Yeah, yeah. Sue me. I used first person perspective instead of third person. It's just, well; first person comes more naturally to me. And yes, it's the same General Doubleday
The Encounter (This should be in italics, if it's not, something's messed up.)
The green two-legged creatures continued to approach me. I was tense, ready for anything. This was probably their first encounter with any Andalite, so anything could be going through their minds. Would they attack? Would they attempt to communicate? I gripped the shredder more tightly, and continued at a brisk pace towards the engines.
The creatures sped up too. With my stalk eye, I studied the animal's skin. It was loose, and billowy, almost as though it wasn't attached to the muscles.
The creatures were running now, trying to keep up with me. They had begun to fan out, like predators do instinctively. My instincts were going crazy! They were hunting me!
Instinctively, I began to gallop. Suddenly, the engines were in view. I was twenty feet away. Ten feet. Nine feet. Eight feet. Five feet. Three feet. Two.
I was there. Quickly, I fumbled with the keypad. For a moment, my mind went blank. Then, with shaking hands, I began to type in the sequence.
4, 72, 9, 165, 31, 8, I typed, then I said, in private thought speech, Jeninel Cerise Luset, registered crew member of the Explorer 4391; requesting emergency access to engine mainframe.
Access granted. The computer said, unfortunately, in open thought speech. The green creatures stopped, only a few yards away, and stared at the machine curiously. Probably wondering what they had heard; the mouths on their faces were more than likely used to communicate, so they would have had no experience with thought speech.
Sound waves. What a primitive way to communicate.
One of the creatures, with five gold stars on his shoulder, began to approach me. The others kept their distance.
With access granted, I began the process. But the creature was now uncomfortably close, and I took my shredder from its pouch.
Five Stars eyed my shredder, and then glanced at my tail. But he seemed to have gotten his nerve up, because he drew in a deep breath, and then began to speak.
"My name is General Doubleday. On behalf of the President, I welcome you to this planet." He waited for a reply.
I paused for a moment, and then said; I am Jeninel Cerise Luset, I am sorry, but at the moment, my translator's efficiency level is only at 51 %.
Whatever response he had been expecting, it wasn't that.
His mouth was still open, as if he had forgotten to close it. He seemed to be struggling to find something to say, to find some appropriate response. Perhaps he had expected me to respond in some incoherent language, or perhaps he had not even expected a response at all.
"You . . . you understand us . . . me?" He sputtered.
My translator is now at 83 %. Yes, of course I can interpret you mouth sounds. I said it although it was obvious.
"This, this is so incredible." He whispered.
Have you not encountered any other sentient creature, aside from your own species? I asked, almost certain his response would be that he had.
"No, we haven't." He said bluntly.
I didn't believe it. Surely you have seen a Skrit Na! They are constantly coming on and off your planet.
"Skrit Na?" He asked, perplexed.
So they were truly that ignorant of a species. I frowned for a moment, looking at General Doubleday. What would it be like to be such a defenseless animal? I had always had a fascination with other species, it was the reason I was here. I had signed up for an expedition into space. Return was unlikely. But I loved the thrill of it. The amazement of discovering new species, planets, even galaxies! I lived for the thrill it. Of I could find out what it was like to be this creature. I was morph capable. I could acquire the creatures DNA. Thanks to recent innovations, I could be in morph as long as necessary. A scientist, Elfangor, I believe his name was, had made the two hour time limit a thing of the past.
I reached out my hand, being careful to make it clear to him that I meant no harm, and pressed my hand on the creature's smooth skin. There were tiny hairs along the hand that tickled my fingers, and I marveled at how incredibly bare, even with the tiny hairs, the skin was at that point.
His eyes began to close, and the primitive shredder slowly slipped from his grasp, as I absorbed his DNA. There was a gasp from a green creature as the old-fashioned shredder fell to the ground, and General Doubleday collapsed to his knees.
Strange; I guess some species react more intensely to the acquiring trance than others. But also certain members of species reacted strongly to morphing; for example, a female on the homeworld, when acquired, would become dizzy, then eventually faint. Would all of this species react this way if I acquired them? Or was it just this particular one? Like I said, aliens were fascinating.
A shout rang across the field. "It killed him!" One of the creatures that had been with General Doubleday yelled, and even I could sense the terror, the response to believing he had just seen an alien kill his general, in his quivering voice.
A shot broke the silence.
A single bullet flew through the air, it was slow, but going fast enough to do some serious damage. It whooshed harmlessly past me.
Another bang echoed in the stillness. The other creatures were frozen, confused, not knowing if they should help the soldier, determine that I'm hostile and take revenge on their leader's death, or try to stop him, and by doing that, help me.
They didn't do anything.
They bullet struck me in the chest, and it was as though he had shot a balloon filled with water. Blood began to seep out, staining my fur. I cried out in angst, and aimed my shredder at the marksman.
He glared at me and began shouting, "Look, he's hostile, he killed the general, and now look at what he's doing! Kill him!" He screamed.
A few others leveled their primitive firearms at me, fingers on the trigger, but still, they seemed uncertain.
The marksman glared at his companions, then prepared to fire at me again.
A mistake.
My shredder was already aimed. I flipped the power lever from five, to one. Just enough power to stun him.
I fired. A red beam lanced across the field, then struck the soldier in the head. It was a glance shot, butt he would be out at least for a few minutes.
But the other soldiers reacted with swiftness. Groups of them came together in a line, and began to fire.
I tried to dodge, but it was impossible! My front was already covered in blood from the first bullet, but now there were so much more!
One hit my leg, shattering the bone. A wound that could only be healed quickly by morphing.
I stumbled back, awkward on only three legs.
Bullets continued to pound me, the grass now drenched in my blood. The general began to get up now, alive, unhurt, screaming for them to stop.
But I was in chaos! The green creatures were shooting, in panic mode now, oblivious to all reason. The blue-legged creatures, further back, were screaming, terrified in the mist of the collective terror.
I cocked my shredder again, and with that act, I destroyed any hope for immediate peace.
Everything was in slow motion, probably because of loss of blood, and I watched numbly as my fingers switched the power level ten. Maximum burn.
I aimed.
Fired.
A red beam, much stronger and thicker, fired over the creature's heads. I had only wanted to scare them, to warn them not to mess with me.
But they didn't heed my warning. In fact, it only seemed to increase it. I was only giving fuel to their flame.
The general was still shouting, his voice lost in the continuous bangs as bullets flew from their guns. I couldn't hear his shouts, but I knew he was screaming for them to stop. They paid no attention. No, a few listened, but they were only a few drops of water in an ocean.
For a moment, that angered me, most soldiers disobeying a direct order from their leader? Unheard of.
A few bullets, shot with either amazing skill, or pure dumb luck, shredded my chest, right below where my primary heart was.
I turned in rage, and, although others were still using me as a target, I decided that that particular one no longer had need of a head.
I stared at him, my main eyes seething in rage, and glared. It was the first one. The stun had lost its effectiveness, and he now stood, no more then ten feet away. He was the one who had placed the seed of panic in the others.
He would pay.
I aimed my shredder again, and watched as his eyes opened in fear. I was not a predator, I did not enjoy it. But still, there was some satisfaction at him knowing what I would do.
He tried to turn. Tried to run from the death my shredder would deliver.
Impossible.
I squeezed the trigger.
A red streak erupted from my shredder once more, and left a gaping hole in the creature's chest.
I staggered back. Only one thing on my mind.
Morph.
But then-
No, I'll be vulnerable!
You'll die anyway.
But-
Do it.
No.
I gathered my remaining strength and mustered it all together for one last call.
Titani! I cried.
I'm here. Her response was faint, but it was there.
Help. I sobbed weakly, as my legs collapsed from under me. I was lying in a pool of my own blood. The puddle growing larger and larger.
I see you on the holo generator, hang on! She cried.
Whiteness.
I was in a fog. Everywhere, white. For I second I thought I was in z-space. But I demolished that theory as I sucked in a lung full of air.
Then- my vision returned for a few seconds. I could see the field, and ash. Ash?
Yes, there was a line of ash, sort of a barrier, but no one would have any difficulty crossing it. Then I saw the shredders.
The main weapons of the ship. They were poised for combat, and on auto-shoot. I could tell by their constant movements. They were probably programmed to incinerate anything that crossed the wall ash.
That was the last thing I saw before the fog came again.
Morph! Someone cried. Shaking me.
Morph? Oh.
Okay.
I felt the changes begin.
I didn't know exactly what I was morphing, but still, my bones liquefied, and my internal organs rearranged themselves. My fur began to turn white, and six lumps rose from my back.
Wings. They were wings. My thinking was becoming less fuzzy now, as I realized what I was becoming.
I was morphing a Kafit bird.
What happened? I asked a distressed Titani.
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Not much of a cliff hanger. This will be explained in chapter five! I will explain all about the soldier! Bear with me!
Okay, this, and other fics will be on hold for a while. I'm going to be starting a new one. Okay, it will be about the Andalites, an AU, where they're the ones who have just invented cell phones. We are now the ones with z=space travel. Okay, a human named Ellen, crashes her fighter on the Andalite homeworld, and meets up with five Andalite children. I have tons of ideas for it, including things about the humans, how we've changed over the years in the future. (Nothing really freaky like extra arms, or strange stuff like that.) I have high hopes for it, and plan on it being super, super long.
Err, I appreciate your comments, I read them all. You review my story, I review yours. Deal?
Hey, anyone want to be in the story? Guy or girl. (Don't worry Lisa-Ann; Jake will play a very important part in this.) I just want your description, name, and personality. You will probably be an important character, but we'll see how it turns out. This is already way different than I had originally planned.
So, tell me what you think, and go update your stories! That's an order.
G r e e n E y e d G i r l, T h e a u t h o r. (I like typing that way.)