March 11, 2011
San Diego, California
2:17 am
Team #31
Cody's POV
Demos' mouth hung open at he sight of the bear. Both of us just sat there, our fear kept us from running away. It's a good thing too, cause if we left this cave we'd be attacked by all of those controllers again.
Grrrrrrrr....
The bear let out another growl and raised it's paw in the air. At this point I was so scared I thought I was gonna pee myself. I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable...
thud....
there was a small noise like something heavy hitting the ground....I...I was still alive. I opened my eyes and noticed Demos slowly crawling towards the bear.
“B...Ben! What are you doing!?” I whispered
He ignored me and got closer to the bear, examining it, poking it, putting his face mere inches away from its. After a while he turned around to face me.
“It's asleep” He said quietly
My breathing steadied a little, knowing the bear was fast asleep. This was definitely the best news I've heard all day. But that still didn't help out our current situation. How were we gonna make it back “home” with the controllers looking for us? And did Blue and the others make it back in one piece?
“So....what now?” I asked
“No idea. We could make a run for it...but the odds of us making it back to the house is...well........ye
ah. Maybe we should just stay here for the night.”
“With a bear that could wake up any minute!?”
Demos shrugged
“You have any better ideas?” he asked
“Do you?”
“I...I might....But....”
Before he could finish, we heard a faint voice outside the cave. It was far away but close enough for us to hear it.
“Keep looking! They have to be around here somewhere! If we lose those brats then Visser 31 will have ALL our heads!”
Demos and I exchanged worried looks. We both knew that if we didn't think of something fast, we'd be dead meat. It was only a matter of time before they found the cave. I was about to suggest we run for it but then I noticed Demos making his way back to the bear.
“Um...what are you doing”
He ignored me and rested his right palm on the bear's side. He just stood there, petting the bear for a good minute before turning to face me.
“I have an idea...but it's a little risky” he said
“How risky?”
“There's a good chance you could die”
“...why?”
“Cause in a few minutes, there's gonna be two bears in this cave”
“What are you....” I started to ask before I noticed the glowing blue box sitting next to me “...no...no way!”
“You have a better idea?”
“I..no but...”
I tried to think of a better plan but I was too late. Demos' reddish brown hair was already growing darker until it was completely black. His hair wasn't the only change. Black hair was spreading from his hair all the way to the rest of his body. He actually looked kind of silly, try and imagine a short werewolf wearing green t-shirt and gray sweatpants. The hilarity only lasted a few seconds though, before I even had a chance to laugh at how ridiculous he looked, he started growing and his fingers and toes became long dark gray claws. His ears moved to the top sides of his head and rounded into almost perfect circles and his mouth stretched out into long muzzle.
Riiiiiiiiiip...
The last thing to change was his size. He grew in both height and mass and by the time he reached 6 feet, his pajamas were reduced to torn rags and he was still getting taller. It took a full two minutes but he was finally done and the exact replica of the sleeping bear was towering over me.
I gulped “Uh...B..Ben...?”
He didn't respond. He just looked at me with his large black eyes. He stepped forward and I tried to back away but tripped. I thought he was tall before but now that I was on the ground, he was like a skyscraper.
“Ben...you still there?” I said, my voice shaking from fear
He bent down until his face was inches away from mine and flashed his huge teeth. He raised is paw and, with surprising speed, slammed down on the ground next to me, narrowly missing me by about 3 inches
“<Gotcha!>” I heard Demos' voice say inside my head
My heart skipped a few beats. Next thing I knew, all my fear and turned into anger and I punched Demos hard in the nose. He responded with a loud roar that echoed through the whole cave.
“<Ouch! What was that for!?>”
“You scared the crap out of me, you @$$!” I yelled, ignoring the sheer awesomeness of me punching a bear in the nose “We're being chased by aliens and you wanna play around!?”
“<Keep your voice down before you wake the real bear up>”
“Hey I think I heard something” A voice outside the cave said
“Crap! They're getting closer” I panicked “Well Ben, I hope there's more to your plan than just this”
“<As a matter of fact, there is>” he said “<Lie down next to the real bear, get as close to him as possible, and hide the cube in your shirt or something>”
“What?”
“<Just do it, and hurry!>”
Not bothering to question him any further, I grabbed the cube and stuffed it up my shirt before lying down on my side next to the real bear.
“Alright now what” I asked
“<Now shut up and don't move until I say it's safe>”
I was about to ask him what he meant by that but before I could, I found a large mass of black fur squeezing me into the bear next to me. I was sandwiched between two HEAVY bears. Every part of my body was shrouded in black fur. I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, I couldn't see. I could barely breath(and the cube pressed up against my stomach didn't help either) I tried to speak but Demos' fur got caught in my mouth.
“<Just stay still! I know you're uncomfortable but this is better than me trying to fight my way through all those controllers>”
After a while, I heard muffled footsteps and voices in the cave.
“Do you see anything” A voice said, though I could barely hear it with all the fur in my ears
“Nothing, just two bears.”
“<It's the same two controllers we took the cube from>” Demos explained to me “<They have three Hork Bajir with them>”
“Let's go. They couldn't have gotten far. We looked in the lake when they jumped in and didn't find any bodies so they must have survived”
I heard footsteps the controllers start to walk away but then....
“Wait a minute....there were two of them...they have the escafil device...and there are two bears right here.”
“C'mon man! They're two human kids. There's no way they'd know how to use it”
“We don't know for sure they were humans. There could have been more Andalites aboard Aximilli's vessel. They could be right here in front of us, pretending to be a couple of sleeping bears”
“Please. As arrogant as those Andalites are. If they were really in front us, disguised as deadly animals, they'd think they could fight us off. They're too proud to hide from us”
“...Maybe you're right. Let's just go”
The footsteps started up again until they slowly grew fainter. I stayed wedged between the two bears for a few more minutes before Demos finally felt it was safe for me to come out of hiding.
“<Let's hurry up and get out of here. I don't know how much longer I have in this morph>”
“Then why don't you just demorph now?” I asked
He pointed his snout to the rags that used to be his clothes, thank God the Yeerks didn't notice those.
“...Oh...”
