A walk to forget

[Mark]

People often talk about trying to find themselves by traveling, or by doing things that they never would have the nerve to do. This is rather silly because the easiest way to find yourself is to look in a mirror. That doesn't mean that there isn't a certain degree of wanderlust and nomadic desire built into the fabric of the human psyche. People move, they pick up their lives and leave what they knew behind willingly because they feel they have better opportunities, or just because they want to. No matter how far humanity changes and evolves there will always be some aspect of the nomadic hunters, wandering and wondering. This is our foundation and the root of our ease of adaptation. It's also the main reason for the 'walkabout' of the Australian aborigines... but that's beside the point.

Parasites feel no need to travel, no need to see new things because in their tiny minds they know that all things will eventually come to them. Thus is one of humanity's greatest instincts suppressed by the parasitic invaders who attempted to take the Earth. But, as any animorph will tell you, instincts may be suppressed, or redirected. They can not be completely ignored.

~

Mark was wandering in one of the less desirable portions of the city. Dressed in ragged, cheap clothes he was all but invisible to the people around him. They hadn't always been this bad, but treatments with bleach and boiling water had reduced them to the kind of clothes that only beggars would wear. Beggars, or people who didn't want to be noticed.

He'd been wandering around, familiarizing himself with this city and Hemington on days he didn't work. He never really had a plan in mind when he left the apartment, just a general direction, but that somehow allowed him to get places that shouldn't actually be possible to get to without realizing it. It wasn't that he had a bad sense of direction, if he had a map or could see things from above he did fine, it was that a combination of mild dyslexia, a tendency to forget directions, and the refusal to admit when he was lost made him turn up in the oddest places.

He looked down at the metal roof of a warehouse across a major road from him. Too far to jump, even if he'd been inclined, but not too far to see the bustle of the people working around it. With a sigh he leaned against the iron railing of the balcony as he looked from them to the ocean a good half mile beyond them. Almost like an ant hive. See the way they move in their own patterns, see the way they carry those... Rifles? See the way they haul people out of a vehicle in handcuffs? He shook his head in disbelief and watched as one man tried to get away and was promptly brought down by a man with a bat.

"Look there's another one up there!" He heard from below, where two burly men pointed at him and started towards the stairs, the only way to reach his viewpoint.

Brief panic set in. It would take them a little while to get up to him, but he didn't have anything on him but a couple of dollars for bus fair and the clothes themselves. Focusing, he shut his eyes as he shrunk, morphing as fast as he could the brave little bug that had been serving him so well. By the time they got to where he'd been standing, he was already making towards home. The shadows would have obscured my face, they don't know who I am... Have to help those other people though. He didn't think about what those brutes were doing with all those people.

~

Three morphs, a change of clothes, and a shower later he was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and shivering slightly. Reduced to morph by a complete lack of clothing, he'd really have to learn that trick, and wasp by the unlikelihood of seeing a camel running around downtown it had taken the better part of the afternoon to get back. Next morph is going to be a bird. I swear.

"...And that's when I left. It looks like there's a fence around the lot, and the place is obviously guarded. I couldn't see that well from the time I had, but I know what I saw. We have to help them!" He banged his fist on the table for emphasis.

That's the other thing about humans... One's you set one of them on your trail, you're more likely to lose a shark in open ocean. Sharks don't hold grudges.

[Rox]

Rox jumped a bit in her chair when Mark pounded his fist on the table. She hadn't been expecting it. But after she got past that moment of surprise, she let herself relax in her chair again, acting casual just like she had been for his entire story.

Although she found it interesting that something that was likely illegal was happening at the warehouse Mark had seen, Rox had no interest in putting herself in danger for people she never even met. Let them get out of their own sticky situation. Granted, Rox hadn't seen what the situation was first-hand, but that didn't change the way she felt about it. The animorphs had bigger fish to fry at the moment. Even though Rox had no interested in that either...

Why did SPECTER choose her for this anyway?

Rox knew. It was because of her father's influence. Somehow he had arranged it with SPECTER, although it cost him his job. And his daughter. But Rox had to admit, this was better than the alternative. If she hadn't agreed to become an animorph, she would still be blinking her yeses and nos. However, that didn't make her job any more pleasant.

Finally, Rox decided to give her opinion on the matter. "So how do you know the people in handcuffs aren't worse than the ones who put them in them? How do we know the risk is worth the reward? I say we let those prisoners deal with it themselves. You know if we go there, we could get shot, right? I don't know about you, but I don't want to get shot."

Rox folded her arms across her chest and tried to stare holes through Marks forehead. She doubted any of the others would agree with her, but that was how she felt on the matter. Most other animorphs she met seemed like the classic do-gooder types. The kind of people who say 'in a perfect world, everyone would be rich!' But Rox wasn't that type of person, and she wasn't going to pretend to be.

[Mark]

He matched her glare for glare. Try it, let's see who looks away first. "I don't know that they're better or worse then the guys with the guns, okay? All I know is that it's our obligation to try and help people when and where we can. I know that not all of the prisoners are bad because the two who tried to pick me up looked like the same crew." His eyes practically glowed with hatred as he thought about the way they'd been beaten down. If I ever get my hands on those sons of- He shook his head.

"And before you imply that I may be worse than them in some way, don't. I really don't feel like getting shot at or hurt either, but in the name of doing what we can we have to at least scout out the place and let the police know." Or at least someone in the hierarchy who hasn't been paid off. "Besides, the sooner we start tracking down leads the sooner we can do something you'd consider worthwhile."

[Rox]

"Besides, the sooner we start tracking down leads the sooner we can do something you'd consider worthwhile."

Rox let out an exasperated sigh. She really doubted this would lead anywhere toward doing something she considered 'worthwhile.' Unless it led back to her having a normal life without all this shapeshifting and danger, it would never happen. But still, the guy didn't look like he would let up.

"Fine," she said curtly. "I'll help you go back and scout, or whatever, and then we let the police take it from there." Then with a slightly devious smile Rox said, "And I'll even let you pay for a cab ride over there."

(feel free to fast-forward if you want to)

[embergryphon]

((Is it okay if I jump in?))

"I'm no more a fan of getting shot than anyone," Keith said, with a lopsided shrug. "But this definitely sounds like something we should be checking out, at least. Making sure things like illegal prison camps aren't going down is sort of the reason we're here, last I checked."

He shrugged. Really, it came down to not much more than the fact that Keith was bored- he wanted to try out his morphs in action, see what they were like. Sitting around waiting for some sign of Sarah just wasn't doing it for him.

[Hope]

((I'm gonna jump in too.))

"Well, what we're here for is any and all threats we can protect others against," said Hope. She came in from the next room where she'd been practicing. People tended to avoid Hope during her practice sessions which involved both morph and human combat, though it was more for the morph. It wasn't pretty when she morphed skunk, which was why she worked with an open window. The smell cleared out pretty quickly afterward, but it was never fun during the fact.

"And while we don't know if this is wrong or not, we should at least look into it. If it's something we need to stop, we do so. If not, at least we know for sure." Better safe than sorry was always the best way to play things when you were in their position.

[Mark]

Mercenary B____ He rolled his eyes. At least the others understood the reasons behind what he was doing, or at least the overt reasons that fit with their mission profile. "Great, I'll spring for bus fair to the area if someone promises to get me into the zoo after hours sometime soon." He frowned for a second before he continued. "Meet you guys in ten minutes at the front door. If anyone has a camera or something like that it'd be good to know."

When he got back to his room, he pulled on a new pair of shoes and put on a belt before grabbing a pair of birdwatching binoculars and a cell phone. Just to be safe for this mission he keyed speed dials 6-9 to the safe house, the hospital, police, and 911. Pausing for a brief second on his way out, he went back and grabbed a bag of fireworks he'd been saving. They had an annoyingly bright strobing flash and were good enough to blind you for about a minute if you were unlucky enough to look at them. I love this country. He grabbed a lighter and a pack of cigarettes too as he shut the door. I also love regenerating lung tissue on a regular basis. He just hoped everyone would be ready.

[Rox]

Rox went to wait by the front door ten minutes later. She had contemplated not going after all, but the the simple fact that she was bored kept her from ditching the team. Now she stood waiting, wearing a two-piece swimsuit underneath some old clothes that she wouldn't mind ditching if need be. She brought no other possessions except a few bucks she had tucked into her morphing outfit.

"Lets hurry up and get this over with. I want to be back in time to watch the news." Rox wasn't overly concerned about missing her show, but she did want to get back as soon as possible. Hopefully everything would go smoothly.

[Hope]

Hope went to her room after everyone was dismissed. She didn't mention it before leaving, but she did have a camera. Hopefully it would work for someone with a bird morph to carry it if they got caught. It had been a birthday present from a friend, and while Hope had never used it much it had it's sentimental value.

After she'd changed into her morphing suit and put on some clothes over the top she stuck the camera in a pocket and headed toward the door. As she walked she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She was just finishing that as she arrived at the door at which Rox was the first waiting. Well, forget small talk. Truth be told, Hope was really glad no one had tried to make her and Rox room together. There was only so much of the girl and her attitude that Hope could stand.

[Mark]

With a nod, he led the way out of the apartment, turning to head down the block and flagging down the first taxi he saw. He waited for the others to get in while he thought about the closest he could get to the warehouses. "We need to go to the auction house on 7th."

~

As they pulled up, he made out the shape of the building he'd been watching from and pointed it out to his compatriots. He handed some money to the cabby and started off down the sidewalk, praying that the people where still in the warehouse and hadn't been moved. All he needed was for them to have dissapeared and left him looking like a delusional madman.

((Brain failure))

[Rox]

(Don't know what happened to Keith, but I think we've waited long enough. )

"This is the place?" Rox asked Mark in disbelief. "What were you doing way over in this part of town, and why were you here? Never mind. I don't really care. But seriously, you want to just go strolling around and investigate a place like this?" Rox suddenly realized they would have to stop being human for them to learn anything. She sighed. Morphing was never high on Rox's list of things she enjoyed doing.

"So what do we have at our disposal to work with?" Rox asked reluctantly, making sure she wasn't talking too loudly. "I doubt my goldfish or shark morph would do us much good trying to get in there, but I do have a small bird morph. It's white, but I don't think I would stand out too much. How about you, girly girl? What do you got?" She looked at Hope, waiting for an answer. She didn't know Hope very well, so she had no clue what hope could turn into.

[arin]

Four years earlier, a golden eagle carrying a box of Funny Bones through the air would have been an incomprehensible sight to the average human - and an invaluable enemy sighting to the average human-Controller.

But on that lukewarm spring evening, those who saw Orkath fly overhead had an obvious explanation for it. "Oh look, an Animorph!" a child called out in the playground as he flew over it, pointing in his direction, and three of his friends ran over to oogle at the unbirdlike behaviour of the bird, wide grins on their faces. Orkath's reaction to this was widely variant depending on the day - some days he might've offered the kids a thought-speak hello, or a couple of aerial stunts, before moving on towards his destination. On this occasion, he took the opportunity to swoop in an arc around the lead kid and slap him on the forehead with a well placed poop bullseye, causing his companions to laugh hysterically while he, conversely, started wincing and flailing at the messy spot.

Animorph indeed, Orkath thought to himself bitterly. He continued on course south southwest until he came to what was almost becoming a familiar industrial area in Arbella. He shot briefly past the warehouse with the metal roof before diving into the alleyway a half-block south of it, whereupon he dropped the box on the head of it's only current occupant. «You're welcome,» he murmured in private thought speech, landing on the top of a nearby fire escape.

The occupant, a young boy with reddish-brown hair, yelped in surprise when the box smacked him. "Thanks," he responded, his voice laced with sarcasm as he rubbed his head on the spot where it'd been hit. "Y'know they say if you drop innocent objects from high up enough, you can kill a person. I heard once that a penny fell from the Empire State Building and ripped some guy's head open when it hit the bottom."

«One of those copper coins with the picture of Visser Sixteen?» Orkath asked. «Terminal velocity on one of those could never penetrate bone.»

"Stop doing that, Orkath," the boy whined, breaking open the Funny Bones box. "It's president, not Visser. Sixteenth president."

«Whatever.» Orkath set about preening his feathers, while the boy, for his part, reached under a nearby dumpster and pulled out three large blankets, which he set about padding down for the night. Only when the bedding was both sufficiently comfortable and sufficiently concealed from three directions did he actually remove the pastries from the box and begin to eat.

Orkath looked up at the sky. «It's going to rain tonight, Darwin. You should move into the stairwell.»

"More of a public view," the boy replied, in barely a whisper - not that he had any doubt that the eagle's keen hearing would pick it up. He moved around to the front of the dumpster and, standing on tip-toes, flipped open the doors on top. With a loud thud, they smacked against the building walls, creating a small lean-to underneath the back, above the blankets. "There, that'll do." He crawled into the space and got under the top blanket. "You'll do a couple of rounds tonight? I thought I heard a car and some yelling earlier."

«Sure. It's not like eagles sleep at night or anything,» Orkath responded sarcastically.

Darwin looked up at the bird, curious. "Did Yeerks have a sleeping pattern?" he wondered.

The eagle flitted off the fire escape, onto the opposite roof. «How many times do I have to ask you not to bring that up anymore?»

With a sigh, Darwin put his head back on the pillow. "Geez, sorry for having basic curiousity."

«Satisfy it on the internet in the library,» Orkath snapped. «Your precious Andalite allies have already shared more information about the galaxy than you'd have discovered in a century on your own, that ought to give you enough insight.»

"Yeah, but I have my own personal Yeerk insi-" Darwin began to protest, but was promptly cut off.

«I'm not a Yeerk,» he insisted. «Not anymore.» Flapping his wings, he took to the air. «And I have a round to do, so... good night, Darwin.»

"Good night."

[Mark]

"Or..." He smiled. Mark eyed Rox carefully, holding his hands up to make a box around her head. Mentally he added dirt to remove any shine from hair or face, the torn remains of clothing he'd left above their position, and perhaps a contrived limp. Even with her almost inevitable anger at the charade or idea of it, she'd make a good enough decoy.

"It could work. You disguise yourself as one of the bums and let them pick you up and we..." He looked around where his companions didn't seem to be. "stow away in small morphs so you can get us into the compound?" He blinked rapidly for a few seconds before raising his hands. "Or I could do that. Make it easy for you to get in and out." He made for the stairs of the balcony he'd been on and pointed at the high chain link fences. "There should be plenty of room over there, but you do kinda stand out your featherdness."

[Rox]

Rox laughed in disbelief. Did Mark actually suggest what I think he did, she commented to herself. "I can tell you right now, I'm not dressing up as a bum for anyone. Especially not as bait. No way, no how, not ever. End of story. You have some nerve." Rox was being serious, but she still had a smile on her face. She kind of liked the fact that Mark wasn't afraid to suggest putting a woman in the dangerous position.

"So if you want to be bait, go ahead, but don't expect me to be." Rox was going to just remain silent and let Mark come up with some more of the plan, but then she remembered something. The SPECTER guy who gave her her dove morph pulled it out of his pocket, like a magician. Which meant that Rox could hide in a pocket. If it was big enough, that is.

Rox exhaled heavily because she knew she would probably regret what she was about to say. "Listen, Mark. My bird morph is like a magician's dove or something, so if you really need me to, I could probably fit in your pocket. You know, as backup or something. Without the drawback of being easily crushed." Rox waited to see what his reaction would be, hoping that it wouldn't be anger or some other unpleasant response.

[Hope]

Hope watched the discussion for a moment before responding to Rox's question. "My only morph so far is a striped skunk. It really isn't going to do us any good traveling through town fast."

She didn't make a comment about the girly girl nickname Rox had just applied to her. That wasn't to say she didnt' want to though. She was not that girly, no more so than Rox herself. The only major difference was Hope didn't act like she had a perpetual wedgie and Rox did.

((Weeeee.. New morph. >_< Sorry this post is so crappy)