Animorphs: A New Beginning

[Yarin]

Yarin grabbed the drakon beams and got on Emily. He fired back while she ran for the door.

[traycon3]

Nichole moved into position to cover Hu. <Hurry it up! There's only so long that I'll be able to hold them off.> She lunged at a few Hork-Bajir, biting down hard enough to make them think twice about attacking. Then pain like fire errupted on her back. She turned and lunged, ripping out the throat of the Hork-Bajir that had dug it's blade into her back. She was bleeding heavily.

[Chad32]

Visser Five came through the crowd, lashing out with tentacle arms. One of them grabbed Cdy, but he bit down and rolled. Visser Five was pitched forward and off balance, and /cody slammed him in the head with his tail.

His thick scales were giving way as more and more Hork-Bajir blades dug into his armor and dracon fire singed him.

<I'm starting to think coming down here looking for a fight isn't a very good idea.>

Emily kept on charging. Hork-Bajir tried grabbing her horns to slow her down, but she kept on with Yarin firing from on top of her. Her thick horns and fur provided good frontal protection, but dracon fire was catching her fur on fire.

<When we get to the steps, Yarin, I'd like you to blast the walls and ceiling. Cause a cave-in behind Cody and Nichole.> Emily said.

((Hey Traycon, did you read the personal message I sent you? I'd like to know if you're interested in the date suggestions I mentioned therein.))

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Kelran had run into a new problem.

He didnt know what they were, but they looked like reptillianoid mammals with blades on every inch of skin.
One was a relatively easy fight, but two or more was a real fight.

Kelran was outside by the main dish, a group of confused and frightened human controllers looked on as he crosssed his sword and talons with the blades of his enemy.
Slshing own on ones arms, he forced him into his comrade, gutting both on their own blades.

Smoothly he reached down and snatched the energy weapons from the holsters of both, flinging his sword straight up into the air.
In one swift motion he rolled, fired twice at the human controllers, then threw both guns at two more of the aliens, and caught his sword.

He ran full out for the dish...

[Yarin]

(Aw congratulations you two)

[Cloak]

((I echo yarin on that, you two.))

Hu had captured Bened, but he's was having a tough time deciding whether to execute him, or take him away from the Pool to interrogate him.  Then he noticed the being the others called a visser.  Normally he'd be frightened -- but there were bigger, more intimidating creatures on his world and its moons.

After Hu sprinked Sleep Spore on Bened, effectively knocking him out, he turned to the Visser and began to pull out the Cryo Crystals.  When he was close enough, he threw it onto him, it, whatever.  He was temporarily frozen.

"Hurry," he instructed the others as he seized his traitorous, but unconscious brother on to his back.  He had already relieved him of his concealed light-based weapon and his undeserved satchel.  "The effects of the Cryo Crystals will not last on one his size very long!"

Even as Hu spoke, the Visser was breaking out of the icy prison the Crystals had conjured. . . .

[Chad32]

((I don't think Hork-Bajir are at all mammalian. That's just what I believe, though.))

They made it to the steps, and Yarin blasted the walls and ceiling. Up they ran until finally they were near the top. Cody, Emily, and Nichole demorphed their injuries away, and Yarin morphed.

Out through the Janitor closet they went, helping Hu carry Bened.

"Alright Hu. I said I'd let you deal with Bened your way, so let's get started."

[Kelran-Isthinar]

((Yeah, but Kelran is working from Gryphon based methods of classification, and they've never seen anything like a Hork-Bajir, so the nearest guess for him is a mammal))

Kelran was now about to remove the last existing anti-matter from earth.

All armor, standard, heavy, or light like his own, was equipped with a small detonator packet antimatter charge.
This packet was a last resort weapon in critical situations, and so was not veyr large, even for antimatter, but by removing it he could plant it like a charge on the joint between the dish and its base and do some extreme damage.

He had just set the charge, and twisted the timer to 30 pings, when he heard the distinctive rumble of a combustion engine and noticed a large thickly plated beige four wheeled vehicle with a large projectile gun.... He decided not to find out how fast the hummer's gunner was.

[traycon3]

((Sorry I didn't respond earlier, Nohensen. My best friend--who sometimes acts like my jealous girlfriend--came over. Oh, and she told me to tell you that if I end up spending more time with you than with her, she's gonna track you down and kill you. Her words, not mine. Oh, and I'm about to shamelessly do a Cassie thing over here.))

"Do we have to watch this?" Cole asked, trying to pick something out of her teeth. "Because, while I understand why you're going to do it, I just don't want to..." Her voice fell silent as she stared in revulsion at the thing between her fingers. She darted over to the nearest trash-can and hurled. Her whole body was shaking again, but that was what always seemed to happen when she threw up. Her head still in the trash can, she asked, "Happy now, Cody?"

[Cloak]

Back at the forest, Hu heaved Bened, none too nicely, against the bark of an old, gnarled tree.  There he waited for the Sleep Spore to wear off, with his arms folded.  The vine bola tightening just enough to ensure discomfort and immobility.

"Why, little brother?" Hu mumbled, oblivious to almost everything else around him and knowing Bened couldn't yet answer.  "Why?"

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Zero. BOOOM!!!

The explosion from the detpack wasnt nearly as spectacular as the ship, it was in fact little better than a half dozen sticks of dynamite, but what followed next was truly spectacular.

The massive 80 yard wide dish simply crumpled and fell cutting a swath of destruction through the observatory building.

Kelran didnt care. didnt look back.

He never understood how he found his way back to his cave, the next thing he remembered was how the others found him the next day. He had not slept, moved, eaten, spoken, or even cried, the entire time.

[Cloak]

Bened began to stir.  Hu was prepared for this, but he still waited.  The vines would remain for at least for a quarter an Aruten month ((about three months)) before dying and wilting into nothingness.

Bened's eyes opened, and he saw he was still trapped.  He struggled, but only ended up with his face in the dirt.

"Give it up, little brother," Hu said, coolly.

"What do you want from me?" he snarled.

"What do I want?" Hu echoed in a dangerous tone.  "What do I want?  I want to know why Bened.  I want to know why you betrayed me.  Killed Lilas.  Killed my boys.  Killed our own father!"

[Chad32]

Cody was slightly preoccupied with Hu and Bened when Nichole asked if he was happy now. He would have continued watching Hu, if Emily hadn't pinched him hard in the side and given him a nasty look.

"No, you don't have to watch. Let's get out of here." Cody said as he walked towards Nichole. He looked over to gesture to Yarin, when he heard a sound. It wasn't a loud sound, but it was peculiar. He looked up, but didn't see anything in the night sky.

"That sounded kind of like an explosion."

"What's in that direction?" Emily asked.

"Nothing much besides the observatory....oh no. He wouldn't have."

"Who wouldn't have what?"

"Come on guys. We need to go see Kelran. Hu, deal with your brother and meet us when you get back." Cody said.

"Who would kill his own family?" Emily asked as she began to morph.

[Cloak]

Hu glanced at them, and gave a grunt of acknowledgement.  Then he turned to Bened, and growled "I asked you a question . . . I expect an answer!"

"Temper, temper, Hu.  What an example you've set." he sneered.  Hu couldn't get over his flippant attitude, even when Bened is at his complete mercy.  "You want to know why, Hu?  You really want to know?  They were in my way.  They shouldn't have tried to stop me.  And, dear father, who fawned all over you, denied me what I was due!  I deserved the power of the wormhole."

"You are a royal fool." Then Hu growled an Aruten obscenity (sp?) which would only sound like a bestial snarl to those not enlightened into Smilodite linguistics.

[traycon3]

Cole wiped her mouth with her arm, before wiping the remainder of the mess on her shorts. Cole glowered at Cody and waited until he was at least half-morphed. Then she shot a glance at Hu before morphing herself. She was still a bit shaken by the fact that she had just killed, but she kept that feeling to herself.