Prologue: Origins

[Seryna]

Lakeside;Jethsa

<I can hear you. I apologize for the discomfort... Alec, are you certain you do not wish to acquire the technology?>

Lakeside; Alec

"Aw, man." Alec replies "That could have just been CGI with a recording of your voice... mind.. thing.  How many fingers am I holding up?"

Three fingers went up and Jethsa promptly replied three.
"Um... you guys don't feel like you have cancer, do you?"  He asked Sam and Jas.


Christina; Kasey's house

<Great. Nudity. I forgot that part. You better be looking away, eagle boy.>
 Christina grumbled, hunkering down behind the tree.

The demorphing was just as bad as the morphing- perhaps more so due to the giant Condor head that grew to human head size before beginning to morph back to a human head.  As her body returned to normal, she shrieked in surprise.

"Ha! Look, I have my swimsuit bottoms!" After a minute, Christina hastily corrected. "But not my top, don't look!"

Covering herself, Christina hurried to the front door and gave a few good poundings to the wood before covering up again.

[Breekan1]

<Here, you're gonna get us arrested.> Reece chides, tossing his T-shirt down from the branches. <Honestly, God gives you talons, you oughtta make use of them.> After giving Christina time to grab the (for her) oversized garment, he hops down to the ground. <Now, don't look at my junk. I know you nudists are all perverts.>

After returning to his ape form, Reece pulls his trousers back on. His steps are uneasy as he makes his way to the door. "It's weird getting my land legs back."

[Myitt]

"That's alright, Jethsa," says Sam, blushing even though it's chilly out here in the forest.  She looks at Alec and Jas, then down at her hands, curiously.  "I don't feel any different.  Jethsa, how does this work?  You said you'd explain more.  We're going to need to know what to do with ourselves, now."

[Breekan1]

Reece whips around rather suddenly to address Christina, a look of horror on his face. "Crap! Speaking of nudity! That guy! The one from the Compound who is borrowing my face! You don't think he and Sandra might...?" The boy looks down at the ground, caught in one of the moral quandries natural to teenage hyjinks when aliens are involved.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey jumps up, and darts to answer the front door. She opens it, and users Reece and Christina in. She flops back onto the couch, and responds to Torrence, "Well, she didn't exactly admit to anything...it's just." she shrugs before continuing, "I don't trust them, Tor. Something there isn't quite right."

[FuBar]

Alice:

I received an SMS inviting me to Kasey's house. Instead of replying to it, I simply made my way over on foot and rang her front doorbell. I'd seen an eagle and a condor landing in her back yard and assumed they'd knock on the BACK door rather than try to come around to the front of the house.

I couldn't help but feel nervous about what Jenny had recorded on the storage device... But I trusted her enough to play the recording aloud without screening it privately myself first. I came up with a suitable design for a machine that could access the storage device, so I could make a realistic hologram.

[Seryna]

Christina;Kasey's House
"Thanks!" Christina pulled on Reece's shirt, grateful for its loan. "I thought it'd look weird, an animal carrying clothes.  Maybe we should stash some clothes at each others' homes."
At Reece's mention of looking at his 'junk', Christina rolled her eyes and knocked on Kasey's door again.

At Reece's question, the teenager replied with a straight face. "Yes. His first mission as you is to get with your girl.  Forget the alien invasion thing, that's all a smoke screen so he can get with your girl."

The blond shook her head ruefully, a grin splitting her face and revealing she was busting Reece's chops.
"In all seriousness, I think he's trying to remember your favorite foods and your & Sandra's anniversary.  After all, he might have all of you bio in his head, but he's not you. I'm sure he'll postpone any fun stuff til' you slide back behind the wheel."

As Kasey answered the back door, she headed inside and headed into kasey's room with the other girls.

"So what are we talking about, the elevator - room people? Kasey, do you have a shirt that I can borrow?"  The blond indicated Reece's over sized shirt.
"I managed to get bottoms, but no top."



Torrence; Kasey's house

"You think so?" Torrence frowned. "That's not good.  So Reece is bringing this thing- you haven't really elaborated on what that is."

She checked her cell phone, stating: "Brit, Damien and Eddie haven't replied in with if they're coming at all."

As Alice joined the group, she greeted the other girl enthusiastically.

"So, Kasey thinks your friends are pod people. What gives with them?"


Lakeside Forrest; Jethsa
<Yes, I did say that I would explain further.  Essentially, you are utilizing an Andalite technology that allows you to become any animal that you touch.  This term is called 'acquiring' and there's no limit to how many animals that you may acquire.  This technology allows you to access the morph as needed from your own DNA and you can immediately begin the morph whenever you need to.

As I mentioned before, there is a two hour limit for how long you can remain in the morph.

Ideally, we can use this technology to acquire animals adept to stealth to infiltrate the Yeerk Pool, identify the weaknesses of the pool and disable the Kandrona Ray.

Yeerks must leave their host and return to a Pool upon which a Kandrona ay, mimicking the sun of their home planet, every three days.  The involuntary hosts are restrained until his or her Yeerk is ready to re enter the host.>


"So they're like slaves?" Alec shifted uncomfortably. "Are we going to rescue them?"

<We could.> Jethsa replied shortly, elaborating after a minute.
<The Yeerks have just arrived. I am informed that the cover group, the Sharing, hasn't even gotten off the ground yet.  It's likely that there are few involuntary hosts- the Yeerks would first try and sway voluntary hosts from those in power.
 I do know that they are functioning out of a building near a local high school.>


"Taking kids isn't right..." Alec muttered. "I'm not sure about this war- I'm not really fond of eco terrorists, even- but fighting those who want to enslave the human race is something I can get behind."

Alec was instructed to touch the Escafil and soon acquired the morphing power as well.

[FuBar]

Alice:

I was about to blush, but covered it with a giggle.

"Pod-people? Wow, what films have YOU lot been watching?! Seriously though, they're not THAT bad. They're just... Highly paranoid. Yeah, that's it. Paranoid." I realized I wasn't being particularly convincing. I looked around with my sensors to locate any Chee in the house, making sure they weren't in 'earshot' before continuing, in a conspiratorial whisper; "Jenny told me about the data-cartridge. I've brought with me a means to access it, unless you want to wait for any more of us to turn up first?"

As I spoke the last sentence, I produced from my backpack the holographic fake-player with an appropriate slot to fit the data-cartridge. The force-field on it would only work properly while I maintained physical contact with it, though the hologram itself had no such requirement of course.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey shoots Alice an apologetic look, before turning to her closet to get some clothes for Christina. She pulls out a pair of jeans, and a black hoodie. She hands them to the other girl.

She takes a deep breath, and sits down on the floor, leaning against the bed below Torrence, before beginning, "I gave the device to Reece, so we'll have to see if he still has it...and we'll have to see what exactly it is, and what we can use it for. Alice, I love you, and you're one of my best friends, but I don't know how much we can trust those people. There's too much going on there that doesn't fit your, or their explanations. They have too much money, too much manpower, and way too much technology."

[FuBar]

Alice, Kasey's House:

I turned an apologetic expression on my best human friend. "I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to reveal, but I assure you I know all there is to know about them and I trust them with not-only my life, but with anyone's lives. I'd suggest we play the data-cartridge and see what Jenny has to say. Judging by how you acquired it, it probably contains information about them that her superiors would rather you didn't find out about yet." I hoped this would pique their curiosity about the data-cartridge and transfer it away from myself. "Evidently, you have all earned at least Jenny's trust... To a greater extent than her superiors, anyway."

[Breekan1]

Reece nods, vaguely comforted by Christina's teasing. "Still, if Sandra initiates anything... Or I guess, if Sandra's Yeerk initiates anything..." He makes a face and shakes his head. "Let's forget about all that," he mutters.

As talk turns to the data cartridge he was supposed to have, he does an impeccable job of hiding his surprise and very casually reaches into his pocket. When he discovers the device still nestled by some miracle in the contours of his slacks, he betrays nothing. He pulls it out. "You guys mean this old thing?" he asks. He hands it to Alice.

"And I'm sure they're very nice, Alice. But we want to know whether they're Zordon-nice or CIA-Superior-Officer-nice."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas watched as Jethsa's body changed, rearranged, distorted in odd ways.  He twisted his face up again but watched the whole morph without comment.  A hand went instinctually to the .50 cal again, but dropped back to his side without Jas really even noticing.  He'd hallucinated stuff almost that bad when he was drunk, really roaring drunk, so it perhaps didn't disturb as much as it would have otherwise.  "God I need a drink."  The young human took a deep breath and listened.

"You said...you said animals meant for stealth.  But what about other people?  I mean they're animals.  You are too for that matter...so can we..."acquire"...you and then "morph" into what you are?  Or "acquire" a Yeerk and infest someone to get inside?"  Jas looked at the caterpillar questioningly.  Maybe he was drunk and passed out and this was some freaked-up weird dream, but Jas was having little trouble accepting the fact that a blue alien had just turned into a caterpillar in front of his eyes and the caterpillar was still her.  He'd have to remember what he'd been drinking when he woke up, whatever it was, it must've been some d*mn good booze.

[Myitt]

In the forest of Lakeside.

"You and me, both, Jas," Sam murmurs.  She listens to Jethsa's explanation of the morphing power, the time limit, the Yeerks and Kandrona rays, and becomes incensed by the fact that these creatures are taking humans over against their will.  More than a little creeped out, too.  "This is way too Invasion of the Body Snatchers," she gripes, but as Jethsa mentions The Sharing her blood freezes.  She doesn't even really hear what Jas said. 

"Wait, wait, The Sharing?  Like, the community non-profit clean-up-the-park Sharing?  That's a Yeerk cover organization?"  She laughs, incredulous.  "Really, I..."  Then she stops.  It's hard to read the expression of an Andalite-turned-caterpilar.  "You're kidding, right?  The Sharing is a little weird, I'll give you that, but so are a lot of community togetherness bull kind of groups.  I've...damnit, I've volunteered for The Sharing.  They still want to know if I want to become some kind of senior member.  The middle school principal teacher's in it, for crying out loud.  It can't...I just..."  She shakes her head, shuddering. 

[Seryna]

Christina

Reece nods, vaguely comforted by Christina's teasing. "Still, if Sandra initiates anything... Or I guess, if Sandra's Yeerk initiates anything..." He makes a face and shakes his head. "Let's forget about all that," he mutters.

"If its bothering you so much, maybe you should talk to the guy playing you." The blond suggested. "This is supposed to be for your benefit, so giving you an apoplexy isn't very helpful."

Torrence

"So that's the device?" Torrence clarified as Reece handed it to Alice. "Fire 'er up, lets see what's on it."




Lakeside; Jethsa

"You said...you said animals meant for stealth.  But what about other people?  I mean they're animals.  You are too for that matter...so can we..."acquire"...you and then "morph" into what you are?

<You are correct, Jas, it is possible to morph sentinent beings. My older collegues mentioned some hesitation on this aspect, however. I am unsure if it is simply a moral quandary.

Would you object to morphing a sentient being?>

"Wait, wait, The Sharing?  Like, the community non-profit clean-up-the-park Sharing?  That's a Yeerk cover organization?"  She laughs, incredulous.  "Really, I..."  Then she stops.  It's hard to read the expression of an Andalite-turned-caterpilar.  "You're kidding, right?  The Sharing is a little weird, I'll give you that, but so are a lot of community togetherness bull kind of groups.  I've...damnit, I've volunteered for The Sharing.  They still want to know if I want to become some kind of senior member.  The middle school principal teacher's in it, for crying out loud.  It can't...I just..."  She shakes her head, shuddering.

<The Yeerks have not had enough time to establish the Sharing as they wish.  There has not had enough time - or enough Yeerk arrivals- to have many involuntay hosts, yet. Most Sharing branches are not fully formed. They are composed of normal humans directed and guided by a single host, most likely voluntary.  This 'recruitment' you mention is when you are approached to become a voluntary host.  The Yeerks do not have enough Yeerks at the moment to have many involuntary hosts.
This means that the Sharing should be our primary focus- we should make sure that they can not amass enough numbers to begin involuntary infestations.>

[Myitt]

"You're serious.  The Sharing."  Sam exhales.  "Oh, man...so now what are we going to do, turn into caterpillars and worm our way in there, ask them to please shut down, we know they're really alien...alien slugs?  Even if we could become something more powerful, how are we supposed to stop them?  I'm no fighter, I can barely bench press ten pounds..."  She looks at Jas, then back at the Andalite girl-slash-caterpillar.  "What were you saying...morph a sentient being?  Like, turn into another human?  Oh, no way, that's just too weird for me.  You mean we could become someone famous and get into all the good parties, for only two hours?  Become a guy?  I have friends who are transexual but this is ridiculous."  Sam seems to realize she's ranting, and stops for breath, pacing a little in the cool grass.  "What do you guys think about all of this, what are we supposed to do?  I can't make any decisions right now."