After a day of rest, Alice informs the group that she had found the spot to bypass the perimeter of Hunter Drones, and the Animorphs try to learn the method of sneaking past their scanners that Lotr had divulged to them. However, with Lotr disappearing just as quickly as he emerged, the Animorphs are left to break solve this problem by themselves.

Probing Call II

Day 15, morning, 8:10

((Are we there yet?))

((No.))

((Are we there yet?))

((No.))

((Are we there yet?))

((No.))

((Are we there yet?))

((I said no.))

((Are we there yet?))

((Because no.))

((Are we there yet?))

((No!))

((Are we there yet?))

((No means no!))

((Are we there yet?))

((Because I said no!))

((Are we there yet?))

((Nooo!))

((Are we there yet?))

((NO!))

((Are we there yet?))

((Are you bored?!))

((Are we there yet?))

((You're blind!))

((Are we there yet?))

((We're not there!))

((Are we there yet?))

((What's wrong with your ears?!))

((Are we there yet?))

((Are you high?!))

((Are we there yet?))

((WHY?!))

((Are we there yet?))

((Are we there yet?))

Ben's last response caused us to burst into full on laughter. We were grinning for a little bit earlier, but that was the one that broke the dam.

"Ah, classic Marco!" the instigator of the dialogue chuckled as we hiked through some bushes.

((Quiet!)) Alice admonished. ((We're almost at the place, if it hears you, it's not going to be pretty!))

And all of a sudden we were reminded of our situation, we were deep in the woods taking a hike, and we only had our morphing clothes on us, this meant that only myself and Cassie were wearing anything as we walked through the woods, with all of its bushes, rocks, dirt, pine cones, and needles on the ground. With my enhanced hearing I could already hear the river.

We were at the foot of an incline that had a tree and some bushes at the top, we crouched down even lower and walked up the hill with our bare feet. Ben didn't actually demand Marco to stop, I think he played along because he knew it was a way todistract himself from his naked state. Rachel, outwardly, didn't really seem to mind, but I know she didn't like it any less than I did. Ben was here instead of back at the base keeping the reactor running because making the material for Animorph clothing was an incredibly delicate process, the thread, or fiber, or whatever for Rachel's underwear was already made, fortunately.

Marco was handling it the worst of all of us, but still braved through it like anyone else, he kept his hands close to his waist to protect it. Don't mention it and it'll fade from your mind, he said. I don't know if it's the morphing tech doing this, but we're really used to being naked around eachother.

Cassie on the other hand, put her feet forward confidently, her legs moved faster than they normally did, she walked in a partial crouch that made her look like she was stalking. Unlike Rachel, her body language said that actually she didn't mind, of all of us, she looked the most 'in her natural habitat' as she would put it, it also helped that her pain tolerance kicked in. The more I look at her the more acutely aware I was of how fast the morphing technology's other powers were setting in for her. A sign of things to come. My eyes couldn't help but be drawn to her morphing clothes, they contoured perfectly on her body, they weren't loose, but they covered a lot, didn't hug tightly or pinch. They just moulded to her perfectly, as if they were a part of her body, and to me as well. Now that I'm being honest about it, this is literally the best underwear I've ever worn, and by extension-!

No, I shouldn't stare at her! I realized, looking away instinctively. I know we need to be getting used to being naked around eachother, but that's for holding normal conversations, not for eye-candy!

But she's my girlfriend, aren't I supposed to stare at her?

What am I thinking? That makes it even worse!

And we reached the bushes, I put my arms forward and crawled under there, my knees scraped against the ground, getting dirt on them. I didn't like the feeling, but it didn't hurt, the branches were uncomfortable for me, but.

Cassie's crawled ahead of me! We were shoulder-to-shoulder before, but now she's ahead of me and outpacing me, she's a lot quieter than me!

Is Cassie going to become the strongest of us, physically? Would she be able to beat me in a race? I glanced forward before Cassie's waist came into view.

Yo, my best friend's girlfriend can whoop the butt of your girlfriend! I imagined Marco bragging in my head, causing me to smile. We crept further and further forward until we saw it.

It was the bank of a river, there were some rocks at the edge of it, and a few more trees and foilage between those rocks and our current location, the bank of the river itself was somewhere between sandy and pebbly. The babbling stream of water flowed in from my right, and curved until it ran to the left in the opposite direction away from us. Down that stream was where the perimeter was.

And Lotr supposedly left a gift for bypassing the Hunters on that river bank, Alice was already there, sitting Buddha style, serene, as if nothing in the world can disturb her meditation, a few butterflies had started fluttering around her, one had even landed on her head, looking like some pretty living ornament. Harry on the other hand was lying down on a large rock by the river, soaking in the sunlight. The path between ourselves and Alice was clear, we crawled through the rest of the bush, and stood up to walk the way down. Alice opened her eyes in response to our slow careful footsteps reaching the outer rocks, she smiled. I'm very thankful she ignored our nudity, it felt strange how she was the most clothed person present aside from Ben, who landed next to her and began demorphing.

((This is the place,)) She said simply. ((Just a few hundred feet downstream is the perimeter where the closest Hunter Drone is patrolling.

((Question:)) Marco asked. ((If these things are supposed to detect morphing, and the areas they patrol are only a few hundred meters away from the entrance to the Sanctuary, then how haven't they detected us everytime we morph?))

((Perhaps it's because the entrance to the Sanctuary is emanating some sort of field to protect the area close to it from scanning technology,)) Ben supposited, still demorphing.))

((Or they just don't detect morphing,)) Harry said, leaning up to a sitting position. ((I mean, shapeshifting is really rare, it's not like an entire military would just design cameras to detect whatever energy we put off when changing. Especially one that isn't currently fighting a nation of morphers!))

((As opposed to an invasion that's expecting to repel one?)) I asked.

((Both Ben and Harry might be right,)) Alice said. ((The kinds of sensors needed to detect morphing reliably tend to be big, whatever The Controller's technological sophistication, it's unlikely these drones would come with that given their size. They're likely mobile cameras with alien weaponry attached, operating off of a primitive AI.))

((But wouldn't they see birds land in the same clearing and not go back up?)) Cassie demanded.

((Like Alice said,)) Ben mentioned, standing upright, he did not look pretty. ((Primitive AI. it's likely they couldn't put too much into this perimeter because Warlike's return caught them off-guard.))

The same way The Controllers caught the Andalites off-guard...supposedly, I thought as we reached her.

((Let's get this show on the road,)) Rachel said, losing patience. ((What did this Lotr person leave behind for us to find?))

Alice moved her legs into a more relaxed position before leaning down and digging at the gravelly sand of the riverbank. The dry rocky surface gave way to darker layers, more wet with water, until she uncovered what looked like a sack that was a little green, and big. It kind of smelled bad in a strange way that made me feel considerably less hungry.

((Oh, what is that?)) Marco asked.

((It looks almost like...)) Cassie remarked, leaning down to take a closer look. ((a hibernating lungfish.))

((But the wrong color,)) I said.

((He called it a Shimmer-Scaled Mud Fish,)) Alice said. ((It's an animal native to his home.))

((So the Animorphs are from another planet,)) Rachel concluded when all of a sudden, Harry sputtered. I looked to see that he was still by the river, taking a drink from it. I don't know if him coughing is related to what Rachel said, but Ben ran over to him, patting him on his white almost pasty...hold on, his complexion was getting better, his back's still very pale, but he wasn't as much of a creepy looking wreck as he was when we met him.

((I'm okay!)) Harry said.

Animorphs as aliens, that's not surprising.

((Artificially made from scratch just for morphers?)) Marco asked.

((Very likely,)) Alice said, looking Marco in the eye.

((But he didn't elaborate before leaving,)) Harry butted in. ((What's special about this particular kind of fish is their hibernation cycle, it's a death-like state unlikely to be disturbed by animals due to it smelling inedible, and while in this state, the creature's almost perfectly preserved-))

((What's really important,)) Alice said, interrupting Ben. ((Is that their hide of scales makes it almost impossible for non-visual sensors to locate them.))

My eyes widening.

((Allowing us to sneak by the Hunter Drones by swimming up and down the river!)) I finished.

((Yes,)) Ben said, nodding. ((We all need to acquire this creature in order to progress, thankfully it's hungry but doesn't eat its own kind, especially individuals of a similar size.))

((But why did Lotr bring this thing with him?)) Cassie asked.

((I think he was expecting to encounter morphers the entire time,)) I said. ((And intended to ally himself with them for whatever purpose he has in mind and gave this morph to Warlike, and then us. Either as a form of appeasement, sharing an asset, or both.))

((He brought a fish with him,)) Marco said. ((But if his intent was to ally with morphers and empower them, I don't think a fish would be the only animal he brought from his world.))

((Wait, something just occurred to me,)) Rachel said privately as she squated to give the fish, still encased in its hibernation sac, a closer look. ((Are the Animorphs-?))

((Are you waiting for soemthing?)) Ben asked, not hearing Rachel. ((Just acquire the Shimmer Scale and let's get this over with.))

I nodded as I kneeled in the riverbank next to the hole Alice dug, we need to learn how to not be distracted.

((Rachel and Marco first,)) I said, keeping the state of their clothing in mind.

((Thanks,)) Rachel said as she reached out and touched the hibernating fish.

As Rachel got up and jogged to the water, Marco reached forward, then Cassie, and myself followed.

When I started walking to the river, Marco and Rachel were already in, Harry tried to gently lower himself into the water from the rock where he was sunning himself, but he lost his grip.

"BAAAGH!" he cried out as he fell in, completely disappearing under the waves.

I felt my mind go icy as I went into panic mode, we had no idea how close The Hunter Drone was, if it heard us!

Regardless I began sprinting over to the river where Harry fell, Rachel turned around in a snap and when she noticed what had happened she immediately dove and began swimming Olympic style to Harry's rescue. Cassie began running past me.

((OH FREEZING!)) He said as his head burst above the water to take a deep gasping breath. ((I'm alright!))

Harry had already begun to change, his pale skin had begun to turn into a shimmery hide of fish scales, he had already grown a lot smaller, his eyes were far darker and as I could hear the sound of shifting sand his body made as he morphed...

Wait, I noticed when I reached the river, the water running over my toes. Why's Harry getting hairy?

But then I noticed, the 'hairs' were all actually growing from beneath the chrome scales that were sprouting all over his skin.

I looked down again, the feeling of the rocky river bed like a strangely smooth gravel on the soles of my feet.

I heard very clearly as Ben walked confidently into the water. I looked to my left to see him, most people when moving through knee-deep water would begin to slow down due to the river giving resistance. But Ben didn't, his body forced itself through the river against its current until he had outpaced me despite me starting first, just pushing through it like some sort of machine until he was chest deep.

That man's strong, I took note as he took a deep breath and disappeared in the center of the river.

No point in distractions, I realized as I focused on the creature I had just acquired. Thankfully, this fish is big and calm enough that nothing will happen to us by the time we master its instincts.

My legs were the first thing to begin going, when I realized that I was still too close to the shore I began walking deeper into the river, as I did so I felt that falling sensation that came with my body shrinking, I found it a struggle to continue standing, and so I held my breath and gave myself to the current. As I diminished in size to a baby and my submersion was complete, my skin changed into a softer hue sky blue before my body hair changed and spread, growing wider and chrome colored, turning into a hide of scales, and sure enough, a single scale had a single hair sprout underneath it, and extending a bit of a way outside of my body. My legs fused into a single fish tail, and my feet thinned out until they became fins, my arms thinned out as well, but not as much as I thought, my body became more robust, smoother so as to aid swimming in the water.

All traces of my human hair receded completely into my flattening head, resulting in my eyes being redirected to facing above and in front of me, my neck shortened as I felt five gills emerge, the holes allowed cool water to flood into my neck and mouth, my throat changing to accomodate the perforation of my neck. My jaw became wider and longer as the human teeth inside narrowed and shrunk into sharp straight points, my gums became a rough sandpapery surface perfect for grabbing whatever prey this animal preferred to eat and my tongue turned into some long spindly thing the end of which was really hard. In my forehead I felt a sort of 'third eye' emerge, and in this eye I felt another sensory organ emerge, one whose purposes I could not dinstinguish, but my nose eceded into my head until it was just simply two nostrils arrange at the top of my body. Throughout all of this my skull and spine didn't decrease in density, though they did change shape.

I held my breath throughout all of this and just when I felt my lungs would give out, they disappeared and my gills started working, filtering oxygen from the water, allowing me to breath with all of the river water in my mouth and neck.

But then I remembered a rule from Tobias' letter.

((Wait, guys, that fish is hibernating!)) I said as my body began curling onto itself, my skin feeling covered in a strange mucuous-like membrane, my vision turning green. ((We're not going to be awake when we morph!))

((Ay nuts, we don't morph enou-)) Harry said before he fell silent.

And then on top of all the changes happening to my internal organs, my brain shifted, causing my vision to go completely black before I fell into the unconscious state of my morph.

Day 15, morning, 8:20

Water!

The dry season has ended, the Water has returned!

I straightened myself out and squirmed with my powerful and lithe body, breaking out of the second skin that kept me moist and protected me until the rain brought the river back to swim away.

With the rain the river is back, and now that there's a river, I can be.

This body of water is unfamiliar, the smell, the look of the surroundings. This was not the riverbed I slumbered in the mud of, the water smelled and tasted different, and where were the plants?

Stiffweed, need to find Stiffweed, I need to clean my scales of this second skin lest it threaten to clog my gills, it already messes my senses! I reached the bottom of the river, just rocks, I swam along the riverbed some more, swimming up stream. There it is, mud, but still no Stiffweed, if there was it would have risen by now.

I must swim up river, where the water had flown for longer, maybe I will find something to scrape my scales clean there. I waved my muscles, moving my tail left and right, searching. I sensed creatures in the water, most so small that they're not worth hunting, and a few others that were big enough to be prey.

There!

I sensed them, others like me, I could barely feel them in the water, but they were unmistakable. I swam up slowly, there were others in the group, but have they scraped their scales clean yet? No. They haven't. I swam up next to one and swam past her, she was female, we all were female, if there were no males around, that would change soon enough.

As I swam past the other one, we rubbed our scales next to eachother, scraping the membrane off, another one swam by me to do the same. And another fish rubbed off on me, and we scraped the membranes off of our scales to the point that my senses were freed. I could sense it all, this time the entire river was visible with my senses, it was so liberating that I-

((We did it!)) What was that? ((Jake, Rachel, everyone, wake up! We did it! we're Shimmer Scales!))

There's something...

Aha! I'm not a fish, I'm a human. It'sa me, Jake!

((Is everyone okay?)) I asked.

((Scun, that was a fright!)) Ben said.

((Well...this just proves we don't morph enough,)) Alice noted.

((Oh noo!)) Rachel complained. ((I just ate a frog!))

((Ha ha! Oh man, these things are hungry!)) Marco laughed.

((I wasn't supposed to impale Kermit in between the legs, especially not lengthwise!)) Rachel said, half outraged and half disappointed, and maybe sounding like she was going to cry?

((Who's Kermit?)) Harry said, concerned. ((And why was he eaten?))

((Just some puppet,)) Ben said.

((Oh, that's needless,)) Cassie remarked.

((Ooof,)) was all I could respond with in response to my cousin's plight.

((Come on, what's wrong with indulging in your creature's hunger a little? Even if it's in Dracula style?)) Marco said. ((I think that'd be a big distraction, the hunger, I mean.))

((It's just cruel and pointless and I can still feel it wriggling inside of me!)) Rachel said. ((We aren't going to live in these bodies. Why should we eat a buffet everytime we morph?))

((Marco's right,)) Alice said. ((We can't simply ignore the needs of our morphed bodies, they're living creatures too, and we can't rely on our biomass reserves and regeneration to just repair whatever problem our morphs have. We need them in top shape, and they're going to remember what happens to them when we morph them, and if they get full while morphed, they tend to remain full.))

Oh, wow, I hadn't considered that.

((So that means we're not going to be hibernating when we morph again?)) Marco said.

((Yes,)) Alice answered.

((That's a relief, but speaking of our morph's needs,)) I said. ((Let's get in the mud and go for a cruise!))

And with that we dipped down into the riverbed, bathing in the mud, which stuck to our really really rough scales, making sure we don't shimmer. And with our camouflage fully applied we began swimming down river, nobody talked during our slow swim, when we took control of the Shimmer Scaled Mud fish, it didn't take us long to remember why we had morphed them to begin with. With the membranes from this animal's hibernation cycle removed, there was nothing stopping us from moving downstream.

We had swum for a good minute, it felt smooth, somewhat exhilerating, we were moving, but not fighting to move. Man, being a fish is surprisingly easy, but these things were hungry, not starving to the point where we couldn't focus, but it was distracting.

On the way there we encountered some creatures big enough to interest us, we ate some fish on the way, shooting out my tongue from below and skewering the creature before retracting the harpoon back to my mouth and swallowing it whole. As Rachel said, it wriggled inside of me but that stopped after a little while.

The level of light in the water decreased after some time spent swimming as we entered parts of the river that recieved more shade from the trees. We could sense everything in the water, but these fish are used to living in much bigger waterways.

((Hey, you said that morphs remember what happens to them, and if they are full when we demorph, they tend to remain full when we morph them again, right?)) Cassie asked.

((Yes,)) Ben answered.

((What happens when we acquire certain animals in certain times of the year?)) Cassie said. ((Like during the mating season, or if we acquire an animal outside of the mating season and we morph it during that time, and the other way around? Would theirs hormones shift?))

((Morphing and demorphing tends to reset the hormonal cycles of the creature you turn into,)) Harry said. ((In order for your morph to change their hormones, you'd need to stay in it for...for...a while.))

Ah, so that's not really a problem either...unless we need to go on a stakeout that would last a while.

How long would such a stakeout need to last? I reflected. I read up on sieges, movies like to portray them all as these intense battles where droves of men threw themselves at the castle walls, trying to take them with all sorts of ladders and rams catapults and siege towers. But directly assaulting a fortification is costly, sieges are waiting games, waiting for the enemy to run so low on supplies that they'd be starved into submission. But sieges are just as much a drain on the lives and resources of the attackers as it is the defenders, and there are skirmishes, raids, all sorts of little battles that happen.

But would we even be able to lay a siege? On a faction with spaceports, and advanced alien weaponry, and with other locations we have no idea about the existence of? Tobias is bringing back more Old Bloods, supposedly to protect them from the Anti-Morph serum, but quite a few of them have 'deformities' that cripple them in some way during theiur day to day activities. The Cube will fix their bodies, but as seen with Harry and Ellen, not overnight, the Old Bloods, some of them at least, would obviously join the fighting at some point, but how many people would those reinforcements actually be?

And considering how they might be decieving us, how high would that number need to climb before the Old Bloods outnumber us to the point of vetoing our decisions and choices? Harry, Ben, Alice, and Tobias seem more than reasonable, but there has to be a bad actor or two in the new arrivals that would inevitably start causing issues in the future. Even if everything goes well for us, how would I be able to handle this fight when I have more men, more fighters, more assets to juggle with? Who would my commanders be? Marco? I think he'd make a good leader, even if he's defensively oriented. Rachel's aggressive, but she's not as careful as she could be, I think if she had some practice reigning herself in she'd be great. Tobias already seems to be a leader among the Old Bloods, I don't know if they have anyone better, but he's already firmly put me as the head of this endeavor. As for Cassie...

When my mind went to Cassie, it turned blank, it wasn't that I didn't want to leave her out of the consideration for a leader role, I just don't want to put her into special boxes with hard definitions, it doesn't feel righ-huh?

((Guys, hold up, where are all the fish?)) Cassie said, she was at the head of the group, so she was the first to notice that the section of the river in front of us had a dearth of aquatic life. All throughout the swim downstream, the Shimmer Scales' scales had held onto the mud, they were quite sticky, however, soon enough I could sense the portion of the river in front of us, and just like Cassie said, it was entirely devoid of aquatic life, no fish, frogs, turtles, or even insects to be seen.

((This is it. We must have reached the Hunter's patrol zone, be careful ever-wait! I'm feeling something!)) I ordered before sensing something really off in a powerful way!

It was a distortion, I could sense the world above the rivert to, and this sensation was especially disorienting. The Shimmer Scale was immediately weary, it wanted to sink down to the bottom of the river to hide from this predator, and I full-heartedly agreed. Soon enough though, it moved into sight.

The Hunter.

It was just exactly like the picture Alice brought described, an extremely dark orb resembling a marble, it floated into view, obviously carried by some magnetic force within the drone itself. A bright red light flashed on the drone, and I felt something run across the scales on the entire length of my body.

It's scanning us, but can it see us?

The Hunter continued floating above us, the fish wanted to hide, but it was ready to run, oh boy if this thing did anything out of the ordinary, it would swim for its life like there was no tomorrow.

The Hunter stopped, and began rotating in a little circle, a human eye from this deep in the river would not be able to see any discernable chang ein position, but the Shimmer Scale could tell that it was floating in a tiny circle as it scanned its entire surroundings. This went on for what felt like a lifetime before it started floating again.

((It can't see us!)) Alice said. ((The Shimmerscale, it works!))

((How do you know?)) I asked.

((When scanning the area, it always does that little circular motion before firing on anything,)) Alice clarified. ((That means we're goo-))

A red flash! The Hunter Drone fired its weapon!

RUN!

My tail burst into action, swim! I had to swim as fast as possible in order to outrun the predator! I needed to get out now before it killed me!

I swam for a good few minutes until I felt the magnetic disruption stop.

((Everyone,)) I ordered, worried. Did it shoot any of us? ((Headcount!))

((Here! Who man, that was fast!)) Rachel said.

((Marco, I made it.))

((Here,)) Cassie responded. ((That was way too tense.))

((It couldn't see any of us!)) Alice reported.

((Nobody got hurt,)) Ben said. ((It just shot something in the trees.))

((Which means the fish works!)) I said. ((We have a means of bypassing the Controller's perimeter. Well done, team. Let's go home and do the other stuff.))

Day 15, morning, 10:10

We were inside the Sanctuary, past that giant pillar we usually hold all of our meetings in. After returning to the riverbank where we morphed the fish, we demorphed, and Rachel removed a very long piece of the Shimmer Scale's membrane that she pried off of her toe. We were also covered in mud, which we washed off. And with that effort now over, we walked past the very wide and squat looking doorways and below the empty labyrinthine complex of canopies and catwalks where the defenders of this ancient fortress would've fired on any intruders that broke through the defenses. We approached what looked like a wall, and bypassed that the same way we entered that giant column where we usually held out meetings. A giant door lowered, opening up, revealing the coolest place of the sanctuary yet!

It was a giant plaza of some sort, a huge wide open area that could clearly hold a crapton of vehicles and people, I could see the giant road that led to this place split off into smaller roads that led in different places in the darkness. The main road remained straight however, and that one led us to a giant overhanging bridge that ran over the path we were walking on, and on top of that bridge was a colossal obelisk rising high into the cavern, standing straight as an eternal sentinel, watching over the silence of this place like a tomb guardian. We didn't have the pleasure of morphing birds and flying the distance, we had to carry the supplies on our backs in the absence of a vehicle.

That first place was a colossal crossroads and communal area where the inhabitants of this place could do commerce, first this was a bunker, than a giant military isntallation, apparently this entire facility was a colossal city the whole time! Eventually we got to our destination, the houses, they were all wide, most were two stories, some were three, and they had very large lawns that were only inhibated by long dead petrified grass. There was no standardized design, but all of them, Ben told us, had aerial entrances where a morpher could swoop down in air-born morph and safely land in the house before demorphing. There were a lot of houses, but the Old Bloods had already refurbished a few of them for themselves and the new arrivals, we were to help with the restoration efforts here.

We opened the door and dropped our heavy bags of supplies after walking inside.

"Alright," Ben said, sitting down on the floor, unshouldering his massive backpack along with everyone else. "After we rest for a little while on the ground, we're going to get to work."

"Ooh thank you!" Marco said, now fully clothes along with everyone else. "That was such a long hike!"

"You'll get used to it," Ben said, beginning to massage his legs. "And that aside, I have plans to make a Horse Drawn carriage/cart deal. This won't be that much of an issue."

"But we're going to need draft horses for that!" Cassie said. "None of us know where to begin to look in order to acquire those!"

I was too spent to even really think of a comeback of some kind, this house looked like it was made from some sort of material like a thick swirly stone that oddly enough reminded me of LEGO bricks. What we were resting in was a living room of some sort, it was a wide open space with a few things hanging from the cieling that I couldn't identify, the walls were covered with an impossible layer of dust, the floor was heavily discolored and the main pathway leading into the house was the only part of the house that wasn't flooded with horrid smelling stagnant water due to being elevated above everything else.

Soon enough the break was over, Marco complained, but it didn't take us that long to recover, after the break the first thing we got to work on was removing the water from the flooded house, flashlights carefuly probing into the ground.

"Whoah!" I said when I tripped, my foot falling deeper in that normal. "I think I might've found the basement!"

"Good, begin draining there," Ben said. "I need to get a probe into this plumbing, see what went wrong here."

I took the large funny shaped vaccuum cleaner, one with a funny shaped nozel, put it into the hole I almost tripped in, and turned it on. I was surprised by the power behind this thing, and I almost lost control of it, after I got my grip back on it I had no more risk of losing control. The water level began to drop quickly, I spared a glance to the others, Rachel was ona stepstool of some sort, removing dust, gunk, and other things from the cieling, Marco patrolled the house with a flashlight and a grabber of some sort, looking for loose items abandoned in this shallow pond of a house while Cassie followed him, holding the bag he put the things in.

((Hey guys,)) Rachel whispered, the universal sign for private thought speech. ((Remember when I said that something occurred to me?))

((Vaguely,)) I said.

((You were talking about the Animorphs?)) Marco asked. ((The marauding shapeshifting vagabonds?))

((Yeah,)) Rachel admitted. ((Something's been bugging me about them. There are Animorphs, us, however, before that there were Animorphs, Warlike and Lotr, and, as Marco said, maybe the Old Bloods too are a part of this species of shapeshifters.))

((So,)) I asked as I focused on draining the water. ((What's the problem?))

((The Old Bloods said that the morphing power is Pemalite technology, or derived from it, but then we learn about this whole alien race, Animorph, that also has this power that the Old Bloods said was exclusive to the Andalites.))

((A huge inconsistency,)) Marco agreed.

((But the Andalites might not know everything,)) Cassie pointed our. ((The Pemalites are still unmatched technologically, and presumably went further than Andalite explorers ever did.))

((But considering that they said Warlike has extensive knowledge of Pemalite relics and lore...))

((Hold on,)) I said, freezing in shock when I figured out what my cousin was getting at. ((Rachel, are you saying that the Animorphs ARE the Pemalites?!))

((That's...)) Marco said. ((It's official, the world's gone upside down, Hell's frozen over, Pigs fly, and Rachel for once has proposed a theory more insane than I could have ever predicted! Well done, my apprentice! I am finally surpassed!))

((No,)) Rachel said. ((Not for sure. I don't buy that entirely either, Marco, but they're connected! The Pemalites were morphers, the designs of these house and this base makes that obvious enough, it was, according to the Old Bloods, a technology that was reverse engineered from the Pemalites or was directly taken from a device of Pemalite origin. Despite the Andalites holding a monopoly on morphing technology, the Animorphs exist, and are a player in the shenanigens on Earth, and Warlike, as said by the Old Bloods, has extensive knowledge of the Pemalites, an alien race that has supposedly been extinct for millions of years!))

((Holy crap,)) I said. ((You...might be onto something, Rach.))

((I don't think that the Animorphs are the Pemalites themselves,)) Rachel said. ((Just their last descendants, here to reclaim their ancestor's technology.))

((But for what purpose?)) Marco said. ((If the Pemalites did survive, why would they just leave a crapton of their stuff on Earth, which was apparently a pretty important site due to the sheeer quantity of their junk they left behind, if they are recovering their tech, then why did they only come to this planet now?))

((It could be for any reason,)) I said as the water began falling below the hole in the ground I was draining, now that I could see the stairs, I adjusted my position, getting ready to walk down into the horrid smelling depths. ((Maybe they forgot, maybe they had other things to do, I don't know. There's no point in arguing any of this, maybe the Animorphs are connected to the Pemalites, or are the Pemalites themselves, or maybe they're just some group of miscreants that found their morphing tech and it went wrong for them. It's all just speculation that's just going to run in circles forever!))

"Aha! there you are," Ben said from a place that I assumed was the kitchen.

After this exchange we didn't really talk as much, we continued cleaning the entire house for hours, stopping for a lunch break in which I talked with Ben about the materials this entire city was made from. At first the conversation was difficult, but once I learned to ignore Ben's resting 'kill a puppy' face, it was a really really interesting topic,.

"So there's an entire industrial district in this place?" I said.

Ben nodded eagerly, looking like he wanted to murder someone for vandalizing this place, even though the Sanctuary's decrepit state was the fault of the march of time and the cold burn of neglect.

"Oh, yes. There were colossal forges connected to conveyer belts, it allowed custom designs to be mass produced, with every artistic engraving or additional component on it you could want being put on there afterward, well, that's the exact kind of forge I was trained to operate in fact!"

"You operated one of these things?" I said in shock. "How much could be made in them?"

I could tell he was enthusiastic about the subject despite the look on his face, his eyes said everything, and his expression wasn't sour for very long as he talked.

"Oh, well, just about everything, well, I operated the Andalite's version of it," Ben said. "It's my familiarity with the technology that allowed me to recognize it to begin with. If we can get that thing up and running..."

Assuming he's lying about being an Andalite, he sure is enthusiastic about making stuff.

Ben doesn't feel like the kind of person to lie, he's short-tempered, and sometimes hard to be around, but from what Cassie's been able to glean off of him, he doesn't do bullcrap.

I looked up at the cieling, recognizing that the overhead lights were turned off, meaning that there was almost no ambient light, the only source of it came from an oil lamp Ben brought and whatever powerful flashlights we have on hand.

"What happened to it?" I asked.

"The Reactor wore out," Ben said, shaking his head.

"Again?" I asked, thinking on the blackout that happened after I learned to control The Tiger.

"Not The Generator, The Reactor," Ben clarified, snapping. I flinched, which he noticed, after that he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself, after which his voice turned even again. "This place's native source of power won't turn on, I don't know what happened, but that's the truth. The reason we've been having so many blackouts is because we're forced to use a backup generator that powers a building to keep whole blocks of a city running. It's not the same technology as this place, and the Pemalites build their locations with some sort of intelligience installed into them."

"Like some sort of...machine in the city?" I asked.

"Not really," Ben said. "It means that Pemalite locations are able to tell when technology that it doesn't recognize as its own is being installed into its network, and it decides to either tolerate it, or cut it off. It's so cumbersome and unintuitive to work with."

"So the Sanctuary's rejecting the generator?" I said in shock.

"Yes," Ben said. "Thank goodness the place doesn't destroy it, but we're going to be moving at a snail's pace for a while in terms of our production. Until we can revive The reactor, the only thing we can actually make are morphing clothes, the rest of my gadgets I scavenge and assemble from parts scattered across the whole city. We can't use this place to its fullest potential because The Reactor just...doesn't work."

"The Reactor's dead in the water," I said. "Possibly literally, considering how much of this place is flooded. What do you think it'd take for us to have a shot at firing it back up again?"

Ben turned away, looking down at the dead pertified grass, he leaned down and rubbed his hand along the lawn plucking a handful of blades from the dead carpet.

"The only way I can see us getting The Reactor in this place back online in less than five years is if we were able to enlist the aid of a Chee. But that's..."

"A Chee?" I asked. "What's that?"

"The Pemalite's robot assistants and companions," Ben said. "They could do everything, and more, if anyone would know the astronomically precise mathematics and specifics of getting a Pemalite Reactor back online it would be one of them, and they're strong enough to do it by hand, too."

"And where are they?"

Ben fixed me with a sad expression before extending his hand, fingers clenched, and released, dropping dust to the ground.

"Abolished and scattered to the winds."

Day 15, Midnight

Tobias was flying through a storm, a lonely invisible kite passing through the clouds. The thunder was deafening, and the lightning provided brief flashes of light, if he looked down at the right time, he would be able to see the small birdcages, covered with a soundproof opaque material that allowed the morphed people a place to sleep soundly while Tobias travelled. Tobias was immune to the cold, but he was by no means immune from feeling it, the water clid off his clothes for the most part, but his attire was worn, and many places of his body were cold and wet from the rain. His flying device was protected from th thunder, but the harness grabbed at his skin in an uncomfortable way, and Tobias had to remain cosntantly vigilant of his grip and his breathing in his journey in the freezing cold darkness of Earth's stratosphere.

Just a few more, Tobias said. Just a few more to find, and then I'll be able to go back.

His journey was a wretched and miserable endeavor, so relentless was his pace that he did not afford himself any time to sleep. He could travel in the day, where the sun could at least warm him, and he'd be just as dry as the passengers he ferried, but Tobias preferred flying at night, even though he hated it, it was miserable, but he was far less likely to be shot down.

Abraccas, Tobias heard the word whisper in his head. He looked around for the source of the voice.

((Who said that?)) He asked the darkness, his voice echoing out amid the chaos, when he found no sign of the one who said the word, he amplified his voice.

((WHO ARE YOU?)) Tobias said, and as he flew he closed his eyes and blocked out his senses, focusing on responding to the voice.

((CAN YOU HEAR ME?)) Tobias cried out to far beyond his senses again, fishing for a response.

For a few seconds where he was battered by another wave of wind and rain, tobias waited until he heard whispers. He focused further, trying to listen in, trying so hard. But the storm, the lightning and thunder, and the voice, it was so...

Za...tel...y...c...t...

((I CAN'T HEAR YOU!)) Tobias called out in his head loud enough that he swore he could hear echoes. ((WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?))

De...w...bring...bewa...be...

((DECEPTION WILL BRING? BRING WHAT? BEWARE WHAT?)) Tobias tried to make sense of the entity's message.

...Sk...de...fr...lw...

((DREAD? DENT? DEATH? DEATH FROM WHERE?)) Tobias asked. ((WHY ARE YOU SO FAINT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!))

Death...Ab...Low...!

They afraid, Tobias said. Why are they afraid?

((WHERE ARE YOU? I CAN HELP YOU!))

Lower! Drop! Lower! Fall! The voice came in clear for the first time, but still very faint.

Fall? Tobias reflected from the first legible words that the entity was able to say to him. Why would I-

And that was when he noticed it, he looked around himself and turned to his sensors, his radar informed him of an irregularity in the clouds. Tobias looked behind him and he saw it.

"OH!" He cried out as he adjusted his kite, rapidly dropping altitude, but not lowering himself so swiftly that the string of avian passengers he ferry would have their containers rattle around.

Drop! Drop! DROP! Tobias thought to himself as he noted the anomaly coming closer, he looked towards it and still couldn't see it, but he could hear it, a buzzing sound could be heard, a low droning buzzing sound that filled him with dread.

"Come on, get below this thing!" Tobias said, cursing himself. Then right when the droning sound was at its most deafening, it happened.

CLAANG!

"Aaah!" Tobias cried out as his kite's top part was hit, sending him spiraling down to the ground thousands of feet below.

The world was chaos, he couldn't tell which direction he was spinning towards, and Tobias' mop of a hairdo alternated between slapping into his face and flying wildly. He frantically turned his flying machine back on, but before he could stop his descent he needed to stop spinning!

He adjusted the steering mechanisms, pushing against his spinning, keeping at it until he stabilized, and once he turned his levitation mechanism back towards the ground he looked up into the clouds. He looked for the anomaly that had almost turned him and his passengers into roadkill, it was an invisible thing that no one with human eyes would have a hope of being able to see, but Tobias had nightvision, he was able to see even when the lightning wasn't striking. And in another flash of lightning, through the rain, he saw it, the anomaly was there, invisible, and plowing its way through the storm, pushing clouds aside. It was flying at the speed of a passenger airliner, it was far too fast for Tobias to hope to follow, the only thing he could do was watch as it flew off. A few of his passengers had woken up, Tobias had no choice but to comfort them back to sleep and after the anomaly had flown away, resume his journey, considerably more unnerved than before.