Prologue: Origins

[FuBar]

I was going to comply with Kasey's thought-speak hint to pretend I didn't know anything about morphing, but I was quick to realize the snake-person had already seen through that falasy.

As the snake demorphed to become a naked man, I kept my eyes politely on his face and that of his comrade. - Although I usually turn away from nudity, like any good girl should, I did not want them thinking they could 'pull a fast one'.

I put my cellphone away before approaching Samantha and her naked friend, keeping my hands visible but retaining non-threatening posture.

I stopped about 2 metres away, hoping they would not think me a threat.

"We know you took the Escafil device - The Blue-Box - From the underground complex; We saw you on the recording. Please, PLEASE tell me the box isn't on that space-ship that just left??" I didn't give much time for a reply to that urgent matter before continuing: "Where is your Andalite? I know you have one, because only someone who already has the morphing-power can activate the cube and give that power to others. By the way, stealing the cube was completely unnecessary: If an Andalite had asked for it, it would have freely been given. Well, except for the Abomination, of course, but HE can't really be called 'Andalite'..." The last sentence was a bit of rambling, but hopefully it would also take the interrogative edge off my pointed questions.

I looked at them for a moment, wondering if they'd answer or if I'd gone too fast...
"We're the good-guys, by the way," I sighed, trying to reassure them, "We are allies with the Andalites in the fight against the Yeerks. I met an Andalite a while ago with my non-human friends. He entrusted them with looking after his technology and keeping it out of Yeerk hands, before he..." I let out a sob at this point, not wanting to finish that sentence. "Anyway, I'd be really grateful if we could have the Escafil device back, so we may keep our word to that Andalite to keep his technology secret and safe from the Yeerks." I glanced at Alec's dirty hands. "Simply burying it will not be sufficient to keep it out of Yeerk hands, I'm afraid." I guessed at the burial thing, it seemed like a reasonable assumption.

[Seryna]

Torrence walked closer, leash in hand.

"So the subtle approach is done with?"  She gave Sam an apologetic look.  "Sorry for chasing you all over, but we couldn't really leave ya be. I don't think.  Ka- uh," Torrence winced. "Kit can we go back to your place?"

[Kit Cloudkicker]

<That's fine,> Kasey responds in thought-speak to the group. She turns, and trots back toward her house, the leash dragging behind her.

Upon re-turning to the house, she paws open the door, and enters the house. She trots up to her bedroom, demorphs, and changes back into normal clothing, pulling her morphing outfit underneath.

She returns downstairs, draws the shades in the living room, then walks back out into the backyard, hoping that the others will follow.

[SigardTormel]

The clean fresh air that blew on his face as he ran through the trees and jumped over small branches and roots felt good considering the run had started to make him feel hot.  He'd only moved to town two three weeks ago, but he had a clear picture of the terrain in his mind.  One of the benefits of having eidetic memory.  Vincent loved to run it always made him feel so alive and free.

Hearing something from his right Vincent stopped to listen.  It sounded like it was coming from the neighbor hood near the woods.  He thought about going to see what was happening but decided against it as he might be seen and explaining why he was spying on what was going on would be too awkward for him.

Starting to run again he sucked in air noisily as he was starting to get tired.  Stopping to get his breath a few minutes latter he was about to turn around and start back when something caught his eye.

[Breekan1]

Reece walks backwards towards Kasey's yard so that he can address Alec and keep an eye on the thieves. "Sorry I had to lie to bring you here, Al," he confesses. "I thought we kind of had to to get you to join us." He shrugs. "Fact is, whether you guys know it or not, that thing you stole is part of something very huge, and very important." He chuckles lightly to himself. "I know it's going to sound insane, but, well, we're dealing with real, actual save-the-world type stuff here. And if we're not all working together, we're going to have a huge disaster."

[Seryna]

GM

As Vincent turned, he became aware of movement to his left.  As he fully turned around, an amazing sight greeted him.  A blue deer - with an awesome scorpion tail- galloped past him. 

<Stay still!> A voice - a female voice- suddenly spoke inside his head. <Do not be afraid. It will not see you.>

Without any further explaination, a low flying plane- no, it similiar to a ****roach plane, if anything like that existed- came onto their position.  It hovered for a moment, before continuing straight over the tree tops. In a few moments, it was gone from sight.

The blue deer with the tail paused beside a copse of trees, leaning heavily against the nearest one.  A nasty burn mark covered her entire right flank. The burn extended to the lower portion of the tail, which was held aloof painfully.


Alec  frowned over at Alice, rubbing his muddy hands against his pants.

"I didn't realize we had this little meeting I could bring it to. What, do you guys have some place better to hide it?  Anyways,"  He spoke to Sam and Jas, giving Reece a long look.

"Jethsa is hurt.  The ship started chasing me, so she ran by and it started chasing her- but it shot at her.  I lost track of her in the woods."

Christina

<I totally lost the ship,> Christina relayed. <It looks like it took off.>

[FuBar]

"Jethsa?" I blurted, "That's an Andalite name! - A female Andalite name, at that! What's a female Andalite doing here on Earth? - Last I heard, there were NO females in their military..." I turned to address Alec, though glanced at his two companions as I spoke, to include them. "I'd very much like to meet this Jethsa... Would it be ok if we help you rescue her?"

I tried for a puppy-dog-eyes look, though admittedly Kasey could have done a better job in the morph she'd just been in.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey sits on the cement of the back patio, and stares up at the sky. She feels something crawling across her leg, and glances down at it. She picks up the potato beetle and examines it closely. She closes her eyes, and acquires the small bug. She reaches over, and drops it in the grass when she's done.

She yawns, and stretches out her legs, waiting for her friends to arrive.

[Myitt]

Sam hastily hands Jas his clothes.

"Listen," she says, "we don't know where our Andalite friend went, and I for one am really worried about her.  He's the one who has the cube."  She nods at Alec.  "Where is it, anyway?  You just disappeared on us.  We just hope we can trust you.  This is some seriously weird sh*t."

[SigardTormel]

What in the world!?  What was that!?  I've never seen ANYTHING like it!  Of course... Vincent thought as he stood there dumb founded looking up at the sky that had just held the most odd looking ship he had ever seen.  His face held the look of a deer in headlights with the exception of a wide open mouth that worked soundlessly trying to find words to express how he felt.  His eyes stayed wide and continued to hold a shocked expression as he turned to look at the alien creature that stood before him.  His mouth had closed as he still couldn't find his voice or the words he needed.

The alien that stood in front of him was just as incredible and otherworldly as the plane or ship that had flown over Vincent.  She, if she was in fact a she, was almost like a mutated centaur.  Her body and torso looked exactly like a blue centaur.  The differences were on the extremities.  Her head had no mouth and little hair, instead there were three large vertical slits on the face were the mouth would have been and two large antenna... no that wasn't the right word, they were stalks, on top of which were an extra set of eyes.

Her hands were also different as they had extra fingers.  Two extra fingers to be exact.  but most shocking was the tail.  Much like a scorpions it was still different as it was a large sharp blade instead of being a piercing stinger.  All in all she was a beautiful and deadly looking creature.  There was no other way to describe her.

Yet despite how deadly she looked Vincent didn't feel afraid.  It was like looking at a bald eagle seeing the majesty, beauty and deadly aspects just made it that much more beautiful.  Then Vincents eyes alighted on the gruesome burn.  He was unsure how she could stand the pain had to be excruciating.  Without thinking Vincent dashed forward to try and give her more support.

Before he even reached her he stammered out a question "A-a-are you o-okay?  Jeez that looks horrible!  W-w-what was that?  For that matter what a-are you?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

"Uh...hello.  I'm Jas, and I suppose I'll leave it at that for now also."  Jas raised an eyebrow at the skin-tight bike-shorts that Reece was wearing...maybe the close-contour fit helped or something.  "Yeah, usually I don't take my pants off until after I know someone's name, kinda weird putting them back on instead..."  Jas grabbed his clothes and sorted out his underwear, dropping the rest on the ground.  He donned his tight blue briefs with as much grace and dignity as he could muster, pulling up his jeans next and redoing his belt to buckle just below his waist.  He slipped his t-shirt on again and held his arm out to Sam.  "Could I have the piece back, gal?"  Jas grinned a bit at his good friend.

While he waited for Sam to untangle the harness from her shoulder, he looked back at the kids, he now decently-clothed at least.  "Either you're Yeerks that are really good at acting, or you're who you say you are.  If it's the first option, well there's not much hope for us anymore, so let's go with the second one."  Jas spared a glance at the Chee girl, of course he didn't know what or who she was at this point.  "If you're willing to help us help Jethsa, then please do.  But that blue cube should be our first priority, yes?"  Jas looked over at Alec... "I hope you can lead us back to where you buried it..."

[Myitt]

"I'm Sam," says Sam, handing Jas his weapon slowly and deliberately.  "I guess we have a lot to talk about.  We're going to have to trust each other, and I think we should start by getting out of plain view and finding out more about each other.  If you are...you know...bad guys, then we do have ways of defending ourselves." She glances at Jas and his gun.

[Breekan1]

Reece gives Alec a startled look as he mentions the ship. "We saw that thing- the big flying ****roach? That's how we found you." He frowns. "And one of our, uh... field operatives? tells me we've lost track of it." Something weird happens in Reece's spine as he suddenly feels as if he's a character in some special-ops rightwing propoganda. He's not sure if it's excitement or anxiety. He bites his knuckle. "It sounds like the Yeerks are in hot pursuit of the Andalite. If we don't go after her soon, she might get killed."

Reece regards the gun cautiously. "Yeah, well, I like to think I'm a pretty nice guy. Some days I even think I'm nice enough that I don't deserve to get capped," he offers with a strained smile. "The main point is, I'm sure we're all plenty capable of making things messy for each other. You've got a gun, I can turn into an adult male rhino at will. A big one. And if things do get, er, messy, none of us is going to be all too happy. So we're all better off playing nice, you know?"

[Myitt]

"You all have the power too?" Sam asks, swallowing.  Her mouth was dry.  "Then the dog...look, if that's your house, I think we should meet in there.  If...if that's okay."  She feels awkward inviting herself to someone's house, in spite of the fact that they all have the power to turn into animals and are suddenly facing the prospect of working together to fight aliens. 

Sam keeps her voice low.  "We just need to get on the same page with all of this.  If you know where Jethsa is, or that alien ship, and Alec has the cube--I think we can help each other.  We're better off together than alone."

[Seryna]

Jethsa
Woods

Before he even reached her he stammered out a question "A-a-are you o-okay?  Jeez that looks horrible!  W-w-what was that?  For that matter what a-are you?"

<No, I am not.>  The strange deer spoke in his head, lurching unevenly away from the trees. She faltered for a moment as she walked, slowly and very unsteadily.

<Yes, I believe that something has happened to the nerve endings- suffice to say, I do not believe that I am quite well.  I need to recover... however, I am most uneasy that the Bug Fighter shall return.  My name is Jethsa and I am->

The stalk eyes turned upwards, scanning the sky. After a minute, she stated:

<- I have masked the area around my ship- it should last->

The alien lurched and then her front legs buckled, quickly followed by the back legs.

<I suggest that you enter the ship->  The last statement, rather calm and detached considering her condition- was the last thing she 'spoke', before toppling to the ground.

As she hit the ground, a ship that Vincent was quite sure had not been there before suddenly materialized, parked on the ground. It was a spectacular ship, one certainly not manufactured on Earth.

It had a single dome shape where a confusing array of controls could be seen.  Beside the dome, a small hatch lowered to form a  sort of ramp that led into the small gleaming ship.


Alec gave Sam a hard look. "Yeah, I 'dissapeared on you' when that thing in your hand started going off. The blanket around the box slipped, so I paused to tie it up.  When I looked up, you and snake boy were gone.

The ship came back though," He said dryly. "- it chased me around the woods until I ran into Jethsa.

I buried the box, but I made some signs to get back to it."
He said the last part to Jas. "I built some rock piles leading back to it."

He gave Reece a startled look.
"Rhino? For real?"  He blinked hard. "Tupperware my... so, we're going to that dog girl's house?"

Torrence gave every one a long look before turning and walking after Kasey. After a minute, Alec followed her into the house.  At Kasey's house, Torrence searched Kasey out.

"Kasey?"

Christina scampered into Kasey's bathroom, where she began to demorph.

Sam's alien device beeped, signaling the signal that she and Jas had followed here in the first place.