(Im sorry, Marco,) Rachel said, sounding more reasonable for the time she had had to calm down. (I didnt know.)
(Shut up, Xena,) he snapped, not in the mood for pity; he almost wished Shara was here instead.
(Hey, I was trying to be nice,) she said, sounding indignant.
(I know. So shut up.) He really wished Shara were here instead.
While Marco and Rachel had been talking, Ax had gone over to the computer to see if there was anything that he could do about the facilitys still being intact. (Shes locked me out,) he reported. (It could take me ten minutes to bypass the new security measures.)
XXX
She didnt know just why these Andalites had decided to show such a dangerous enemy as her mercy, but she would personally see to it that the fools all suffered for it. Starting with that filth in the panther morph who had been chewing on her arm. Rolling, ignoring both the pain in her hosts lower arm and the annoying sounds that her host was making, she brought her Dracon beam to bear on the head of the Andalite in his panther morph.
One of the others, the one in the gorilla morph that that idiot Leeran had insisted was a human for some unfathomable reason, threw a chair at her then. The fool missed her, but what he struck was nearly as damaging in the long run. The window in her office was cracked; a small crack, yes, but with the full force of the water pressing down on it, that crack would not be small for long.
Flinching back instinctively she did not want to die killing one of the Andalites she squeezed the trigger on reflex. Without the time to properly re-aim, however, her shot missed and she was left at the mercy of the Andalites in the bear and panther morphs. It was an absurd concept, mercy from Andalites, but perhaps
XXX
As his mother fell to the ground, after a blow to the head each from Slade and Rachel, he breathed again. Hed seen what those two could do in a fight, but those blows had been just hard enough to knock her out without killing her.
(That window is about to break,) Ax said urgently.
(We have to get out of here!) Rachel shouted, already starting to move away toward the door. (Right now!)
(I have to save her!) he countered, starting forward before Slade moved to block his path.
(Run, you idiot!) Rachel shouted. (Or no one will be saved!)
As if to punctuate her statement, the window exploded then, the force of the water throwing glass shrapnel into the flooding office even as it scoured every last piece of the window free from its frame. Marco was knocked off his feet before he could think, and even Slade with his lower center of gravity and four stout, strong legs, was forced to relax and go with the flow to avoid suffering a similar fate.
Visser Three himself was yanked into the office, the strength of his morph no match for the pure power of the deluge. The office door, already detached from its moorings, was swept up by the tide and carried along. Slade, only able to keep himself upright and oriented forward by sheer muscle-power and even that would fail him before long breathed deeply and tried to think of the best course of action.
It wasnt easy; as an Enforcer Teknoman, he almost instinctively looked to his superiors for orders, but even he could see that Marco wasnt in the best shape to give commands at the moment; Cassie and Jake were likely in similar straits. So, best to just survive for the moment; that was the first thing, always: survive, and then seek orders.
Marco wasnt really paying attention to the others right at that moment, least of all Slade. When the water had spread out, losing some of its brutal force along the way, he paused to take stock of where he was; he barely let the structure of the docks register in his mind once he saw something more important: his mother was there; floating face-down about three-hundred feet or so from him.
He tried to swim out to her, to try to take her back with them, but she was too far; and the current was too strong in any case.
(Morph!) Rachel yelled; but hed already been doing that.
He could see Rachel melting and mutating out of her bear body, and Slade, with lingering panther features, moving through the foaming water with swift, powerful strokes. Beyond the two of them, however, he could see something else. The Leeran; moving through the mad, foaming waves with more skill than even Slade, as if its body its tentacles really were perfectly adapted for resisting the power of the current.
The Leeran was headed directly for his mother; he didnt know why. Maybe to save her, maybe to kill her; maybe just so Visser Three could enjoy watching her suffer before she died. He wouldnt know; because the waves swept him under the dock then, forcing him deeper and deeper into the water. His eyes and lungs both burning, Marco forced them closed and searched for the shark DNA within him.
He had to morph; he wouldnt die without saving her.