleyball.

"Can't figure out what it is?" Lotr asked, smiling. "I didn't think you'd be stumped."

Warlike let loose a low growl from deep within his throat in response. He looked to the left to the tall white pillar that he placed on the stone floor that didn't even reach to the ceiling of the cave Lotr had dug out, he looked to the wood nailed to a stone sticking in the dirt wall, where a strange device like a gauntlet but made of wires was hanging, and even further out was the Diggy drone that had accompanied them when they raided The D0gbone Factory. On the opposite end was what looked like a cloak of rhomboid green and orange metal plates. His eyes travelled to the multitudes of other alien paraphernalia scattered across the cave, including the Chee. Lonos was eager to instruct them on how to repair them and hatch the eggs.

"I can see that it's really powerful. Let me guess," Warlike sarcastically answered. "I'm not allowed to touch that, too?"

"Ha, yeah, that's true. You have no idea what this does," Lotr explained as the glowing stopped, the little gaps in the casing had sealed themselves. He picked it up off the table and held it up. "This is what's going to take down The Light Machine!"

Warlike nodded in reference to the key to ETCS, and more importantly, Andalite, immortality.

"And how many more WMDs have you been stockpiling that I haven't been able to identify?" Warlike demanded as Lotr absorbed his creation into the palm of his hand. "For Pemalite relics, a lot of these things are off-brand, they're exotic, even for my expertise. Just where in the Andalite's bowels did you pull these out from?"

Lotr turned around and looked up to give Warlike an unimpressed glare with his purple eyes.

"My nation made my forge, and I make more of our technology with said forge. The Andalites have nothing to do with this!"

Warlike smiled at the fact that he made his normally unflappable colleague show signs of displeasure. Lotr started walking away.

"I'm leaving for a vital mission," Lotr said, grabbing the wiry guantlet off of its wrack, the joints of it flashed orange a few times before turning dark, Lotr had already turned around to leave the cave. On the way there he also picked up an incredibly long object that looked like a strange combination a pike, the head of which glowed gold, the metal pole of which was an orange ribbed blade. "I should return in a few days."

"A mission?" Warlike asked. "What for?"

"To help a few friends in need. You have free reign of the place, other than the things I've told you to leave alone, of course."

Like I'd experiment with dangerous technology I'm completely unfamiliar with! Warlike exasperatedly thought.

"Why not bring me along?" Warlike drawled. "If it's a rescue, then I'll make sure that whatever they're dealing with will not be a problem again."

"We cannot afford to leave this place undefended," Lotr said. "That aside, they're a good distance away and don't have a high opinion of you."

Warlike snarled in resignation, of course.

Lotr walked out of the base, leaving Warlike alone to his own devices, he sat down on the cave floor, inspecting the room, his gaze travelled for some time after Lotr had left. Eventually his eyes settled on the dessicated Chee, just hanging/resting on the chair. He stared at him for a while until making a decision.

"I'm leaving," Warlike announced, leaning forward to push himself off the floor with his thick stony hands.

"What for?" The Chee using Warlike's decoy to train himself how to walk asked.

Warlike didn't stop or turn to respond to him as he left the main habitation chamber of the cave.

"For spare parts."

"Like that?" The Chee clinging to Warlike's decoy asked. "You're not going to upgrade your clothes? you're really leaving in that truly unfortunate morphing attire?"

Warlike's virtually naked body tensed up as he spun to glare at that Chee, he reached out his hand and his decoy floated back to him in an instant, abandoning THe Chee to fall onto the stone floor. He walked out of the cave slightly faster than before, leaving his decoy behind for the Chee to crawl towards it.