Disclaimer: I only own Casey and his family. All other characters are properties of K. A. Applegate and/or the other authors who are with me in this roleplay/collabfic.
A/N #1: {{}} = Thought-speech.
*~*~*| Chapter 5 - The Yeerk |*~*~*
The rain was starting to strengthen again, and the mercury was doggedly working its way south once more. The scent of concrete, rust and sulfur hung heavily in the air despite the fitful gusts of wind, and the pillars reflected the flashing blue and red lights from the police vehicles on the main road outside. The momentary lull in the action inside had taken on another chilling dimension – there were now loud echoes of people running, and harsh voices speaking some guttural, foreign language I had never heard before. There was a definite enemy out there waiting to take us on, and we knew nothing about them – what they looked like, where they were, how many they numbered, whether they were coming for us RIGHT NOW-
You know, looking back, I never really questioned what Prince Al Fangor or whatever his name was said. I don't quite know why – maybe it was because he hadn't directly done anything to harm us, or maybe because he exuded this sense of being in control during the entire time. But he seemed like a good guy, and he definitely knew what was going on, so we all listened to him by default. At least, I did. Also, if he really was alien royalty, it would probably be far better to listen to him until we were out of this mess.
Unless, of course, "Prince" was his name and not his title. I mean, who even knows about alien naming conventions? They could regularly name their kids with something traditionally unconventional like… I don't know. "X Æ A-12", maybe.
"Okay, Elf - Elfang - El - Ellie. Prince Ellie, where would a thief be looking for this technology?" Anna questioned.
"Is it on your ship?" Erik asked. "And, uh… what does it look like? What does it do? How do we use it?"
"All right, Elfangor, I'll take your help. But we're running out of time as it is. Do you have it on you?"
At that last statement, Prince Al immediately pinned his normal eyes on the taller unnamed guy. I wouldn't have had the first clue how to read alien facial expressions, but "unsettled" was what I would have gone for. Something the guy said also struck me as a little strange. Like there was a degree of familiarity, or of non-surprise, with what Al was saying. But the moment passed, and Al quickly resumed… thinking-speaking?
{{Yes, the technology is in my ship. Those of you who wish to accept my help must get to it as quickly and quietly as possible. In the ship there is a small box, a cube, perhaps as wide as an outspread human hand. It is vibrantly blue in color. You cannot mistake it. Get to it, before the dust settles. If any of you wish to take your own path, now is the time to make your escape, but be warned, it will not be easy - for most of you. You must make your decision now – if you have not already.}}
Well… aliens had invaded, our lives were in danger, the police were about to be involved… there's no way I would've been able to escape. So there was really no other logical choice.
For "most" of you? I wonder what that means…
{{The box can give you the ability to temporarily alter the very DNA that your body is made up of. It can allow you to, quite literally, become any species - any animal. By touching a creature, you can absorb a sample of its DNA and call upon it at a later date. When called upon, your body will alter into a perfect DNA copy of the animal in question. We call this morphing. The process is grotesque, but painless.}}
How would this even work? Are there animals in his ship that we could absorb? What happens to the animal afterwards, does it just… cease to exist? Will we become aliens with changed DNA after this?
There were just… an endless torrent of questions that I had no hope of receiving answers to at that moment.
Becoming a shapeshifter (morpher?) sounded all kinds of cool, though.
…
Elfangor had returned to staring intensely at Mr. Tall Guy.
Can Tall already morph? Do they know each other somehow? Is that why Al said "most"?
{{I will tell you more when I can, but you must go now, I will follow right behind. Work together and be quiet! Hawk-badgers have excellent hearing!}}
…
…
…
Say WHAT?
Okay. NOW I was completely lost.
My mind was racing, trying to parse the information I had, but that last bit still made absolutely no sense. What the hell was a "hawk-badger", some other bizarre amalgamation from the same neck of the galaxy as the furry blue scorpion-horse? Were there a set of aliens out there in the greater galaxy that liked to make monsters out of Earth animals?
Were THOSE the Yeerks? And was Al on some sort of rebellion against them? Was he expecting us to fight in HIS war?
But while I was still trying to get my mind around everything that wasn't making sense, things were already happening. I snapped back to the moment, only to realize that Erik and Anna had already taken off! The guy that was hiding with Erik wasn't far behind them, leaving me with Al and Tall.
"Come on!" I urgently whispered to Tall, who seemed to be locked in their staring match.
Right, they DEFINITELY know each other.
When he didn't move, I gave it up as a bad job and went after the other three.
*~*~*| 5 |*~*~*
The darkness of the construction site made it pretty easy to move around unseen. I hugged the shadows, darting from cover to cover, trying to gain some ground on the three ahead of me. And after a few seconds, I could see their silhouettes ahead – Erik and Anna, hands clasped and together in front; Erik's partner-in-hiding a few feet behind, and then me yet another few feet behind. We were really close to the ship by now – just one concrete wall separated us from making a straight dash towards its entrance.
That was when a colossal creature rounded the wall, nearly smashing into Anna. It let out a strangely hoarse, rasping sound of surprise, and I very nearly yelled out in shock.
"Ghafrash!"
This… what was this monster?!
It looked like a nightmare from straight out of Jurassic Park! It had Velociraptor feet, arms and legs made for chasing prey down, and a vicious looking beak on top of a corded, serpentine neck. It was at least half again as tall as Anna. Have I also mentioned the BLADES?! Every inch of this museum escapee was covered in razor-sharp death! It had 3 of them for horns, even more running down its forearms, and spurs on its feet – one wrong step and it would julienne the hell out of us!
Glaring down at Anna and Erik, the creature's sinewy muscles flexed as it reached for what looked like a laser wea– FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, which insane bastard decided that a SWISS ARMY DINOSAUR needed to be armed even FURTHER?!
You know that fight or flight response that humans are supposed to have? In that moment, I discovered that apparently, mine had a third setting – freeze. For that brief period of time, I just simply could not move.
But just as it turned to point its weapon at Anna and Erik, a voice unexpectedly rang out from off to its side. "Hey, you. Forget about these hosts, we've still got an Andalite on the loose. I'll take them down. You need to find that Andalite."
"My job security, security I must do."
"Shut up and be quiet, I'm clearly higher up than you, Hawk-Badger, now go find that damn Andalite."
The hell? Humans are in league with these monsters?
That ambulant blender is called a Hawk-Badger? But it looks nothing like either one of them!
Yeah, yeah. I know. Nobody ever accused me of having thought processes that were too relevant. One of these days, the inability to prioritize the relevant stuff is going to get me killed.
Anyway, while I was ruminating over what this meant, I missed some of the (what was sure to be) frankly disturbing conversation. I only keyed back in after some further words were exchanged, and the talking dinosaur suddenly turned tail and RAN in the opposite direction.
Wait, what just happened?
"Shut up, yes I'm one of them. But if you don't get that damn device, we'll all soon be nothing." It was Mr. Tall, who quickly melted back into the shadows. He was apparently… in league with both the centaur and the Hawk-Badger?
Great. This just kept getting more and more terrifyingly confusing. Whatever. I guess I'd figure it out later… if I survived.
We were supposed to be heading for the ship, right?
Right.
"Come on, guys, let's hurry!" I hissed. "There's bound to be more of them coming!"
"How do we get to that ship?" Erik asked.
"I say we make a run for it." The remaining distance to the ship looked pretty small, and the intensifying downpour would HOPEFULLY hide us from whoever else was hunting us. Getting out of the rain would also be a plus!
"Who wants to go first?"
"I'll go." Erik's friend boldly said. "Stay close, and let's move."
What followed was a dead sprint towards the open hatch of the spaceship, with us hoping against hope that we would avoid detection. I couldn't see very well – not least because wet spectacles just aren't great for being able to see things – but I could still hear a commotion going on in the background. My heart raced as every splash our shoes made as they hit the floor seemed magnified tenfold, advertising our location to whatever other monsters wanted a piece of us.
Surprisingly, we made it to the ship unscathed! A cursory backward glance at the path we took revealed no following silhouettes, so it seemed that for once tonight, luck was on our side. Not about to tempt fate any further, I joined the others in the ship before I could be seen.
*~*~*| 5 |*~*~*
The interior of the spacecraft was completely unlike what I was expecting. For what I assumed to be a ship made for combat, you would've thought I'd see something much more spartan. Bright. Harsh. Angular. Regular. Reminiscent of the straight lines of military discipline and the heavy chains of war and command.
Yet… the place we found ourselves in was the complete antithesis of that.
If I were to use a single word to describe what I saw and what I felt from the ship itself, I would probably use "calm".
Maybe "tranquil".
Peaceful.
The hectic nature of the world outside tonight stood in complete contrast to the serenity of the ship – one which we were currently defiling with the rainwater, concrete dust and dirt that we were shedding. The current of gentleness – of warmth – that the ship emanated lingered over our tired minds and bodies, energizing and relaxing us.
Or maybe I was just freezing and was thrilled to be out of the rain.
After a moment for us to catch our collective breaths, Anna suddenly started to giggle, and it soon caught on amongst our disheveled group. How could it not? How else could we deal with how utterly bizarre our current situation was? A few hours ago, if you'd told me an alien spaceship would be landing in a long-abandoned construction site as part of some intergalactic war, I'd have recommended a weekend getaway at the nearest mental healthcare facility. Maybe longer.
"What a night."
You could definitely say that again.
"I'm Anna, by the way. This - is my brother, Erik."
"William," said Erik's hiding partner. "My name is William."
"Casey here."
"And I'm Al," said Mr. Tall Double Agent, who had apparently boarded the ship along with us.
Ah.
Mr. Double Agent.
Shit.
*~*~*| 5 |*~*~*
As always, thanks go to /u/Shiiang (Anna), /u/mrmrspears (Erik), /u/tman008 (William and Elfangor) and /u/deadbravo (Alazar/Al) for allowing me to use their words my retelling of the story.