*Love Hina: Adventures in Morphing!*
Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: Myu! Myuuh!
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Episode 4: Vengeance in the Night: Big Brothers: Chase
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My name is David Weiss. I'm an American-Japanese kid, nineteen years old. I'd decided not to go to college after I graduated from high school, not really having any real interest in it.
My peer counselors thought I was falling into the cool-dude loner macho role, but what do they know? Sure, I'll admit, I have that whole dark anti-hero motif, complete with all-black clothing, but it's just an appearance.
I'd been fighting for my life for my entire high school career, trying to slow down the Yeerks along with my fellow Animorphs. Before that, I'd almost always tried to be alone, not really wanting to socialize with anyone. What was the point? Nothing I did would matter to the world. I was just a white kid in Japan, trying to separate myself from my whole annoying family.
My little brother Tact had been the most annoying. Always hero-worshipping me, following me around, trying to impress me and be my friend. I couldn't see why he respected me so; I was a loner, a loser, and riff-raff.
Then, came the war. I had initially tried to fight the Yeerks on my own, not really trusting Urashima's leadership abilities when we became Animorphs. I went solo for my first mission, morphed to cobra, slipping into a Yeerk command center and trying to quickly and efficiently assassinate the higher-ranking slugs.
I'm really into the stealthy morphs. Not so much poisonous morphs mind you-that's Kanako's domain. She and I have this odd little ritual, I guess; if there's going to be a battle, we play rock-paper-scissors. The "winner" morphs poisonous snake and the "loser" goes for something else. If it's not my "turn", I like to go Black Panther. Silent, deadly - I like the whole cloak-and-dagger method of battle. The sniper's way.
But, I was caught. The Yeerks, of course, thought I was an Andalite terrorist, and were going to hold me until I either de-morphed or trapped myself over the two-hour time limit. If Keitaro and the others hadn't launched a reckless but successful rescue, I'd still be a snake.
So, I worked with them from then on. I still liked my sniper's methodology in battle, but combined with the talents of the others, we kicked ass. An actual team, only instead of some stupid, idiotic jock club we were actually doing something important.
Thus, like any good team player, I set out for Hinata the instant the news announced my brother's house had gone up in flames.
I had just made it into my father's apartment, sneaking in through my window and demorphing that night. I casually walked downstairs, to where I knew my father would be, sleeping on the couch after a long day's work. I'm usually responsible for a lot of the chores around our little "pad", while my dad rakes in the yen.
David Weiss Senior, my father, is a great guy. Though he's easily tired, he's never hit or yelled at my little brother or me. We, plus my mom, had formed a happy, cohesive family. It wasn't like those impossibly perfect families in the bad 1950's sitcoms, but everyone was comfortable with each other. Well, except for me, but I dealt with that by being the loner as I said before.
The divorce was a big shock to Tact and myself. Our parents had never fought before, it seemed. When we asked, they both said the company line: "It's too complicated for you guys".
Bullshit.
Anyway, a new big shock came up that night as I made it to the living room. My dad wasn't asleep; he wasn't even there. The TV had been left on, showing the news channel. A hastily jotted note was on the couch. I picked it up and read through it.
David,
I've gone to check on your mother and brother. Don't wait up for me.
Dad
"And here is a view of the blazing inferno now, caught by our eye in the sky over the Hinata area," said the glossed-up reporter, "Ken, what can you see?"
"Well, the blaze started at the house you can see in the center of the picture. We've identified it as the home of one Samantha Carter, a person who recently settled in the Hinata area only four years ago. Police report that her house just "exploded", according to eyewitnesses, so arson is suspected at the moment. The fire has spread to several neighboring houses and-" I shut off the TV, before rushing for the stairs.
I began morphing the second I started running. My skin erupted into black, sleek feathers, my nose and mouth fused into a hard beak and became black, my arms became wings, my feet small black talons.
I was an African Swallow/Swift, the fastest level-flying bird on Earth, by the time I reached a window. I flew out, hitting my top speed of about 160 mph in a matter of seconds.
My great horned owl morph was better for night flight because it could actually see well in the dark. But, right now I needed speed and range, and the African swift is nearly the best in both categories.
I reached Hinata in about fifteen minutes, zooming toward the great burning light toward the inner edge of the city. I swooped in low, cutting my speed and landing in a patch of bushes near the fire trucks. I demorphed, and ran towards the fire chief, angrily sending reporters away.
"Sir! Have you found any bodies?" I yelled.
"Why?" Asked the chief, eyeing me suspiciously. What, did he think I was the arsonist? What stupid moron of an arsonist would come back to the scene of the crime?
"I'm the son of Sarah Carter, David Weiss!" The chief shook his head before yelling some more instructions to a couple of firemen. He turned back to me with a sigh.
"We haven't been able to get close enough yet! Just wait here, I'll tell you when we find something!" He then ran to shout at some firemen who weren't moving fast enough. I swore under my breath.
David! David! Over here! I recognized the thought-speak voices. I turned toward the trees surrounding the residential area, toward the mountains.
I strained my eyes, and could just make out a great-horned owl perched in the branches. Only one other person in our group has that morph.
"Sayoko? What-"
Quick, morph. Keitaro and Kanako are trailing Tact, who's in turn trailing the guys we think blew up his house. I blinked.
"How do they know it was-?"
Tact's chasing them in tiger morph. Who else could they be? I nodded grimly before heading into the darkened grove. I focused my mind again upon the swift who's DNA swam within my own...
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My name is Keitaro. And it was rather tough at the moment to think about anything to do with the meaning of my identity.
YEOW! Kanako-chan, watch it!
I know! I know! My sister and I had both morphed to sooty owl after Tact's house had exploded, and were right now trailing a cloth-covered Jeep with two guys in it carrying Dracon beams. Dracons are essentially ray guns, powerful and devastating. Dodging them anywhere-ground, water, or air-is quite a task.
TSEW! TSEW!
"RRROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!" The bone-chilling roar of an enraged Siberian tiger punctuated the night. Tact, furious from the murder of his mother by these two guys, was still trailing them in battle morph. I guess tigers have some talents that can only be brought out by a human, in that Tact was still managing to keep up with the Jeep.
Come and face me, you cowards! He roared in thought speak, only nine meters behind. He was dodging like mad from the guy in the passenger seat, who was trying to simultaneously knock us down and take out Tact. I quickly dodged a blast, plus a tree-branch, before going into a power dive.
"CREECH!" I ripped through the cloth top, running into the passenger's face.
"Aaaaaaahhhh!" He screamed, smacking me into the driver with his Dracon, cradling his bloodied face. The driver managed to duck, sending me out his window and spinning into a tree.
Bonk.
The Jeep lost its course and crashed into a large stump with a tremendous BANG! The vehicle flipped over, sending the screaming men underneath it's two-tons of weight.
Kanako landed next to me, clicking her beak in worry.
Onee-chan? You alright?
Mommy, I don't wanna eat my broccoli... Another bellow from Tact signaled his attack upon the men. I shakily clambered behind the tree and began to de-morph.
Tact! Stop, don't attack them until we know why they did what they did! The tiger roared again, as the sounds of two men screaming filled the air. I finished becoming myself before launching right into my lion morph. Beside me, also hidden in the shadows, Kanako had emerged human again and was right now morphing to her Gaboon viper form.
By now, the tiger's roars were being broken up by the howls of a decidedly inhuman nature. I finally was fully lion before I rushed out of my hiding place with a snarl. I froze momentarily.
Tact was fighting the air. Or some kind of invisible force that kept hitting him, sending the tiger sprawling on the ground before he got up and lunged for nothing again. I could smell something my lion mind didn't like; something unhealthy.
"ROAR!" I bellowed as a large, invisible fist hit me in the side. I rolled back up onto my feet as any proper cat would, and took a deep sniff. I felt air rushing for me.
Gah! I leapt out of the way, my tail being grazed by something big. I lunged for my invisible foe, striking something much bigger than I was with my full fangs and claws.
It didn't seem to do anything, though I felt a liquid coat my claws that felt vaguely like blood. The creature hit me again, sending me crashing into Tact.
OOF!
GAH-OUCH!
Well... This is fun. First these bastards murder my mom, then they blow up my house, and now they're beating the tar out of us. Isn't our life fun? I growled in annoyance.
Tact, on three we split at top speed. Ready? THREE! I leapt and ran in one direction, Tact did the same directly away from me. We both ran into the invisible creatures and ended up precisely as we were a few seconds later.
OOOWWWW! My lion could smell our enemies, and I could hear and feel them too. They stalked toward us, unhurried. Tact and I were a tangled mess of fur, essentially helpless.
Great. We'll probably be the inspiration for some kinky yaoi manga, Tact stated grimly. He was still cracking jokes, even after everything that had happened to him in just one night. Had the war dulled us both so much we couldn't feel grief?
I hope Kanako got away. I'll confess something, Urashima: I love your sister. She's awesome, the greatest person I've ever met. And it'd be really cool if we could go out, but at this rate that's not really looking like an option, Tact continued on, babbling in fear. I took a deep breath, staring at the nothing closing in.
Tact?
Right, Fearless Leader, I know; shut up, you're not helping.
That would be my line, said Kanako. I blinked as one of the creatures bellowed in pain.
Abruptly, an outline began to form in front of me. Mottled red blotches started appearing out of the air, creating some sort of outline.
Kanako!
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My name is Kanako. And I was squeezing as much juice of death into Tact and Keitaro's invisible assailant as I could. Fortunately for me, snakes see in infrared, so while One-chan and Tact couldn't see the creatures by reflected light, I could see them by their heat signatures.
As I pumped my venom into the monster, I guess I started causing it to hemorrhage or something like that. Ugly red blotches, irritations of its internal organs, began to emerge.
Imagine a network of plastic tubes, almost impossible to see as they are, right? It's because the material that they're made of doesn't bounce as much light back into our eyes as other, non-clear matter does. Now, imagine if someone started pumping a bright red liquid through them so that the tubes were all turned red. You'd be able to see them then because the red liquid bounces more light back into our retinas.
That was basically what it was like, a hamster maze filling up with blood. I kept my two-inch long fangs firmly sunk into that monster's flesh, never holding back.
Well, now we have a target. Tact! Shouted Keitaro.
Roger, skipping the self-pity. Erm, Kanako? I would have smirked if I had the facial muscles.
It's an interesting but little-known fact that snakes are deaf, I stated silkily.
Knew I could count on you. I would have laughed if I hadn't been busy pumping poison into the beast. It moaned drunkenly as Tact's and One-chan's claws ripped through it, sending it to the ground in a crumpled heap. It had taken a lot of venom to "light up" that monster. And Gaboon viper venom is nothing to sneeze at.
The creature's partner rushed towards us, bellowing in rage, but with a quick swipe of One-chan's paw, I was flying into the creature like a football. I latched my fangs into our other invisible friend before he could get in striking distance. I pumped the last of my venom into his system before I pulled myself free.
That's the last of my venom! The two big cats rushed the just-now-visible monster, knocking him to the ground with a surprisingly big THUD. I barely slithered out of the way.
Geez guys, aim a little more to the right, will you? You almost missed, I hissed, both literally and verbally. The lion and tiger looked at me apologetically.
Sorry, Kanako-chan.
Sorry. We'll try to squish you next time. Keitaro then rightly cuffed Tact on the head. Tact took the blow without even an indignant exclamation.
Tact-kun? He slowly turned and walked away, demorphing as he went. One-chan and I watched silently. I began to change back into a human, as did One-chan.
A swift and a great-horned owl appeared overhead, landing near the downed creatures before de-morphing into Sayoko and David.
Tact? Tact? Tact had finished becoming human again. He began morphing to barn owl, forming fully in record time. He then flew off silently.
"Tact? TACT!" Shouted David, starting to morph to swift again. I put my pale hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Let him go," said Keitaro behind us in a commanding voice, "if he needs to be alone, let him." David stared at Chan-chan in disbelief, before reversing his morph with a sigh. Sayako watched Tact fly away, her expression enigmatic.
"Right," he muttered, watching. I too kept my eyes on the small, tan shape as it receded, sighing quietly under my breath.
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Well, what do you think? I plan on centering most of the action at the Hinata Sou in the coming chapters, but I would appreciate input. So, just leave a review!
(And no, Tact and Kanako are NOT getting together. I have other plans for the Animorphs, possibly including romance but a lot of other things too. Though, as this is a Love Hina fan fiction, you can expect humor ^_^.)