When they all met up the next time, there was the promise of a storm pressing down on them as they all stood outside the Chapman house. Watching as Cassie and Rachel talked, he tried not to focus on the fact that Jake was a flee, crawling around somewhere on her right hand. He'd end up staring at her hand if he let himself think about that, and he might have ended up giving away the plans that they'd made to keep an eye on Rachel while she was inside the Chapman house.
Once it started raining, Rachel ran for the inside of the Chapman house; Tommy could only hope that she'd be able to come out of it all all right, her and Jake, since they were going in together.
After what felt like an eternity of waiting, Chapman himself came stomping out of the house, a pet carrier swinging from his hand; Tommy had the worst feeling that he knew just who was inside that carrier.
(Tommy, it's time to go,) Tobias said, though he'd started morphing into his bald eagle body just before Tobias had finished speaking.
Taking off from the tree he'd climbed as he'd been morphing, at least until his arms had started turning into wings and he'd been stuck in place waiting for the last of the changes to finish, Tommy followed Tobias as the pair of them met up with the other Animorphs – except for Jake and Rachel, of course – in the sky. Turning to watch as Chapman pulled his car out of his driveway, Tommy turned along with his fellow Animorphs to follow him. In a weird way, he was almost expecting it when Chapman – or at least the Yeerk in control of him – turning and drove into the abandoned construction site.
That place… as though it needed any more bad memories associated with it.
Splitting off from Tobias, who was going to have to stay close enough to both of their groups to keep them all in contact with at least Jake while everything was going on, Tommy fell in with Marco and Cassie as the three of them flew out to the edges of the construction site. Even in the last, fading light of dusk, he could see the forms of the construction equipment that had been left behind to rust.
He only hoped some of them actually worked, or this would all end up being for nothing.
The three of them landed and demorphed, making their way toward the closest of the vehicles: a squat, imposing bulldozer that looked like it had seen better days.
"You sure you know how to handle this?" he asked, as he and Marco climbed into the cab.
"We'll find out," Marco said, smirking back at him.
Great, he mused; as if he needed more bad memories of this place.
