Prologue: Origins

[Seryna]

Christina

<The girl with the snake.>  Christina pointed out, reaching the edge of the forrest. <And no, I didn't say anything.  Kasey morphed a dog, Kasey, did you say something?>

The ship that Reece and Christina were attempting to follow was now a good fifty feet away and still making good time.  In order to catch up, they'd have to hurry a great deal!

The scanner that Jethsa had given still remained silent, not a beep to be heard.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey bounds outside, the moment the door is opened, tugging on the leash. She happily wags her doggy tail, and sniffs around, then freezes. She begins to sniff, frantically moving towards the side of the house. <Guys, I smell someone new. I don't think it's one of you....I think they're over here> She responds to Torrence and Alice, attempting to pull them around the side of the house.

[Myitt]

Sam looks up, hearing what sounds like people and the frantic snuffling of a dog, somewhere nearby.  Behind the house!  She steps from the side of the house to the front of it, hurrying away onto the sidewalk, trying to look nonchalant.  Damn it, where's the nearest bus stop?

"Hold tight, Jas, I think someone's coming," she says through gritted teeth, trying not to move her lips.  She continues to walk along the sidewalk, almost to the end of the next house over from Kasey's.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas tried to burrow deeper into his clothes...this would've been a lot easier to pull of if he hadn't changed...a twenty-something girl carrying a pile of clothes and wearing a badly-disguised gun down the sidewalk in the middle of the night?  <Maybe you could say you were walking to do your laundry...?>  Then Jas thought about the gun again.  <...and were worried you'd get mugged?>  Jas wriggled under his clothes, still biting down on the soft leather nib of his belt...his jaw muscles were starting to get sore and the d*mn snake instincts kept willing him to flick his tongue, it was driving him insane!  <I don't know...d*mn I shouldn't have changed into a snake...what the h*ll was I thinking?!>  Jas' thoughts were less conversational this time and without meaning to he was really just whispering unconsciously, knowing there were others to hear.  It didn't really occur to him that he was thinking and not actually speaking.

[Myitt]

A sudden thought occurred to Sam.  "Jas, how much longer do you have in that body, didn't Jethsa say there was a two hour limit?  Maybe I should find somewhere to hide so you can demorph."  She still walks evenly and patiently, trying not to look even more suspicious by running.  Whoever was over at that house was probably just some couple out taking their dog for a walk.  Completely normal and not alien at all. 

She hoped...

[Breekan1]

Reece lets out a squawk of frustration- going full-speed he still can't seem to keep up with the accelerating spaceship, even going at full speed. He tosses a thought down to Christina. <I don't know if we're a match for this thing, speed-wise,> he tells her. He peers off into the distance. <If we could only keep it in sight long enough to figure out where it touched down... How do you hide a thing like that?>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas thought for a moment, fear suddenly tightening him into a coil...how long had it been?  But then he remembered Jethsa saying something about an internal trigger for when the time got close...and he figured it couldn't have been much over an hour since the bug fighter landed.  <Uhm...I think I'm safe for another fifteen minutes at least, maybe half an hour...I don't know where you could hide with a pile of clothes and a Desert Eagle.>  Jas' tone of thought was rueful.  <And I don't think an alley will do, what if those people and the dog you're talking about round a corner to see you and a misshapen amorphous blob growing in size?  That would be just great...they could even be one of those aliens...jeeze Sam, let's just play it cool for right now....a few more minutes.   Jethsa said something about a cue that would tell us when the change was close to becoming permanent right?  I don't know what it is but I think I'll know it when I feel it...>  Jas wriggled under his clothing and loosened his coils a bit...this was getting out of hand, as if things weren't already weirder than weird.  "Alcohol," Jas thought to himself..."that'll fix everything.  God I need to get plastered."

[Seryna]

Torrence 'walked' Kasey, letting the dog lead towards the person she mentioned.  As they turned the corner, she spotted a girl that looked quite a lot like the girl from Jenny's disk. Actually... now that they were walking closer, it looked a lot like her.

"Hey," Torrence greeted the older woman. "- hows it going?" 

She was a bit self conscious about how she'd morphed her face to look different than her- but she did look like a candidate for corrective surgery. Eh?

Damn, too bad she couldn't talk to Kasey without the people hearing.

Christina

<Maybe we should follow it in a line, we'll see if it cleared the ground.>  Christina suggested.  After a few moments, they noticed some displaced grass by a copse of trees.  It wasn't a touch down per se- but there was a collapsed lean to and several pieces of debris, likely stirred up by the space ship.

<What should we do?> Christina wondered.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

<Careful Torrence....we don't know who she is. But she's gotta be dangerous if she was able to get into the compound. Just follow her like you're taking me on a walk or something. If she starts moving fast, maybe you can pretend I'm running away from you, and just drop the leash. Nod if that sounds good.> Kasey continues to trot after the girl, wagging her tail.

[FuBar]

Alice:
(With Kasey and Torrence)

I followed closely behind Lab-Kasey and Torrence as they left the house and went round the side alley to follow the stranger.

I allowed myself more freedom of movement in this form than as my usual Alice form; The kinds of movement a human is theoretically capable of but that most humans are unable to achieve due to their lifestyle. Alice's human body had not had such training as Cseirouna had been taught, of course, so if I made her so it would draw attention and curiosity.

The Chee could not afford to draw attention to any of our 'current' human lives, especially now there were Yeerks on this planet, but Cseirouna was a different story: No matter how hard anyone looked, there would be no record of her existence; She could not be traced, save for any CCTV or glimpses of her in the last 24hrs that I may not have spotted. Doubtless the controllers in the lock-in would probably try to trace her with a photo-fit or something, and I grinned to myself when I thought of their impending frustration when they found she did not officially exist in any database they had access to.

When we got closer to the stranger, Torrence called out a friendly greeting to her but Kasey quieted her, not wanting to draw attention to us yet.

I thought I had detected some thought-speak coming from the direction of the stranger, but it could have just been a sensor-ghost so I didn't say anything about it yet. I tuned my sensors carefully onto the lady ahead of us, 'listening' for any further thought-speak that would give her away as something other than a mere human. If I heard any more thought-speak from her direction, I would let Torrence and Kasey know that it seemed to come from her.

[Myitt]

Sam was about to answer Jas when someone called out behind her.  She freezes for a second, turning her head to look back at the girl walking her dog.  "Oh, um," she says falteringly.  "Good, thanks.  Nice night, isn't it?"  She smiles and keeps walking.

[Breekan1]

Reece blinks his eyes to clear his head of the bird's tenacity, and begins to circle downwards. <We'll kill ourselves going after it- we should check this thing out.> He looks through the trees as he lands to make sure the woods are empty, and he demorphs as he touches down. He's relieved to see that the shorts are mostly in-tact. He scratches his head as he investigates the lean-to. "It looks like they were camping out here or something," he reasons. "But why didn't they just stay in their ship if that's the case?"

[Raven]

(-growls- thought my post had gone through already -kicks firefox)

Autumn had freaked, understatement of the century. After the morphing power, after everything that had happened, Autumn had bolted towards home, knowing that at least that was safe, familiar and she would be alone. Running through the dark streets, reaching her small place that always seemed to give her some semblance of comfort, Autumn breathed deeply, head resting against the door. "Just a dream, please let it be." Autumn muttered, kicking the door open and shutting it with a snap. Heading into her room and sitting upon the bed, Autumn stayed for a while, drifting in and out of sleep when her phone went off. Reaching over for it, she spotted the message. "I'm not going." Autumn didn't fit in with any of them, she was alone. Always alone. Texting back, she said she would be around, not wanting to depend on others, knowing she would always be disappointed. Grabbing a jacket, Autumn walked out of her house and down the street, not sure on what to do.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas bit down harder on the nib...he could feel the vibrations in the air and hear the noise as a stranger approached...he couldn't think what to do...Sam must be quite a sight...this wasn't looking good.  <Just play it cool Sam, we'll think of something.>  Jas' thoughts rushed as he tried to come up with some sort of plan of action to get them somewhere else more private.  They had no information on what they were chasing, this was madness...they should get the h*ll out of there and go home and just forget about the rest.  'Come on d*mn it, think Jas!  There has to be some way out of this...'

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey attempts to pull forward on her leash; trying to follow the girl.