Disclaimer: Teknoman, Tekkaman Blade, and Animorphs do not belong to me; Teknoman belongs to UPN and Saban, Tekkaman Blade belongs to Tatsunoko Productions, and Animorphs belongs to Scholastic.

Teknomorphs 4:

Hatchlings

Underground, hidden by the leaf-litter on the forest floor, the Radam base was unusually silent. Rapier and Gunnar were both asleep, and Darkon was currently absorbed in his thoughts. Inside one of the teknopods, something rather odd was happening.

Cain Carter, who had been in a mild coma ever since the Radam had captured him and the rest of the Carters, was beginning to stir. As Cain opened his eyes, the events of the last month and a half came rushing painfully back to him. For a long few minutes, all Cain felt like doing was curling up inside the teknopod and letting himself die.

But, as he considered this, Cain realized that what he really wanted to do was to survive. To take this power that he had been given and use it against the Radam. Cain took a deep breath, hearing his heartbeat somehow amplified by the fluid inside the teknopod, and tried to piece together a way for himself to both survive undetected among the ranks of the Radam, and to fight against them as well.

Cain was known for being the consummate practical joker and, as a result of all the planning he had to do to pull one over on his rather observant older brother, Cain had developed an extremely inventive mind. Now, though, now he was going over all the things that he had learned about the Radam. There had to be a way for him to be reasonably autonomous while still retaining the illusion that he acted under Darkon's command.

From what Cain had been forced to learn about the Radam, he knew that they functioned almost exactly like a military unit. Albeit an extraterrestrial one. The so-called common soldiers were watched pretty closely, and not often let out of their base of operations unless it was to attack something.

Cain knew one thing for sure: he did not want to be a common soldier.

XXXX

Darkon awoke, sensing some kind of change within the teknopods. Hmm, it appears that he has finally regained consciousness. Over the time he had sifted through the hidden memories of his human captives, Darkon had learned that Cain Carter was the most intelligent of his family. Since all of the Carter humans were greatly intelligent in their own ways, this was a notable thing.

He will make an excellent First Lieutenant, Darkon mused. He still wondered what had caused the young human to collapse into that strange coma during the later stages of his transformation. It was probably not very important, since Cain had still survived to the end of the transformation itself.

XXXX

(Saber.)

(Wh-what did you just call me?) Cain asked, not having had time to adjust to the idea of telepathic communication before having it forced on him. Cain wasn't even all that sure if he could have prepared himself for this kind of intrusion.

(You are Teknoman Saber,) Darkon said, as if this was an accepted fact. As far as Darkon knew or was concerned, it was. (And you are now my First Lieutenant.)

(I'm…) Cain searched frantically for something he could say without giving himself away. (I'm honored, my Lord Darkon,) Cain said in the end, lying though his teeth, as it were.

(Good. I expected you would be. Time for you to come out now.)

For some reason, Cain got the distinct impression that Darkon was smiling slyly as he made that statement. As the teknopod he was in shattered suddenly from around him, Cain saw why Darkon had seemed so amused. Rising slowly to his feet, Cain found that he was clad from head to toe in armor. As his eyes were suddenly adjusted to the oppressive darkness, Cain found that the armor was outright demonic-looking.

What he was able to see of it was, anyway. Saber, he thought, trying the name out for himself. It was an… interesting choice, though not one Cain was at all sure that he wanted to give up his own name for. But it would make a good cover name, something for him to hide behind while he looked for a way to undermine Darkon's efforts to take over the earth.

I think I'll just go with it, for now, Saber thought to himself. Just then, Saber noticed that there had been someone watching him the entire time he had been thinking about his strange new predicament. At first Saber didn't recognize him, but looking into the stranger's red eyes, Saber got the distinct impression that this person was familiar to him.