When the Hunter Becomes the Prey [Leroy,Nate]

[Johnny]

Jamilan finally came out. Johnny frantically looked around and found the rack where he had gotten the blanket. He spent twenty seconds trying to fold it before tossing on the rack, hoping that none would be the wiser. Then he tried the handle on the bathroom door to get it to morph. It was locked. There must've been an automatic lock on it or something. So now Johnny was stuck outside as a human who wasn't supposed to be on the plane. And there was a crazy woman who would probably be brining a stewardess up to investigate the horse butt she saw.

So Johnny did the next best thing. He grabbed the blanket again and threw it on top of him. Then he crouched behind the rack, desperately thinking about the wasp. I need to get small, small, small, fast, fast, fast! Luckily for him, that was the last thing to happen. The first thing to happen was the additional set of limbs that shot out of his stomach. Then he grew wings. Then his waist shrunk rapidly, leaving itself only a few cenitmeters thick. Then his arms changed into insect legs. His eyes bulged out and multiplied. He sincerely hoped that the old lady didn't find him because he would give her a heart attack and be sent to jail for murder.

That was when he heard some shuffling footsteps, a cane, and a normal set of footsteps. "Okay ma'am, I'll check it out." he heard a lovely voice say. Then his ears disappeared and two antennae jumped out of his forehead. Then a very attractive stewardess walked up to the bathroom door. "Hello?" she said, "Is anyone in there?"

She waited a few seconds with her ear to the door. Johnny clumsily poked his head out under the blanket. He could vaguely see her...get ready to stick a key into the bathroom door! So Johnny did what any other average, attractive (not averagly attractive), charming, intelligent, all-American-as-apple-pie, teenager would do. He shuffled and skittered out from under the blanket. And now he was starting to shrink.

He stopped thinking about the wasp and now was a misshappen three-foot high thing. And the stewardess had the key in the bathroom door. So Johnny said "hi". Actually, it sounded more like the cell-pohone robots from Transformers. "Hiskalb" along with a few other random sounds. He also made sure to buzz his wings and wave his arms. And turn around a bit and shake his abdomen at her. The result was the ultimate Kodak moment. Well, the ultimate Kodak moment that lasts for thirty seconds anyways.

She SCREAMED! Like, supersonic! She stood there for five seconds just screaming. Then Johnny's wide smile split as two huge mandibles shot out and clacked together. That made up her mind. She ran from the bathroom so fast she almost left a smoky image of herself. Johnny cackled in thought-speak to the other morphers before resuming the morph. By the time the stewardess could walk back with a few other people (she was a wreck, by the way), Johnny was zipping and gliding along the ceiling, looking for Nate.

[Jamilan]

Jamilan followed Leroy into the bathroom. Why? Well, weevils did not have the necessary parts to open bathroom doors that could only be locked from the inside. He agreed with Leroy's words; this was not going to work a second time. <I am a pilot myself; human-made air-craft are like toys to me. If we find the means to fly our own vessel back to Mariposa, we will not face the problems we have on this flight.>

As disturbing as it was, the Andalite kept his main and only eyes - ugh, he missed his stalk-eyes! - on Leroy; he was wanting to get at least a little but used to watching such disturbing transitions. <Of course, I do not yet have a pilot's license; if there's any way to get into contact with SPECTER about things please let me know when you have the chance-> Suddenly, he heard a woman screaming; he wondered what Johnny had done. He leaned upon the door, waiting for Leroy to finish, frowning with his eyes at the sound.

[Leroy]

When Leroy was nearly completely bug, he heard a scream that distracted him from what Jamilan was saying. It was not just an oh-my-you-startled-me scream, but an am-I-going-to-live-through-this-scream. It only took him a few moments to put two and two together when he heard Johnny's cackling thought speech. It was like the aquarium all over again.

<<Johnny?! What have you done now!?>> Everything was going okay considering their situation until they left Johnny unattended. Leroy was almost positive that kid would get them killed one of these days. Or if not killed, then he would at least expose them to the world. And that was... not supposed to happen.

<<Aragh, I'm gonna kill you Johnny!>> Obviously that was an exaggeration, but seriously, how hard was it to watch a closed bathroom door for two minutes? Leroy buzzed up from the floor, now fully morphed, and landed somewhere on Jamilan. With still a tone of bitterness in his thought speech, Leroy asked the andalite privately, <<What did he do?>>

Leroy was beginning to dread the thought of what Johnny might do after the reached their destination.

[Jamilan]

Jamilan thought he would be the one to cause more trouble; apparently not, however, as Johnny laughed in thought-speech following the bloodcurdling scream. In a gesture inherited from his time in human presence, the morphed Andalite's human hand flew up to his face in a characteristic face-palm. Jamilan felt Leroy landing on his arm. He was secure, so Jamilan left him there, and responded to his query.

<I will find out,> he replied, opening the door, and...nearly tripping on a blanket on the floor. He picked it up, tossing it aside. He broadcast, so that only Johnny and Leroy could hear: <Johnny, this is Jamilan. Inform me of your position, please.> It was odd. He was speaking like his prince. His prince who was light-years away, his prince who believed him to be dead...

[Johnny]

<<What's the secret password, Jamilan? If that really is you. How on Earth, or, not on Earth, as the case may be, can you expect me to believe that you are Jamilan if you don't give me the secret password, Jamilan?>> Johnny said as he initiated a dive bomb. He plummeted three feet, scared the pants off of a young kid, and then zoomed upwards again, looking for troub--er, fun!

<<Oh, well, nevermind. You don't have to give me the secret password. Not that I would know what it is even if you gave it to me. I'm about three miles away from your left ear,>> Johnny said about three inches away from Jamilan's right ear. So what? Johnny got the directions confused. It's not like he could put his hands up in "L"s or anything. And it really looked like three miles from Johnny's small stature.

Then he shut his wings off and plopped down on Jami's shoulder. From there he crawled to his left until he felt skin. Then he crawled up and positioned himself behind the andalite's right ear.

[Leroy]

Leroy was still tense from trying to get over the potential mess Johnny had just caused. Well, he was as tense as it was possible for a green weevil to be. There was no telling what sorts of mayhem revealing their presence could cause.

<<Nobody is coming to get us, are they,>> Leroy asked nervously. Visions flashed through his head of people accusing them of being terrorist, or alien invaders, or a group of animorphs headed to Africa to stop some poachers. He wasn't sure which was worst.

<<At any rate, lets just head back to the seats and try not to draw attention to ourselves for the rest of the trip.>> It was probably too much to hope for, but he would hope for it anyway.

[Jamilan]

((OOC: Timeskipping with Leroy's approval. Used some sudden ideas I had. ^-^))

<Password?> Jamilan was confused. <I was not informed of any password.> The Andalite was not one to really understand jokes. A kid cried out, and this announced Johnny's arrival. <Miles. I was not aware you were so far.> The Andalite was worried now. At least he didn't have to worry about a password any longer. Then, he heard Leroy's question, as he made his way down the aisle, trying not to appear nervous, and doing well.

<We are safe - for now. But we must seek alternatives on the flight back. We cannot risk it anymore. I have an idea, but I will share it when we can all discuss it formally.> He returned to his seat beside Nate. For the rest of the ride, things went well: Jamilan formulated a simple but effective routine. Jamilan would deposit the insects on Nate; Nate would guard the lavatory while Jamilan demorphed. Jamilan would dress, and leave the lavatory.

Nate would enter, and would watch over the others as one of them demorphed. Person #1 would morph back, and Person #2 would morph, then morph back. Leroy's nightmares, thus, did not become realities, and here they were, safely at the African airport. The bathroom was busy, but the Andalite found a vacant area to demorph, and morph back, and he and Nate deposited Leroy and Johnny in a handicap stall. Luckily, they'd been smart enough to bring clothing for both of them, so soon, they were dressed, and out of the bathroom.

"At least it went well the second time," Jamilan said, smiling slightly; his human smile was imperfect, and needed work. He tended to move his eyes into awkward positions, and his mouth barely moved, sometimes twisting it into something that looked, as humans would put it, goofy. "This is why planning, and not deviating too far from the plan unless it is necessary, is of utmost importance."

He may have seemed slightly bitter. It was because he'd spent several hours in cramped quarters, and looking out the window over Nate's shoulder had given him a longing urge to fly the plane himself. Oh, how he missed his fighter! That, and the fact that they had nearly been arrested for being possible terrorists, and...he still didn't have a prince.

[Nate]

Nate started to stretch his legs, happy to finally be out of the crampy airplane. Besides being excited to see Africa, there was just one thing he needed to do. Majorly. "Alright folks, now that we're all safe and sound and human... I really really need to run around or I might just tackle a random person. And I shall claim cabin fever made me do it!!"

He glanced around, itching to find the door and get out of the building. "Hey do we have a map of where we're supposed to go? SPECTER gave us one... right?"

[Johnny]

Johnny stood by everyone, constantly mumbling to himself about how unfair life was. For the rest of the tripo, he hadn't been out of anyone's sight for more than a nanosecond! He had been held hostage in Nate's hands with Leroy peeking in to make sure he was still there. Jamilan, on the other hand, had been doing...something. Johnny couldn't tell. He would've even stung Nate but fear of death (Johnny doesn't know that only bees die) kept him from it. So the plane ride had been BORING! It was like they didn't trust him or something.

He was about to respond sarcastically to Nate when low and behold, an inconspicuous POLTERGEIST agent walked up. Johnny only knew it was from APPARITION because the man was wearing dark sunglasses, a small headphone in his ear, his hair was immaculate, and he was wearing black dress shoes. Not to mention how he was holding up a sign that said, "Johnathen, Nathaniel, Leroy, Jamilan." Other than that, he looked exactly like any other American tourist.

Johnny looked over at the rest of the guys, paused a moment for dramatic effect, and said, "Y'know, I think that GHOST agent there can help us."

((Any of y'all can control the agent. I'm not too good with NPCs.))

[Leroy]

Leroy stretched for about the tenth time after getting off the plane, then looked around to see who Johnny was talking about. It only took him a moment to spot the sign. "What in the world?" Leroy wasn't sure what to make of it.

Finally, he managed to pull his thoughts together. "Well, I suppose we had better go find out what this is about... Oh, and Johnny? It's SPECTER." Leroy started walking towards the apparent agent, not knowing what to expect.

(I've had my fill of controlling SPECTER agents for a little while. One of you other two can take the reigns on this one. )

[Jamilan]

Was that...normal? Jamilan stared, eye twitching, at the sign that sported their names. “That is most uncouth and glaringly obvious,” the Andalite remarked in mutter after Leroy spoke. “And I believe he was attempting to crack a wise one upon us...or however the saying goes. Regardless, it does not strike me as amusing.” He followed Leroy to where the agent was, frowning with mouth and eyes. The agent handed him a plastic bag.

“You’ll find what you need there,” he said, folding up the sign and placing it into his pocket. Within the bat of an eye, the strange, dark-skinned agent disappeared – whether for real or into the crowd, Jamilan wasn’t sure. Likely the former – I do not believe SPECTER agent utilise cloaking technology, he thought, turning to Leroy and frowning before opening the plastic bag. In it, he found the keys to a room, a pamphlet for two adjoined low-priced private-owned hotel rooms, a map with markings on it, and a roll of money.

“Well, at least it is something,” the Andalite grumbled, before depositing them back into the bag and handing them to Leroy.

((OOC: The agent I used here is obviously Legerdemain. >=3))

[Nate]

"Oh good, we have rooms," Nate breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the contents of the bag. "I was about ready to assume they wanted us to just pitch a tent somewhere or something." He took the map and glanced over it. "Oh good, it's close too."

Even more antsy now, he scanned the crowd for an escape route, and finally spotted a good place to weave his way to the door. "Last one there is a rotton egg!!!" he called out suddenly, and then tore off through the crowd.

[Johnny]

"Isn't that what I just said?" Johnny said to Leroy with a raised eyebrow. Then he stood back as Leroy and Jam walked right up to the agent who handed them a bag. From his position, Johnny could see only a few of the items in the bag. But it was enough to spark Nate into running off after talking aobut a tent. "So we got a motel or something? sweet! And I thought this 'visit' was going to be very boring."

And then: "Oh no you don't!" Johnny grabbed his small bag that he had made Nate carry on to the plane and took off after the other guy. He looked back at Leroy and Jamilan for only a second before trying to follow Nate's progress through the crowd. That boy's good! Johnny thought as he ducked under a guy's arm, dodged around a heavyset woman, leaped over a toddler, scratched a dog's ear, and rolled under a cart. He was at the hotel, so he looked around.

[Leroy]

Leroy was a bit disappointed by the lack of information they received from the agent. And agent that looked a bit familiar to Leroy, but he couldn't be exactly sure where he had seen him before... Leroy gave up trying to figure it out when he took the bag that Jamilan had handed him.

"So," Leroy began, "now what..." Nate and Johnny were halfway to the exit before he had finished his sentence. "Looks like we'll be the rotten eggs," Leroy commented to Jamilan. He started walking in the direction the other two had gone. This mission was sure to get interesting.

[Jamilan]

Nate, and Leroy, who spoke with the Andalite, earned an eyebrow-raise from Jamilan. “What does being a rotten egg have to do with running?” he wondered, carefully making his way through the crowd so as not to knock the humans off of their feet – though, he was mostly doing it so that he wouldn’t be knocked off his feet; regular humanoids were deceivingly balanced. He followed Leroy, so as not to get separated from the fellow morpher.

As he did, he looked around, wishing he had his stalk-eyes; the airport was bustling with activity. “I suppose this is a decent time to bring up the fact that I am a capable pilot; if we procure a plane, I can assure you that I will be able to fly it. I have seen the cockpit of one of your planes; relatively simple compared to what we have.” He eye-smiled at Leroy. There was still the matter of a prince, but it really wasn’t a time to bring that up.